Page 130 of Ricochet

“Got it,” Parker agreed.

“Now,” Jared barked. “We’ve got a problem with the primary. We’ve got our boots on the ground, and we have an unknown.”

“What’s that,” Brock asked. “Other than specifics.”

“What do they want from us if it’s not body work?”

“Access to our tech and intel,” Parker volunteered immediately.

“We know that.” Jared paced. “What else?”

Brock cackled. “What else besides Parker’sbrains and state of the art tech? Man.” He whistled. “How about an alibi?”

Jared stopped and closed his eyes.

“Kidding, kidding,” Brock said.

But Jared didn’t respond, and Parker wasn’t going to say a damn word.

“Call you back.” He opened his eyes and motioned to cut the call. “Get Colin on the phone.” He cracked his knuckles again, and Thelma whimpered like she was privy to news they weren’t.

Parker’s eyebrow lifted. It wasn’t often Boss Man’s premonitions hit Parker this hard, and it made his skin prickle when they didn’t see what was in front of them.

He dialed Colin’s phone. It rang long enough for Parker to know it wasn’t dead but went to voicemail. He tried again then a text message and another call. There was a chance that Colin couldn’t reach his phone. But there was alsoa chance that Jared would sprout wings and call himself cupid. That wasn’t going to happen, no matter how often the guy liked to advise guys on love.

“His phone’s dead?”

If it was, it might not pick up a GPS ping. Parker sent out the code, and the immediate report back was their answer. “Not dead.”

“And not answering his phone,” Jared groused.

“Give me his location, anything you can find.Maybe they’re in the backseat and didn’t hear you call.”

That’d be a semi-decent excuse that Colin could at least try to explain. But the GPS showed his phone was on the move as Parker tightened up the search and pulled satellite imaging.

“My sixth sense is kicking with those two,” Jared said.

Parker closed in on the location, and they were traveling at a high rate of speed—most likely a highway.He tore his attention away from tracking the imaging. “It makes this job more complicated.” He hated to miss key indicators for problems or answers because the probability of factoring in emotions was nearly impossible to equate into black-and-white decision trees of practical application.

Jared stroked his beard. “I think it’s new.”

Parker went back to tightening the image. His skin prickledat first glance of the new happy couple, and he leaned toward the keyboard, slowing the live feed and then skipping back to reverse what he just saw.

“What’d you see?” Jared asked.

“I’m… not sure.” He narrowed his eyes and zoomed the recorded feed.Nothing. Parker couldn’t make out Colin in the driver’s seat, but he could’ve sworn… that wasn’t Adelia.

He tapped on his keyboard, pulling a programto track Colin’s vehicle’s history. If he’d skirted through any traffic cams, red lights, or crossed a tollbooth, Parker could see in the windshield.

Notification after notification popped, and his stomach tightened, trying to make sense of what he should look at first. They weren’t the casual passing notifications. Colin had intentionally flagged himself.

“What’s all that?” Jared asked, moreinterested in the text coming up as code on another screen.

“Colin is signaling us.” There was an incorrect toll amount paid. He’d manually turned off an EZ Pass device registered to their dummy account and used the lane, and the car triggered an almost-made-it red-light camera that wouldn’t have caused notice to anyone in the car watching for a red-light-camera runner.

With a few keystrokes,Parker pulled up a license-plate capture then skipped to the next image. The oxygen seemed to suck out of the room.

Jared’s heavy steps thudded in the cold electronics cavern until his fists planted like Redwoods on Parker’s desk. “What the hell is going on?”

Parker stared at Colin behind the wheel and a man who looked like a dead CIA agent named Deacon Lanes. But that jackass was dead.

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