CHAPTER THIRTEEN #2
Snow glanced at Nova and caught the brief narrowing of her eyes before she quickly masked it.
He knew instantly she was thinking the same thing as he was.
This arrangement wasn’t luck. Someone had intentionally put them up here, isolated from the rest of the crew and away from curious eyes and ears.
Still, he kept his expression neutral. “Works for us.” Which it did because he knew that there was no reason for anybody to be on this floor besides Nova and him.
Clint stopped at a door near the end of the hall and produced a keycard from his pocket, swiping it against the door’s keypad.
“Here we are,” he said, pushing the door open.
Snow stepped inside first, Nova right behind him. The space was larger than anticipated and very clean. Two double beds sat against opposite walls. A small desk was centered between the two beds against the wall, just under the window that looked out to the rig’s deck and the endless Gulf beyond.
Snow glanced at Nova. “You can take this one,” he told her.
“Actually, this is the only room we’ve got available right now. I hope you both don’t mind sharing,” Clint said, looking between them, a grin on his lips.
Snow felt Nova stiffen beside him, though her face remained carefully neutral. The arrangement didn’t bother him, as he had slept in far worse conditions, but he could see the slight discomfort on Nova’s face, especially the way her jaw tightened.
“You mean to tell me that there are no other rooms available?” Nova asked, her eyes narrowing.
“Afraid not,” Clint said, not sounding apologetic in the slightest. “Many of the rooms are still under construction. And all of the finished ones besides this one are occupied.” He shifted on his feet.
“It’s not the Ritz, but at least it’s new.
The beds have fresh linens, and there are new towels in the bathroom. ”
Nova was quiet for a moment, then she turned to Snow with a small shrug. “I’m good with it, if you are.”
Snow nodded, appreciating the fact that she didn’t throw a tantrum. “I’m good.”
Clint’s smile widened, though it didn’t reach his eyes. “Good. How about I give you guys about thirty minutes to get settled, and then I’ll come back to show you around.”
Snow nodded. “Sounds good.”
“Oh, I almost forgot,” Clint said as he handed Snow and Nova each a key card. “These are your key cards. They are programmed with access to everywhere on the rig except for Platform Three.”
Snow pinched his eyebrows together. But before he could ask, Nova spoke up.
“Why is that?”
Clint hesitated for just a fraction of a second but recovered quickly.
“That platform is still under construction and is only used as storage for materials,” he explained. “It was built for future expansion. It’s off limits unless escorted because of safety hazards.”
Snow nodded slowly like the answer made perfect sense. But internally, the bullshit alarms were ringing loud and clear. And judging from the slight narrowing of Nova’s eyes beside him, she wasn’t buying it either.
“If you don’t need anything else, I’ll let you two get settled.”
Snow just nodded as Clint stepped into the hallway, the door clicking shut behind him.
Snow stepped further into the room and gave it a quick scan. It had the stripped-down functionality of a college dorm with slightly better finishes. He set his bag on the bed.
Nova started to speak behind him, something about the view or the size of the room, but he held up his finger and put it against his lips, indicating for her to be quiet.
She gave him a curious look but did what he asked.
He pulled the RF detector from his bag. He started at the door and worked clockwise. Searching behind the TV, under the beds, inside the bathroom vent, the light fixtures, anywhere a small hidden listening device or camera could be placed.
He could feel Nova watching him as he moved through the room.
He moved to the lamp on the desk. It looked standard, utilitarian, the kind of thing no one would think twice about.
He lifted it, checked the shade, the bulb socket, then ran the detector along the backside of the base.
The meter suddenly spiked, and Snow turned it around.
He saw it immediately: a small, black disc no bigger than a dime, stuck to the metal lamp base.
He glanced at Nova and caught the way her eyes widened.
He pocketed the device without a word and continued to sweep the room, but his jaw had tightened, and he knew she could see it.
As soon as Snow finished his sweep, he took the tiny device from his pocket and grabbed his phone. He snapped a quick picture of the listening device, zooming in to capture any details. Once he got what he wanted, he walked to the bathroom and flushed it down the toilet.
As he walked back into the room, he looked at Nova, who was still silently watching him.
“It’s all clear,” he told her, walking over to his bag and putting the RF detector back in his bag.
“What was that little thing?” she asked.
“Listening device.” He watched her face carefully, saw the flicker of understanding followed by something darker.
Nova crossed her arms, glancing toward the door as if it might have ears of its own. “Why would someone plant that?”
Snow considered her question as several possibilities floated through his head. But without any supporting intel to narrow it down, it made it challenging.
“It could be any number of reasons,” he said, his voice low.
“The two most obvious are corporate curiosity, although I doubt Mr. Silverman would appreciate learning that Gulf Tide could be spying on his legal counsel. The other possibility is that someone on this rig has something to hide and they’re trying to figure out whether we’re a threat.
” He met her eyes and saw the worry she was trying to mask.
“Point is, someone wants to keep tabs on us. That means we’re already on someone’s radar.
We need to be careful what we say and where we say it. ”
He turned back to his bag and dug through the gear until he found the two compact surveillance cameras, no bigger than his thumb.
He pulled them out and glanced up to find Nova watching him from just inside the door, her arms crossed, her expression shifting from curiosity to suspicion.
“You’re putting cameras in our room?” she asked, her voice carrying that particular tone of someone who had already decided she didn’t like the answer.
Snow smirked as he hopped onto the desk, balancing with practiced ease while he positioned the first camera in the vent grille facing the door. “Don’t worry. It’s just a precaution in case someone decides to snoop while we’re gone. They’ll only run when we’re not here.”
He stepped down, grabbed the desk chair, and dragged it beneath the doorframe.
Nova moved, making room for him. He climbed up, reaching overhead to mount the second camera above the door, angling it to capture the full room.
From his perch, he caught her reflection in the wall mirror-still frowning, but her arms had dropped to her sides, which he chose to interpret as grudging acceptance.
Nova leaned against the desk. “You know, I trust you and all that. Professionalism, Navy SEAL honor code, whatever.”
Snow climbed down from the chair, dusting off his hands. “I sense a ‘but’ coming.”
“But if a video of me naked or anything remotely compromising ends up on the internet, I will find you.” She smiled sweetly. “And I will make you regret it in ways your training never prepared you for.”
Snow swallowed hard. Jesus. Why did she have to say something like that? That sounded so hot. Not to mention, now he couldn’t get the image of a naked Nova out of his head.
His mouth went dry, and he turned away, pretending to fiddle with the remote for the cameras and trying to think about something else—the mission, taxes, colonoscopies.
Hell, even thought about his team dressed in only Speedos, which was an ungodly sight.
But nope. All he saw was still a naked Nova.
Fuck me!
He cleared his throat. “Noted.”
The amused tension hung in the room for a moment, Nova’s smile lingering like she knew exactly what she had done. Then she broke it, practical as ever. “So which bed do you want?"
Snow looked at the beds, grateful for the shift in topic. He pointed to the right. “I’ll take that one. It has a better view of the door.”
“Works for me,” she said, grabbing her bags and dropping them on the bed.
They settled into an easy rhythm, unpacking essentials, claiming small territories of the shared space.
Snow watched Nova move with efficient purpose, hanging a few items in the narrow closet, setting her laptop on the desk.
She moved like someone accustomed to making do, adapting rather than complaining.
“Well,” Nova said, dropping her bag onto the bed to the left of the room. She looked around, her lips quirking. “This certainly brings back memories of my college years.”
“You went to Duke, right?” Snow asked.
“Yeah,” she answered, looking surprised. “How did you…” Her words died on her lips, and she smiled. “Never mind. I already had this discussion with Derek.”
“What discussion was that?” Snow asked, looking towards her.
“About you guys knowing everything about me.”
Snow chuckled and rubbed the back of his neck. “Hey, I don’t know everything about you. At least, not yet. I also like to take my time with things worth studying.”
The second the words left his mouth, he wanted to grab them and shove them right back in.
What the hell had possessed him to say that?
He had spent years negotiating hostage situations, planning missions, and talking foreign assets into cooperation.
Yet one smile from Nova Hart apparently turned his brain into mashed potatoes.
Snow expected her to laugh or make some smart-ass comment. Instead, she just looked at him, and a slow smile spread across her face.
Fuck, me. That smile was somehow worse than teasing him.