“Holy shit,” I breathe.
She nods and zooms in on the document.“Josie nailed it down after I found the connection.County clerk filing.She cross-checked it against voter registration data and property tax records.”
I let out a slow breath.“I think you might have found the smoking gun.”
“Exactly… a direct, personal bridge between RainVest and SAPG.It makes it more believable they would stoop to arson and murder for family.”
“Proximity with motive,” I muse, rubbing at my jaw.
She watches my reaction carefully.“You don’t think I’m stretching,” she says, softer now.
I meet her eyes.“No,” I tell her honestly.“I think you just moved this from suspicion to structure.”
Relief flickers across her face.
“Looks like you have a lot more work to do,” I quip.
She nods exuberantly.“I’m diving into shared travel, private meetings, any instance where they could coordinate without corporate documentation.”
“We’ve got the ability to hack into encrypted communications between RainVest and Pelham’s office as long as Malik approves it, which I’m sure he will.If they’ve slipped even once, Josie will find it.”
For a moment, we’re aligned.Two professionals dissecting a target, a brief respite from my worries about her dying.I see light at the end of the tunnel.“Is that enough for you to publish your piece?”I ask.
Tessa frowns as she contemplates.“I don’t know if it will pass legal with the paper.It would be much better if we could have a closer look at the internal workings of SAPG.Maybe that’s where we find a new whistleblower.”
I shake my head, immediately dismissing the idea.“I seriously doubt anyone within the group will flip.The brotherhood in security groups is tight.Like take a bullet for each other tight.But still… it wouldn’t hurt to poke around.Let me find out from Malik if we have any bridge with that group.”
Her smile is small but fierce.“Okay… we have a game plan.”
I nod and glance at my watch.“You about ready to head home?”
“Home,” she murmurs, as if she’s rolling a foreign word on her tongue.There was a time that “home” wasn’t just a physical location but rather a state of existence between us.
“Your place,” I amend.
She stares at me thoughtfully, with enough pop of silence that I feel hot under the collar.But she eventually nods and closes her laptop.“Yeah… let’s head back to my place.”
CHAPTER 12
Tessa
It’sconfusingtobewoken from a deep sleep, but the hand at my shoulder gently shaking me has too much purpose to ignore it.
“Tessa.”Cole’s voice is low and close, not loud, not panicked, but threaded with an urgency that pulls me fully awake in an instant.I see the outline of him leaning over me and immediately note he’s fully dressed.
There’s no sluggishness, no struggling to understand the undercurrent of urgency in his voice.“What’s going on?”
“We need to leave.”
My stomach tightens.The word slices deep.
Need.
Not want.Not maybe.
Danger.
Cole reaches down and grabs the sweatpants draped over the end of the bed, pressing them into my hands.“Get dressed.Now.”
