Her face got that stubborn look that perversely turned him on. “Oh, no. You first. Why were you at the party in the first place, and how did you know the dead guy?”

He considered what he could tell her. “On my last mission, somewhere I can’t tell you about, my unit was hunting for a group smuggling drugs. It turned out somebody close to us was a traitor. Five out of seven of us were killed, and I’m going to find the Judas and take him down. Albert Nelson was my connection to somebody who might know where Rock is.”

“Rock.” Dana pounced on the name like a hound on a quail scent.

“Yeah. Nickname. We all had them, and it won’t help you to find him. The military has been looking for six months, and even the top intel folks can’t find the guy.” Wolfe grasped her wrist, needing to get through to her. No way would he give her Gary’s full name. “Leave him alone. No research, no calling in favors, no nothing. You will not do anything to make him aware you even exist. Promise me.”

She surprised him by asking, “What was your nickname?”

He shrugged. “Wolfe. It’s easy and it’s my name. People have always called me that.”

“Tell me more about Rock.” She tapped her fingers on the table.

“He’s a trained killer, one of the best, and I’m fairly certain he’s a sociopath who actually enjoys the killing more than the endgame.” Wolfe had spent too many restless nights trying to figure Rock out, trying to understand how he’d blinded everyone to his true nature.

She tilted her head, those intelligent green eyes studying his face. “Is Rock better than you?”

“We’re about to find out that answer to that question.” Lacking empathy or any sense of loyalty just made the bastard all the more dangerous. “Your turn.”

She visibly tried to banish emotion as she told her own story. “I was friends with Candice Folks, who worked for the Times.”

Wolfe frowned. “The journalist who disappeared?”

“Yeah, and I believe she was murdered. There was a lot of blood in her apartment, and there’s no way Candy would just disappear and not stay in touch with her elderly mother. She was a business reporter, usually covering the stock market, upstart businesses, and so on.” Dana licked whipped cream off her lip.

Wolfe’s groin tightened.

Dana went on, having no clue she was killing him. “Candy was working on a series featuring up-and-coming corporations owned by women, and according to the few notes I’ve been able to decipher, Albert Nelson was one of her sources.”

Wolfe took another drink. “You think he had dirt on one of the businesses?”