by Nana Malone
Since meeting East, I'd broken a lot of rules.
Now you live in a world of gray.
I sure did.
All for justice.
Emma wiped her mouth as oxtail juice dripped down her chin. "Oh my God, Liv, seriously…"
Livy just grinned. "Isn't it amazing? I found the recipe a little bit ago. I mean, it involved making bread, so obviously it’s not a quick thing. But I'm glad you all like it."
Dusting her hands off, Emma looked at East and Telly. "Okay, you two, are you ready to do this?"
Both of them nodded, stretching their fingers out, acting for all intents and purposes as if this was a competition.
I looked at the man I loved. He really loved the competition. Watching him like this was different than how I knew him. Normally, he was battling to keep everyone in the group safe. There were a lot of us now. I wondered how stripped thin he was.
Emma stood with her napkin, waving it like a checkered flag. "On your mark, get set…" She glanced at Amelia. "Amelia, give your credentials."
Amelia very carefully gave them her access code to Interpol's communications database. What I wanted to know was who had put Warlow’s fingerprints into the untouchable category.
Why was there a firewall set up?
When Amelia was done, Telly and East let their fingers do the walking, flying across the keyboards, ducking and diving.
It was exciting only because I was watching East's expression. His brow furrowing, the way his tongue peeked out, the way his forehead scrunched in concentration… I'd seen that look before. Usually when he was between my legs.
I couldn't help but watch him and smile a little to myself.
I wanted to laugh at myself because every time we watched a movie about hackers, it was so exciting and always intense. But in real life, mostly we were just sitting there watching the two of them as we ate happily and waited for something to happen.
They tapped, glanced at each other, tapped some more, and oh yeah, they tapped.
Finally, East tapped twice and then laughed. "Suck it, bitches."
Telly scowled. "No way."
East was turning his laptop around for all of us to see. "Let the record show that I am the best hacker you people know."
I laughed. "You are also the worst winner."
"Hey, I won. That’s all that matters."
I just shook my head. Telly buried her face in her hands. "Oh my God, I let the pretty boy beat me."
His gaze snapped back to hers. "Let? You didn't let me do anything. I beat you easily. You're not even past the second set of firewalls yet."
Her eyes went wide. "There was a second set of firewalls?"
He nodded. "Yeah. I learned that when I busted into the NSA. Best not to get caught breaking in that case."
I stared at East. I loved him. I really did. And it was easy. Nothing in my life had ever felt this easy, this right. Like something I could do and wouldn't mess up. And for once, I wasn't terrified out of my mind. All I could do was shake my head.
It was Ben that pushed away from the wall and demanded results. "Oh, come on, let's have it. Is it him, or isn't it?"
East just laughed. "Gosh, impatient, aren't we?"
He hit one more key. "Ladies and gentlemen, it looks like Henry Warlow is Lord Walter Jameson."
I mean, I'd been expecting it. I had. But to see it in black and white that the prints matched, that the man who’d tried to lecture me about art was a thief… It was a hard pill to swallow.
Bridge whistled low. "Holy shit, that means Garreth Jameson is the son of a thief.”
Amelia's frown deepened. “He's an impostor, for sure. He's stolen a life. But how do we prove it?”
Nyla
Usually, the idea of girls’ night gave me a rash.
It wasn't until the other night when Telly and Livy were talking about going out to celebrate that we had at least moved something along that I realized I envied them and their steady friendship. Of course, I had Amelia. And she was legitimately the best friend I could ever ask for.
But making new friends wasn't easy for me. Never had been. I was almost too intense maybe. Then of course, I would get caught up in a whole new crusade and not necessarily lose interest, but obviously I tended to have a single-minded focus that could make my friends feel overlooked.
I couldn't help but wonder if maybe Denning had a point. Not that I would ever concede that he had made a point, but I had a one-track focus at all times, and it was difficult to dissuade me, which could make me hard to get to know.
"This is girls' night. You're supposed to be relaxing and having a great time," Hazel said as she leaned over toward me with a grin.
"How is she already drunk? We've only had two glasses of wine,” Amelia whispered too loudly.
Hazel hiccupped and apologized. "Sorry, I don't get out much."
Amelia leaned over and popped a piece of flatbread in her mouth. "That's just sad. You’re the one who's engaged. Shouldn't you be having, you know, a lovely night out pretty often? Wining. Dining. All that good stuff?"
Hazel shook her head. "Well, Denning works all the time. And I'm still a grad student. Not much time for wining and dining, so this is actually pretty great." With a wince, she shimmied out of the booth. “Just headed to the loo, I’ll be right back.”
As soon as she was out of earshot, Telly leaned forward. "All right, Nyla, since your boyfriend defeated me, in that very simple hack I might add, I owe you a drink. What are you having next?"
I laughed. "I hardly see that as a defeat. You would have gotten there yourself without him."
She laughed. "If I'm being honest, I wasn't ever going to get there. Sometimes he's just better at hacking. The moment we came up against those very official-looking roadblocks, I just lost it. And might I ask, Amelia, did anyone ever figure out why those were there?"
Amelia shook her head. "I did look into it, but I can't figure it out. I don’t have access to those files at all, not even with my clearance.”
I shrugged. “Being MI5, I could have gotten clearance, but not without raising a million flags. The best I can guess, is that it's an Elite thing. Lord Jameson has been marked as a very important person. Maybe he pulled a few Elite strings."
Then Amelia frowned and turned to me. "Actually, come to think of it, that photo I looked into for you, that witness, the C.I. She's got the same protections on her name. I tried to see if I could pull info on her, but I can't access it."
I frowned. "You don't have clearance?"
She shook her head. "No. No clearance at all where her name is concerned."
"Jesus, who is she?"
Telly frowned. "Uh-uh, you guys don't get to have secrets. Girl time equals share time."
I quickly brought Livy, Bryna, and Telly up to speed on the file that Theroux wanted me to investigate.
Livy leaned forward. "Oh, you're getting my research nose all twitchy."
I laughed. "There hasn’t been much time to look further into it. Luckily, Theroux hasn't been too much of a nuisance. There's a lot going on. I might have to ask Dad about it after all."
"Does your mother have a sister?" Telly asked.
"I honestly don't know. She died when I was little. No one ever came to see us or called. I just assumed she didn't have family. My father rarely talks about her. He just said she didn't have any family that she was close to."
She made that look that people always gave me. Not pity exactly, but as if they wished they could do something about it. Wished they could do something to fix me, make something better. But they never could.
"Anyway, there was a confidential informant. She was linked to Theroux. And obviously, now that we know that Walter Jameson is actually Henry Warlow, I guess she was linked to him too."
Amelia nodded. "Yeah, these two things are related now. Which makes this whole thing wild." Her gaze flickered to the back of the restaurant. “We have incoming.”
Hazel came back from the loo with a suspicious,
narrowed gaze. "Why do you look like you're talking about work? I was promised no work talk."
We all gave her fake smiles.
"Come on, this is girls' night. I'm so glad you guys invited me."
That was the thing. I hadn't invited her. And I was sort of irritated with whoever had. But if I hadn't invited her, then how would she know?"
Oh God, unless Amelia and I had been talking about it at the office. But why would she invite herself?
"So, Hazel, you and Denning set a date yet?" Amelia asked, and I could see her doing her level best to cause trouble.
Hazel waved a hand. "Oh no, we're in no rush. It's fine. And honestly, he's been so busy with work. We just intend to wait, I guess."
Livy raised her brow. "You intend to wait, or you’ve been told to wait?"
She laughed nervously. "Well yeah. Denning just said that now is not the right time."
I winced at the familiarity of those words. I'd been there before. But I had to remind myself that her relationship with Denning was pretty different than my relationship with him. After all, Denning had screwed me over to get a job. So, there was that.
"I mean, I want to be with him, but there are things that I want to do too, so I'm in no rush. I think it's cool that we get to just be for a moment, you know?"
I nodded. "Yeah, just be, I guess. You're still young, and there's no point in being rushed."
She nodded. "Well yeah, that, but also, I feel like there's always this pressure to be happy, or to get the happily ever after. Like there’s a timetable you have to follow to have the man, be married, have a baby. Why can't you just be and be happy? I've always wondered that."
I frowned. She had a good point. There was always some next step. "That's very wise from one so young."
She beamed at me. "Thanks. I mean, I'm super curious about your relationships though. In particular yours, Emma, because that very scrumptious man I saw you arguing with the other day was intriguing."
Emma frowned. "You saw me arguing with someone? I don't argue with people in public."
Hazel laughed. "Tall, dark hair. I feel like I have seen him before in like a magazine or something. You were at Regent's Park."
Emma flushed, the pink showing up on her dark brown skin. "You saw us at Regent's Park?"
Hazel nodded. "Yeah, I was driving to an appointment. I looked around and thought you looked familiar. And you and that bloke were having an argument."
I frowned and glanced at Emma. "That sounds like Bridge."
She shifted on her seat then mumbled, "It was Bridge."
Amelia, Telly, Livy, and I stared at her as Bryna probed gently, "Bridge, you say? Our Bridge?"
"Oh, cut it out, you daft cows. I'm not one for girl talk."
Livy laughed. "Oh, you're here. And we just got the juicy tidbit that you and Bridge had been meeting without us? None of us particularly like Mina. And she's never made an effort to get to know any of us. So if you and Bridge are a thing, I am all for it."
Telly raised her glass. "Hear, hear! Again, it’s been a long time since I've considered a man, but ooph, Bridge… Hell, any of the London Lords. I'm not picky. If anyone wants to share, I'd be willing to try that out. Carmen would understand."
I just laughed. "Wait, even East?'
Telly frowned. "Ugh, I mean, he's pretty. But God, he's such a pain in the ass. All right, fine. Maybe I won’t take East, but the others for sure.”
I shook my head and lifted my glass toward her. "You two act like you don't like each other, but I think that you both have a great deal of respect for each other. And if I didn't know better, I'd say that you two were friends."
Telly frowned at me. "You know what? I was starting to like you, but now I’m not sure I do.”
I laughed. "Um, sorry, no distractions. Let's get back to the Emma and Bridge thing."
Emma frowned at me. "God, we were so close to forgetting the whole topic of conversation."
"I'm sorry, but I need to know."
Emma sighed. "Okay. He said he wanted to meet me, so I met him. No big deal. I thought he wanted to talk about the case or maybe apologize for being a total dickhead to me. But it was neither of those things. He was telling me to back off, threatening me actually. He said that if I didn't back off, he was going to call my mother."
Livy's mouth hung open. Telly just stared at her. "Wait, he threatened to call your mother if you didn't comply with his orders?"
Emma nodded. "Can you imagine? As if he's my dad or something. So, yeah, Hazel was right. We were having an argument. Or maybe we'll say a spirited conversation about my work, my volunteer opportunities, and how he thinks he can arse into my life."
"Wow. Is he always that bossy?" Hazel asked.
Liv and Telly nodded as I spoke. "Yes. He doesn't say much, but ugh, Bridge. When he does say something, everyone listens."
Hazel leaned forward. "What's his story anyway? All I know is that he is one beautiful, tall drink of water."
Emma rolled her eyes. "Oh, he thinks he's God's gift. He's not. He's engaged to a woman who slapped me."
Hazel stared bug-eyed. "She what?"
Emma waved a hand. "She called me a whore. And slapped me."
Livy cracked a laugh. "Oh my God, why didn't I know of this particular piece of juicy goodness? Is she still standing?"
“Sadly, yes, but only because Bridge was there. Otherwise, it would have been a whole different story.
As I sat back and watched, I marveled at my new friends and remembered back to a recent time, when I had no East, no Amelia, and I felt completely alone. Things were different now. I wasn't alone. I had family. And I wondered how in the world that had happened.
Chapter Eleven
East
The night after the girls went out, the lads got together.
I tossed my mini ball up in the air and caught it.
Drew was on his third scotch.
After the revelation from last night, none of us had quite recovered yet. We’d gathered back at Ben's to go over our options while the girls were out together.
Drew glared into his glass. "So, what happened to the real Walter Jameson?"
I shrugged. "Maybe he drowned in the boat accident that day."
Even as I said it, the words rang false to me.
Ben said, "If he drowned and it was an accident, then why the hell did Marcus Van Linsted identify Henry Warlow as Walter Jameson? Sure, his face was messed up, but he identified him, so that means—"
Bridge chimed in. "Yeah, the mental gymnastics you're going over right now, make it easier on yourself. The only answer is that Jameson killed him. On purpose. From what those reports say, he wasn't even supposed to be on that damn boat. And all the other boys on board must have been involved since their statements backed up the claim that there were only eight people on board."
I shook my head. "No, he wasn't supposed to be there."
Ben snatched the ball in mid-air as I was about to catch it. I frowned at him. "Hey, give it back."
But Ben just gave me a smug smirk. "Take it back."
"I don't like this. We've been Theroux's pawn from the beginning. Why didn't he just mention that he suspected that Warlow was Jameson?"
"Because we're Elite," Drew muttered. "He knows that. He knows everything about us. He knows we're honor-bound to at least protect Jameson in some kind of way. He knows that we wouldn't have believed it. Or he wants Jameson, I mean Warlow, to go down publicly. Full arrest. The whole nine yards."
Bridge shrugged. "Or he wants him to go down in a blaze of glory. To take everything that belongs to him. Which, I'm down for a revenge game. I really am. Look at us, after all. But what has Warlow done to Theroux? If we find that answer, we stop being pawns."
He had a point. When Ben wasn't looking, I snatched my ball back. "Hey," he growled.
I just chuckled and continued to toss it, angling my body away from him so he couldn’t easily grab it. “The other option is that Theroux couldn’t prove it himself.”
Bridge’s voice was low when he spoke. "The difficult thing is, we have proof he isn't who he says he is. We could take it to the authorities tomorrow, though we’d have a hard time explaining how we got it. Removal from the Elite and the protections it offers could be punishment enough for Garreth.”
I glowered at him. “That’s not enough. I want him to burn for what he did to my sister and to Toby. All of that. I want him gone. For good.”
“We’ll make sure he pays, East. I promise you.” Ben said. “But I still want to know why Theroux would go through all of this? Why not just tell us who he was and let us investigate instead of all this clandestine shit?"
Ben sat up. "This goose chase, it's like he's playing with us, but why? He doesn't know us. We don't owe him anything. We didn't steal from him, so there's no revenge motive. There's no reason to put us through these paces."
Livy's soft voice coming from the stairs had us all turning. I sat up straighter. "Are you wearing unicorn pajamas?"
She twirled and then popped her head a little bit. "I know, aren’t they awesome?"
Ben seemed unperturbed by this. Which meant he'd seen them before.
I stared at her. "What in the name of all that is holy?"
"I know, it makes him nuts. But it makes me so happy. They’re warm and fuzzy. And a unicorn." Her smile was like a ray of sunshine.
Ben just shook his head. "She complains that the house is too cold."
Livy glowered at him. "I'm from Ghana. Everywhere is too cold."
He rolled his eyes. "Half of you is British. You can turn up the heat then."
Livy smiled and then leaned over to give him a lingering kiss. "Oh, I do love it when you give in. But from now on, you can only walk around naked."
"That's going to make it real awkward for the rest of us, mate," Bridge snickered.
Ben glanced around. "You lot are still here? Out. I want to shag my wife."
Livy gave him a smacking kiss then plopped into his lap. The ease with which he wound his arms around her made me itch for Nyla. But she was working with Amelia late tonight on their actual case that someone was paying her to work on. Livy turned her attention to the rest of us even as Ben's hand reached down to her ass and squeezed.