Page 57 of Sugar & Shadows

When Gabe’s eyes widened, I took a step back, basking in the glory of my protege at work.

“Content capture, distribution, audience growth. And 4k outdoor cameras,” she rambled. “Time lapse, GoPros, and two drones. One for backup⁠—”

“I’m confused,” he said

She looked over at me, as if she was talking to a toddler and needed help translating.

“Should we bring him into the war room?” she asked. “My PowerPoint is ready.”

“War room?”

“Where we plan and strategize, and where we will eventually save your ass.” She picked up her backpack and pushed the door open. “Come on. I’ll text the others.”

“I feel like I’m being led to some kind of enhanced interrogation,” he joked, holding the door open for me.

“This is a library. Not a black site,” I retorted. “And if I was going to torture you, you’d know it.”

He angled close as I walked past, his hot breath on my neck, and whispered, “Don’t undersell yourself, Sabrina. Just being in your presence is torture enough.”

Chapter 15

Gabe

Iwasn’t quite sure what I was looking at. The small conference room had been transformed and was now equipped with whiteboards covered in color-coded systems, arrows, and sticky notes.

A farm of laptops had been set up on a table that had once housed unshelved books. The hot pink sign taped to the wall read, TAP Command - Fuck Around and Find Out and was covered with heart and emoji stickers.

“A command center?” I asked, surveying the office equipment that had surely cost a small fortune.

“We prefer the term tactical hub,” Harper corrected without looking up from her phone.

“I’m old-school. We call it a war room.” Laurie Monroe popped her head in. “Hello, Gabriel,” she said, her voice as kind as always. Then she zeroed in on her daughter. “Sue is taking over for me in twenty minutes. I’ll be back for the presentation then.”

“Presentation?” I asked.

“Just need a few minutes,” Harper said, now with a pen between her teeth.

Sabrina shuffled over to a fancy phone hub and dialed a number.

When the call connected, a baby wailed on the other end.

“Tell Madison it’s nap time,” Sabrina said, nearly shouting over the commotion.

The baby screamed harder.

“Tell her I’ll buy her a pony. We need you.”

“Gimme a minute,” a woman replied.

I stood back as Nina Dunne strolled in holding a large coffee and wearing an unimpressed expression. “I’ve got a client in two hours, so we’ve got to keep this short,” she warned as she sat and cracked open one of the laptops.

What was she doing here?

Sabrina stood in front of the largest whiteboard, one with many colored lists and rainbow rows of sticky notes.

“Girls,” she said easily, “we can start the briefing shortly.”

As Harper set up a projection screen, I wondered how the hell the Maplewood library had the budget for this tech.