“Addicts od all the time.”
“Agreed. This timing is way too coincidental, though."
"MedFlight?"
"Maybe. Or someone else using MedFlight as cover."
She eyed her phone. "The receipt’s a Visa reload from a Reno convenience store. Untraceable unless?—"
"Unless they have cameras." Izzy was already typing on her phone. "I'll have Zara pull footage tomorrow. See who bought a five-thousand-dollar card."
"Assuming they were stupid enough to go somewhere with cameras."
"Everyone makes mistakes." She studied his profile in the dashboard light.
She was quiet for a long moment. Then: "Thank you."
"For what?"
"For caring enough to break your precious rules." Her voice went soft. "For trusting your instincts even when they're telling you to do something that goes against everything you believe in."
He didn't know how to respond to that, so he focused on driving.
Brad Houzer was dead, taking his secrets with him. But whoever paid him was still out there. Still hunting.
23
Blue lightfrom multiple monitors cast an eerie glow across Knight Tactical's operations room, the only illumination at 0047. Izzy's eyes burned from staring at the receipt photo, but she couldn't stop trying to make it tell her more than it already had.
"Coffee?" Cory appeared at her elbow with a fresh mug. Two sugars, no cream. Exactly how she liked it.
When had he learned that?
"Thanks." She accepted the warmth gratefully, trying not to read too much into the small gesture.
"I'm sending this to Zara," she said, attaching the image to an encrypted message. "She never sleeps anyway. Probably hacking something as we speak."
"At one in the morning?"
"Time zones are a social construct to Zara." Izzy hit send. "Plus, they're in Alaska. Different rules up there."
They sat in comfortable silence, both processing the night's discoveries. Brad Houzer, dead in his squalid cabin. Five thousand dollars in blood money he'd never get to spend. The prayer Cory had said over him still echoed in Izzy's mind—quiet, sincere, unexpected.
Her phone buzzed.
Ronan: Client's son tried to bribe Axel with Pokemon cards to teach him knife fighting.
A laugh escaped before she could stop it.
Axel: Kid offered me a holographic Charizard. I'm considering it.
"Oh no," she muttered, typing quickly.
DON'T corrupt the children.
Axel: Says the woman who taught Chantal to hotwire Power Wheels.
"That was educational." she protested to the phone.
