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And more handsome.
Her research had revealed how he’d worked his way up in the company from researcher to technical director and taken over the reins from the previous owner and CEO. Now, he owned a 30% stake in the company that was on the forefront of cancer and Alzheimer’s research.
Rich, smart, and good-looking?
Why was the world so unfair?
At least she had the skills to help correct the imbalance. Flint hadn’t mentioned why he wanted her at the meeting, but the CEO of the pharmaceutical giant was high on her list for suspected ties to the Syndicate.
It was impossible to operate in the criminal world without hearing about the mysterious Syndicate, an ultra-secret circle of corrupt elites who seemingly had their fingers in everything from drugs to weapons and human trafficking. But after she and Ryder had discovered that the Syndicate had been responsible for trying to kill Flint’s sister, Fiona, it became personal. It became her mission to take them down.
She and Ryder were just starting to unwind the web of the Syndicate and all the players. Digging through potential baddies, it seemed like every big-name corporate head was interconnected, along with every politician.
The list of potential members of the Syndicate was basically a list of who’s who in America. And Cole Kensington was always sure to be included on that list. But he was a good friend of Flint’s. If it turned out he was also Syndicate? Well, there would be an entire team of muscled ex-SWAT and military guys to take care of him.
No doubt Ryder would be first in line.
She hadn’t crossed Cole off her Syndicate suspect list, despite Flint’s intense dismay when she’d brought her suspicions up once before. She disagreed with her boss, but she wouldn’t say anything more until she had proof. Kensington may have pulled the wool over Flint Raven’s eyes, but he wasn’t fooling her. No one came to be as successful, rich, and powerful as he did without a few skeletons in the closet. Plus, Zia was raking in billions of dollars charging for medications they’daltruisticallydeveloped to help people—something that always made her blood boil after what happened to her sister.
Everyone in the dark web circles she still haunted knew to let her, aka Phoenix, know if they heard something about Kensington. The chatter in one of her vigilante hacker chatrooms was that Kensington was looking to acquire Placana—the same company she blamed for her sister’s death. The deal would likely bring him billions in additional revenue, as if Kensington wasn’t rich enough already.
Joey knew he had more than a few ties to the nefarious band of powerful elites who had targeted Flint’s sister and Ryder’s fiancée, Fiona. Which was why it was all the more frustrating that Flint didn’t see the obvious facts. Cole Kensington was part of the Syndicate; he had to be.
Instead, Flint treated him like a friend, and Zia was one of Black Tower Security’s biggest non-government clients. At least for now, Black Tower would be safe from the Syndicate. She’d make sure of it from her favorite spot–right behind her computer, where she kept an eye and an ear on everything. Just how she liked it.
“Nice to meet you, Mr. Kensington.” Quickly dismissing him, she turned back to Flint. “Are you going to tell me what’s going on? No, wait. Let me guess.” She looked the surprisingly muscular CEO from head to toe. Everything she knew about the man made her dislike him. “Mr. Kensington needs the paper trail of a secret baby to disappear?”
His expression darkened, and he began to shake his head. She continued, her imagination running wild with accusations she was sure he deserved. “Do I need to erase his presence from a flight? Adjust his previous tax returns? Get the city to lose his parking tickets?”
Her fingers twitched in irritation, so she leaned them on the chair in front of her. Flint wanted her to help this man, and the thought made her crazy.
Cole’s expression turned to one of laughter, then he paused. “You can do that?”
She shrugged. “Which one? The IRS? Easy. Delta Airlines? Slightly harder, but yeah. I can do that. So, what is it, Raven?” She’d like to get this over with and get back to her desk. That was where she could protect her team. Being out here was a waste of her time, especially if Flint wanted her to help this man. She trusted Flint without question, and they’d taken work from Cole Kensington before, but their friendship had always made Joey a little uneasy. The more Joey had dug into various confirmed and suspected Syndicate members, the more she was sure that Kensington was involved. There were too many threads tying back to him.
Even if she’d rather be anywhere else, here she was.
Because Flint asked her to be.
Her hands went to her hips. “This seems like it could have been an e-mail, Flint.” She referenced his favorite mug, emblazoned with the saying. He hated unnecessary time wasted in meetings. Which made this meeting all the more suspicious.
“I wanted to do this in person,” came his response. Flint gestured for them all to sit down, but Joey only raised her eyebrows. She wanted more information before she was willing to play along.
He sighed in response and took his seat. Cole waited a brief moment, watching her, then sat down as well.
Flint’s hand came to his face and rubbed his jaw before looking up to meet her gaze. “I won’t pull any punches, Joey. You’ve got a new assignment. Starting Monday, you’ll be undercover as a full-time employee at Zia Pharmaceuticals.”
She went completely still, her muscles frozen as she gaped at her boss. He had to be kidding. This was some sort of joke he was playing, right? She gripped the back of the chair tightly, as though holding it would help hold her together.
She blinked long and slow, considering briefly if when she opened her eyes, she’d be back in a meeting at Black Tower Security. Perhaps she fell asleep during a debrief. It had been a long week.
But when she opened them, the scene in front of her remained unchanged. She looked back and forth between the two men. Flint seemed confident and slightly amused at her reaction, flipping his gaze between her and Cole. She narrowed her eyes and considered changing the default keyboard layout on his computer so it would type gibberish.
Cole, on the other hand, had his eyes zeroed in on her. His brow was furrowed, his mouth tugged to one side.
Hesitantly, she pulled the chair out and took a seat at the table with two of the richest men in Alexandria.
The first, she trusted with her life.
