Page 61 of Rogue Protector
Mikayla
Austin drapes his arm around my shoulders after he taps Wren’s contact card to start the video call.
I glance up at him, but he shrugs. “Wren’s…family.”
“And she’s married to—“
“Ryker,” Wren says on screen. She holds up her left hand and wiggles her fingers. “It’s been nine months and I still can’t believe he actually proposed.”
Austin scoffs. “Pretty sure Ryker McCabe’s heart started beating again the day he met you.”
Wren’s cheeks turn bright red and she stares down at her keyboard. “You have some explaining to do, Austin. Once we untangle this mess.”
Now I’m the one blushing, and I try to scoot away from Austin, but he doesn’t let me go. Wren looks like she’s staring directly at me, but…that’s not how webcams work. Is it? Usually, I feel like I’m staring at a person’s forehead the whole time.
“Mikayla,” Wren says, concern in her voice. Everything about her is…sweet. A little motherly. But, as soon as she starts tapping on the keyboard, she’s suddenly all business.
“Mik. Friends call me Mik.”
Her gaze shifts to me for a moment, and she smiles. “Family too?”
Oh, crap.
“Wren’s…family.”
Is it that obvious? That I’m falling for Austin? That we practically agreed tomove intogether just five minutes ago?
“Mik?” she asks.
“Y-yes. Family too. Well, my parents call me Mika, but they’re the only ones. They think Mik is a guy’s name.”
“Well, we’ve got Joey and Dani already, so you’ll fit right in.” With a wink, she returns to typing, and Austin’s tablet screen splits with Wren’s face on the left and a passport photo on the left.
A shiver runs down my back as I whisper, “Martín.”
Austin squeezes my shoulders gently. “Go ahead, Wren.”
“Well, Martín Salvador isn’t his real name. Arturo Lopez doesn’t exist either. Turns out, these two jerkwads are actually from Peru. That’s why it took me so long to track them down. The Peruvian government uses an antiquated system that…well…let’s just say they don’t build them like they used to.”
“Wren, you’re the best in the world,” Austin says. “You mean to tell me an out of date system—?“
She scowls, and Austin snaps his jaw shut. I don’t blame him. This woman has a fierce side to her I don’t ever want to mess with. “You try pulling data from a system with the speed of a 1200 baud modem.”
“Wait. That’s…ancient. We had one of those growing up. Like…more than thirty years ago. I remember my parents trying to get email messages from my grandmother in Aleppo, and they’d take half an hour just to download a paragraph.”
“See?” Wren shoots me a look I think might be respect. “Mik gets it.”
“I’m sorry. We haven’t exactly had a lot of sleep and I’m being an ass,” he says. “Go on.”
“You forget who I’m married to. Plus, family. You don’t need to apologize. Just listen. Because this is about to get interesting.”
The screen shifts, and suddenly, there are five more photos on screen. “You recognize any of these guys, Mik?” Wren asks.
“Only Arturo and Martín,” I say. “Who are the others?”
“The board of directors of a Nozanita Pharmaceuticals. They’re based in Peru. Small. Virtually unknown. The whole company is only worth two billion.”
“Only?” At my side, Austin frowns. “That’s not nothing, Wren.”
