Page 115 of My Beautiful Sin

“Anna’s not at her desk.”

“Yes, sir. She transferred your calls to me. Can I help you with something?”

“Is she out of the building?”

“She’s in research. Shall I have her come up to you?”

“No. It’s fine. Thank you.”

He started to buzz the research room, then decided to simply go there. He could use the walk. He was too tight, and the motion would calm him. He headed down the stairs to the third floor, then pushed open the door, stopping when he heard Anna’s laugh.

He stepped further in, past the shelves of file boxes holding research material relating to current applicants for foundation grants. He rounded the corner so that he could see the large, oak table that he’d come to think of as Christopher’s. And there she was, leaning close to Christopher as she laughed at something on his screen.

“Anna.”

Her head jerked up, a lock of red hair falling across her expressionless face. Then she smiled. “Devlin, do you need me? Christopher was showing me the scene he just wrote.”

“I’m surprised to see you, Christopher,” he said. “Rumor has it you were in LA the last couple of days.”

The other man’s face turned nine shades of red. “Yeah. Well, we might have stayed an extra day, too. But Brandy got invited to present some stock samples to a boutique in San Diego. So she’s heading that way. I think she’s going to stay with her parents for a couple of days.”

“Good for her. And good luck with your book. Anna,” he added. “I need you in my office.”

“Of course,” she said, as he left the room to return to his office. To her credit, she didn’t leave him waiting long, and when she entered, he was on the balcony, the doors open behind him as he looked out toward the tide pool.

He drew in a breath, then turned to face her. “What the hell are you doing?” he asked, working to keep his voice level.

“What do you—”

“Don’t play games, Anna. Not with me or with him. He’s dating Brandy.”

Her eyes widened. “Is that what you think? That I’m interested in Christopher? Devlin, no. He and Brandy are great together. We were just plotting. It’s fascinating. All the twists and turns. One branch leading somewhere, another going an opposite direction. And then it all ties back at the end.”

“Plotting.”

“He writes thrillers. Paid assassins. Undercover operatives.” She shrugged. “He thinks my ideas are very creative.”

Despite himself, he laughed. “Yeah, well, I imagine you would be a big help.”

“That’s not why you were looking for me. What do you need?”

He stepped back inside, then indicated the sofa, settling himself opposite her in the chair. “Ellie knows.”

Her eyes widened. “Oh. You told her?”

“I should have told her a long time ago. As it is, she was about to learn too much on her own—the drone footage from the Myers trial run. From her perspective, I confessed to save my ass.”

“You think she’s going to turn us in.” It was a statement, and the certainty in her voice—that revelation of disloyalty to the woman he loved—sliced through him.

“No,” he said firmly, noting the surprise in her eyes. “No, I don’t think so. But we need to be prepared if I’m wrong. And I want to amp up our efforts to find out where that footage originated. Who the fuck was operating that drone?”

“The team’s on it,” she assured him. “No leads yet.”

He nodded. The moment Ellie had told him about the footage he’d told Anna to set the wheels in motion. So far, there were no leads, though if Devlin had to lay odds, he would guess that it was tied to the security breaches. Someone out there was watching not only the DSF, but his other operations as well.

“Who else on the team knows that Ellie’s up to speed?” Anna asked.

“Ronan and Reggie. I’ll tell Tamra today. The rest are out of town. So long as you do your job, no one will discover them even if the worst happens.”