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“That’s an understatement where those talents of yours are concerned,” Asher crooned at Jonah, beaming up at him.
Wow again.
“We’re gonna talk about you hooking me up with those,” Caleb told Jonah.
Jonah only just managed to tear his lovey-dovey eyes from Asher to tell Caleb, “You’re on. Once all this is said and done, I’ll sort something out for you.”
“Excellent.”
Aaron looked over at Asher, clearly waiting for the same thing we were—him to start this meeting and get the proverbial show on the road.
When he put his smoothie down on the coffee table after taking another sip and just slumped back wearily against the armchair, holding Jonah’s hand, it became clear that wasn’t going to happen.
So, Aaron stepped up, rubbing his hands together. “Let’s get down to it,” he said, making a beeline for the space on the couch beside Caleb.
As soon as he sat down, he took in Caleb’s laptop screen, analyzing the data quickly, then saying, “So, we’ve got a lock on Ronan, that plant of Lan’s.”
“Finally, yes,” Caleb told him.
“He’s in the ICU,” Aaron mused. “Difficult to get to, but we can work it.”
“Fucker was working with Revenant all along, spying for him and trying to get Aurora to leave us,” I muttered. “According to Bryce, he even tried to take her the night of the gala, where she was then gonna be forced to disappear forever.”
“It cost him big, Pretty,” Jonah said. “He got shot twice, almost died. He only survived because Bryce got him to the hospital in time.” He shook his head. “That guy is something else. He’s got honor, no doubt. Ronan knocked him out and fucked with his security response against the home invasion, but he still made sure he was taken care of.”
“And then somebody had him transferred from your local hospital to one miles away,” Caleb said.
“Clearly Revenant,” I groused.
An alert sounded from Caleb’s laptop and he pulled up another screen. “Fuck me, I did it.”
I walked over there, staring at the monitor. A distorted image was being gradually enhanced, the pixelation and all that falling away and creating a clear picture beneath.
“What’s that?” I asked.
“Security footage from the hospital,” Caleb said. “Ronan has had one visitor since he was moved there covertly. When I accessed the imagery, it was corrupted for the entire time said visitor was there.”
“Sounds like Lance,” Aaron pointed out.
“You think he hacked into the feeds?” Jonah asked.
Aaron nodded. “To protect whoever this visitor is, yeah. Could’ve been any one of his plants.”
“No,” Ash spoke up, startling us all.
“What are you thinking?” Aaron asked.
Ash grimaced at the strain on his body as he sat forward and eyed Caleb. “Your research on Ronan, you stated that he served with Lance, that they were close, brothers-in-arms.”
“True, yeah.”
“Lance doesn’t let many people close to him. He wouldn’t just send a plant to check up on somebody he’s actually emotionally attached to. He would consider that an insult to his friendship and camaraderie with Ronan.” He pushed out of the chair with a little help from Jonah. “It’s Olivia.”
I stared at Caleb’s monitor now showing somebody in baggy sweats so there was no discernible shape to their body, and also hidden beneath a low-hanging hood. Through the subterfuge I could make out some wisps of that ebony hair and a hint of the purple of one of her eyes.
“It’s her, all right,” I confirmed.
Caleb frowned at me. “Even with the corruption and distortion remedied, the individual is still well-hidden, how are you determining that?”
