“What we have for now,” Sophie was saying as she pulled up a new screen, “is a location.”
The room went on high alert.
Con took charge. “It’s a zip code plus four digits.” A map appeared on the screen, and he swung toward it. “An obscure town on the East Coast.”
The map zoomed in on a stretch of coastline Ash didn’t recognize.
“Small town,” Con was saying. “Industrial area near the water.”
Chickie issued a low noise. “Shipping explosives?” He had firsthand experience with Cipher’s method of getting bombs where they’d do the most damage.
“Not yet confirmed. Dante, give me the satellite footage. Let’s narrow down the coordinates.”
Dante complied, and the screen transformed to aerial views that cycled through different times of day. Morning light revealed a cluster of warehouses. Afternoon shadows stretched across parking lots. Dusk painted everything in shades of gray.
Ash studied each frame. Then he saw it at the same time everyone else did. The entire table seemed to strain forward.
“There’s activity there,” he said.
Judging from the lack of urgency in his CO’s reaction, Con already knew what they’d find.
Dante enhanced the image, and thermal signatures bloomed on the screen—faint but unmistakable heat readings inside a building that should’ve been cold and empty.
“That’s our target.” Ash’s tone came out rough.
Con nodded once. “Ellory’s money trail flagged that warehouse this morning. It’s a logistics hub for Cipher’s network.”
He tapped the screen. “We take the men running shipments there, and they lead us up the chain to Cipher.”
Ash felt it then. The prickle of awareness that told him he was being watched. He didn’t need to look to know it was Ellory. Her stare pressed into his skin like a physical touch.
But when he glanced down the table, she’d already returned her focus to the tablet and her glasses were back in place on her pert little nose.
Trouble.
After what they’d done—after the way she’d writhed beneath him, demanded more—and left marks on his back that he’d felt all damn day—he had to wonder if she regretted it. If she was already writing him off.
But hell, he hadn’t gotten the taste of her out of his head. Every other goddamn minute he circled back to the sounds she’d made when he buried his face between her curvy thighs.
“We need to move on this fast.” Con’s statement dragged Ash’s attention to the front of the room. “A team deploys tonight. Before our targets have a chance to relocate.”
The meeting switched to planning mode. Sinner started mapping potential breach points. Mason pulled up weather data for the coast.
Con glanced around the table and called out names of the team of six who would be headed to the coast. He looked straight at Ash when he added his name to the roster.
Ash felt Ellory’s stare on him again, heavier this time. He wanted to look at her—needed to see what was written on her face. Concern? Indifference? The burning desire that was branded on his memory?
But he couldn’t risk glancing at her. Not with the entire team watching. Not when he knew whatever was blazing between them would show on his face the second their gazes collided.
He trained his attention on Con and the screens—anything except the woman at the end of the table whose presence filled every corner of his system with awareness.
Elin uttered a low sound that silenced the room.
“What do you got?” Dante was already leaning over her shoulder to see her screen.
“Intel on the guy from the office in New York. The one Ash took down.”
The man who’d taken aim at Ellory. Who’d known exactly who she was.
