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“She told me you’d called her a liar,” Robin said. “I brought her home and waited until she was ready to tell me the rest.”
“I did call her that.”
Robin faced me. “I can respect what you did for us today. I won’t pretend it makes us even.”
“Understood.”
Robin went back up the pier. I stayed until he was inside the boathouse, thinking about Wren trying to give him her location through her tears. Then I walked to the cottage and wrote Moff’s report.
I spent Saturday morning in Venom’s public filings. When I called into church, Dutch was at the head of the table, with Colt, Holden, Handful and String down the sides. It was only the second time I’d joined them from Kettlewell.
“What are you on today?” Dutch asked.
“Our third-party records. I found Wren through JW’s benefits administrator. I thought I’d check whether Venom has the same problem.”
String leaned forward. “Want me to look at your report when you’re done?”
Colt frowned. Holden looked across the table at String, and Handful opened his mouth, then closed it. They thought he was offering to check my homework. For years, they’d trusted me to find what everyone else missed. Then I’d called Wren a liar on the strength of a video I hadn’t checked. I trusted my work. I wanted String to try to break it anyway. Trust. Verify. Check. Check again.
“I want you to look before you see it,” I said.
Dutch nodded. “String, do it cold. Glitch, keep the regular alerts covered while you work.”
“Already am.”
They moved on to the Louisville schedule. Handful waited until Dutch was listening to Colt before he asked, “How’s Sparrow?”
“She chewed on my cuff while I was showing Moff the breach.”
“She has your number already,” Holden said.
“Wren didn’t rescue me.”
Handful opened his mouth. Dutch gave him a look. “Moving on.”
They settled the Louisville schedule and got through two more items. Then Colt said, “Luca and Knox taught Poppy to blow raspberries. I leaned in to kiss her at breakfast and she sprayed oatmeal in my face.”
Dutch sat there shaking his head. “When did we become this?”
“What?” Colt, Holden and Handful asked together.
“A bunch of old men sitting around talking about our kids.”
Colt scoffed. “Old? Speak for yourself.”
“Yeah, I’m not old,” Handful said.
I laughed with them. Dutch banged the gavel. “Church adjourned.”
I left the tablet where it was and went back through every agreement Venom had with an outside firm. I checked who could get into our records and what they could see. I found nothing. No exposed names, no access I’d missed. I sent Dutch the clean report. String kept looking on his own, without my notes.
❧
At three on Sunday, I went back to the boathouse. Wren handed me Sparrow in the meeting room. She sat facing me on my lap, both fists gripping my collar, and kept turning her head toward Wren. Whenever I loosened her fingers, she grabbed hold again. I stopped trying.
After a while she got fussy, and I couldn’t settle her. Wren took her and had her quiet in less than a minute. I watched her palm move over Sparrow’s back, slow and sure. I wanted to put my hand over hers.
“You’ll get it,” Wren said, not looking up.
