Page 3 of Jonas (Silver Team #4)

CHAPTER TWO

“Have a good night, Amy,” Natalie Albright called out as I passed her desk on my way to the elevator.

She was one of the few people I truly liked at Delcon Data Center.

The rest of my coworkers were decent enough people, but like in any corporate environment there were office politics at play.

Everyone had an agenda and was out for themselves.

Except for Natalie. She couldn’t care less about moving up the corporate ladder.

Her job as an HR coordinator was nothing more than a paycheck to pay her bills while she finished up the new plugin that would help businesses link CRM software to their invoicing, accounts receivable, and accounts payable.

The improvements she had planned to the applications that were already available were impressive.

Not only was she book-smart but she was also people-smart.

A trait I didn’t see very often. In my experience the higher the IQ the dumber they were.

Natalie was no dummy—she knew the women and men in our department would chew her up and spit her out if it meant a pat on the back from upper management.

Which made her a good resource for information.

It also made me feel a little guilty for lying to her about who I was and what I was really doing.

“You, too, Nat.”

“I hope it is,” she chirped. “Date number two with the bartender I met last week.”

That had me stopping at her desk.

I’d learned Nat had a lot of first dates, but few made the cut to round two, and there’d only been two that had made it to date three in the six months I’d known her.

Nat was twenty-five, model gorgeous and as previously noted, wicked smart. But that wasn’t what I found most impressive. It was her confidence I was in awe of. She knew her worth and wouldn’t settle for less than exactly what she wanted. Something that at thirty-two I’d yet to master.

“Oh, really?” I drawled. “I didn’t think you were interested.”

She crinkled her nose. “I was being a little judgy.”

In my opinion, judgy wasn’t a bad thing as such, not when it came to the people you allowed into your life.

I’d learned the hard way to judge the fuck out of people.

There was a difference between judging and condemning.

Just because someone did something or acted a certain way that I found unacceptable didn’t mean the behavior was wrong, it just meant it wasn’t something I’d tolerate having in my life.

“How so?”

“Well, he’s a bartender.” She paused and crinkled her nose again.

“He’s cute and funny, and we had a really great date but I thought that was all to him.

He didn’t talk a lot about himself. He kept the conversation about me.

It was sweet. Most guys like to talk about themselves.

So, I got judgy thinking that was it, he just wanted to be a bartender for the rest of his life.

And that’s fine. But I know myself. I need someone whose ambition matches my own. ”

“I take it he doesn’t just want to be a bartender for the rest of his life.”

“No. He just started a master’s program at Northwestern’s Arlington campus for project management and he has an engineering degree with a focus on energy systems.”

“So a good match,” I noted.

“And a lesson not to be so judgmental. Just because someone’s hot with tattoos and slings drinks with a flirtatious smile doesn’t mean there’s not more to them.”

Why did my thoughts immediately drift to that hot guy, Cash, and his quick comebacks and megawatt smile?

I’d bet there was something brewing under his wit.

Something he didn’t want the world to see.

But it wasn’t Cash I’d been thinking about since my meeting with Z Corps yesterday, it was the mysterious Jonas with his dark hair, perfectly trimmed beard, and his dark brows that highlighted his beautiful blue eyes.

The man looked rough and ready, like he could take down a threat just by glaring at it.

I wondered if Jonas had tattoos and if he did where they were.

“Hello,” Nat called. “Earth to Amy.”

I blinked away my musings of Jonas and refocused.

“You might be right, but a girl can never be too careful.”

My phone in my purse beeped, the tone alerting me it was my personal phone, the one very few people had the number to. One of those few was Zane Lewis.

“Do you need to check that?” Nat asked.

Hell to the no. There were cameras covering every inch of the Delcon complex.

An employee couldn’t make a move without it being recorded.

I didn’t dare take my personal phone out of my purse.

The phone I used for work was encased in a cherry-red cover.

If anyone were to ever look back at the footage, they’d only ever see me using the red cell.

“Nope. I should’ve turned it off before I left my desk. Tonight is a no-phone-zone. I’m taking a bubble bath then binging bad TV with a bag of popcorn,” I smoothly lied.

Though I did wish that was the truth. I couldn’t remember the last time I turned on the TV, never mind taking a bubble bath.

“Night, ladies.” Another co-worker, Seth, called as he strode by Nat’s desk.

“See you tomorrow, Seth,” Nat returned.

I watched the older man give Natalie a tight smile.

A prickle hit the back of my neck, a twinge I’d learned never to ignore.

Seth was not the tight smile kind of man.

He was open and friendly and if given the opportunity would wax poetic about his wife and kids.

He was open about that, too, how much he loved his family.

He was always in a good mood and had never in the months I’d known him not had a genuine smile on his face at the end of the day when he left work to go home to the family he adored.

“Have a good night, Nat.”

“You, too.”

I quickly caught up to Seth and slipped into the elevator beside him.

“Crazy day,” I mock-complained.

My day had been boring as hell.

Seth reached out for the down button and mumbled, “Something like that.”

Okay, yeah, something was wrong. I mentally ran through everything I knew about Seth.

“How’s the new puppy?” I asked, remembering Seth’s wife had come home with an unexpected addition to the family a few weeks ago.

The man stared at me blankly for a moment before he shook out of his haze and answered, “Fine. The kids love him.”

“Are you okay?”

“Sure. Yeah. Why do you ask?”

The elevator door slid open and Seth motioned for me to precede him. I stepped out while saying, “You just seem…” Shit. Telling a man he seemed off was rude. “Unsettled.”

“Um. No. I just have a lot on my mind. You know, um, family stuff.”

That could be true.

Damn, I didn’t want to pry if the guy was going through something at home that was none of my business.

“Sorry, I shouldn’t have mentioned it.”

“Nothing to be sorry for.” Seth rushed out. “See you tomorrow.”

With a wave he hightailed his behind out the front door.

I watched him exit then damn near stumble to a stop.

I looked beyond Seth to the black Mercedes parked at the curb.

Slowly, he made his way to the car. Instead of walking through the lobby to the side door I followed Seth out front.

A dark-haired man in an expensive suit stepped out of the car.

Seth’s back was to me but I saw his shoulders stiffen.

Mr. Suit lifted his gaze, dark eyes locked with mine.

Awareness tugged low in my belly. And not the good kind a woman gets when a hot guy is staring.

This was the early warning sign that the hot guy in question was really a scumbag and you should steer clear.

With a quick smile of acknowledgement, I averted my gaze to the parked cars in the lot and continued to walk to the sidewalk, veering to the right to stay away from the men.

When I was far enough away, I pulled my phone out of my purse and pointed it at the sky in front of me.

At the last second, I switched the camera to selfie mode and snapped a picture.

If Mr. Suit was watching he’d think I was one of those people who took pictures of clouds to post on social media.

I didn’t look at the picture until I was safely in my car.

It wasn’t great—Mr. Suit was in profile—but I did get the license plate.

I’d run it when I got home. While I had my personal phone out, I checked the text.

The number wasn’t saved in my contacts. The message was short and to the point: It’s Jonas. We’re here.

I tapped out my response: leaving work now. I’ll be there in 20.

Without waiting for a reply, I started my car and used the side exit to avoid Seth and The Suit.

I really hoped Seth hadn’t gotten himself caught up in whatever was going on at Delcon.

I liked the guy, he was… normal . And by that I meant, he was boring.

Wife. Kids. Dog. Friendly. Bland sense of humor.

Hard worker. Minded his own business and didn’t participate in office gossip.

Seth was the last person I’d peg as a traitor.

But he was vulnerable. The guy had no backbone—if he was approached it wouldn’t take much to scare him into doing something that went against his ethics.

Like sharing Delcon’s weaknesses.

If someone wanted to take Delcon offline it would take an act of God or an insider with high-level knowledge.

Delcon had redundancy after redundancy to ensure the data they housed was safe.

As did all data storage campuses. The pandemonium that would follow if a cloud center went down would be insane.

A car in front of me slammed on its brakes pulling me from my thoughts.

There wasn’t much I missed about the sleepy, rural town I grew up in—no traffic was one of those things.

I checked my rearview mirror to make sure I wasn’t about to get rear-ended and noticed a black Mercedes three cars back.

A few minutes later I fully merged onto Route 28.

The Merc was now two cars behind me. I couldn’t make out the license plate number nor could I see if there was a passenger in the backseat.

However, I’d long ago learned to assume the worst. It was better to plan than be caught off-guard.

Not to mention, in my line of work coincidences were practically nonexistent.

While traffic was still at a snail’s pace, I reached for my phone, pulled up Jonas’s text, and called the number.

Two rings later a deeper than I remembered voice filled my car.

“Jonas?” I asked.

“What’s wrong?”

I was unprepared for how Jonas’s question swirled in my stomach before it made it flutter.

No one ever worried about me or what was wrong or if I had a problem.

“Why do you think something’s wrong?” I asked.

“Because you’re calling me when you texted not even ten minutes ago to tell me you were on your way.”

Right.

Of course.

“I might be a little late. I picked up a tail.”

“Do you need backup?”

That question didn’t make my stomach flutter—it made it clutch tight. Or maybe it was more the deep rumble of his voice that made my belly feel funny.

Traffic in front of me was still at a crawl. Unless the Mercedes opened fire, I wasn’t in danger.

“No. But if I send you a picture of a car and the passenger can you run it for me?”

“Send it.”

I loathed texting and driving, but desperate times…

As quickly as I could, I sent Jonas the picture.

“Got it. Where was this taken?”

“In front of Delcon. My co-worker Seth Hackett is the man in the blue chinos. That black Merc was at the curb waiting for him and now it’s two cars behind me.”

“I’ll send it to Kira and call you back.”

No further questions. No pointing out I was on a busy Virginia highway and there was a chance the Mercedes was simply taking the same route I was.

I don’t know what I was expecting Jonas to say, but readily agreeing without grilling me wasn’t it.

“Thanks.”

Jonas disconnected and I concentrated on driving.

Instead of feeling fear, excitement infused.

This just might be the break I needed.