Page 21 of Nemesis

“I’m gonna need you to give me more than that.”

Irritation clawed inside my chest, and I leaned forward, propping my elbows on my knees and shoving my glasses up my forehead.

“Noah, it was the first day,” I muttered, driving the heels of my hands into my eyes.

He remained quiet for a moment, then cleared his throat, a shuffling sound filling the line.

I’d be willing to bet good money he was still at the office. Noah Brown was the definition of married to the job. He barely even dated, but that might have more to do with the five-foot-four green-eyed DEA agent he still, to this day, refused to acknowledge he had a crush on than the lack of offers.

He sighed. “Just keep me posted if you notice anything out of the ordinary.”

Click.

I glanced down at my phone, bewildered. This was weird. I really didn’t have anything to report, but it wasn’t like Noah to give up so easily. He was the type to grill you until he got exactly the answer he was looking for.

His voice sounded strained, almost on edge, but he’d hung up before I got to ask him to clarify.

I pushed down the uncertainties about his behavior and stared at the documents, resuming sorting through the information as I looked for a clue indicating what Morales might have been mixed into.

My phone buzzed this time, and I leaned over to pick it up, thinking Noah had texted me.

But it wasn’t him.

I swiped on the notification, unlocking my phone. I waited a beat for it to direct me to the app that was now showcasing a live video feed of outside the Moraleses’ house, my screen splitting into six squares.

Earlier today, while Jaxon was distracted explaining how everything worked, I planted a small chip into their security system to make sure I’d be alerted if there was any movement around the premises during the window periods when the team was either asleep or not actively surveilling the property.

They had a solid system, but I never trusted anything if I hadn't had a hand in it.

I brought up the security footage and clicked through the different slides, looking for the source that alerted my system.

I was about to put my phone back down, thinking an animal might have triggered it, when I noticed a flicker on the screen, but it disappeared as fast as it appeared.

What the...

Knowing I hadn’t imagined it, I rewound the footage and paused when the shadow of something flickered again at the corner of the screen. A barely visible figure was plastered against the wall before it disappeared into a blind spot.

There seemed to be a blind spot on the property, right where the pool house was. Right where I would be staying.

I zoomed in closer on the intruder and even though their face was barely visible underneath the hood, I recognized it immediately.

The side of Morales’s wife came into view.

What is she doing out at this time? More importantly, why is she avoiding the cameras?

I stared down at the documents in front of me, skimming each page again and landing on a picture of Olivia to make sure my eyes weren’t playing tricks on me, only to confirm my initial guess.

Maybe I'd have to keep a closer eye on her for other reasons than her security.

Olivia Morales would become a problem I’d enjoy solving.

CHAPTER9

SOFIA

Ifinished writing the last code into the system as the sun peeked through the horizon, slivers of it sneaking through the edges of the curtains, illuminating the wooden floors. A shiver ran through me, the cold sweat coating my body from the remnants of the rain.

I brought one hand up to my temple, massaging the small throb pounding in my skull before stretching my back to work out the kinks that had built throughout the night from staring at the monitor for too long.