“And you won’t,” he says before bending down to kiss me. “I promise.”
“Okay,” I say, snuggling into him. I’m going to have to trust him that this is the right move.
“There’s just one other thing, though,” Dozer says, and his tone causes the hair on my neck to stand on end.
Leaning back, I look up at him. “What’s that?”
“I need you, Thea, and your mom to leave. I want you to go to California with Kellen and—”
“Oh, hell no,” I declare, pushing him away from me. “You’re nuts.”
“JJ,” he implores.
“Don’t JJ me,” I say, wagging my finger at him. “I’m not leaving you.”
“It’s for your safety,” he says, sounding very logical. “And don’t you want your mom and Thea to be safe?”
“They can go with Kellen to California, but I’m not leaving.”
“You can’t come to Miami,” he says, exasperated. “I can’t have you distracting me.”
“Then I’ll stay here,” I say, lifting my chin defiantly. “And that’s my last offer.”
“We’ll talk about it,” he says sternly.
“You can talk all you want,” I say, turning on my heel to leave. I look over my shoulder at him one more time. “But I’m not going to California.”
And with that, I move to the door and jerk it open to make a very dramatic exit.
Except the door’s locked.
I don’t even bother to look back to Dozer but grit my teeth. “Let me out.”
He sighs, but I hear him on the keyboard, then the door clicks open. I storm out, intent on hunting down Bebe to figure out how I can get down to Miami. I’m sure as hell not staying here, even though I told him I would. That was just to get his focus off me going to California.
CHAPTER 15
Dozer
“Looks like we have a plan,” Kynan says, slapping his palm on the table. “We’ll fly to Miami tomorrow morning, and the FBI is going to hold a press conference at noon.”
Exclamations of determination and excitement to get this mission done echo around the room. Joining me in Miami will be Kynan, Cage, Jackson, Griff, and Malik. They’re all going to risk their lives for me—and for Jess.
The only person sitting at this table not looking gung-ho about our game plan is Bebe, but then again, I wouldn’t expect anything different. She’s obviously supporting the mission because that’s her job, but she still wants me to change my mind about it.
She’s also pissed because Kynan won’t let her come with us. He wants her running the tech and communications from here at headquarters because here is just as good as there, and he thinks Bebe will be a distraction due to her personal ties to me.
Jess is also a thorny issue. After our conversation yesterday down in the lab, she came to a grudging acceptance of the plan to dangle me as bait. This is because she’s decided to trust my teammates the way I trust them.
But there’s thorniness because Jess still wants to come with me to Florida, which I’ve absolutely prohibited. I cannot worry about her and myself at the same time. She’s flatly refused to go to California with Thea and Claire, so for now, she’ll stay at Jameson. At least she’ll have Bebe to look out for her.
Surprisingly, Claire is in full support of the entire strategy. It’s not that she doesn’t love me, because she does. And it’s not that she’s unconcerned, because she’s very worried. But she doesn’t have the same connection with me that Jess does, and she’s able to keep her emotions in check and accept the risks. She and Thea will be leaving with Kellen tonight, staying at Joslyn’s house in Santa Barbara until this is all over.
“Griff,” Kynan says, looking across the table, “if you don’t mind, make sure everything is ready tomorrow for the press conference.”
“Will do,” he says.
This press conference is how we’ll lure Borovsky’s men into taking me. I’m going to be on camera with the FBI agents in Miami, and we’ll run it twice daily. The newspapers will print articles with my picture, and I’ll make it easy for Borovsky to find me. I’m hoping within a day or two, he’ll make a move.
Kynan turns his attention to me. “You’re good on the tech?”
“It’s perfect.”
“And we have redundancy?” he pushes.
“Of course.”
He’s talking about using GPS and GNSS receivers to track me. The GPS, or global positioning system, uses one satellite to, among other things, fix the location of a specific radio receiver. They’re commonly found in our smartphones or watches, and I will be wearing a specialized watch that looks quite ordinary on the face but has a GPS chip inside. The downside to this is that if the Russians are smart, they’ll take all electronics away from me. In fact, we’re hoping they do this because if they take my watch and find the GPS chip within, we’re hoping it will lull them into a false sense of security.