Page 12 of Devil
“He knows about Smith House.”That should shut Cyn up.
“That bastard. How could he?”
Or not.
“You do know that information is public?”Cyn added.
“But not easily public. He took the time to dig. I want to know why.”
“Hmm, I might actually have some ideas about that even though I think you’re being paranoid. I’ll start digging. Mostly because I want to know if I’m right.”
“About?”
“I’ll tell you if I end up being right.”
“You are such a pain in my ass.”
“But you love me anyway. Drive safe and call me when you get home. I’ll have updates by then.”Devil shook her head, then set her phone down and powered up her lab computer.
An hour later, she was confident that none of her data were compromised. Ten minutes after that, her lab was locked up and she was on her way home. As she navigated her way out of the city and north to Cos Cob, she considered calling Cyn for an update. She reached for the button to connect the call but stopped herself. Thoughts of Darius Washington danced and teased her mind, and she didn’t want to give Cyn the opportunity to pick up on the fact that she was distracted.
Dropping her hand back to the steering wheel, she did something she rarely did: she let her mind drift. Not just drift, but wander through thoughts, memories, and observations about Darius.
In the two months he’d been at the center, they’d had a few meetings and staff lunches together, but Devil could count on one hand the number of conversations they’d had with just the two of them. Logically, it made no sense for her to feel so disappointed that Darius had asked her out only after learning who she was. Unfortunately, that didn’t seem to matter, because she was, in fact, disappointed. It was a prick to her pride, but there was a kernel of something deep inside her that was hurt by his actions. And that, more than anything, confused her.
Pushing her emotion to the side, she tried to look at the situation logically. To be fair to Darius, she hadn’t exactly given him a reasontoask her out before he’d discovered her involvement with Smith House. So it was possible that when he’d found out, she’d become more interesting to him. Genuinely so. But it all still felt…a little contrived.
In the dark of her car, she let out a deep sigh. Of all the men who had been in and out of her life, why was he the only one that she’d ever given a second thought to?
She didn’t know the answer to that question, but she did know she needed to stop thinking about it. She needed to stop feeling disappointed and she needed to stop giving him second, and third, thoughts. Oh, she wasn’t going to stop thinking about him entirely; she definitely still had plans to look into the man. He knew so much about her there was no way she was going to let that be a one-way street.
But that was the extent of her brain capacity that she’d give to him.
For now, anyway.
CHAPTERSEVEN
“Their names areNadia Mitchel and Sonia Trimble. They live in the same neighborhood in Acton. Sonia is married and has a son, Nadia’s husband passed away ten years ago, and she has a daughter. Neither works, although judging by their spending habits, money isn’t a problem,” Cyn said over the phone.
Devil sat in her office on the top floor of her colonial-era home near the heart of Cos Cob. Originally, it had been an empty, unfinished attic. She’d loved the pitched roof and the dormer windows, though, so shortly after moving in, she’d had it completely remodeled. If she stood at the eastern window, she even had peekaboo views of the ocean.
“Are the DeMarcos still watching them?” she asked, booting up her computer.
“They’ll stay until you tell me to call them off.”
“Other than what they did tonight, is there any indication the two women are an immediate threat?” she asked.
“I’ve only been looking into them for a few hours, but no,” Cyn answered. “They are well-established in their community, and they’ve lived in their current homes for close to twenty-five years. No credit issues, nothing in their social media screaming something crazy. Obviously, they aren’t your run-of-the-mill suburban housewife, but they certainly appear to be.”
“Can the DeMarcos get a tracker on their vehicles?” It wasn’t exactly, or at all, legal, but that very rarely stopped her or any of her friends.
“I’m sure they can. Want me to ask?”
“Please. Then they can head home for the night. I have no idea what Sonia and Nadia are up to, but I got the sense this was their first rodeo. I think they’ll take a while to regroup,” Devil said as she logged into a secure server that would grant her access to all sorts of information on Darius Washington.
“Will do. You still want me to look into your new COO?” Cyn asked.
“No, I’m going to do it.”
