Page 51 of The Honeymoon Hack

“Orwe’rethe ones who’ve read too many spy thrillers?”

She snorted a little laugh. “Possible. Although Iamreconsidering attacking the HSMs myself, though.”

“You’re probably better than her.”

“Possibly.” She gave a little shrug. “But if we assume she’s on the lookout for bad actors, and she tried hacking the HSMs, I’d bet she’s watching for someone else to try it.”

“And her white-level access?—”

“Means she can probably trace it back to me, if I get in.”

“This has to explain why my work at the lab caught her attention.”

“Does it, though? Or is there another angle we aren’t thinking about?”

“What do we do now?” I asked. “We can’t avoid her without looking suspicious.”

“We keep playing our roles. But we’re more careful.” Brie unfolded herself and swiveled her chair to face her laptop. “No more slip-ups. No more giving her anything to work with.”

“I tried to keep it vague today,” I said, revisiting both conversations with Claire. “Stuck to the truth about designing equipment and maintaining systems.”

“Part of this job felt like a game at first, but now?”

“It never was a game.”

Her shoulders hunched, and I had to fight the need to put my hands on them, to massage the tension out. Before I’d left for London, that’s what I would have done, without second-guessing. Hell, before this morning’s kiss, that’s what I would have done.

She sighed. “Do you think Gideon knows?”

“About Claire?” I’d thought a briefing from the data center’s owner would have fully prepared us. But there were too many gaps in our intel. “If he did, either he didn’t think we’d pique herattention or he’s actively sabotaging us by leaving out important details.”

“Should we go up to Little Haven and call the team now? See if Drew can get anything useful out of Gideon?”

“We could…”

“But?” She craned her neck to raise an eyebrow at me.

I rubbed my jaw, the stubble prickly against my fingers.You should shave.“We have to go up top during daylight hours for our vitamin D exposure. That’s mandated. If we go now, it might raise questions.”

“Couples walk along the beach under moonlight all the time. That’s not suspicious.”

“Neither is doing tech support in a lab during college.”

“You have a point.” She huffed out a breath and turned back to her laptop, pulling up a weather map. “We need to be as inconspicuous as possible—just like Scarlett told me to.”

“She does have a lot of experience.” I stood and crossed over to her, looking at the map. The weather system swirled on the screen, and I leaned closer. Close enough to smell the hint of vanilla from her hand cream. Close enough that if I shifted slightly, my arm would brush hers.

Stop it. Focus.

“Lorenzo’s headed northwest.”

“Yup.” She tapped her mouse, and the map began moving, showing the hurricane nearing the Bahamas in a couple of days. “Access to Little Haven might close if it gets too close.”

We’d still have Rav, but we’d be cut off from the team. For a few days at least, if the cloud cover on the radar was right.

“Claire may be a spy, but you were trained by Scarlett Reynolds.” My hand found her back, intending to offer her comfort, but she tensed.

Goddammit! Brie actuallytensedat that tiny touch.