Free Misguided Target by Jessica Page Page A

lowered myself. I faced her while trying to make myself as small as possible as to not intimidate her further. “Kendall…” I said softly, trying to get her to focus, “Kendall, can you look at me, please.”
    Her sad eyes met mine and for a second I was overcome with compassion. I wanted so badly to collect her into my arms and just hug her as long as she needed me to, but my training quickly pushed all those emotions out. I needed to focus. “Kendall, is this apartment in your name?”
    “Yes,” she answered in a small voice.
    “Does Dominique have anything in her records with your name and address on it?”
    “No, she always referred to me as Raina. She never kept a file or records of addresses or anything because she didn't need to. I was always picked up in front of a hotel a few blocks away and we never spoke outside of work. Everything was done over the phone. Even my payments came by electronic transfer.”
    “What phone did you use?”
    “My work phone, Dominique…” She offered, pausing a moment at the mention of her late employer's name, “She gave us all new burner phone on a bi-monthly basis,” she stated, grabbing her purse, pulling out a black cell phone.
    “Give it to me please.” She handed it to me and I dropped it to the ground, stomping on it. She watched intently as I walked into the kitchen and placed the remains of the phone into the sink, running water of them. I wasn't sure if they had thought to track it, but I was hoping they hadn't gotten that far yet. I walked back in the living room, “So you never use your personal cell phone for work? Did James ever call you on it?”
    “No, never.”
    “What about staying here? Did James ever stay here? Would anyone have any way of tracing him here to this location?” I asked suddenly feeling like someone had kicked me in the chest. Even after everything that had happened tonight the thought of them together made me feel both hurt and angry.
    “No. It's not that kind of relationship,” she offered harshly, her eyes practically scorching me with irritation.
    I nodded, not really sure what she meant, but the last thing I wanted to do was get into the specifics of their
relationship
, “Okay then, we're going to go with the assumption that they don't know where you live yet. It's late and I think we've both dealt with enough tonight. We should be safe here for now and we can leave first thing tomorrow morning,” she nodded, “For now I'm going to suggest you go shower.”
    Noticing the blush that had settled on her cheeks, I figured I should clarify, “You know, to get the blood and dirt off of you. You'll feel a little better once you're clean. Then you should pack a bag and try to get some rest.”
    “Yeah okay,” she said looking down at her dirt-covered legs and bloodstained hands, “What happens after that? Where will we go tomorrow?”
    “Well the first thing is to try and figure out want they're looking for and get it before they do. Then we can try to arrange a trade or go to the authorities if needed. But we obviously have to be very careful about who we deal with in the local police force. We'll need to find someone we can trust. I have a few friends here in Washington I'm going to reach out to and see what they might know.” I was pretty sure my friend Jeremy still worked as a Naval Intelligence Advisor at one of the bases in Washington. He would be a good place to start. I watched Kendall taking it all in and thinking everything over. “Is there anything you can think of that would bring on this sort of thing? Anyone you know would want to hurt James and Dominique, or you for that matter?”
    “No, I've been trying to think of someone, but there's nobody coming to mind. I wasn't exactly in the inner circle of their relationship. I mean, James is a senator, and a good one at that. He's very cunning and influential, so I'm sure there's a list of people who might not like him for one reason or another. My guess is James