Page 54 of Only the Wicked

“How many guys are on the team now?”

“For your backup? It’s just Jake and Noah. By the way, they swept Rhodes’ villa while you were hiking.”

“Did they find anything?”

“Nope. Not even a laptop, but they didn’t open the safe. Cleaning service came by and they had to jet.”

“Surveillance in place?”

“No. Interrupted by cleaning service. And a wedding party with an outdoor celebration took over the courtyard.”

The villas open into a courtyard but you’d think they could find a way inside.

“What do you think of them? Jake and Noah?”

“Impressive backgrounds. Hudson’s recruits. Based on their records, they’re skills extend beyond a joystick. But they are used to working on bigger teams.” She clears her throat. “So, Rhodes’ phone—as expected, it’s secure. I’m not getting anything. And to be honest, if I did, it’d be too easy. There are way too many interested in ARGUS right now. Our West Coast operative is having trouble on her end, too. She hasn’t called it quits yet, but the network she’s on as a consultant isn’t connected to the mainframe. Servers aren’t in the building.”

“Where are they?”

“Multiple countries. I’m working on mapping their data flow patterns between server locations. If I can figure out which clients access which servers, that might tell us who they’re really working with. Plus, I’m prepping surveillance tech for your D.C. trip. What’s your next step?”

“Rhodes said he needs a little time to catch up on work and then I’m going over to his villa for the afternoon.”

“Nice.”

I glare at the phone. “Why do I feel like you loaded that word with judgement?”

“Maybe because you’re busy judging yourself?”

My mouth is open and the words “fuck off” are on my tongue.

“Check your messages.”

Unknown Number: #whoremembers

“What the hell—Quinn, are you calling me a whore?” I’m getting louder, but I don’t care. “Because if this is some kind of?—”

Laughter peels through the speaker.

“Oh, you think this is funny?”

I’d like to see her computer geek ass enter the field. Although, truth be told, Quinn’s pretty fucking hot in a PhD candidate, grad student kind of way with her thick blonde curly hair pulled back and giant blue eyes. She’d probably be better at this than me because she’s got trustworthy down and she’s brilliant.

“I had to see if we could be friends. If you’d read it as who remembers, I wouldn’t say anything.” A snort sounds through the phone. Did she just blow her nose?

I lean over the screen and reread her text. Ah, I see what she did.

“So now that we can be friends…I’m going to tell you a secret.”

“Okay.”

“I can’t believe I’m going to tell you this. But I need to tell someone, and also, you need to get the chip off your shoulder if we’re going to work through this together. Especially if I’m talking you through a trip to D.C.”

“There’s no chip.”

“Right.”

I open my mouth to argue.