Nodding, she replied, “Yeah. Just tired.”
I slowed my pace a little, instinctively matching her stride. She glanced up at me with a smile, brushing her hair behind her ear. I barely resisted the urge to fix it for her, but then the temptation to kiss her would be too strong. There’d be no way I could leave her after that, and King would have my ass.
Instead, I focused on the walk, limiting myself to closing my hand around hers and lacing our fingers together. A blush stained her cheeks, but she didn’t comment or pull away. As usual, it was nearly impossible to stay outside as she shut her door, but I focused on the upcoming meeting to take my mind off what I’d be doing if I followed her inside.
If King was calling a meeting, Wizard must’ve found something else. I’d asked him to brief our prez after we discovered the first symbol, and as expected, King had simplyrequested that we keep him in the loop unless we stumbled onto something big enough to bring it to the table.
The low rumbleof conversation filled King’s office when I walked inside. Blaze was kicked back in one of the chairs in front of King’s desk, his boots in the other one, and his arms folded like he’d been there long enough to get bored. Ace stood near the bar, not drinking yet but eyeing the row of expensive bottles of whiskey. Kevlar leaned against the wall, looking like he was ready to put a bullet through someone out of sheer habit.
Wizard was at the conference table, typing on his laptop and glaring at the screen through his black-rimmed reading glasses. He tossed Ace a dirty look when he tried to look over his shoulder, but Ace just shrugged and kept reading. Wizard grunted and went back to typing.
I shut the door behind me, drawing almost everyone’s attention, including the Cane Corso lying beside King’s desk. He was a sturdy, muscular guard dog trained to protect and instill the fear of hell in strangers, which made Cerberus a fitting name. But he ignored outsiders he deemed not to be a threat. Most people still shied away from him, put off by his fearsome presence and cold attitude.
However, like most of his breed, he was extremely affectionate with King and anyone he grew attached to, cuddling to express his approval and love. He recognized the loyalty King shared with his brothers and was fond of most of us. I suspected he only truly let his guard completely down with King, but he still demanded attention from us, especially if he’d pegged you as a sucker.
Knowing a softy was inside that formidable exterior made it funny as fuck when he scared the shit out of a prospect. After looking me over, he must have decided I wasn’t worth the effort today and flopped his head back down onto his paws.
Wizard didn’t even look up when he muttered, “What took you so damn long?”
“Had to make sure Elena got home okay,” I grunted as I made my way toward King’s desk.
Blaze tipped his head, his mouth curving slightly. “You babysitting now, or just playing shadow till she notices?”
“She’s noticed.” I shoved his feet off the chair across from him and sat down.
Ash poured two fingers of whiskey into a glass tumbler, then poured two more before he walked over to drop into the seat next to Ace.
“Figured she did.” He smirked. “You’ve been walking around tense as fuck.”
Kevlar grunted in agreement. “Which usually means somebody needs a fight. Or a fuck.”
Blaze snorted. “In his case, probably both.”
Wizard stopped typing and glanced up long enough to glare at them. “You boys finished? Do you wanna keep jerking each other off or do you wanna hear why the fuck we’re here?”
Tomcat, one of our enforcers—and a brilliant engineer and former Top Gun pilot—gave a low chuckle from where he sat on the couch, his ankle resting on one knee, and his scarred hand holding a glass of dark liquid on the other. “Might as well let Onyx give us the reason you’re losing your shit since this all started with his woman, from what I’ve been hearing.”
I rolled my eyes and leaned back in my chair, stretching my legs out and crossing my ankles. I remained the picture of ease even though I was tied up in knots inside.
King hadn’t said a word so far. He just sat behind his desk in his leather chair, wearing his usual scowl. Watching the room like he always did, eyes calm and calculating.
He nodded at me. “Bring us up to speed.”
I summarized what I’d seen in Elena’s drawings, my theories, and why I’d taken it to Wizard. Then I lifted a brow as I looked at the tech genius. “Since we’re here, I’m assuming you found something significant?”
Wizard flipped his laptop around so everyone could see the screen. “This is the first symbol Onyx brought me. Pulled it from a sketch Elena was working on. Almost identical to one I found associated with one of our files.”
He tapped the screen, bringing up another one of Elena’s drawings. I’d been snapping pictures of the ones I suspected were identifiers whenever she left her sketchbook lying around. I probably should have felt guilty for going behind her back, but this was about her safety, so I’d deal with her wrath later when she wasn’t in danger.
“Since then, I've been running any he’s been able to send me. Same fucking thing: base design, then layered code modifications. Symbolic identifiers, such as rank structure.” His brows drew down as he glanced up at me. “All of them are active.”
Fuck.This meant that with each new symbol Elena saw and reproduced, she was even more at risk.
“This morning, another one of them showed up in a file from last August,” Wizard continued. “Job we did for an informant that took down a trafficking ring in Kentucky. While not in the direct files, the newest one has popped up in the periphery of that mess we’re still monitoring in Atlanta after the COO…disappeared.”
A heavy pause settled.
“You saying this girl’s working for a syndicate?” Blaze asked, frowning.
