“Negative,” Charlie replied.“Muscle, two of ’em.Bulges under both arms.”
“She’s early,” Nic said.“I thought she’d make us wait.”
Mel shook her head, short curls bouncing.“She’s scoping out the area.Putting her people in first.”
“Or so she thinks,” Cam said, then to Lauren, “Go time.”
“All right, P.”Lauren hauled Percy up and held out the enhanced glasses to him.“Swap your current ones for these.”
Percy pocketed his old glasses and adjusted the new ones on his nose.“They’re heavier but I’m not seeing the bells and whistles.”
“Because they’re on our end.”She pointed at the computer on the left.“Hit F3 on that one.”
Cam bumped Nic’s hip, shifting him out from in front of the computer.He tapped the key as directed and the front window retracted, displaying a zoomed-out version of the desktop.In one of the other open windows, Lauren’s pixie features filled the picture.Cam brought that window forward, the view changing as Percy rotated his head.“We’re good on visual,” he said.
“Now cough,” Lauren said to Percy.
He cleared his throat and a sound bar on-screen registered the noise.“Sound’s good too,” Cam confirmed.
Bowers ambled over beside Lauren.“You’re sure the tech can’t be detected?”he asked.
“It’s all in the glasses,” she answered.“Unless Becca takes the glasses off him and feels their weight, we should be in the clear.”
“Has it been tested in the field?”Bowers followed up, narrowed eyes not on the tech but on Lauren, doubt coloring his voice and every feature.
Beside Cam, Nic tensed, his hands curling around the lip of the granite counter.Cam shifted closer, brushing his arm against Nic’s, containing him as much as he could under watchful eyes.The last thing Percy needed was to doubt the competency of the people who were supposed to keep him alive.
But before Cam could step in, Lauren shut the matter down.“Multiple times,” she said, standing tall, not giving an inch despite being a good foot shorter than Bowers.“It’ll work.”
“Let’s hope so, Ms.Hall.”Nose in the air, Bowers headed up the stairs.
Once he was out of earshot, Lauren muttered, “That’s Agent Hall, asshole,” and Cam was pleased to see the answering smile on Percy’s face.Whether she’d meant to or not, she’d eased their bait’s jangled nerves.
Hoping to do the same for Nic, Cam crossed behind him, trailing a hand gently over his lower back.At first, Nic’s hands tightened around the counter lip, knuckles going white, but then they relaxed, along with his shoulders, and he leaned back into the touch.Mission accomplished, Cam stepped on past him, meeting Lauren and Percy at the end of the bar.
With a piece of Jamie’s tech.
He pulled the two-ply card out of his pocket and held it out to Percy.“Find a way to give this to Becca or Abby.”
Percy flipped over the simple black card, running his thumb over the white embossed number on one side.A number that would ring to any of the team’s encrypted phones.“What if she won’t take it?”
Mel slunk past them, whispering, “Try harder,” in Percy’s ear.
Eyes wide, Percy’s Adam’s apple bobbed, struggling to swallow his nerves as he pocketed the card.He lifted his other hand to adjust the glasses.
Lauren slapped it away.“Don’t do that.Draws attention.”
Static crackled over the comm and those with a device in ear snapped to attention.“Two women approaching from the west,” Charlie radioed.
“That’s your cue,” Cam said to Percy.The kid started to tremble, and Cam began to seriously question whether he could pull this off.
Sensing the same, Nic stepped closer, hunching slightly to bring him eye level with Percy.“You’re the key to this, Mr.Hunter.”Calm and soothing, the same way he’d handled Abby the other day.Getting his witness, his CI—what have you—to do what he needed.“All of us”—Nic gestured around the room—“are here to back you up.”
Head down, Percy stared past his wobbling knees to his shoes.“I don’t even want to be in this.”A partial lie.He’d accepted the first job, had wanted it and the sizable payoff.He was a B&E guy with a record.Only this time, he’d accepted the wrong job.
“After tonight, you won’t have to be,” Nic said.
Percy’s head snapped up.“What about that guard, the one from the courthouse?What about what I’ve done already?”
