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“Really?”
“Yeah, we all go through things. Don’t apologize,” she says as she hands me a coffee.
“Thank you,” I say before taking a sip.
We smile at each other and continue a conversation about another company’s product launch. But things started to get weird. My head spins, my body feels weak, and my hands are clammy. I can barely focus on Amber’s words or even her face.
“Sloane, are you okay?” Amber asks.
I stumble on my feet, feeling my temperature drop. I hold on to the counter.
My words slur. “I don’t know. I feel…”
“How’s your coffee taste?” she asks suddenly.
She stares at me, grinning too widely. As she glances at my cup, it dawns on me.
I’ve been poisoned.
As everything starts going gray, Amber smiles over me.
“I told you that you weren't the only one who could play this game, Cyber Thief. Or do you prefer Siphon?”
CHAPTER 29
Tarek
“And it looks like we have everything ready to go.” Gage smiles brightly at me, but I can’t work up a smile of my own. Even just knowing Sloane is here in the building has my mind caught in a torrent.
I still can’t believe I didn’t fix things between us the other day. The opportunity was right there and I completely blew it. Now it’s awkward again because she apologized and I left it at that instead of telling her everything I should have said.
“Tarek?” Valentina asks. “Did you want to go over the notes again before we call it good?”
I shake my head. “No, I have it memorized.”
For having to scramble this past week to make up for what happened, we’ve done a pretty good job. I wince as I realize that with Sloane’s help, it probably could have gone even faster. She would have used her own contacts and resources and we would have come up with a solution together.
But no. Instead I had to yell at her and chase her away.
Sure, I wish the shipment hadn’t been stolen. I wish the plan had gone exactly as we intended it and we’d caught the spy, taken down Craig, and everything was perfect. But it wasn’t, and neither of us could have foreseen it. Especially not Sloane, and she shouldn’t have to bear the brunt of the blame.
A surety resonates within me suddenly. She needs to know that. I need to make sure she knows that.
“Go ahead and relax for the next hour. There’s something I need to do,” I tell my management team.
Gage looks at me like I’ve grown a second head, but a small smile curls Val’s lips. “Do what you need to,” she says.
And with that, I begin looking for Sloane. I poke my head into break rooms and offices, but no luck. I’m about to head outside to see if she’s there when Craig slithers into my path.
“You seem a bit tense this morning,” Craig says, a slimy smile on his face.
My jaw tightens. I don’t have time for him, and honestly, right now, I don’t care about him. “Unless you have anything meaningful to say, just shut up.”
He laughs lowly. “Oh, I just came to check on the state of your product. I heard you had a terrible mishap that’s set you back quite a bit.”
I huff. “Yeah, I just bet you would know something about that.”
He shrugs, but his smile grows. “Perhaps.”
