Page 23 of Hollow Trace

She swore steam hissed off her skin from the next kiss as he pressed in harder, all the heat from earlier sparking back to life until a throat cleared beside them. Quinn broke off, flashing her a sexy grin before glancing toward the door.

Coulter leaned against the frame, arms crossed, lips curled into a smug grin. “Guess you two made up. Did you take enough of the edge off or do you need another round before you can focus on the mission?”

Scout eased out from Quinn’s embrace, not that he gave her any additional room. “Please, how many times have I caught you and Neve in the same position?”

“Which is why I asked.” He waved them inside. “Shepherd has clothes for Quinn in your room. Do us all a favor and change before Darwin benches both of you when you start hacking up your lungs, then meet us in the comms room. Zadie has news.”

Quinn tensed, but he didn’t push past Scout, electing to hold her hand all the way to her room. They quickly cleaned up, dressed, then headed for the main area. Neve grinned as they walked in, making smooching faces before ushering them into the comms room.

Zadie glanced over at them, her gaze raking the length of Quinn before she motioned them closer. “I gotta say, any man who can make Scout smile, while she’s inside the bunker, must be gifted.”

Quinn merely shrugged. “I try.” He nodded at the screen. “Coulter said you have news?”

“I’m not sure it’s news, yet, but…” Zadie tapped on her keyboard, launching a bunch of photos onto the monitor. “First, whoever removed that ultrarace information has a professional hacker on their payroll, because they didn’t just take it down. They scrubbed any hint of it from the internet. But, since it’s nearly impossible to completely erase every trace, I was able to recover a special use permit from the city’s archives as well as a few dozen photos of the event from different social media sources.”

She brought up an image of a certificate. “Now, the permit was issued to a shell company called Cobalt Logistics. They have minimal web presence. No photos, no employee names, just an address to a warehouse located in an industrial terminal in Squamish. Not far from where Quinn said that ultrarace was held. None of which is unusual.”

She switched images, brought up a bunch from what looked like the actual event. “These are the first set of what I was able to retrieve from various social media archives. I was hoping maybe one of them caught Brea or some of the sponsors. Something I can trace.”

Quinn leaned in close, still holding Scout’s hand as he scoured the images. Scout followed along, looking for even a hint of Brea when Quinn inhaled.

He released her hand, pointed at the screen. “That’s Brea.”

Zadie enlarged the image. “It’s the back of a woman’s head.”

“I know my sister, from any angle, and that’s her. I bought her that CamelBak for Christmas.” He squinted a bit, then grunted. “Scout? Am I crazy or does the guy on the edge of the photo look familiar?”

Scout moved in closer. “It’s pretty grainy, but it kinda looks like that asshole from the transport truck. Though, I can’t swear by it. Zadie, can you pull up the rest?”

Zadie switched up the photos, zooming in as much as possible. Scout searched through the images, stopping at the last one.

Quinn must have reached it at the same time because he inhaled, tapped the screen. “That’s Brea.”

Zadie nodded. “And she’s just leaving a check point with a sponsor table in the background, but the photo’s blurred. Give me a second…” She went to work, running the image through a series of filters before enlarging it. “That’s as good as it’s gonna get. Looks like the first word on that banner is Axiom. The second starts with an ‘o’ or maybe a ‘c’…”

“Cellular.” Scout gestured to the image. “It’s Cellular, and I’m pretty damn sure that last word is Endurance.”

Quinn groaned, his shoulders visibly drooping. As if he’d connected a bunch of dots but the truth had come at a price. “ACE. I remember seeing that acronym on a brochure Brea had on her fridge. But I didn’t read it.”

Scout studied him, wondering what had stopped him, when she spotted a man behind Brea on the photo. “Look who’s standing at the edge of the image? I couldn’t see him before Zadie enhanced it, but that’s definitely the creep from the transport truck. The one who seemed in charge.”

Zadie took an image of the guy. “I’ll run his face through the dark web. See what I can find. In the meantime, let’s see who’s behind ACE.”

Zadie pounded the keys, scrolling through windows and code, typing so fast her fingers blurred against the keyboard. Scout pressed her side against Quinn’s. Nothing obvious, just a silent message that she had his six. That they’d get Brea back, no matter the cost.

Quinn’s gaze strayed toward her, a touch of a smile lifting the corner of his mouth when Zadie stopped.

She shook her head as she leaned back in her chair. “Well, I’ll be damned. Guess which shell company is listed as the contact for Axiom Cellular Endurance? Gave the same address to that isolated warehouse?”

Quinn tapped the top of the desk. “Cobalt Logistics.”

“And here we thought you were just a pretty face.”

“No one’s more shocked than me.” Quinn nudged Scout. “You up for a road trip? It’ll take a couple hours to get there, but…”

Neve stepped forward. “Wouldn’t miss it. But we do this as a team.”

Quinn shrugged. “I can live with that. Just point me towards your office supply room, and let’s go see what Cobalt Logistics is trying to hide.”