Page 67 of The Lonely Road

The threat in Jessup’s words was implicit. Drastic meant that he’d go after Taya or Clara Whitman himself. These people are capable of pretty much anything.

Wasn’t there a land developer who tried to have Duke Wilder killed for his land not long ago? And wasn’t Jessup involved with that?

Would they hurt Taya?

That thought haunts me.

What we have may be casual, but I don’t want her to get hurt. I want her protected. Safe. Happy.

All things she wouldn’t be if she kept on with this case. I already know I can’t convince her to give it up. People like Taya, who find their purpose, don’t budge from it.

I think they call it integrity.

I call it impractical.

It’s no wonder I’m in a bad mood when I get to Wild Coffee for my late afternoon caffeine hit.

“Brooks,” Kaz calls out. He’s sitting with his laptop, which is closed, almost as a prop.

“How’s it going?”

“Have a seat.”

I do and drink my coffee. He obviously has something to say, and I decide not to dissect what he will before he does.

“Feig says you’re greenlit for phase two.”

Ah, we will start with small talk.

“Yeah, it’s good news.” I settle back and add to poke at him, “How’s the Bree situation?”

He narrows his eyes. Bullseye!

“There is no Bree situation.”

“Mm.”

He gives me a look that is not quite irritation. “You sound like Joy.”

“Joy is perceptive.”

“Joy is a menace.”

He leans forward, but before he says something, I hear the door open behind me and see Kaz’s demeanor change. It’s the slight shift in his posture and an alertness that comes from being trained—where your instincts flag something your brain has not fully caught up with.

I glance back.

Sid Trafton.

Daylight version.

Work clothes—functional, unremarkable, the studied plainness of a man who knows how to look like nothing. He orders at the counter without scanning the room, which is a tell in itself. People who are genuinely unbothered look at the room.

He takes his coffee to the table by the window.

“You know him?” Kaz posits it as a question, but it’s not. Not really.

“No.” The lie comes automatically, the way they do after years and years of covert ops.