Page 2 of Run

“I miss having to come up with creative threats for when she crossed the line with her bitchiness,” Megan said morosely.

“It’s her complete lack of tact I miss the most,” Dimitri added. “Never met anyone who cared less about what they said.”

“I miss having access to her family jet,” Joe said with a grin.

Callum slammed his hands down on the table. “Will you listen to yourselves? You sound like a bunch of spoiled teenagers who only want to whine about their lot in life. ‘Boo-hoo, poor me. I wish somebody would shoot at me. Why can’t my life be in danger? I miss my old boss’s toys.’” He slapped the table again. “Cry me a bloody river. You’re professionals. Do your job and shut up about it.”

There was a beat of silence before Elle said, “I forgot Isobel was still visiting her sister. Want me to call and get her and the kids to come back early?” She wasn’t joking. Elle saw herself as the carer of the team, and Callum’s mental health was directly tied up with his love for his wife. Only she could calm his wild inner beast.

“This is not about my absent wife!” He pointed at them. “It’s about you lot.”

Ryan pretended to cough. “Yeah, right.”

“Get a grip,” Megan told Callum. “They’re only in Scotland for two weeks. If you’re suffering from withdrawal, go up and see them. We can cope without you.”

Everyone nodded.

“What could go wrong?” Elle said. “The Instagram Queen takes a bad photo? A background check shows that some guy’s bought too many bottles of wine? Somebody hits their thumb with a hammer while installing a security system?”

“I swear,” Callum growled at her, “if you jinx us with your attitude, Iwillfire you.”

“No, you won’t,” Elle said cheerily. “You love me too much. Anyway, you need me around for a female opinion. Megan doesn’t count, her viewpoint leans more toward anarchist than female, and Julia is still too scared of you to tell you what she really thinks. Without me, you’d be lost.” She beamed at him. “You also wouldn’t be able to access your email. Or work your computer. Face it, if I didn’t change your password for you every week, it’d still bepassword.”

Ryan gaped at him. “Your password was password? Dude, you run a security company.”

Callum’s face turned red, and it wasn’t clear whether he was embarrassed or about to explode. But they didn’t get to find out which way it would go because Elle’s ever-present laptop emitted a loud wailing sound.

“Crap!” She grabbed the machine, flipped it open, and typed fast, her stomach a tornado within her. “Oh no, that isn’t good.” Code streamed across the screen before her, and none of it was good. “Damn, damn, damn.”

“Elle,” Callum snapped. “What’s going on?”

She couldn’t answer; her whole focus was on shutting down the threat in front of her. Someone had backtraced a hack she’d instigated in her attempt to uncover which organization employed her favorite sexy spy.

“Elle!” Callum shouted.

“Someone’s trying to hack us.” Elle spat out the words as her fingers flew over her keyboard. “They can’t get past our firewalls, so they’re searching for a soft target. Shit! They’re attacking the Wi-Fi. Julia, shut it down while I deal with this.”

“How?” Julia rushed to the meeting room door.

“Cut the power to the building!” It was the fastest way to turn everything off.

Julia ran for her office and the control panel.

But it was too late.

Elle slammed her laptop shut and shot to her feet, her eyes flying to all the personal phones sitting on the table. Each one of them hooked into the office Wi-Fi. “The hacker was searching for our physical location. Check your phones. Make sure the GPS is disabled. If it isn’t…” She wrapped her hands around the bunches on either side of her head and yanked them hard, feeling the bite in her scalp. Oh boy, she’d totally screwed up this time.

“I thought you gave everyone a program to protect their GPS,” Joe said as he reached for his phone. “To stop people from turning it on remotely.”

“I did. But it doesn’t stop them from gaining access if you’ve turned it on yourself.”

“We know enough to keep it disabled.” Megan checked her phone. “I’m clear.”

“Me too,” Dimitri added.

“Shit.” Ryan paled as he stared at his phone screen. “I’m sorry, Elle.”

Callum let out a stream of curses. “Why the hell would you have it enabled anyway?”