Page 8 of Jonas (Silver Team #4)

CHAPTER SIX

I knew I’d like Kira Cain.

When you ran in the circles I did, had the job I had, you paid a goodly amount of attention.

You listened. You filed away information that could help you in the present and in the future.

If you were smart, which I was (and that wasn’t me being conceited.

My job just came naturally to me.) you not only paid attention, listened, filed away information, you also dug deep into a person of interest.

Kira had been a person of interest. Talk was, she was highly intelligent.

The truth was she was brilliant. The facial recognition software she’d designed was next level.

Not only did it run facial points but vein patterns.

Which meant if the person was wearing a disguise, unless they were covered chin to feet she could get a hit.

Rumor had it she was a recluse. Those rumors proved to be incorrect.

It had taken a lot of digging, legwork, connecting dots that were so faint it was shocking I’d found them, and a healthy dose of dumb luck to hit the mother lode.

Kira wasn’t a recluse, she’d been half of the stateside team that ran an off-the-books, far removed from any defense money, years-long mission.

The guys she helped run were ghosts. She’d named the team Patheon after the software she’d developed.

When she sold the program to the government—more like leased it, because she was smart and didn’t sell it outright—she continued to receive a monthly fee for use and maintenance.

The money was funneled to keep the men and their mission afloat.

It also gave her access to all of the information being run through the program.

Which wasn’t brilliant, it was genius. I knew that the Patheon team, including Layla, the other half of the stateside team, now worked for Z Corps.

What I didn’t know and could never find was what Patheon’s mission was or where they operated.

Just that there was a team, they were so dark they were pitch black, and whatever they were doing our government could have no part in and there was absolutely no oversight.

I wanted to know but I knew better then to ask.

All of that to say, with everything I’d learned about Kira, I knew I’d like her.

The brief conversation I’d had with her over the phone while she was on her way to my apartment confirmed what I suspected.

But coming face to face with her, experiencing all that was her firsthand meant I didn’t only like her, I wished I lived the kind of life where I could have friends.

If I lived that kind of life, I’d beg her to be my best friend.

Not that I knew anything about having a best friend.

The last time I had an actual friend, I was seventeen and I was positive that adult friendships were different from teenage ones.

I was pretty sure adult friends went out and had coffee together—something I hadn’t tried until I was twenty.

It had taken me two years after I’d been cast out to attempt any kind of real rebellion.

Coffee, or any kind of caffeine was against the rules—which I always thought was contradictory since the whole point of living the way I’d grown up was to buck the system, live free without society’s laws and rules.

However, there was a laundry list of “family” rules—no caffeine was one of them.

No piercings was another. No alcohol. No swearing.

No shorts for girls. No bathing suits. In other words, I’d grown up subjugated and overpowered by the men in the “family.” These men went beyond my father or my brother.

Any male who lived at the ranch was to be obeyed. Their word was gospel.

Red light.

Full stop.

I gave myself a mental shake and shoved aside stupid memories that only served to piss me off and went back to shuffling through a file Anson Sutton had given me.

I even blocked the mental detour my mind was attempting to take to figure out why I’d leaped from getting coffee with a friend to my crazy upbringing.

Why was I still dwelling on a past that shouldn’t’ve had any bearing on my life?

Nope.

Not today, Satan.

Work.

I needed to focus on finding Kira the report Anson had given me.

The report wasn’t a real report, it was more handwritten notes he’d taken when he’d met with the whistleblower—Kent Rapport who’d been told to shut up or else.

Thankfully, Kent hadn’t shut up, he’d gone to an outsider who’d hooked him up with Zane.

He’d also gone straight up the ladder and talked to Anson.

“Here.” I pulled out the sheet of paper and handed it across the dining table to Kira.

Cooper was to my left at the square table. Jonas to my right. Both were reading something on their tablets. Both looked up when Kira took the paper from me.

“How did Kent get to Anson?” Kira asked.

“The golf course,” I told her.

“Risky,” Cooper muttered. “Especially after he’d already met with us and we hadn’t cleared the board of directors.”

“According to Anson he was desperate. Kent told him he’d talked to someone at your company. But it was taking too long and Kent had met Anson and played golf with him at a company tournament a few years ago. He told Anson he had a gut feeling he was a good guy and would listen.”

“Like I said, risky. There’s a reason why it was taking so long to clear the board. Members of upper management are hand-picked by the board.”

Shit .

“I didn’t know that,” I said as I sat back in my chair. “Who?”

Jonas slid his tablet in front of me.

I scanned the list but homed in on two names.

Karen White and Lou Peterson.

“Kent spoke to Lou,” I said even though everyone at the table already knew that. “And Anson brought him on board.”

Double shit.

“How well do you know Anson Sutton?”

Jonas’s question triggered a chain reaction.

How did someone find me? The rent here was astronomical.

A single woman working in HR at Delco could in no way afford to live in this building.

I never came home the same way. I normally stopped at least twice at two different locations before I came home.

I was always careful. I would’ve spotted a tail.

The only person who knew where I lived was Anson.

It wasn’t a coincidence that the same Mercedes was in front of Delco and again in front of my building after following me. They knew where I lived.

And every night when I got home, the first thing I did was sweep my apartment for electronic devices. Something I did not do because Jonas was with me and I was off my game.

Fuck.

What had we talked about?

Daryl Barnes. Cash and his team following him. My computers. And now Lou Peterson.

“Derrika?” Jonas called.

I shifted my gaze to Jonas and held his gaze praying he’d catch my play. “Sorry, I just um…noticed how dirty these floors are. I forgot to sweep.”

It took three beats before his eyes flared and ever so slightly he dipped his chin.

He got me.

“Anson? I trust him. Totally.”

“That’s good enough for me,” Jonas played along and shot Cooper a look he obviously understood because nothing else was said.

I went back to looking at Jonas’s tablet, no longer paying attention to what was on the screen.

Different scenarios ran through my mind, ranging from Anson setting me up to get to Z Corp to Lou Peterson using his longstanding friendship with Anson to keep his finger on the pulse, to Seth being blackmailed into getting into Anson’s personal files.

Though I didn’t think Seth had those skills.

But he was in on something, I just didn’t know what.

“I’m feeling Indian,” Jonas announced. “We passed a place on the way here. Let’s go grab something to eat before it gets too late.”

I could kiss the man for being so smart.

Okay, I could kiss the man for just being hot, but the smart part didn’t hurt.

“Thank God, I’m starving,” Kira said, though I was pretty sure that wasn’t true.

I made quick work of getting up from the table, hustled my ass into my room, opened the safe, grabbed its contents which included extra phones and passports.

If the apartment had been compromised, I wasn’t taking any chances leaving anything behind.

I was back in the living room shoving my laptops into my backpack when Jonas made his way to me.

As soon as I had the thing zipped, Jonas picked it up and swung it over his shoulder.

“Grab your purse,” he ordered.

I was not the kind of woman who argued with a man if he wanted to carry my bags, especially if the bag was heavy. But I would quibble about being bossed around like a child.

“Are you worried I was going to try to get out of paying for my dinner with the old ‘I forgot my wallet at home’ trick or do you think I’m an idiot and often forget my purse?”

Kira barked out a laugh. She did not giggle. It was a full-throated laugh that carried through the apartment.

“I have to admit, I was a tiny bit skeptical. Now I’m out. This is gonna be awesome.”

She didn’t elaborate on what she was skeptical about nor did she expand on what she thought was going to be awesome before she started for the door. Cooper followed her closely. Without thinking, I did the same.

Until Jonas semi-repeated, “Purse.”

Oh, yeah, shit .

I turned back to the couch, snatched up my purse, and pretended not to see Jonas’s smirk.

Even if it was at my expense, the smirk looked good on him.

“Thanks,” I bit out and stomped after Cooper and Kira.

Behind me I heard Jonas’s chuckle, then under his breath he mumbled, “Pain in the ass.”

“What? I have a nice ass?” I shot back.

That time Jonas didn’t chuckle, he laughed outright.