Page 97 of Her Unflinching Warrior (Omega Sky)
“Yes,” he smiled. “I want to get lost in your eyes.”
Those few words shot her over into ecstasy.
* * *
Jada giggledwhen they heard the distinctive tones of texts coming into both of their phones simultaneously. They were just meandering back into the beach house’s office where they’d set up their computers.
“Group text,” she said needlessly. “Your timing is impeccable, Mr. Smith.”
He bent down and captured her lips for a kiss.
Their phones beeped again but they took their time ending the kiss. When they were done, it was back to business. The office setup was sweet—there was a large, curved desk that overlooked the ocean and could seat two. Gideon had brought in his whole setup from his house, so once again it looked like tech geek central. He logged into the Zoom invite and everyone but Ryker and Kostya popped up.
“Who’s moderator?” Gideon asked.
“Last one to join is stuck moderating,” Dex said as he took a sip of his grape Fanta.
“Dammit,” Gideon muttered.
Before he could say anything else, Jada started.
“Okay, Lark, we all got your encrypted e-mail with the info you got from Jenny’s sister.” Jada didn’t want to say her name, so she didn’t. “There wasn’t a lot of meat on the bone; did you get any nuances or hunches that didn’t make it into the factual report?”
Lark nodded. “I did. Now let me preface this by saying I’m not a psychologist, just took a few classes in college, but I’d classify her as a sexually deviant narcissist. That made it really difficult to get her to talk about her sister, unless it somehow included her.”
Jada shuddered at Lark’s description of Naomi. Gideon pushed his chair closer to hers and put his arm around her. She let out what she hoped was an unnoticeable deep sigh.
Lark continued. “She’s proud of her big sister, and she’s proud of herself. Made a big deal of her social media accounts, both individual and those she shared with her sister. I’ve checked them out, and some of them connect to dark places. I’m hunting those down. This could totally be a dead-end, but I’m hoping there is some possibility that Jenny might have posted something about Miles/Kendall.”
“Great work,” Jada complimented her. “I think you’re really onto something.”
“How dark is dark?” Dex asked.
“Stuff that just shouldn’t exist,” Lark said with a grimace.
“Unfortunately, I’ve worked on ops that have required me to check that kind of shit out, so I’ve got you covered. I can work with you,” Dex promised.
Lark smiled and nodded.
“Also, you got my encrypted e-mail that told you your guy from the warehouse was nothing more than hired muscle, former military hired out of Texas. He’s got nothing, he just came into town a week ago,” Dex reported.
“Yeah, we got that,” Jada acknowledged. “I’m sorry you and Lark have the ick duty, but I think it has possibilities.” Jada turned her eyes to Kane. “Kane, why don’t you update them on what we figured out since our e-mail.”
Kane squinted into the screen. “I took a little trip to New York City. By the way, Lark and Jada, hate your hometown, just saying.”
Lark laughed.
“Quit putting down the greatest city on earth and give them the good stuff, Kane,” Jada prompted.
“Anyway, hypothetically, I might have remembered to look up my old buddy Sid Bonham, and when he didn’t answer his door, I let myself in. I knew he wouldn’t mind. What’s more, my backup external hard drive might have fallen into his computer and accidentally copied his shadow computer’s hard drive.”
“You always were kind of clumsy,” Gideon chuckled. “Even when I knew you back in the day in Silicon Valley.”
“Yep, it hasn’t changed,” Kane said with a hint of a grin.
Jada gave Gideon a hard look. She hadn’t known that Kane and Gideon had a connection outside of the SEALs. How did she not know this? Jada gave herself a mental shake and got back to business. “Yeah, yeah, you’re clumsy, but when you got home after visiting Times Square and the M&M store, tell them what we found on Bonham’s computer,” she ordered Kane.
“You tell them, you’re the one that figured it out,” Kane said with a smile.
