Page 14 of Operation Protector
“Around the corner, so Liz wouldn’t see it.” He groaned inwardly. “You think she’s tracking that, too?”
“Possibly.” Quinn glanced at Hayley.
“I’ll call Ty as well,” she said.
Quinn looked back at him. “Let’s get this started,” he said briskly.
And for the first time Colby felt a jab of a feeling he’d thought lost long ago.
Hope.
Chapter 7
“Okay, we’ve got the basics set,” Quinn was saying as Ali brought the fresh pot of coffee she’d brewed out to the table. They’d made those phone calls they’d mentioned, and results were already happening.
Ali was feeling much more cheerful now. Foxworth,theFoxworth, was going to help. In fact, their clever dog already was; he’d been playing with Ziggy and keeping him out of the way while they organized things.
Quinn was looking at a rather sizable laptop he now had open on the table. A young man with a trace of a Texas sort of accent had dropped it and some other things off ten minutes ago, pausing only for a brief introduction as the local Foxworth tech guy, Liam Burnett. He was also apparently helping orient a new hire—from what Ali heard, a man who had helped them on that big-headline case with the senator last year.
“How’s Cort doing?” Hayley had asked.
“About as well as he could be. But he says he’d rather be working and learning than sitting at home grieving. Rafe’s taking him on for the next stage as soon as we wrap this case.”
Ali gathered the man had been widowed shortly after that headline case had wrapped, and she had felt an all too familiar jab of empathy for someone she’d never even met. Then Liam had headed back out to deal with the other case they were handling.
“You do a lot of multitasking?” Ali asked now.
“We’ve often got more than one case going,” Hayley said. “Liam’s in the final stages of his, so he’ll be available later if we need him.”
“And by the way,” Quinn said, looking over at Colby, “he noticed a crew installing security cameras next door.”
Colby sighed audibly. “I’m sure I triggered the rush, but she has been telling Grace she would. Saying it was for her sake.”
His expression made it clear he didn’t believe that. And frankly, at this point neither did Ali.
“Liam said just be aware, that the models they’re installing have an extremely wide angle of view.”
Colby went still. “Meaning they’ll cover down to Grace’s room?”
“Probably. And probably recording 24/7.”
“I guess I should be thankful she doesn’t have a video of me breaking that window. I shouldn’t have, but Grace…she was screaming, I thought maybe she was hurt—”
Quinn held up a hand. “We’ll deal with that, if we have to.”
“You mean if she has me arrested for trespassing or something,” he said sourly.
“Gavin’s up to speed,” Quinn said. “He’ll be standing by.”
Ali saw the look of awed wonder cross Colby’s face. She didn’t blame him, she’d feel the same way if she was looking at potential trouble and had Gavin de Marco on her side.
“And,” Hayley said, almost cheerfully, “we’ve got a counter ploy. Liam also dropped off a couple of similar cameras for us to set up, so we don’t get caught staring out the window at them all the time.” She glanced at Ali. “That is, if you don’t mind us putting them up outside.”
“No, of course not,” she said.
“Good. We can stream the feed from here to our headquarters as well. You can watch from there, Colby. I presume her employee over there would recognize you?” Colby nodded, butsaid nothing. “Then at this point we don’t want you being seen anywhere near the house. We don’t want her making any connection between you and Ali that might make her pull Grace back.”
Colby nodded again as Quinn picked up the devices Liam had left and headed outside.
