Page 36 of Solanum

"Dunno. Wilkinson's been keeping Brody back a lot and when we return, she's awfully happy to see you." He edged his assumptions a little too directly. "You used to scare the crap out of her like everyone else."

"We're friends," I said, simply. "Do I scare the shit out of you, Brian?"

"Not anymore…not really."

"Right. You know me better and figured out how I talk. So, whatever you're angling at, you can fucking drop it right now. Understood?" Despite the anger that made it to the surface, I managed to strangle it enough to keep my tone even and authoritative as always.

"C'mon, Car. We're friends—"

"Right. We're friends. And the fact that we share several alcoholic beverages together on a weekly basis should tell you that whatever you're trying to say, should not be said."

"Fine." He held up his palms to me while walking backward facing me. "I get it."

"Good."

"I'm just saying…it's noticeable."

"Stop saying it."

"Fine. Fine." He smirked and turned around to walk normally again.

He dropped it for now, but I knew it wouldn't last too long.

"You know Greg has the hots for her? They both came to Joe's last night. There was definitely a thing about to happen," he said, and that I let him entertain.

"Pretty sure Greg has had the hots for her for a while."

"Yeah, but lately it's a bit more obvious."

"Why? Do you dislike him or something?" We made it to my office, and I dropped down in my chair, pulling my laptop closer to me.

"Honestly, I don't know." He settled in the chair opposite me. "There's something about him I don't like. He rubs me the wrong way. Maybe it was that time he hacked all our phones to play that stupid Halloween song as a prank. Remember that? Half the building playing This Is Halloween blaring from our pockets."

"He got in trouble for that. Phones going off while people were in meetings or interviews." I smirked at the memory. "Luckily, I was off taking a shit when mine went off."

"Gross, dude." He laughed at me. "But to be fair, I was stealing my third doughnut of the day from one of the conference rooms… No one noticed because of the commotion."

"Yeah, but that shit isn't funny. Victims in interviews don't deserve that kind of interruption."

"S'what I'm saying. Greg's selfish and childish sometimes." He shrugged. "I guess Cyber Crimes functions differently than us."

"They do. They don't deal as much with face-to-face interaction. It knocks down the social skills meter a tad."

"Look at Gordo. He's an H.R. nightmare."

"Yeah." I laughed while punching in my password. "But he's at least innocuous."

"For sure."

I gestured to the phone on my desk. "Get Dimitri's team down here. I'm emailing the rest."

"You got it." Roderick picked up the phone, and just like that, the race to trap the bad guy continued.

We spent three days hiding in the woods in varied rotations in different parks. Our traps led to nothing. No body. No suspects. And a spoiled signature. He hadn't kept to his timeframe, or somehow, he caught on to our tactics.

My phone rang as I jogged up the stairs to my apartment and I whipped it out to see Samirah's name across the screen.

"Tell me you're in town," I said when I answered it.

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