Page 73 of False Flag

Basically, she was at a loss for what to do.

The soft tread of a shoe on the steps let her know he’d left his room. Her heart squeezed. She was both eager and anxious. She’d been the reason he and Lloyd had argued last night and again this morning.

Plus, her own last conversation with Lloyd had gotten ugly. It didn’t matter that he’d been the one to lob the first insult. He was dead. There would be no opportunity to work it out.

Would Jake regret asking her to stay with him? Would he grow to resent her and her role in making the final moments with his brother painful?

He glanced over the stair railing and met her gaze. He gave her a sad, drained sort of smile.

Her heart thundered. What if by being here for him, she made things even worse? She could be a trigger.

At the bottom of the stairs, he paused for only a second, then closed the small distance between them and pulled her to his chest. His arms encircled her, and she melted into him.

They held each other, standing near the base of the stairs, and her topsy-turvy world steadied for just a moment. When his hold loosened, he stepped back and led her to the couch.

She settled beside him, curling against his side, figuring he needed her touch as much as she needed to hold him close. “I ordered dinner. I got an assortment of fish and seafood. If you don’t like it, we can order something else.”

He ran a hand over her cheek as he met her gaze. “The only thing better than being surprised with fish for dinner is catching it myself first.”

“Whew.”

He smiled. Not deep enough for a dimple sighting, but still, it eased her worry a bit.

“Not sure if I can eat. But I’ll try.”

“Same.”

Jake rose. “I’m going to have a beer. Might settle my stomach. You want anything?”

Before checking into the hotel, they’d picked up drinks at a liquor store and a few essentials at a grocery store. “A glass of white wine sounds good, thank you.”

Staci’s phone buzzed. “Food’s here. I’ll go down and get it.”

“Wait. I’m going with you. I feel like we should stick together as much as possible.”

“They can’t possibly know which hotel we’re in.” She knew she didn’t need to define they. “Between the port and provincial capital, Victoria is too busy.”

Jake’s gaze landed on her phone. “Sure, Victoria is safe, but you can bet good money Osborne’s techies are tracking your cell. Gerard probably knows exactly what you ordered for dinner.”

All at once, she remembered the time Chris’s cell phone had been hacked, and it was the app for food delivery that compromised his location. “Shit.”

She had been mindful during her conversation with Freya, not saying a single word that gave her true purpose here. And she knew her phone couldn’t be used as a microphone. It had a manual shut-off switch to prevent cameras and microphones from being remotely activated. All Valkyrie phones had that security feature when they went into the field. But she’d forgotten about basic tracking, a sign Lloyd’s death had scattered her wits.

That was phone security 101.

“We’ll get you a burner tomorrow.”

“What about your phone?”

“I already had a burner ready to go.”

“Seriously? Why?”

“Let’s get dinner, then we’ll talk.”

The seafood chowder went down easy. Jake knew why. It tasted like his mom’s recipe, a combination he hadn’t tasted in the two years since she passed away.

If there was ever a time he needed his mom’s seafood chowder, it was on this night, when he grieved his brother. Later, he’d go to the restaurant and beg for the recipe.