Page 40 of Sweet Deception

“I don’t think so.” Pouring strength into my voice, I add, “Troy had a full tactical team on her block. Not exactly the way to show up to an ally’s house.”

“Is she rogue Red Hill? Ex-mafia?” Finn always asks the hardest fucking questions. “Some kind of assassin?”

“Definitely not. She’s a work-from-home freelance tech minion.”

“Then how’d she get the better of you?”

I exhale forcefully and hope they don’t hear. “I misjudged her objective.”

“Which is?” Shane prompts.

“Still unclear.” I hate to admit this. “I’ve been interrogating her for the past few hours on the subject. All I’ve learned so far is that she’s not working with Red Hill, and she’s not an assassin, but she is looking for something.Someone.”

“You?” If Finn’s making a joke, I swear…

“A friend of hers has gone missing, and as far as I can tell, she thinks we may have something to do with it.”

“And you didn’t think to mention this earlier?” Shane’s brand of sarcasm could compact a car.

An unhinged grin comes to my face. “Wanted to see what she was after and why Troy wants it, or her, badly enough to send a team.”

When I describe the armored SUVs, the scout he had waiting on her block—that lurking asshole—the way Troy and his cronies shot at us…

Finn grunts. “Was it a hit or a capture operation?”

“Maybe both.” My tone gets grim, thinking of what might’ve happened if I hadn’t been there earlier tonight.

How did my vengeance crusade morph into a Veronika Kotova rescue mission?

“How is she connected to the Sullivans?” Shane’s not the only one wondering that. “I agree that it seems she isn’t workingwiththem, per se. But are you sure she’s not workingforthem?”

I’m not. But that never sounds good.

“I very seriously doubt it, but I can’t confirm with one-hundred-percent certainty at this time.” Listen to me bending the truth for her. What’s the matter with me?

After a silent, unsatisfying second, Finn releases a loud, irritated breath. “Red Hill is obviously making moves.”

“I didn’t even know Troy had been restored to his place of honor.” I cut the wheel in a turn as I speak. A few months ago, we hauled Troy in for questioning after Finn beat his ass to a bloody pulp. We let him go eventually, but his family lost respect for him as a result, or so we thought.

Seems strange that he’s suddenly gone from persona non grata to leading tactical missions at the behest of the administration.

“Last I heard, he hasn’t been,” Finn grouses.

Shane’s hum cuts across the phone. “It’s possible he’s working alone. If he wants his family’s respect, he’ll need to carve out a name for himself. Whatever this…hackerwoman is caught up in may be connected to that.”

“Let me pull Rory’s last chatter analysis log.” Finn taps on a keyboard. “All I see that might connect Troy to this is something about an upcoming summit.”

“What kind of summit?” Shane demands.

“No idea.” More typing. “I’ll have Rory get on it and find out what the hell’s going on.”

“In the meantime, keep her contained,” Shane orders. “Find out who hired her, what they’re after, and everything she knows about Troy’s operation.”

“And did you get the data back?” Finn growls. “Whatever she stole.”

“Yes, I confiscated it.” Her phone is sitting in my other pocket, quiet and guilty.

Shane ends our three-way call, and I’m back to the comfortable silence of solitude. Half an hour from the safe house, I pull into an all-night convenience store parking lot and stop in.