Chapter Twenty-Four ADAM
Chapter Twenty-Four
ADAM
“Logan and Derrick are already in the air. Should land soon. Carter’s picking them up on the way.” The edge of the kitchen island bites into my back as I lean there, watching Jackie pace. She’s frantic, playing the part of someone calm very, very poorly.
“OK,” she says, clipped, opening and closing the wood cabinets.
“Eliza had an emergency meeting. She’s not here.” My head follows her back and forth. It’s hard to stand back and let her process everything. Not cross the room, scoop her up, and curl around her on the plush living room couch until she feels safe.
Afternoon sun streams through the tall windows, caressing her strained features, waving through her golden strands. Her heart must be beating out of her chest, just like mine when I heard her shriek.
The ground collapsed under me with every shuttered breath she panted into the phone, a bucket of gasoline on my biggest fear, tumbling me forward into the car.
“Mm-hmm.” Jackie clenches and unclenches her fists, brows drawn together, staring into the void.
I’ve seen her do this before finals, or when she finally gathered the courage to ask her dad to let her join the company. She took out her agitation on every bookshelf in her home. And mine. Reorganizing them by color.
Today, it appears Eliza’s collection of teacups is her next victim.
“Jackie….” I try tentatively, slowly closing the distance between us.
She stretches like a cat, rising on her tiptoes, and grabs the closest cups. “Yes, yes. I’ll get myself together,” she mutters.
“That’s not…” I don’t want to say the wrong thing, but the core of my soul vibrates with the need to comfort her. “Can you please leave Eliza’s cups alone?”
“I have to do something,” she growls. “Since I’m completely useless and can’t help in any other way.” Every clank of the cups on the counter thunders in the open space.
My soul aches for her. “Nobody thinks you’re useless.”
“They don’t have to. I know it. I’m the company’s CEO. I’m supposed to have the answers. Come up with a plan—”
I step into her space at last. Her back hits my chest and goes still. My fingers ghost hers. She startles at the contact, swallowing a small gasp. Gently, I pry a purple cup from her death grip and put it back on the shelf.
“You are in danger. It is not your fault.” I’m not ready to step away yet.
“It’s Derrick and Logan’s job to deal with this kind of stuff.
” My words brush the crown of her head, and the shiver going through her vibrates in my chest. “Use that big, beautiful, annoying brain of yours for what you love. Not this.”
My hand has a mind of its own, reaching for a wayward strand, tucking it away, grazing the shell of her ear. “Nobody’s expecting you to take down a gang of hackers.”
Jackie anchors her hands on the edge of the countertop, head dropping between her shoulder blades. “But…” All her protests are drowned in a deep sigh.
I can’t take seeing her defeated. There’s something so unnatural about it. I want to shake it out of her, but she’s too close to the breaking point.
With every ounce of patience left in me, I gingerly tilt her head up, fingers cradling her jaw, until her big blue eyes, full of uncertainty, meet mine over her shoulder.
“There are a lot of people who care for you. Who’d do anything to keep you safe.
Have a little more patience. You’ll get back to your old life. ”
For a moment, her gaze searches mine.
“Is that what you want?” she whispers. “Do you want everything to go back?” Her lips part, questioning, pink and full.
The version of reality where we are strangers. The reality that breaks me down into pieces. I don’t know how to answer that and reach for her again instead.
“You can hate me all you want once this is over,” I murmur, thumb finding the velvety underside of her lower lip, slowly grazing it. “But let me hold you until then.”
Her breath warms my fingertips, her mouth delicate and so close. Long lashes flutter shut as I lean in, against my better judgment, looking for more. Grasping at what I’ve missed for too long.
But panic blooms on her features when the front door bursts open, a swell of angry voices rolling in. “They were supposed to monitor their movement—”
I’m not listening to them. I’m watching the color drain from Jackie’s face.
She doesn’t just move away; she recoils.
All I can focus on is the sinking disappointment when Jackie scurries away, cheeks flaming.
She doesn’t even look at me, not even a glance.
Instead, her hands tremble slightly as she smooths her shirt, avoiding looking at me.
It shouldn’t hurt, but it eats at me. Dragging up that old insecurity, rotting in my soul for all these years. It’s the sting of being her best-kept secret, the one she’s clearly still ashamed of.
The stubble on my jaw scruffs under my fingers, and I tilt my head back, eyes closed, trying to claw my way out of this pit I keep falling into.
No one is sitting down in the living room. Jackie’s in the middle, arms crossed, listening to Logan like he can give her something concrete she can grasp.
But it’s worse than we thought. They weren’t out for ransom.
“At this point, we have to assume they’ve got somebody close to you,” Derrick says, his voice somber. “They couldn’t have known you were in Maine just by sniffing around here. They found you on the road because your phone pinged when you made the calls this morning.”
Jackie goes still. Her shoulders tense, fingers curl slightly. “They tracked my phone?”
He shifts from one foot to another, mirroring Jackie’s body language, like he’s bracing for something. “We also found out what they are after.”
Jackie’s brows rise questioningly, her arms falling limp beside her, waiting breathlessly for his next words, but then she spots the wordless discussion between Derick and Carter and her entire demeanor changes.
“I’m waiting,” she says, low and cold, making Derrick cough uncomfortably.
“In their hurry, they got a little sloppy and left us a clue,” Carter says evenly, but his attention is set on Jackie, who’s clenching her fists again.
This can’t be good.
“They’re trying to breach the research on the Neural Interface System.”
Dread morphs her profile, her hand flying to her mouth.
Shit.
“What!? No, no! How do they even know the project exists?”
The name shouldn’t tell me anything, but Pierre from R&D is especially chatty when you compliment her hair.
Logan puts his hand on her shoulder, and I’d very much like to punch him and his whole tactical macho outfit.
“Still not clear how the intel got into their hands,” he says. “We’re monitoring everyone with access to the project. And any people who might have any tangential link to it,” he tells her quietly, in a reassuring voice.
Jackie rakes her manicured fingers through her hair, thinking out loud. “That’s why we were quiet about it. The repercussions…”
Pierre went on and on about how great it will be for medical purposes and safer working environments for dangerous jobs. But in the wrong hands, it could cause a lot of damage. Spying, behavioral manipulation.
“Any chance Pierre let it slip?”
At last, Jackie looks at me.
Logan shakes his head grimly. “We grilled her and scrubbed her devices.”
I don’t want to throw the woman to the wolves, but you never know what people are capable of. “She’s a talker, is all I’m saying.”
Pierre was the one who fed Fred Pierson just enough to start digging last year.
Back when Carter dropped out of sight for months, after his stint on the operating table.
The well-meaning, but disastrously naive soul had a crush on him, and thought that talking to a reporter might help her figure out where Carter had gone.
“So are you,” Logan bristles. “Maybe we should look a little closer at your contacts?”
“Enough.” It’s not Carter who reins him in this time. It’s Jackie who steps between us, blocking Logan’s view. “How do we find the mole?”
Logan stretches his neck to glower at me some more. “We’re working on a strategy with the FBI.” The way he looks at me tells me I’m not off the hook yet.
“This is an untraceable phone.” Derrick hands her a small black box. “Travel with the extended security team at all times. Never disclose your location in advance to anyone outside this room.”
“What about work?”
“Email only. Radu will set you up with an anonymous VPN. Not even the best hackers will be able to pinpoint your location when you use your laptop.”
“Great. Anything else?” Jackie’s tone is brittle, all hope for a quick resolution turned to dust.
“We’ll meet with the sheriff,” Logan adds, nodding toward Derrick. “See what we can get out of the guys who were chasing you.”
“Fantastic.” Jackie’s eyes flash. “Guess I’ll be on home confinement. Until when?”
Carter, who’s been suspiciously quiet, observing the conversation, leans toward his sister and holds her wrist. “No, we’ll take a short trip to New York, stay on the move for a little while. I have to take care of some business, and then you’ll come with us to Italy.”
Jackie worries her lower lip, and it takes an inhuman amount of restraint not to move to her side and wrap my arms around her.
“I was thinking of cancelling it, but Logan pointed out it would be smarter to get you out of the country until we increase security.”
She closes her eyes for a moment and draws in a steady breath. “Where in Italy?”
That grin he wears whenever he talks about Eliza is marginally goofy. “I’ve promised my bride-to-be a trip to Venice.”
“Even better.” Jackie’s shoulders sag. “Grounded and third wheeling your romantic getaway.”
“Adam can keep you company, no?” Carter says, though it sounds more like a requirement than a suggestion. “Since he’s so determined to keep us safe.”
She turns to me, breath stilled, like my answer matters to her.
My heart lurches against my ribs.