Chapter 11 #2
“Mmm.” Sophie’s tone suggested she wasn’t buying it, but she didn’t push. “Hungry?”
“Starving, actually.” Also not a lie. She was guilty of ignoring her need for regular meals in favor of the thrill of finding the bomb handlers.
She poured coffee and added cream. Slipping into a seat at the table, she addressed the tension pulsing in the room.
What’s going on?” Elin pitched her voice low.
May and Sophie exchanged glances.
Alyssa rested a hand protectively over her still-flat stomach. “The test was positive.”
Elin’s chest squeezed. “I see.”
Alyssa and Julian Chase were in a committed relationship, but they were also both in hiding, hunted by Cipher, who had made an attempt on their lives before. Alyssa hadn’t said much to Elin, but she gathered that now wasn’t the optimal time for a baby.
“The doctor’s coming today.” May carried four juice glasses to the table and set them down.
“Will the guys question what’s going on?” Elin wrapped her fingers around her warm mug to ward off the nerves the whole thing was raising in her. Not to mention nerves from what she’d done on the job just hours before.
They heard a step in the hallway, then it moved on. May glanced toward the doorway before speaking. “We’re saying it’s a routine checkup.”
“Does Julian know?” Elin asked.
Alyssa shook her head. “Not yet. I want to be sure. I want to see the doctor first, figure out how far along I am, make sure everything’s…” She trailed off, looking overwhelmed.
“We’re keeping it quiet until she’s ready.” Sophie scooped the last strips of bacon onto a dish covered in paper towel. “The guys can’t know there’s a doctor coming specifically for her. As far as they know, one of us is just having an annual health screening.”
“We’ve got your back.” Elin reached over and squeezed Alyssa’s hand, stunned by her own gesture. A week ago, she didn’t feel connected to a single human in the world. Now she had what she could only call…friends.
The sound of boots coming toward the kitchen made them all straighten. May smoothly transitioned to talking about grocery lists, and Sophie busied herself at the sink. Elin sipped her coffee and tried to look natural.
Until Liam walked in.
Her heart skipped a beat, and she battled to school her features into an unaffected expression. He shouldn’t look so damn good with damp hair and his T-shirt clinging to his chest.
Liam, Henner and Chase took over the space with their muscled bodies, all three of them sweaty from what looked like a morning workout.
His eyes found hers immediately…and held for a beat.
Then he looked away, grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge, and said something to Chase that made him laugh.
That was it. No lingering glance. No secret smile. Nothing that suggested less than eight hours ago he’d been inside her, making her come apart with his name on her lips.
Professional. Casual. Unaffected, she reminded herself. She could do it too.
Henner grabbed a cup of coffee and turned to face the table. “Morning, ladies. What’s the conspiracy today?”
“Trying to figure out how to keep you animals fed,” May shot back. “You ate an entire roasted chicken yesterday by yourself. A whole chicken, AJ. That was supposed to feed at least two people.”
“Metabolism.” His eyes gleamed as he studied the woman he loved.
Chase slid into the chair next to Alyssa and kissed her temple. “You okay? You look pale.”
“Just tired. I didn’t sleep well.”
Elin had to admire how steady her voice was.
Liam leaned against the counter, bottle of water to his lips, saying nothing. His gaze tracked over Elin, but she ignored him as if he was just another person in the room. He didn’t ask how she was, didn’t act like there was anything between them at all.
Last night meant nothing.
Which was fine. It meant nothing to her either.
That small lump in her throat screamed that she couldn’t lie to herself.
She pushed away from the table, mug in hand. “I should get to work. Dante’s probably already there.”
“The Pentagon lead?” Sophie asked, and there was understanding in her eyes that had nothing to do with hacking.
“Yeah. We need to jump on it before the trail goes cold.”
She didn’t look at Liam as she left. Didn’t check to see if he watched her go.
Dante was already in the lab, fingers flying across his keyboard. “Morning, sunshine,” he said without looking up.
She dropped into the chair next to him and booted her own system. While she waited for the system to load, she got straight to the point. “I’ve been thinking about the link to Kent—I want to trace it back further. See if there’s a pattern.”
“Financial records?”
She nodded. “And communication logs. If this guy’s been funneling intel, there has to be a trail.”
Sophie appeared in the doorway twenty minutes later, carrying three bottled waters and a look of determination. “Okay, guys, bring me up to speed.”
Elin accepted the drink with a smile of thanks. “We traced Silverton’s emails to a source.”
Dante cleared his throat. “You mean you traced the emails.”
She shot him a small smile for the credit he gave her.
Sophie drew out a chair and sank to it. “Ryan mentioned the suspect is working in the Pentagon.”
Elin nodded. “His name is Adrian Douglas Kent. We’re going to dig into finances and communications. Have you ever encountered his name before?”
Sophie’s lips tightened. “No. But if I know what I’m looking for, I might find something in one of the ciphers.” Sophie settled in, and Dante and Elin got back to work.
They worked in focused silence, broken only by the click of keys and occasional muttered curses. Elin loved this—the puzzle of it, the hunt. Code made sense in ways people didn’t. Variables had predictable outcomes.
Algorithms didn’t wake up one morning and decide you weren’t worth sticking around for.
“Got something!” Dante’s tone burned with excitement. “Wire transfer to Kent, three months ago. Routed through four different accounts, but the origin point…” He pulled up a file. “The sender has Pentagon clearance.”
Elin’s pulse quickened. “Can you trace the sender?”
“Working on it.”
Sophie leaned forward, studying her own screen. “This encryption key—it’s military grade. Not something a terrorist cell would have access to unless someone gave it to them.”
“Someone with Pentagon access,” Elin said slowly.
“Exactly.”
They were close. She could feel it. Kent was just the middleman between Cipher and the bomb handlers. If they could connect the sender with Cipher, they were one step closer to tracking him down.
The pieces were coming together, forming a picture that made her skin crawl. Someone—most likely Cipher—had an active terrorist network inside the Pentagon.
Elin’s focus narrowed to the code on her screen. Unlike the mess of feelings currently threatening to drown her, this she could fix. This, she could control.
Sophie’s phone buzzed on the desktop. She picked it up and skimmed the words, then turned the screen for Elin to read the text from May.
Doctor’s here. We’re handling it. Stay focused.
Right. Focus. She had a job to do. A terrorist handler to unmask. Eleven bomb handlers to locate. A purpose beyond being just a woman in Liam’s bed.
She straightened in her seat and dove back into the code.
Hours passed. Coffee appeared at her elbow, courtesy of Dante. Sophie took a break to stretch and came back with sandwiches. For Elin, the work consumed her, pushing everything else to the background.
Well, almost everything.
Because even as she worked, part of her brain kept circling back to cold sheets and empty beds and the way Liam hadn’t uttered a word to her.
This is all he wants from you. Enjoy it while it lasts but don’t catch feelings.
Too late. Way too late.
She ignored the thoughts and kept working.
She would exhaust herself into not thinking.
Not thinking about Liam.
Not thinking about how much she wanted something he couldn’t give.
Not thinking about how badly this was going to hurt when it inevitably ended.