Page 155 of Reckless

I snort out a laugh. “Are you saying my name or are you objecting here?”

He doesn’t answer. He just pulls me a little closer, and I smile into his shoulder.

Turns out Ghost has been telling me how he feels for weeks.

I was listening to the wrong language.

Chapter Twenty-Nine

GHOST

The Next Day

Three years of financial records fill the screen before I turn it toward Sage.

Every folder that opened a little too easily. Every source that called before I even reached out. Every document that surfaced in my searches like it had been waiting there just for me.

“Travis Cole,” I say.

Her eyebrows climb. “Calloway’s chief of staff?”

I nod. “Three years ago, he started copying everything. Financial records, shell companies, internal emails, every dirty transaction Calloway thought nobody else was seeing.”

She glances back at the screen. “He was building a case.”

“For himself.”

“Why?”

“Insurance.” I lean back in my chair. “Men like Calloway don’t retire their chief of staff. They bury them with the books.”

“So, he’s been feeding you all this?”

“Not intentionally.” I shake my head. “He buried the evidence where someone with the right skill set might find it if something happened to him… I found it.”

Her eyes narrow as she pieces it together. “So, Calloway doesn’t know.”

“Not yet.”

She sits back in her chair, looking from the tablet to me. “Which means?”

“Travis is both our biggest advantage and our biggest liability.”

Understanding flashes across her face.

“Because if Calloway figures out someone’s talking…”

“Travis dies.” She goes quiet. “That’s…” She exhales slowly. “That’s a hell of a strategy to build around.”

“Dangerous and useful.” I hold her gaze. “In that order.”

She is quiet for a long moment, her fingers resting against the edge of the desk, and I let her sit with it because I know she needs the space to turn it over before she speaks again. Finally, she looks up at me. “Can we use it?”

“Already have been. We just didn’t know we were.”

Something shifts across her face. It’s not quite a smile, more like the look she gets when a problem finally stops being one.

I know that look.