My phone chirped with a text.
Sylvie shifted against me, the sound penetrating her slumber. I reached over her, trying not to jostle her sleeping body, and tilted the screen of my phone just enough for me to read Maddox’s name.
Fuck. Probably important.
Sylvie’s eyes fluttered open, and I rolled her to her back, leaning over her to snag my phone off the bedside table. I shot a quickglance at the full text.
Emmett needs Sylvie when you get here. He thinks he can get her accounts opened up.
I tossed the phone behind me on the mattress. Important, but not an emergency.
“We have to go?” Sylvie asked, her eyelids hovering open a few millimeters, her voice foggy with sleep.
“Not yet,” I said, reaching down to brush a strand of hair off her cheek. “In a little bit.”
“Okay,” she said, lifting her knee to hook a leg over my hip.
As she turned into me, I gave in to the temptation to kiss her, sinking into her lush, soft, warm body, taking my time—stroking her skin, absorbing every shiver, every moan.
For now, Sylvie was all mine. And by the time this was all tied up, I was going to make sure she wouldn’t be able to imagine leaving my side any more than I could picture her going on without me.
When we finally got out ofbed, I steered her to the shower. I hogged the hot water, promising her, “Let me clean up first, and then you can take your time while I make us breakfast.”
She grinned up at me, leaned back against the wall, and watched as I scrubbed shampoo through my hair. “Sounds like a good deal to me. What are we having?”
Her hazel eyes were hot as they studied my body with open interest. I’d come less than five minutes ago, and still, that look in her eyes had me wishing I was still a teenager. Later. Maybe a long lunch break…
“Ham and cheese omelets and toast,” I said after Ifinished rinsing my hair, shifting to give her the hot water. I had to get out of the shower before her naked body and hungry eyes convinced me to make us late.
I had breakfast on the table by the time she finished showering and dressing. We headed down to the Sinclair offices, stopping long enough to say hi to Alice before making our way back to Hacker Central to see what Emmett and Maddox had for us.
I’d warned Sylvie that Emmett needed her for some banking-related thing, so she wasn’t surprised when he pulled her aside as soon as we got there, saying, “I commandeered an office. I’ve got most of the flags down. I want you to call, and I’ll coach you through what to say, and we’ll see if we can’t get them to unfreeze your accounts.”
“You think it’ll be that easy?” Sylvie asked, hope visibly brightening her face.
“It could,” Emmett said. “Whoever got in there did this by putting security flags on your accounts. Then the bank just did what the bank does when that happens and froze the accounts. Same for the credit cards.”
“So, you, what? Took the flags away?” Sylvie asked, raising an eyebrow.
“Something like that,” Emmett said. “Now you push, and when they look, they shouldn’t see any reason not to unfreeze the accounts.”
“All right, I’m game. Wish me luck,” Sylvie said, grinning up at me.
“I’m not sure you need luck,” I said. “You have Emmett.”
Sylvie laughed and followed him down the hall. I turned to see Maddox and Wren watching me, Wren’s arms crossed over her chest, one eyebrow raised.
“Hey,” I said. “How was your time off? You and Shade get into any trouble?”
“None we’re telling you about,” she said with a smirk. She let the teasing expression fade, her mouth curving into a genuine smile. “Actually, I called Quinn Sawyer to ask if she could recommend a good overnight hike, and she ended up inviting us out her way.”
“Did she go with you?” I asked. I’d met Quinn, along with the rest of the Sawyers, a few months ago when we’d helped stop the killer who’d targeted them after their father’s murder. They weren’t what I’d expected for a family of billionaires. The head of the family used to be on Cooper’s team at Sinclair Security, and Quinn’s husband Hawk had worked here with him. I’d noticed Wren and Quinn in conversation when they ran into each other when we were there.
“She did,” Wren said. “She brought Ginger, her Malinois, but made Hawk stay home. Said it was a girls’ trip.”
“I bet he liked that,” I said, remembering that Hawk had watched over his very capable wife as acutely as his namesake animal.
Wren shoved her hands in her back pockets. “He was pretty cool, though that was probably because she was going with Shade and me. He knows me from before and said that, given the three of us that he knows, he could guess that Shade was a lot deadlier than she looked. Shade busted out laughing.”
