And before she could get another word in, it sounded like Peyton grabbed the phone from Ken. Then his voice came over the line. “What’s wrong? What happened?”
Gillian sighed and fought the urge to laugh. “I specifically wanted to talk to Ken first.”
“Forgive me for not being patient, given the circumstances,” Peyton said.
Obviously, this conversation would happen with both of them, so she decided to save her energy arguing with him. “No one’s hurt, dying, or on fire,” she joked. “You and Ken please go to a room where you can close the door and put me on speaker.”
“Stand by.” A moment later, he came back on the line. “Okay, we’re both here. Go ahead.”
She quickly related her conversation with Dewi. “Ken, what’s going on with that?”
“Well, there are some developments. But with everything that happened, I haven’t had a chance to bring you all up to speed.” He detailed Miranda Segura’s persistent interest in the situation. “But given everything else going on, I’m not sure that should be on our top-10 list of priorities right now,” he said when he finished.
She heard Peyton blow out an aggravated breath. “Gillian, can you access the files Ken’s talking about?”
“Yeah.”
“All right. Later tonight, when it won’t be as obvious, get Dewi, Badger, Duncan, and Trent together in the office and catch them up. I’d rather her know at this point rather than her spinning her wheels and getting upset when we have so much else at stake right now.”
“Show her everything?”
“Everything you have pertaining to the Seguras. And tell her about the ongoing data mining.”
Ken
Oh, thank fucking christ.
Peyton stood with Ken’s phone in his hand, his eyes closed, and pinched the bridge of his nose. “And make sure Badger knows, directly from me, that I do not want her pursuing any of that until I okay it. She’s not allowed to go further than town anyway.”
“Thank you,” Ken said aloud, and Peyton opened his eyes. “Because I gotta tell you, one less secret I have to keep from her makes my life a lot fricking easier.”
Peyton offered a wary smile. “Yeah, and if she’s already putting things together, she won’t leave it alone until she’s satisfied with the answers.”
“Okay,” Gillian said. “I’ll text them to hold off until I let them know Tam’s gone to bed.”
“Good,” Peyton said. “Was that all?”
She softly laughed. “Yeah. Told you it wasn’t a crisis.”
“Yet,” Peyton said, meeting Ken’s gaze again. “At least it’s a separate issue.”
“I hope,” Ken said, not realizing he’d spoken it out loud when Peyton’s left eyebrow arched.
“Why do you say that?” he asked.
“Because at this point it honestly wouldn’t surprise me if aliens dropped out of the sky,” Ken said. “I mean, seriously? We can’t seem to catch a goddamned break.”
“Do we have any evidence directly tying Miranda Segura to Faegan Lewis, Ray Dorland, or the lab?” Peyton asked.
“Not that I’m aware of,” Ken said. “But that doesn’t mean with our fricking luck that she won’t stumble across something.”
Peyton grumbled. “Okay. Gillian, tell Dewi that if there are further developments, we will immediately loop her in, but I’m begging her not to obsess over this.”
“I’ll do my best, but she’s your baby sister.”
“Don’t I know it,” Peyton grumbled.
Once they ended the call and Peyton returned Ken’s phone, the older man paused. “I do want you to monitor that as best you can, but without drawing your attention from this current bullshit any more than necessary. Does that make sense?”
