Free Alpha One by Cynthia Eden Page B

tapped the photo. This wasn’t some random agent. Just a man doing his job by protecting his charge. This was...more.
    Diego knew how to get information out of people. Sometimes you used torture. Sometimes lies. With Juliana, he’d enjoyed a game of lies. The torture would have come, of course, but he hadn’t been ready to kill her.
    He couldn’t kill her, not until he’d gotten the evidence back. A dead daughter wouldn’t have encouraged the senator to give up the secrets he’d stashed away. But a living daughter...one who spilled all her secrets so easily...she’d been a tool that he used.
    Logan. Perhaps that had been her most important secret to reveal. He just hadn’t realized it at the time.
    Everyone had a weakness. It was a lesson he’d learned so very long ago. Diego slanted a fast glance at Luis, not surprised to see the man shifting nervously. I know his weakness all too well.
    The agent, Juliana—they both had weaknesses, too.
    Weaknesses that I already understand.
    Juliana had revealed so much to him in those hours spent in the darkness. Sometimes torture wasn’t the most effective means of getting what you wanted. Sometimes...sometimes you had to make your target trust you.
    Only then could you go in for the kill.
    “When we find Logan Quinn, we’ll find Juliana.” Simple. Diego dropped the photo. Weaknesses. They were so easy to exploit.
    “You ever been in love, Juliana?” It had been a question he had to ask. If she loved, then she was weak. He could use her loved ones against her. So he’d waited, trying not to look eager, then Juliana had said...
    “Once.” Pain had trembled in her voice. A longing for what couldn’t be. Juliana had been so sure that death waited for her. And it had. She’d drawn in a ragged breath and said, “But Logan didn’t love me back.”
    Diego stared down at the picture. Tough SEALs weren’t supposed to show fear. Not any emotion. But...right there, on Logan Quinn’s face, Diego saw that the man had been afraid.
    Not for himself.
    For the woman he held so tightly. The woman he’d shielded with his own body when the car exploded, and Diego knew he was staring at—
    Her Logan.
    Ah, Juliana, I’m not so sure he didn’t love you back.
    Diego picked up a red marker and circled the face of his target. “You have six hours to find Quinn.” The man wouldn’t have left the area with Juliana, not yet.
    Not...yet.
    Diego glanced back up at Luis. “You know what happens if you fail.”
    Luis gave a grim nod. Then he grabbed for the photo and hurried toward the door.
    “Your daughter...” Diego called after him softly. “She’s six now, isn’t she?”
    Luis’s shoulders stiffened. “Sí.” More growl than anything else.
    “I’ll have to make sure to send her an extra-special gift to celebrate her next birthday.”
    Luis glanced back. Ah, there it was. The fear. Flashing in the man’s dark eyes. “Not necessary.” His Spanish accent thickened with the broken rasp of his voice. “You’ve done enough for her. For me.”
    Diego’s gaze fell to the rough scars on Luis’s throat, then after a moment, he looked back up into the other man’s eyes. Let the tension stretch. Then he smiled. “She’s such a pretty little girl. So delicate. But then, children are always so fragile, aren’t they?”
    Luis lifted the photo. “Do you want him dead?”
    Now the man was showing the proper motivation. Diego considered his question, then nodded. “Once you have Juliana in your custody, kill the agent. Do it in front of her.” The better to break her.
    Luis’s fingers whitened around the photo. “Sí.”
    Diego watched him walk away, satisfaction filling him. His resources were nearly limitless. With Diego’s power behind him, there would be no stopping Luis. Money could motivate anyone. The right targets taken out—the right information gained, and Luis could attack.
    If someone else was trying to kill Juliana, then they’d just offer more to keep her