Page 28 of One Cry Too Loud (Coastal Crime Unit #9)

K at and I stood at a distance while Charlie and Holly spoke.

We couldn’t hear what they were saying, but-for my part, I didn’t think we needed to.

It was all right there on their faces, right there in the way they moved around each other, in the way they hugged each other.

They were finally talking the way they needed to.

They were explaining everything, and it seemed like they were moving past the things that were keeping them at arm’s length.

“You knew?” I asked, turning to the woman.

“About his sister?” She replied. “Of course. I had to vet him when I asked him to join the team. Besides, it’s public record. It’s not like there’s any getting away from it.”

“Have you ever talked to him about it?” I wondered aloud.

“It’s not my business,” she replied. “It’s still not my business, aside from what it’s about to do with this investigation.”

“I know,” I answered. “But there’s nothing we can do.”

“We can’t afford to lose him right now,” Kat said, her arms folded. It had been nearly an hour since Tag had freed us from the bank vault, and in that time, a few decisions had been made.

“We can’t afford to keep him, Kat,” I rebutted. “Nefarious threatened his nephew. There’s no telling what he’ll try to do now that we’ve gotten away. Charlie feels like he needs to be up there to keep that boy safe, and I agree with him.”

“I know that, and of course I want that child to be safe. Keeping people safe is always my priority. I’m just saying that Charlie is a big gun for us.

Having him out of commission is going to be a blow.

” She shook her head. “Besides, I honestly think Walker and his family would be safer in one of the safehouses with the others.”

“That’s an option, and it’s one I ran by Charlie,” I explained.

“But he’s never met the family who adopted Walker after his sister’s death.

He’s going to have to explain who he is, what’s going on, and exactly what’s at stake.

Even face to face, that’s going to be a difficult conversation and a hard pill to swallow.

Doing it virtually would be almost impossible. ”

“I get that,” Kat relented. “Good thing Nate can arrange a jet with absolutely no notice.”

“Benefits of being backed by a billionaire,” I muttered.

“Are you okay?” Kat asked, turning to me. “I know what happened in that vault was a lot, and I know you decided against seeing a medic-”

“I don’t need to see a medic,” I replied. “Besides, we can’t really afford to be on the grid like that. Nefarious found us even with all the precautions.” I shook my head. “Because of me, of course.”

“It wasn’t because of you,” Kat said.

“I should have known better than to blindly follow a lead at a time like this,” I answered.

“Maybe, but it’s the same thing I would have done,” Kat admitted. “This is Holly. This is for her child. She’s one of us. She’s family. It makes sense that we’d all be a little out of sorts about this.”

“Especially Charlie,” I muttered, still looking at the pair as they spoke, saying what appeared to be their goodbyes.

“I always figured those two had a thing for each other,” Kat said. Looking over at me with a smile, she added, “I guess I was wrong.”

My face went flush. I knew exactly what she was alluding to.

“I didn’t know she was going to kiss me,” I said.

“I know,” Kat replied.

“If you’re-”

“Jealous?” Kat asked. “We’re too grown for that, Jackson.” She leaned to the left, nudging me. “Besides, I know you. I know where things stand between us.”

“You do?’ I asked. “And where is that?”

“You still owe me a drink,” she replied, smiling a little. “Assuming we make it out of this.”

“I think, after all this, I might owe you two,” I answered. “Assuming we make it out of this.”

“You buy the first one. I’ve got the second,” Kat said. “Assuming we-”

“We’re going to make it out of this,” I said. “You’ve given me a pretty good reason to want to.”

“I think you had some pretty compelling reasons before,” she replied.

“True, but a free drink never hurts,” I answered.

“We need to talk,” a voice sounded from behind us. I turned to find Tag walking up to us. His usual swagger and the demeanor in which he carried himself had been noticeably absent since the ordeal in the vault. Still, the lack of attitude wasn’t the only reason seeing him this time didn’t irk me.

“We do,” I replied, extending my hand. “You did a hell of a job in there. We owe you our lives.”

“He kicked my ass,” Tag said, his brow furrowing. Still, he took my hand and gave it a single, firm shake before dropping it. “I went up against him, and he kicked my ass.”

“You broke through,” I reminded him. “You broke through his systems and you saved our lives.”

“I only saved your lives because I happened to hear Eli talk about how the lever for the vault was manual,” Tag said. “Hell, I didn’t even think about that until way too late. I could have saved you have of that terrible experience.”

“You did your best, and it was enough,” I answered. “You need to remember that.”

“He kicked me out in ten seconds, and then he fried the entire system,” Tag said.

“And not just the hardware. The bastard installed malware into my entire security database that corrupted the whole thing. I’m compromised.

” He took a deep breath. “But I’m not out.

He didn’t get everything, and I drew blood too, digitally speaking, that is. ”

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“I was only past his firewalls for a few seconds,” he said. “But in those few seconds, I mined some of his metadata.”

“You got into Joe’s metadata?” Holly asked. She had already sent Charlie off to more Northern pastures and was walking toward us. “That’s incredible.”

“It cost me everything I built,” Tag said. “Digitally speaking.”

“Let’s just assume that everything we’re talking about is digital,” Kat interjected.

“The point is that while his system is one of the most complex I’ve ever seen in my life, I think I got a true, genuine ping,” Tag said.

“What?” Holly asked. Her eyes were wide and she obviously understood more of this than I did. “How? You said your systems were corrupted. How did you even get the data?”

He held up his phone. “This might look like a phone, but it’s a terabyte of space and a powerhouse of security.

It instantly backs up whatever I flag as essential and, better than that, it instantly cuts itself off from any mainframe or system the second it detects a threat. I got the ping saved here.”

“A ping?” Kat asked, reading my mind. “What are we talking about exactly?”

“A point of origin,” Holly replied. “The place where all of this is rooted. The space in which Nefarious is based.”

“You know where he is?” I asked Tag, almost breathless again.

“I think so,” Tag replied. He looked over at Holly. “I’m not sure if this will come as a surprise, but the ping I got is out of England. Holly, I think it’s time for you to go home.”