“How solid is this?”
“Pretty damn solid.” My caffeine buzz dimmed under the weight of the moment. “And it gets better. Based on travel indicators and financial pings, Sarmiento’s in country. Right now. He should still be in Delaware.”
Voodoo’s posture shifted—a predator scenting fresh blood.
I pushed on. “There’s been zero chatter about Sinclair going dark. No alerts. No escalation. Nothing tying back to us. So for once? We might actually have surprise on our side.”
A rare beat of silence settled.
Getting ahead of the problem instead of chasing it like idiots through fire—that was new. It felt good. Dangerous, but good.
Bones didn’t waste a beat. “Shower. Food. Then you sleep in the car.” The last part landed like a gavel, aimed square at me.
I flinched. “Sleep… in the car?”
He sliced a hand through the air, precise and final. “You haven’t slept in two days. Napping at the keyboard while waiting on a search ping isn’t rest. You sleep in the car, or you stay here and remote in. Your choice—but the car’s the safer bet.”
The implacable set of his jaw told me exactly how that fight would end before it started. I gritted my teeth and muttered an agreement.
“I’ll… uh, walk Goblin?” I asked, stalling.
Bones gave me a single look. “I’ll take care of it. Get your gear ready, then eat after the shower.”
Lucky for me, there were two showers in the safe house. Lunchbox was already ducking downstairs to make food. I slipped into the empty room, the faint hum of pipes greeting me.
As the water hit, I caught Bones’ voice from the other room. “Cut him off.”
I rolled my eyes. Energy drinks? Please. I didn’t need the fake stuff when I was already juiced up on a lead this hot.
By the time I stepped out, the smell of cooking had already started to pull me back into motion. Two days of running, two days of little sleep—but finally, finally, the hunt was starting to feel like something we could actually get ahead of.
By the timewe loaded the SUV and climbed in, the early morning chaos of rush hour traffic had the Beltway in knots. It was as good an excuse as any to take the time to sleep. I had search programs running that would ping me on other data, but it could wait—for now.
As it was, I stretched out on the third row seat as much as I could, tucked my head down and folded my arms then went to sleep. Sleep was a discipline as much as anything else. Threading through traffic was as good a time as any. A hand on my shoulder stirred me from patchy sleep.
It was nearly ten. The roads clogged with commuters and delivery trucks had given me more time than I expected to actually rest. My eyes gritty, jaw unshaven, but my body finally feeling like it’d caught up enough to function. Grace passed me a bottle of water and gave me a smile that immediately improved my day.
She sat on the middle seat with Voodoo and Goblin. Her hair, braided into one long tail, fell over one shoulder. Her bright blue eyes were alert, but the shadows that smudged the skin beneath them remained. I didn’t think we were going to get ridof those until we finished the mission. The quiet intensity in her reminded me exactly why we were chasing this lead.
I sat up, back creaking a little and my neck popping. I downed about half of the water bottle as I scanned the area, taking in the route, the cars, the weather, everything.
Up front, Bones navigated the traffic with his usual precision, calm as the city churned around us. Lunchbox sat beside him, eyes flicking between the tablet and the road, as he and Voodoo ran routes and contingencies in a quiet hum of conversation that I was so used to hearing, I didn’t even register it until I was awake.
I rubbed at my stubble, flexed my shoulders, and drained the water before taking the pair of protein bars Grace passed back to me, along with another bottle of water.
“You are the best,” I murmured as she handed over the pain relievers. The low-grade headache was manageable, but the ache in my leg wouldn’t be if I didn’t take care of it.
“I know,” she replied softly. I popped three pills, washed them down with the water, and tore into the bars. For the first time in a while, I felt almost human—or at least a reasonable facsimile.
Bones glanced in the rearview mirror, voice calm but sharp. “Port’s coming up. GPS says we’re close. Ready to move?”
I nodded, letting the last bit of alertness settle in. “Good to go. What’s the plan?”
He leaned back just slightly, eyes narrowing as he began to read me in, like he was layering the pieces in his head. “We’re not chasing anymore. We’re here to control the play, not react to it. For once, we get the jump on these jerks.”
I allowed a small, satisfied exhale. The sun caught the dashboard, glinting across Grace’s face in the backseat. We had a lead, daylight on our side, and, for the first time in a long time, it felt like we were the ones dictating the hunt.
Chapter
