Page 12 of Reset

“You know I don’t work for you, right?” Rachel stood and smoothed down her pencil skirt.

“You might as well make yourself useful. And, last time I checked, Harvard was still on this team.”

She narrowed her eyes. “Only in a part-time capacity.”

“At least he has a valid reason for being here,” Callum snapped back.

“I have a valid reason.” She stuck her nose in the air. When everyone looked at her blankly, she pursed her lips before speaking. “Ryan is one of mine.”

“You mean…like a minion?” Megan said.

“Am I one of yours too?” Elle asked. “Are we all? I feel this needs clarifying. Does this mean you like us, Rachel?” She grinned at everyone. “I think she likes us. Possibly even loves us.”

Dimitri had the grace to turn his laugh into a cough, but Joe just let it out.

Rachel sighed and turned for the door. “I honestly don’t know why I bother with any of you,” she said before she disappeared through it.

“I go where she goes.” Harvard saluted them, then followed like a puppy.

With a shake of his head, Callum turned to the rest of his team. “Julia, you liaise with Ryan’s family. We can’t keep them in the dark. And you have the overview as usual.” He glanced around his team. “All information goes through Julia.”

She nodded solemnly. “I’ll make spreadsheets to ensure we don’t go over the same ground. If there’s a pattern in anything we uncover, I’ll find it.”

And that was why she wasn’t fired for hiding behind plants. No one was better at sorting detailed data and drawing conclusions from it. Julia could find patterns where other people saw nothing, and more than once, her insight had given Benson Security an advantage they wouldn’t have otherwise had.

“What are you going to do?” Joe asked.

“I’ll talk to Lake. He needs to know what’s happening.”

Visibly worried, the team dispersed.

Once they were gone, Callum did what he hoped he’d never have to do. He called the founder of their company and told Lake Benson that one of their own was missing—and they had no idea where he’d gone.

CHAPTER FOUR

As Ryan suspected, it only took a couple of minutes to get the manacle off Sarah’s wrist. And no blood was shed in the process, much to her surprise. Which was kinda insulting.

“Thanks.” She rubbed her wrist. “That feels better. Now what?”

“We pick a direction and see if it leads us out of here.” Ryan held up her handbag. “You mind if I take a look? I want to see what resources we have.”

“Be my guest.” Sarah climbed down from the platform and stood in the middle of the room, looking a little lost. And cold. There were goosebumps on her exposed skin, and she rubbed her hands up and down her arms.

Ryan grabbed his jacket and tossed it to her. “Put this on.”

“What about you?”

“I run hot. I’ll be fine.”

With a grateful nod, she shrugged into the jacket, pulling it tight around her. Ryan studied her out of the corner of his eye. She was holding it together way better than he would have expected. Most people would have been hysterical by now. Instead, he got the feeling she was analyzing everything, taking her time to come to conclusions. Which was remarkable, considering she was clearly terrified.

“Don’t you think it’s strange that they kidnapped my handbag too? I would have dumped it.”

“Probably didn’t want to leave a trail behind,” he said as he rummaged through the contents.

There was a small bottle of water, antibacterial wipes, notebook and pen, phone, two protein bars (yes! food!), a travel toothbrush and toothpaste set, an umbrella, tissues, a tiny first aid kit that only really had Band-Aids, antiseptic cream, and aspirin in it, a tiny sewing kit, an iPad, a compact mirror and lipstick, travel hairbrush, and some feminine hygiene products.

Not exactly a goldmine. But then, what was he expecting? A satellite phone and a shovel?