Page 114 of Reckless Devotion

I glance quickly at Sunny and her shocked face morphs into a stubborn set that I recognize all too well from her sister.

“Don’t even think about not taking me with you.”

Chapter 41

CHASE

“Start talking…and where are we going?”

I glance through the window as streets rush by—Hudson, Greenwich, and then Broadway, the storefronts buffing with each mile into glass and steel.

“SoHo. I think we found the link.” Evelyn bites her lower lip in the seats opposite Sunny and me, throwing her gaze to Tessa in the seat beside her.

The older woman presses her slim rectangular spectacles further up her nose before she speaks. “Did you notice the language in the manifesto? There were lots of repeated phrases that felt a little odd.”

“Well yeah, I assume you have to be a bit of a nut to write a manifesto.” I frown, not seeing where this is going.

It’s a thirty-page long garbled rant about how we need to fuck the patriarchy.

“True,” Evelyn interjects. “But one phrase kept leaping out at me in particular: ‘I find myself.’”She leans forward in herseat excitedly. “I couldn’t understand why I kept coming back to it over and over again, so I asked Tessa.”

Tessa nods slowly, the late afternoon sun glancing off her spectacles as warm leather scents the air. “And who do we know who says that dang phrase over and over and over?”

My brain catapults me backward a thousand miles per hour, landing me in my boardroom all those weeks ago.

“I find myself satisfied with our progress.”

Elizabeth.

And then to another scene, outside my office while I watched the sunlight dance off Pepper’s high cheekbones while she laughed. Elizabeth had said that then, too, poking her head out of her office.

And all the times before that, scene after scene flashing into my mind from the past few years like an old-fashioned animation pad.

“Elizabeth,” I breathe, my heart thudding ever faster in my chest.

Could it be? That one of the few people I let into the inner circle of this company is the one trying to sabotage it all?

“Bingo,” Tessa confirms, wide mouth twitching up at the corners.

“Did you know that we hired her fresh out of the CIA? Covert operations, three years as a cyber officer.” Evelyn sits back in her seat, ironing out a crease in the skirt of her dress as she watches the penny drop.

I’m reminded of the satellite image of the safe house not matching the location…like it had been purposefully changed to hide it. I’m sure an ex-government agent would have the connections to do such a thing if they wanted.

This is all hypothetical at the moment and I’ve yet to hear of any proof, so I know there must be more. The two tenaciouswomen in front of me are far too smart to bring me on a wild goose chase unless they’ve already speared the gander.

“What am I missing?” My hand clamps tighter around my phone.

The two women glance at each other knowingly as the car pulls to a stop outside a sleek apartment building. I clock a man in a suit waiting outside the doors, and recognize him instantly. Miles Compton lounges in sunglasses against the steel support beam with a large newspaper in his hands, apparently absorbed in reading it.

“We pulled Elizabeth’s work email and phone records, and she’s been communicating with someone external for months. All in code, but we managed to decipher some along the way.”

“Who was she speaking with?”

“No clue, it was a burner account. But…if we’re right, they’re meeting in one of these apartments right now, and they should be heading out here any second.” Evelyn uses one soft pink manicured nail to tap on the car window at the glossy silver and glass doors at the top of the apartment building steps.

As if called into existence by the gesture, a shadow moves behind the sun-drenched doors. The reflection is too bright to see anyone yet, but the door pops open a few inches, almost like someone pausing to say something to the person behind them, and then it opens all the way.

Elizabeth walks out of the door onto the top step in her charcoal Armani suit, holding the door for a second as a much smaller lady steps out behind her, her face shielded by Elizabeth’s tall stature. The apartment lobby is set far enough back from the sidewalk that the normal foot traffic in front of the building isn’t close enough for their conversation to be overheard.