“Like.” KC exported everything she could to her own private server, because fuck the agency. “Come on.”
“Katherine Corrine Nolan, if you don’t tell me what you’re going on about, I will lay you out.”
“You and what upper body? That whole set of pink-and-aqua dumbbells in the corner of our room has dust on it.”
“Hey!”
KC looked up from the laptop to Yardley, knowing she’d see laughter in her face—the laughter they always shared when they fake-fought.
Of course, now KC knew what their real fights were like.
Yardley seemed to remember at the same time, and it made KC’s stomach hurt to watch her school the amusement in her eyes and retreat behind her new, professionalUnicornexpression.
She forced herself to focus on the laptop screen. “So Flynn sent this message, and within a few hours, it was picked up.”
“By whom?”
“That’s what’s making me spin. By us.”
“Us, as in—”
“Looks like Corsen saw it. Corsen reports to Gramercy.”
Yardley pointed the toe of her crossed leg. “But you said this message must be old, or your contact wouldn’t have given it to you. So she sent it, we saw it, and we went after her? Stashed her away somewhere?”
KC thought about it. “That’s more than we can infer. All weactually know is that at some point after she was last in our sights in Toronto, Kris Flynn broadcast a message from somewhere, and Corsen intercepted it and may or may not have reported it to Gramercy.”
“All right.” Yardley wound a strand of dark hair around her finger while KC savored her agreement.All rightwasn’t a term she’d heard much from Yardley recently. “You’re right that it’s the kind of intel I should’ve been given. How do I know what’s hinky if I don’t know where she’s been or who would lock her in a room with nothing but a toaster oven? Or why she would pass a note to the agency?”
“We don’t know for sure she was locked up, she didn’t send it directly to the agency, and it doesn’t have to be a toaster oven. It could be one of those fancy refrigerators I wanted to get but you talked me out of because you said it was just a fridge with a giant iPad—though, for the record, that is not an uncool thing to have.”
“No? Agree to disagree.” Yardley reached across the table and turned KC’s laptop toward herself. “Can you see anything else?”
“You mean do I know where she went after the Ritz? No. Could I find her? Depends. If she doesn’t want us to find her, we won’t. What this tells me is she’s smart and resourceful, and she knows she has a reason to keep herself as far out of the way of trouble as possible. Not to mention she’s pregnant, so now she’s probably ten times sharper and has grown fangs and claws.”
“You’re right. She’s smart. Maybe smarter than us. What that tells me is that you recognized Flynn’s work on the hotel lock because Flynn wanted to be recognized.” She rolled her squeaky chair around the table and pulled up close to KC, who rotated to face her. At some point in the minutes she’d been gone, she’dbrushed her hair shiny and put on lip gloss. “How likelyisit that Flynn’s work wouldn’t change after years and years?”
“Unlikely, unless she wanted someone specific to notice her.” Her eyes were the right color again—the fathomless dark blue of an underwater dive. KC could smell her lip gloss, mixing with the familiar lavender of her soap.
“Someone specific like you? Like your old Daisy Duke contacts?” One corner of Yardley’s mouth quirked into a smile.
God. How long had it been since Yardley smiled at her like that?
How long since they’d teased each other, or worked together even on something as simple as placing an order for dinner? It was more potent than KC had counted on, with Yardley so close—her sticky lip gloss and full mouth and bluer-than-blue eyes—and the rush of intimate associations swamped KC’s focus so completely that she didn’t even try to think. She simply let KC-and-Yardley take over. Their way of communicating that had never failed but that they hadn’t used in so long.
She reached out and slid her hand under Yardley’s hair, gripping her nape at precisely the same moment that Yardley threaded both of her hands into KC’s hair, andgod. What a relief to touch her and be touched. Her arms broke out in gooseflesh so fast, she had no choice but to squeeze her eyes shut tight again so she could justfeel.
Feel Yardley’s lips against her own, the softest pressure, only asking.
Feel the sound she made, such a good sound from her throat that it skipped over KC’s brain like a bad needle on the best record ever, anticipation and frustration all at the same time.
Feel her heart bang in her chest, throb between her legs in time to Yardley’s breath panting against her mouth.
Feel the way her entire body went still in warning.
“Oh,” Yardley breathed. “I didn’t mean to.”
It would have been a funny thing to say if KC couldn’t feel Yardley’s lips against her upper lip and her thumb circling over her ear, sifting her hair.
