Page 7 of Her Unflinching Warrior (Omega Sky)
Gideon laughed. “Jesus, man, you are such a guy. Women like talking on the phone, so you spent what, five hours with the woman, flirting with her three months ago, and talked on the phone with her for a total of an hour and a half, then suddenly showed up at her place of business. Is that what you’re telling me? What was your awesome opening line?”
Ryker took a long time to answer, so Gideon knew it was going to be bad.
“I might have said something along the lines of, ‘Hey, Beautiful, did you miss me?’”
Gideon groaned. “It’s amazing she didn’t throw food at you. Seriously, you get laid with lines like that?”
“Well yeah,” Ryker said. “But not with women like Amy. She’s a whole different level. She reminds me of Kostya’s woman, Lark. There’s something about her that really got to me.”
“So you decided to treat her like all the others,” Gideon scoffed.
“That’s bullshit.” Ryker’s voice sounded heated. “I’ve been calling…a lot. It’s not my fault she only picked up the phone three times. Why in the hell do you think I finally hauled my ass up to D.C.? I don’t need a bunch of shit from you, Smith. I need some fucking advice!”
Gideon forced himself not to laugh. But this was some funny shit.
“You there? Or are you just trying not to laugh?”
Gideon cleared his throat. “Have you talked to Kostya? Maybe he’d put Lark on the line, Amyisher best friend, after all.”
“Come on, he’s proposing this weekend, there’s not a chance in hell I’m interrupting. Anyway,” Ryker’s voice trailed off.
“I know. You don’t want to have to admit to Lark that you need help. You know, it’s not the end of the world to ask for help. We do that all the time, that’s what being part of a team is all about.”
“Yeah, but Lark isn’t part of Omega Sky, now is she?”
Gideon sighed. “I get your point. Okay, here’s what I’d suggest.”
His phone clicked.
He looked down and recognized Jada Harlow’s number and he frowned. He watched as the number continued to show on the screen. He waited to see if it would go to voicemail, but it didn’t.
“Don’t leave me in suspense, what’s your suggestion?”
Another click. Jada’s number popped up again.
“Ryker. I gotta go.”
“Man, that’s so not cool.”
Gideon swiped his thumb, hanging up on his friend.
“Hello?”
“Gideon, it’s me, Jada.” Her voice didn’t sound right.
“I know.” He really hadn’t ever expected to hear from her again. Not after the way they’d left things. Well, howhe’dleft things.
“Gideon, I’m in trouble.” She paused, he could almost see her licking her bottom lip. She did that when she was upset or nervous. “Big trouble. I stumbled across something when I was…”
Dammit!
“When you were what?” he asked harshly. “Hacking into some system you had no business being anywhere near?”
“Gideon, please listen.” It almost sounded like she was begging. That couldn’t be right.
His shoulders got tight. “I’m listening, Jada.”
“There was something that looked wrong. Really wrong, so I dug a little deeper, and I noticed some anomalies.” She paused. Gideon heard her take a deep breath. “Not just an anomaly. It was something bigger than that, it was purposeful. Gideon, I didn’t know who else to turn to, and—”
