Page 119 of Death Wish

Simone laughed. “Someone is happy we’re home.”

“He doesn’t fool me. Goose just wants another trip outside and a treat for doing his business in the yard instead of the house.”

“As long as the bribes work, I don’t mind giving him treats. He has enough energy to burn them off. If you don’t mind taking him out, I’ll put on the coffee.”

“Deal.”

Jesse and Goose returned a few minutes later. The medic crouched and gave the dog a treat. “Good work, buddy.”

When Goose dashed over to Simone, she laughed and picked him up. “Yes, I’m proud of you, too. Coffee’s almost ready, love.”

He kissed her. “I enjoy hearing you call me that.”

“Good. You’ll be hearing it for the next 70 years.”

After drinking a mug of coffee with Simone, Jesse knew he needed to go home before he wasn’t able to make himself leave.

He tugged Simone into his arms and kissed her for long minutes before stepping back. “I’ll see you tomorrow, baby. Sleep well.”

Before he reached the front door, something beeped. Jesse paused and glanced at Simone over his shoulder. “What’s that?”

“My computer. I set it to run a check on my circle of friends while you were outside with Goose.”

“What does the beep mean?”

“The computer found a match.” She looked ill. “One of my friends is a traitor.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

“SHOW ME.” JESSE wrapped his hand around Simone’s and followed her to the kitchen where her laptop sat on the breakfast bar.

Simone climbed atop a bar stool and tapped a few keys to bring up the search results. She scanned the screen and sat back, her face white. “Oh, no.”

Jesse rested his hands on her shoulders as he looked at the screen. “Who is Ember Atkins?”

“My only remaining friend in San Francisco.” She covered her face with her hands. “Oh, Jesse. How could she do this? Why? I thought we were friends. I set up the scan just to satisfy you, never considering that Ember would be the one to betray me. I honestly thought it might be someone at the think tank in D.C.”

“Can you tell from the information what she did?”

“She’s been in frequent contact with Trevor.”

He stilled. “How do you know?”

“Do you want deniability?”

“I don’t care about that. Tell me.”

“I hacked into her cell phone records.” Simone flipped to another screen to show him many calls to one number. She highlighted each one. “That number belongs to Trevor.”

“How does Ember know where you are, Simone?”

“She’s a hacker like I am. In fact, I’m the one who taught her all my tricks.” She huffed out a breath. “I never thought she’d use those tricks against me.”

“Can you block her access to you?”

“I’ve learned several new techniques since I started working for Zane. You can bet I’ll start using them in my personal life. The problem is the damage has already been done.”

“What do you mean?”

---