Page 14 of Hot Intent

He exhaled hard. “I kicked a hornet’s nest yesterday. This is my fault.”

She stared at him, wide-eyed. He hadn’t been the only one kicking at hornets. Yesterday, she’d asked for information on his mother from the CIA. Hadthatprovoked someone to take a pot shot at her? If so, who? And why? What was the big deal about his mother?

“What kind of hornets did you tick off?” she asked him.

“Can’t say,” he bit out.

Dammit. She’d forgotten how fiercely he guarded his secrets. She should’ve known he’d be worse than ever about not sharing when he got home.

“I’m sorry, Katie,” he murmured, gathering her and Dawn close in a protective hug. “I swear, I won’t let anything bad happen to either one of you.”

She ought to tell him about the hornet’s nest of her own that she’d kicked. Let him off the guilt hook. But she’d really been hoping to surprise him with the information on his mother. But being hugged like this felt so good after so long without him around.

The moment passed when it wouldn’t have been awkward to say anything. Great. Now she was keeping secrets from him, too. His bad habit of not sharing was contagious, apparently.

“The windows are all bullet resistant and coated so heat-seeking equipment can’t see through them. The walls are treated the same way. Stay in here while I close the blinds throughout the house. And then you should be safe to move around inside the condo.”

As if that solved everything! Who’d just shot at her? And why?

Alex came back to report that the blinds were closed, and then he retreated to his office and closed the door. How could he go into there and poke at his laptop like someone hadn’t just narrowly missed killing her? She was completely freaked out! Were it not for Dawn already being upset, she would march in there and give him a piece of her mind.

Was he napping on the sofa or maybe doing something with Cold Intent and all those numbers on his computer? Curiosity would be the death of her, yet.

Speaking of which, she called Uncle Charlie’s cell phone number and left a message in his voicemail asking if there’d been any progress on her request. She added that there had been some interest shown in her query this afternoon.

Trapped inside by possible snipers outside, she plopped down in front of the television. She was intrigued that Alex hadn’t attempted to give chase to the shooter or in some way report the guy to the police. Were such occurrences so commonplace in his world they didn’t even register as worthy of response?

Although, now that she thought about it, if she’d just taken a shot at someone, she would leave the area quickly so she didn’t get caught. Alex must have figured the shooter had too big a head start in fleeing to make a chase worthwhile. Still. What a lousy way to live. Was this what she had to look forward to for the next fifty years or so?

Despair washed over her. She thought they’d left all this stuff behind last year. How were they supposed to raise a child in this environment?

She vaguely heard Alex’s cell phone ring.

Maybe ten seconds passed before his office door burst open. “Turn on the news, Katie. Now.”

He sounded strange. Tense. She turned on the TV and asked him quickly, “Local, national, or international?”

“Local.”

He moved to stand behind the sofa, and she swiveled around to stare at him. “What’s happened?”

“Someone has been murdered.”

“Who?”

“Hacker. I don’t know her real name. She was young, late twenties. It would likely be associated with something innocuous, like the theft of computer equipment. Have you seen anything like that, today?” he asked urgently.

“No. Nothing,” she replied, alarmed. “They haven’t reported on any women being murdered or dying in some sort of accident. They’re talking mostly about the hurricane heading into the Caribbean.”

He swore under his breath.

“What’s going on? Who was she? You’re scaring me.”

“They’re covering up her death. Which speaks volumes about who killed her.”

Theywho? What wasn’t he telling her? “Volumes about who?” she demanded.

“They’re powerful. Connected. Probably government.”

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