Her mind drifted to the Blackout Charlie base with a stutter.
She remembered their names. Why? She knew Kennedy was just as kind as she was pretty, and she was generous about lending her things to Opal. Then there was Sophie and Izzy and all the rest.
She drew in a deep breath, letting her lungs expand with this new introspection.
As soon as lunch was over, she shot Sinner a text.I might be late. Going to find a place to pick up your pills.
She stared at the screen for a second before she slipped the phone over and forced herself back into the spreadsheet in front of her. At least she had computer skills.
A moment later, her phone buzzed with Sinner’s reply.
Just happy you’re coming home to me.
The words punched into her. For a blink, she couldn’t make her fingers work to type a response. She told herself he just phrased it that way as part of the cover, the same way chili and pizza were part of a story they were building brick by brick.
Still, her mouth curved before she could stop it, and she shook her head at her reaction.
Quickly, she closed the text messages with Sinner and checked her notifications. Dante had installed that app where she signed up to do odd jobs. So far, she didn’t have any hits. Days bled into each other, a mix of boring days in a cubicle, dog walks and coming home to whatever amazing food Sinner made them.
She was jumpy and on edge, waiting forsomethingto happen on the op. And…if she was honest with herself, because of Sinner too. After a single day, she’d slept with her partner, but now they seemed to be at a standoff, as if waiting for the other to cross the line.
She raked her fingers through her hair, exasperated with her behavior and yet turned on all over again by the memory of his hands, his lips…and more.
She was shaking off the moment when a task request popped onto her screen.
Walking a dog.
She stared at the assignment, then leaned back in her chair and let out a quiet laugh that had more sharp edge than humor.
She’d gone from infiltrating federal offices to balancing budgets to dog walking. For a whopping ten bucks an hour too. Of course, Kelly Franklin would be overjoyed to have the extra income, but Opal was far from thrilled.
This was probably the universe’s way of training her for the time she would be fired from the FBI and forced to walk dogs to keep a roof over her head. How many dog walks would it take to pay rent in the city? Worst case? Twenty a day?
She clicked on the job details and froze.
Breed: Newfoundland.
She blinked. Newfoundland dogs were enormous. They weren’t even dogs so much as they were mobile pieces of furniture with teeth. And slobber. Probably lots of slobber.
Opal never had a pet. Her mother had once dreamed of having a dog, back when things still felt possible, but then they had to vanish.
She hit accept, then closed the app and pretended to work for another half hour before logging out for the day. When she walked to her car, she scanned the vicinity, hoping to spot a drug dealer. But she only saw coworkers walking to their vehicles.
She made the drive to her second job under the weight of resignation. After arriving at the modest home in the suburbs, she parked at the curb and took a moment before getting outof the car, wondering just how walking a dog was going to get Cipher to show his face.
At least she’d worn the boots today instead of heels, a small mercy she’d learned to appreciate the hard way.
The neighborhood was quiet, the kind of place where nothing much happened and people expected things to stay that way.
The door opened before she reached it. The owner and their dog filled the frame.
It was even bigger than she expected. Its tail wagged once, slow and confident, as if it already knew how this was going to go. Opal took one look at the huge mound of muscle under all that fur and knew she was outmatched.
The owner handed her the leash with a guilty smile and a list of instructions Opal barely heard. The dog didn’t wait for introductions. The moment they were on the sidewalk, it set off at a steady, determined pace, dragging her into motion like she was an accessory instead of the one holding the lead.
She tried to slow it. Tried to redirect.
The dog ignored her completely.
