Page 94 of The Last Promise You Made

“Tell me you have good news.”

“I haven’t broken the encryption.”

“Damn.”

“But I realized maybe it could help us in a different way.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, the coding has Ravyn’s signature all over it, just like the other clues she dropped for us. It made me wonder if we’d missed other breadcrumbs she’d left behind.”

I inhaled. “So, you’ve been searching the internet for her signature.”

“Yes!”

“What did you find?”

“It’s more what I didn’t find.”

“Rory!”

She laughed. “I know. I know. But it looks like she’s been erasing things for years from multiple databases. She’s been scrubbing someone’s history.”

“Her own?”

“It could be why we haven’t gotten any hits on the facial reconstruction.”

“I wish she’d been working for us.”

Rory got quiet. “I don’t think anyone should have what she was working on.” She spoke softly, as if she was trying to not be overheard by the other analysts sitting around her. “Certainly not the criminals, but not our government either. I don’t trust anyone to have the integrity needed to use it for good and not evil.”

“I think you’re right.”

“Don’t get me wrong, I’d love to take a look at the masterpiece of coding required to make it happen, but then I’d want to burn it from my brain so I could never recreate it.”

A noise at the back door had me shifting to look down the glass breezeway leading to the garage. I hadn’t heard the doors roll up, and the cameras hadn’t alerted me to anyone on the driveway. Plus, it was a little too early for Ryder to be home yet.

I glanced at Addy, who was watching a show on Ryder’s laptop. My hand went to the butt of my gun, but I didn’t want to draw it and freak Addy out, so I eased farther into the breezeway toward the garage before I pulled it out.

I dropped my voice to a mere whisper, “Hey, call Enrique for me, check in with the perimeter?”

“You okay?” Rory’s voice sounded worried.

“Just a noise. I’m sure it’s nothing.”

“If you don’t call back in two minutes, I’m sending in the cavalry.”

“Deal.”

I hung up, stuffed the phone in my back pocket, and tried to creep toward the door, which was ridiculous. With the hallway being made of glass, anyone outside could see me just as clearly as I could see them. A quick glance in both directions showed no one.

And yet, my senses were screaming.

As I neared the door to the garage, the handle started to turn slowly and quietly. My heart skipped a beat, wishing I’d had time to check the cameras. I eased to the far side of the door and took aim at it. When the door cracked open, a Five-seveN pistol appeared in the opening, gripped in a black-gloved hand.

I used my shoulder to slam the door onto the hand, and the gun clattered to the slate floor as a howl of pain erupted from a man on the other side.

“Addy, hide!” I screamed as the door pushed into me with enough force that it jammed my hand to my chest. I stumbled backward, hitting the glass behind me and making the entire wall ripple.

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