Page 12 of Blake

“Janie is biased.”

“Probably.” Emmett grinned. “But I mean . . . can you blame her?”

He spread his arms out at his sides, and Blake couldn’t help but laugh.

“I’d better get in there.” He stood and picked up the folder Emmett had given him that contained Claire Sullivan’s resume.

As he rounded the edge of his desk, he gave the monitor a final glance, praying there would be a useful hit by the time he got back.

I’m not giving up on you, Devon. I’m going to keep searching.

For now, he and Draven had another applicant to interview.

CHAPTER TWO

St. Louis, Missouri

“Okay, now click the little gear in the upper-right corner.”

Devon waited for the question she knew was coming.

“The what?”

Aaaand there it is.

“The gear,” she repeated.

A pause came through the headset.

“What gear?”

Devon closed her eyes. “The little round icon that looks like⁠—”

A freaking gear.

She leaned closer to one of the three monitors arranged across the desk in her spare bedroom-turned-home office. Devon stared at the mirrored screen she’d been granted access to nearly forty minutes ago.

“Top right.” She spoke patiently. “Beside your profile picture.”

“Oh! That thing.”

“Yes, Carol.” Devon grinned. “That thing.”

“Hey, don’t judge me. You know computers hate me.”

“Computers can’t hate you because they aren’t capable of having feelings.”

“Well, this one is, and it does.”

Devon’s shoulders shook with soft laughter. “All right, Carol. Go ahead and click it.”

A moment later, a new window opened on Devon’s center monitor.

“Perfect,” she reassured the woman on the phone. “Now choose ‘Account Settings’.”

Willow, her spoiled cat, had been sprawled across the corner of Devon’s desk for the better part of the call. She lifted her gray and white head as two mismatched eyes—one golden brown, the other a dark green—blinked.

The stretch of silence hinted that Carol had no idea where Account Settings was on her screen.