Page 103 of Cash

“Here’s what you need to know. Right now, Penny and Kira are in Garrett’s pigsty he calls an office speaking geek to one another. Something about common language location identification and how she remembered seeing the CLLI for Titan Point on a report she’d broken the encryption on. But the location identifier wasn’t the one for the AT&T cover building in New York. She hacked the NSA to get⁠—”

Every muscle in my body tightened. “My sister hacked the NSA?” I seethed.

Stella scooted closer to me on the couch and put her hand on my thigh. Fuck, that felt good, but it did nothing to loosen my tension.

“Yup, and didn’t do a very good job covering her tracks. Though her fuckup drew out a traitor. Unfortunately, the CIA demanded I turn him over before I got to employ Stella’s famous Icy Hot on the scrotum. Have I mentioned lately how much I hate those Agency assholes?”

“I’d feel sorry for you that you didn’t get to fondle a nut sac if I wasn’t more concerned about the target Penny now has on her back.”

Stella squeezed my knee. I glanced at her in the early morning light and wondered if she’d gotten any sleep. The dark circles under her eyes said she hadn’t. We’d be rectifying that as soon as I could talk her into a nap.

“Dutch is on his way to pick her up. She’s going to Wyoming until we’re sure she’s in the clear. Something else. As you know, Garrett took care of wiping your digital presence for the last week while you’ve been on vacation in France with your family. I spoke to Detective Sullivan at the Annapolis Police Department to inform him I’d been in touch with you and you were very unhappy to hear your house had been vandalized and assured him you’d speak to him when you returned. Garrett hacked the Chief Medical Examiner’s Office. Your three dead guys are Philip, Martin, and Ollie Stevens. Won’t be shocking those names are alias for Ivan, Denis, and Arseni Titov. Russian mercs. Dutch and his team will run with the intel we hand over to them. It’ll be their choice if they loop in the Color Scheme Team or they keep it in-house. I trust Dutch to do what’s best to limit exposure for Penny.”

I didn’t point out that as much as Zane ragged on the CIA for using colors to name their intelligence officers, he used colors to name his teams.

“Appreciate it, Zane.”

“You don’t owe me gratitude, Cash. We’re brothers.”

We absolutely were that.

“Is she thinking the real location for the NSA hub has been leaked?”

“That was exactly what she was worried about, and when we found her, that was exactly what she was being interrogated about.”

Interrogated.

I’d been on the receiving end of an interrogation as well as the one who was trying to extract intel. Only one of those had been comfortable and it wasn’t the side my sister had been on.

“Is there more you’re not telling me? And don’t think I haven’t noticed you’re being stingy with details.”

“I’m not being stingy with shit. It’ll all be in the file for you to read when you get back to the office. I’m giving you what you need to focus on—Penny is safe and she’s unharmed. Not a hair out of place. And she’s staying here until Dutch gets here.”

I had just started to relax when Zane went on. “She’d like to talk to you before she leaves.”

Fuck.

“What’d you tell her about where I am?”

“The truth, but not a location.”

So he told her I was at a safehouse but not that I was still close by.

“Okay, I’ll call her.”

In a few hours, after I called up the courage to face my sister and explain why I’d chosen Stella and Cara over her.

“No need, she’s right here.”

Fuck.

“Zane—”

“Hey.” Penny’s voice hit me like a slap to the face. Stella erased the minimal space between us and grabbed my hand. “I’m so sorry. So, so sorry.”

“Nothing for you to be⁠—”

“You could’ve been killed,” Penny shouted over me. “And Zane told me about Stella and Cara. There was a child in the room, she could’ve been…”