Page 63 of Cyn
“You don’t like it, but you agree we should go,” she said.
He gave a terse nod.
“Lucy, can you send us the address?” she asked.
“Already done,” she answered as Cyn’s phone dinged with the message. “He’s not known to be violent himself, but I can’t be certain what kind of security he has around his house, so be careful. I’ll see what I can find in the next hour and text you updates, but I can’t promise I’ll find everything in the next sixty minutes.”
“Anything you can send would be appreciated,” Joe said, rising from his seat.
“You’ll keep working on the encryption, too?” Cyn asked, locking her computer. Not that anyone was going to be waltzing into her home.
“Brian’s on that. I’ll work on the security at Bartlett’s, then join him once I know you both are safe.”
“Thanks, Lucy. This has been invaluable.” Cyn grabbed her phone, then she and Joe started toward the bedroom to collect warm clothes before heading out.
“Nothing may come of it, but you’re welcome,” she responded.
“We’ll let you know what we find. Oh, and Lucy?”
“Yeah?” Her voice was already distracted by whatever she was doing.
“Any chance you know a good security firm? I don’t ever need to hire anyone to do surveillance or security work because it’s either the agency I’m working with or me, but I’m thinking it might be good to have a few folks in my contacts for future reference.”
Lucy let out a low chuckle. “I’m married to a DeMarco, yeah, I got some guys—and women—for you. We can talk about it later and I’ll set up some intros.”
Cyn smiled as she grabbed a sweater and a pair of warm socks. She’d snag her jacket, hat, and boots downstairs in the mudroom. “Thanks, you’re the best,” she said. The two hung up as Cyn got her second sock tugged on. Joe was already standing in the doorway waiting.
“Ready?” he asked.
The familiar rush of adrenaline started coursing through her blood. It was a gentle stream now, but it would gather strength the closer they got to Bartlett’s house. She welcomed the heightened senses, the sound of her heartbeat echoing in her ears, and the feel of her blood vessels expanding under her skin in anticipation.
She smiled. “You have no idea.”
Chapter Twenty-One
Joe navigatedhis truck down the country backroads toward the address that Lucy had texted Cyn. Beside him, Cyn had her phone out as well as her laptop and she was simultaneously texting Six, Devil, and Nora while pulling up topographical maps of Bartlett’s property. She juggled between the two tasks effortlessly and even added a weapons check to her activities. They both had concealed carry permits and since he wasn’t on duty this night, they were both rolling in as regular civilians.
As Cyn zoomed in on something, then back out again, Joe was struck with how at ease she was. He’d seen her operate while in Djibouti, but this was different. That had been a fact-finding trip and while this was, too, neither of them had any illusions about the potential problems they might run into. And still, there was not a flutter of nerves about her, no nervous energy, no frantic efforts to gather intel—just a calm systematic approach to obtaining as much data as she could in the forty-five minutes left that it would take them to get to Bartlett’s property. She may have been talking about her future earlier in the day—a future that didn’t include the kinds of things they were currently engaged in—but seeing her now, he didn’t think that day was coming anytime soon.
He’d been honest with Cyn about not being the kind of person who put too much stock into making lots of plans, but even so, he had to admit, if only to himself, that he wasn’t sure what it would be like to have a relationship—a serious one—with someone who led the kind of life Cyn led. And as the miles of icy roads clicked by, he realized that maybe he should at least give a little bit of thought to the question. After all, if he and Cyn continued the trajectory they were on, he’d have to be okay with having a partner who would keep secrets from him; with having a partner who would have to disappear to unknown places for unknown periods of time. He liked to think he’d be strong enough to handle the uncertainty, but he was pretty sure it wasn’t going to be a lot of fun at times.
“You okay over there?” Cyn asked, her eyes not leaving her keyboard. She’d ended the text thread with her friends and was now focused on the maps.
“Yeah,” he said.
Her head came up and she stared at him. “You sure?”
There was no way he would share his musing with her, not right now when they were getting ready to infiltrate Bartlett’s domain. “Yep, trying to get a story straight in case something comes up.” He glanced over to see her gray eyes watching him. He gave her what he hoped was a reassuring smile. “If we go in and find something, our options are to either leave and pretend we were never there or call the cops. I was just considering what our best option would be and what our story would be if we called the cops.”
They were thirty minutes away from the house now, and having a storywouldbe helpful, but he wasn’t that concerned about it.
“How about he’s a former student at the university and someone had recommended him to set up some additional security on my laptop.” She held the device up as she spoke. “When we arrived for the appointment, the door was open, and we walked in and found whatever it is we might find.”
“Sounds reasonable. You don’t want to leave and call it in anonymously?”
She shook her head. “Normally a great option when there’s a lot of people around and two more in the area won’t go noticed. But Bartlett lives remotely with only three other houses on the three-mile road to his house. He’s at the end, and we’ll have to drive by the others to get to him. Someone will be bound to remember our car going by. And before you ask, we can’t hike in, not quickly anyway. If we had an hour or so, we could park at the nearby state park and walk in—”
“But it’s the dead of winter and getting dark. Not only would our car look out of place in the parking lot, but our footprints will be easy to pick up. It’s not a good option,” he finished. She nodded. “Okay, security consultant story it is then.”
