Page 24 of Operation: Reckless Angel

“Are those my only options?” Roth asked.

“How do you see a relationship with her working?” Lambchop asked.

“I didn’t say anything about a relationship.”

“Don’t even try to tell us those kisses weren’t just about distracting her,” Mother said.

“So, I kissed her?” Roth said. “That doesn’t mean anything.”

Mother and Lambchop both knew he was lying.

Indigo

“Come upstairs with me,” Briana said to Cam after Sebastian left.

“Why?” Cam asked.

“Just come upstairs,” she repeated in a growl. She didn’t wait for him. She grabbed her backpack and ran up the stairs.

He followed her into the guest bedroom she’d been staying in. “I’d say we were damn lucky.”

“They had nothing to charge us with, but if they notify the CIA that I’ve been using their database, they may find something to get me on.” After she closed the door, she opened her backpack and pulled out her laptop. She sat on the bed and opened her laptop.

“What are you doing?”

“I’m going to pull as many IDs from the database as I can to get me through for the next year or so,” she said.

“What? You’re not going to stop, like you promised?”

“Shh, don’t say that out loud ever again. None of them came up here, so it’s probably safe up here, but we need to be careful. I’d bet they bugged downstairs, so you’ll have to search your first floor. And you can’t do anymore of our work on your main laptop downstairs. They were in it. Who knows what kind of backdoor they opened? Do you still have that old one?”

“Yes. Don’t you think you’re being overly paranoid? Do you really think they’re going to keep monitoring us?”

“Yes, I do,” Briana said. “And they know our cellphone numbers now. We’re going to need to get a couple of burners for you and I to talk business on.”

“I think we should lie low for a while,” Cam began.

“We can’t. I already told our next client I’d be there tomorrow. She’s in danger, Cam. I can’t leave her hanging out there because we may still be under Sebastian's and his group’s scrutiny. We just have to be more careful. And you need to come up with a new program to refer clients to us. And run it on your old computer.”

Cameron grimaced and shook his head. “I don’t know, Bree,” he began, but she cut him off.

“If you want out, I understand. But I’m not done yet.”

“No, if you’re going to go on with business as usual, I’m there with you. They were right about one thing, there is a potential danger to you, and I’d never leave you out there alone, sis.”

“Aw, thanks, Cam,” she said, standing to wrap her arms around him. “But I’m careful. You know that. And I have you watching my back.”

“Yeah, always.”

She could tell he didn’t like that she planned to continue. “Lightning isn’t going to strike twice. We know how they found us. We won’t make the same mistakes again. We’ll need to alternate where we meet with potential new clients online.”

“And make sure we fully vet anyone before we agree to chat with them about a contract,” Cam added.

“Yes. We have talked about setting up a women’s aid website to rout things through. I want you to do some more research on how to do that and make it all look kosher. First, look into how to set up a legit one that refers women in crisis to local assets on your laptop downstairs. You can do that from here. But on your other laptop, from the coffee shop, look into how to go about making it a cover for our business.”

“It’s going to need a secret site buried in the public site, encryption, a chat feature,” Cam threw out.

“I’ll leave it in your capable hands. After we get a couple of burner phones, I’m going to get going.”

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