Page 28 of Embedded
“Come in,” I called then studied the drone a little closer.
The door slid open, and my vision shifted off the drone and on to the visitor in the doorway.
Nicole looked around, and her eyes widened at all the things around my shop. “Ah, sorry. I was looking for Cole.”
She had changed since I’d seen her last, and I noticed her silk blouse tucked loosely into her jeans showed a slightly thinner figure than before. She’d lost a little weight since we’d been in Mexico. I found my voice. “Next room over.”
Her head dropped forward in defeat. “I already checked.”
“Everything okay?” Chili asked.
“Yeah,” she held up a black cell phone, “I just needed to give him this.”
Suddenly, my training kicked in. “Is that an outside phone?”
She looked at it. “Yes.”
“The fuck.” I hopped to my feet, and she took a step back as I got closer. “You brought an outside phone to Shadows? What were you thinking? You signed a contract explaining all this shit.”
Chili came to her rescue. “Let’s take a breath there, buddy.”
“You mean the three-hundred-and-five-page brick he sat on my lap five thousand miles up in the air?” she snapped back at me. Her eyes flashed in anger. “Sorry, I must have missed that part!” Her face twisted, and she pulled her chin in like I was nuts. “And second, despite your opinion of me and my job, I wasn’t born yesterday. It’s off, and the SIM card has been removed and put in a Faraday cage. So, take your condescending complex down to a three because it’s friggin insulting.”
Chili let out an unexpected laugh, and I turned to glare at him. I shook my head and returned my attention to the spitfire in front of me.
“Who does the phone belong to, and how did you obtain it?”
“Obtain it?” She let out a laugh. “Okay, well, it’s Bruno’s, and I obtained it after I shot the shit in the foot.”
“What the hell?” My face must have said it all because she just shook her head.
“Right, while you digest that, I’m going to go hand this over to Cole if I can ever find him.”
I reached out and grabbed her arm and swung her around to look at me. “Does he know you have it?”
She stared at my hand on her arm, and something passed through us. Something deeper than frustration. It was like she ignited a flame inside me. One I constantly fought to keep to a spark.
“No,” she said quietly, and her face told me she felt it too. “The man was in too much pain to notice.”
“Whatever you do, don’t activate the SIM card. Chances are he’s closed the account, but that SIM card will hold a lot of information for us. Not like he can wipe it clean.”
“I know.” She nodded at my hand. “Can I go find Cole now?”
Slowly, I let go, and she glanced up at me with a look I couldn’t read. “Good thinking.” I tried to play nice. I wished I could erase the vision of her and Chase on the news from my head.
“Thanks.” I watched her disappear down the hallway.
I turned to find Chili texting someone. “Not a word.”
“Sorry, man, but John needs to hear about this one.”
I rolled my eyes and knew I’d be the one to hear plenty about it.
At dinner, Nicole kept to her side of the table. Ty and Moore had plenty to catch up on now that they were back from Rosarito, and they picked her brain on the Canos family. I hated to admit it, but the woman had a wealth of knowledge on the Cartels. She knew the history of the Canos family inside out. I noticed she did sidestep on some of the questions that had to do with Bruno and their past together and a few on Sully. They didn’t push, and I just watched and listened.
Later that evening, I saw her sneak upstairs. I guessed she went to check on Chase, and I took that time to speak with Cole.
“Hey,” I joined him at his favorite spot by the fireplace, “did Nicole give you Bruno’s phone?”
