Page 46 of Cipher

Nothing named the deputy or identified the person using Stowe’s credentials, but it gave us more routes into Pike’s operation without warning him that Brenner had disappeared. It also gave us a live channel, because Pike expected the roadside camera and plate reader to begin producing vehicle data before morning. As far as he would know, the equipment was running, Bex’s routine was being rebuilt, and his disposable installer remained exactly where he had left him.

When I stood, Ghost pushed away from the counter and looked toward Brenner’s mangled hand. “Need anything else from him?”

“Not tonight.” I wiped my palm down the front of Brenner’s shirt before meeting his frightened stare. “Tape the finger, then put him somewhere he won’t be found. If Pike calls, Brenner answers exactly the way I tell him.”

Relief sagged through the installer as though the end of my questions meant he had escaped the worst of the night. I let him believe it for several seconds before bending close. “Then we go through every job you ever handled for Pike. You’d better hope Rebecca Raines is the first woman you helped him stalk.”

The relief disappeared. Ghost’s mouth curved with faint satisfaction as he stepped behind the chair and began cutting Brenner loose from the floor anchors without releasing the restraints around his wrists. Whatever came after we pulled apart his files depended on what was inside them, and Brenner finally looked smart enough to understand that his future had become a matter of how many names we found.

Judge gathered the payment details, burner number, and invoice information while Stryker ordered Nomad and Falcon to maintain their surveillance on Pike without changing a single rotation. Brenner’s disappearance couldn’t alter Pike’s routine or make the men above him wonder whether the roadside job had failed. We needed them comfortable enough to keep calling, paying, and exposing themselves.

“I can steer Raines toward Pike’s business disbursements without giving him any of this.” Judge tapped the invoice details against one gloved palm. “Jeff’s lawful payment, Nina’s footage, and Pike lying during the interview give the sheriff enough to seek outgoing vendor records and subcontractor accounts. Once the order lands, the transfer to Brenner identifies the same man through a trail Raines can document himself.”

“He doesn’t hear that we have Brenner,” Stryker confirmed.

“Not unless his investigation finds him independently.” Judge slid the notes inside his jacket. “Raines builds the paper trail. We keep Brenner off his radar and use Pike’s next instructions to pull the other two bastards into view.”

I used one of the full bathrooms connected to the outer room and scrubbed Brenner’s blood from my hands until the water ran clear. Once I was clean, I dressed again and checked the feed from home before heading for the door.

Ghost stayed with Nomad to move Brenner into the secured holding room, while Hawkeye followed Stryker outside, and Judge stepped away to make his carefully worded call to Raines.

I rode home with a dark need to feel Bex alive and warm beneath my hands. She would be pissed about what I’d done with my phone earlier, and the thought of that sweet mouth turning sassy made my cock harden against the bike. I wanted to walk through our door, put her over my shoulder before she finished arguing, and carry her upstairs until Brenner’s voice disappeared beneath hers.

Bex had asked to be there when the ugly work was over. I didn’t need her inside that building or beside Brenner’s chair to prove she accepted every part of me. I needed her at home, where I could wrap my hands around her waist and remember exactly why men like him ended up screaming in rooms no one else knew existed. And she would be.

19

BEX

Corbin walked through the front door a little after midnight. He looked exhausted, and I was so happy he was safely home. But that didn’t stop me from planting my hands on my hips and letting him have it. “You remotely disabled my car.”

“Yes.” He shut the door behind him. “Only because you shouldn’t have been starting it in the first place.”

“I wasn’t trying to go anywhere. I’m not stupid enough to put myself in danger just to make a point.” I rolled my eyes. “I just wanted to pair the phone you gave me with the Bluetooth and make sure my contacts, music, and navigation transferred okay after Wrangler messed with my car.”

The corner of his mouth twitched. “He modified it for your safety.”

“Don’t argue semantics with me while I’m angry,” I huffed. “You also canceled my trip tomorrow.”

“Were you actually planning on going?”

“That’s not the point.” My voice climbed in spite of myself. “I would have canceled it myself when I remembered.”

“Sorry I saved you time,” he drawled.

Him being right only made me madder. “What about the call from Black Castle Transportation about choosing a new driver? They’re emailing me actual dossiers, Corbin. You changed all this stuff but didn’t tell me about it yourself.”

Corbin looked genuinely thrown, which almost never happened. Then again, nobody normally questioned his choices since digital systems didn’t talk back. “The car kill-switch is standard once a vehicle is under Black Castle protection. The trip was a fixed location someone could have sat on. And a dedicated driver is also standard.”

“I get why it was necessary.” I took a step closer. “But I don’t appreciate you treating my life like another system you can lock down without a conversation.”

He shook his head with a deep sigh. “Systems don’t argue this much.”

“Systems don’t sleep in your bed either.”

He closed the distance in two strides, stopping close enough that I had to tip my head back to look in his eyes. “No system has ever looked this sexy while furious.”

I felt the blush sweeping from my cheeks to my chest, just from the heated look in his dark eyes. A reaction that shouldn’t be possible when I was this angry.