Chapter 18
Chapter Eighteen
Juniper shut Sterling’s refrigerator with her hip and carried the carton of orange juice to the island trying to pretend this was all normal.
Parts of it were normal-ish, she supposed.
Spending time with Sterling had become part of her daily routine long before she started waking up in his bed two days ago.
And Nick had been her friend years before she'd met Sterling.
But being with the two of them under the same roof just seemed weird.
She poured herself a tall glass and chugged it she was dying, and this drink was the only thing that would save her.
Sterling had rolled out of bed about a half hour before the sun had peeked over the horizon. He'd tried to be quiet as he tiptoed to the shower, but the second the water hit the tile, her eyes were open, and the only thing she’d been able to think about had been him, naked.
She'd forgotten Nick was in the house.
Something that she'd wished she’d remembered when she strolled out of the master like she hadn't a care in the world and Nick waved and smiled. They hadn't said anything to each other since then, and Sterling hadn't helped since he returned with breakfast.
"This is some good coffee." Nick lifted his mug. "Which one of you made it?"
“I believe it was made by a girl named Heather.” She set the orange juice beside the takeout bag Sterling had brought home from the café. "Hence the to-go mug."
Nick smiled. “You haven't changed.”
“I was hoping we'd skip the small awkward talk and go right to work.”
“Now, what fun would that be?" Nick leaned back on the stool and glanced between her and Sterling.
"I mean, never in a million years did I expect to see you coming out of his bedroom.” Nick had always been a cross between a ball buster and a death wish.
Although, ever since he and Sloane had finally made it official and at least moved in together, Nick hadn't enjoyed getting shot at near as much.
As a matter of fact, he now got annoyed when he bled.
Sterling sat at the far end of the island with his laptop open and Mia’s latest report spread in front of him. “Be nice, Nick. Or we'll send you to her place where the last known gator infestation was. And I know you don't like the things that Florida produces.”
“That's just rude.” Nick pointed at him. "And does anyone? It's a jungle down here with shit that’ll kill you. I can't believe either one of you moved here by choice. Especially her."
“Leave my girlfriend alone.”
“That's a mighty big word for you, Fox,” Nick said. "Are you sure you know what it means?"
"Don't make me call Sloane, because I will.
" Juniper opened the takeout bag and pulled out three wrapped sandwiches because she didn't want to look at either of these men while the word girlfriend was being tossed around.
She'd admit to liking the sound of it and the way it slipped from Sterling's lips, deep and rich.
But it was new. And she was still undercover and her future still way too uncertain.
"I already did." Nick sat up taller and smiled. "She was wondering why she hasn't heard from you."
“What did you tell her?”
Nick reached for one of the sandwiches. “I kept it in code since it wasn't a secure line. But she understands. And she's gonna want to know about him.”
“Careful,” Sterling said. “That one has tomatoes.”
Nick froze with his fingers on the paper. “You remembered that.”
“You forget, I remember everything.”
“No.” Nick picked up the second sandwich instead. “You remember disturbing things with disturbing accuracy. Food preferences from eight years ago fall under emotional attachment.”
Sterling stared at him. “You’re exhausting.”
“And yet, here I am, summoned to your house like a useful human.”
Juniper slid a sandwich toward Sterling. “He’s got you there.”
Sterling took it from her, his fingers brushing hers before he unwrapped the paper. “He has some redeeming qualities.”
Nick leaned toward Juniper. “That is close as he gets to affection. Don’t blink, or you’ll miss it.”
“Oh, now I get it.” She settled onto the stool beside Sterling and reached for her coffee. “You're jealous.”
“Am not,” Nick said. “I'm not sure I like this side of her. What did you do to my friend, Fox?”
“I'm allowed to have other attachments,” Sterling said. "And she's one I'm hoping to keep for a very long time."
"Wow. That's a statement." Nick took a very large bite of his sandwich.
It sure was, and Juniper wasn't sure what to make of it. She just hoped her hands didn't shake as she took the lid off her coffee. “I don't plan on going anywhere.”
"Good to know." Sterling smiled.
"Blech." Nick rolled his eyes. "Can we get to work please?"
"Sure." Sterling picked up a page and slid it toward Nick. “We need to talk about Koda.”
"Harlan Koda?" She pulled Mia’s report closer. His name appeared in the middle of a paragraph that had been highlighted in yellow. She’d heard the name the day before.
She hadn’t paid it enough attention. Too many names had started circling Sterling at once, and Doyle had taken up most of the space with his easy grin and messy timing. “What about Koda?” she asked.
Sterling leaned back in his chair. “Doyle never mentioned him last night, and I found that odd.”
"Why?" Nick drummed his fingers on the counter. “Did you expect him to?”
“If I were looking to hire a partner, especially someone like me, someone whose knowledge I wanted to use, I'd drop his name," Sterling said. "He's the kind of guy that makes things happen in our world… in a very quiet way."
Juniper looked at the highlighted paragraph. “Koda backed Frost after the corridor collapsed, right? Helped him reorganize and restructure when he came to the states? Financed the move?”
“That's the intel we have," Sterling said.
“Koda helped reshape a lot of men like Frost after the corridor collapse. He had money, political reach, and the right kind of reputation for cleaning up ugly situations.” Nick folded his arms. "He did it in the background like no one was paying attention.
It wasn't like he was making noise about it and our government didn't seem to have a problem with it. "
Sterling tapped the report. “Koda sits on advisory boards, trade groups, policy councils. He gets pulled into congressional hearings when someone wants a smart man in a suit to explain why the world is complicated and to help make interesting decisions on what to do about those complications.”
“Controversial decisions that often fly under the radar,” Nick said. “He’s also arrogant as hell.”
“I won't argue that point.” Sterling shuffled a few pages around.
Juniper looked from one report to the next.
Mia had arranged the pages in a way that made sense to people who liked flowcharts, spreadsheets, and things people with an engineer's mind liked.
Juniper preferred lists, timelines, and notes in the margins that often only made sense to the person who made them.
This level of organization made her want to stab paper with a pen.
She picked up a highlighter instead. Growth, apparently—from hanging around Sterling, Buddy, and the rest of the gang, she supposed.
But especially Sterling. As was apparent by the way he kept his house, everything had a place, right down to the way the cabinets were organized with labels facing outward. It was kind of weird, but cute.
“Nothing here appears bad. Koda looks like a saint," she said.
“Exactly,” Nick said. “Good things happen around him. But spend an hour with the asshole, and you'll want to poke your eyes out or better yet, his. He's so fucking annoying and full of himself.”
Juniper underlined Koda’s name. “If he's doing something nefarious, then he's got to have leverage on people in some pretty high places."
"But there's nothing that I’ve heard." Nick rubbed his thumb over the edge of his coffee cup.
“Except rumors about quiet deals. Back-channel money. Questionable pressure applied where official pressure wouldn’t work.
Witnesses protected. Assets redirected. But if you go asking questions, no one answers with Koda's name. It's weird.”
“Assets,” Juniper whispered.
Sterling pulled another page from Mia’s stack.
“The issue isn’t that Koda helped Frost or even that it could've been done without the government's official backing until after it was already in the works. If that were the only connection, I wouldn’t like it, but I could live with it because it's done all the time.”
“Generous of you,” Nick said.
“I’m known for it.”
“No one has ever said that about you.” Nick waved his finger.
Juniper reached across Sterling and took the page before the two of them could turn into middle-aged schoolboys.
“What else did Mia find?” She scanned the page.
Three names had been boxed. None of them meant anything to her, but Mia had drawn connecting lines to freight financing, a conference in Miami, and a policy foundation with Koda’s name on the letterhead.
“These people don’t show up in the official corridor file? ” she asked.
Sterling shook his head. “No. But they were there.”
Nick leaned over the island. “How do you know?”
“Seriously?” Sterling pushed the laptop toward him.
“One of them stood outside a customs office in Panama wearing a red tie with a blue stain near the knot. One was listed under a different name on a hotel security log in Cartagena. The third had a shell company that bought warehouse equipment six weeks before Restrepo agreed to talk.”
Juniper stared at him.
He gave her a small shrug. “I told you. I remember details in ways that others don't. People like to call it a photographic memory or whatever, but it's not that, exactly.
I forget things just like everyone else, but when I focus, even on multiple things at once, I can remember details that others wouldn't think to track.”
“You remember useful things,” she said. "I get it."
Nick smiled into his coffee. “Careful. Compliment him too much, and he’ll organize your pantry.”