Page 91 of Good Enough

APRIL 8TH

Kai

Temples pounding, Kai leaned back in her seat. She had been working in the War Room answering emails. At least Big Bird had brought her a brand-new computer with his unwanted arrival. This kind of work was murder on her eyes and painful mentally to do on a phone. Which also needed replacing from the day she pitched it across the room and caused the screen to crack and shatter. It still worked, but it was impossible to read through the spider webbing without suffering a severe migraine.

She had just checked on some more replacement supplies as additional items had gone missing over the last ten days. And, of course, since Big Bird was down here now, there was no way to hide it from him. It was almost like he knew they were gone and was just waiting for her to report it so he could pounce. She was beginning to suspect more and more that he was behind the sabotage going on.

In addition, a stuntman had gotten injured two days earlier, for real this time. He had personally checked his rig and placed his pitons for the cliff rappel scene, but somehow, the piton had come loose, and he’d fallen twenty feet. It could have been much worse. He suffered a broken ankle and collarbone, but Kai was spooked. Originally, Jumper was supposed to do his own stunt, but given all the weird occurrences going on, Waters thought it might be better for the stunt crew to take on a little more than first intended. She shuddered at what could have happened if it had been Jumper instead of the stuntman.

As she was about to sort her supply invoice from her most recent purchase into the appropriate folder, her eye caught an error. Or she thought it was an error until she remembered that her supplier used European dates since he was based out of Paris, and he used military time on orders to make sure it was clear when they came in. Her face scrunched up into a frown of concentration. Something was tickling the back of her brain.

Her eyes opened wide, and a hand went over her mouth.

Oh. Fuck. Me.

“Stupid, Kai. You’re so fucking stupid.” She scrambled out of her seat and ran into the bathroom where Waters was finishing his shower. “Waters!”

Ho.Ly. Fuck. I can die happy now.

He stood in the claw-footed tub, gloriously naked, toweling his almost non-existent hair as he looked at her. Every mouth-watering inch of him was open for viewing. She couldn’t help staring. It was impossible not to. The man was fucking perfect, scars and all.

He raised an eyebrow at her. “See something you want, babe?” he teased.

“Umm…”

“Words, babe. I need words.” He stepped out of the tub and walked nonchalantly over to her in the doorway, holding the towel in his hands but not covering himself up.

“Words. Right. Why the hell did I come in here?”

“Dunno. Not sad you did, though.” He threw the towel on the pedestal sink and gathered her close to him, immediately swooping in to gently suck on her rapid pulse point. “I thought you were working on invoices.”

“Shit! Right. Can your computer guy find old emails? Even deleted forever ones from another computer? One that’s not here with me?”

Pulling back from her neck, he grinned at her. “Did you seriously just ask me that question? And why are you asking me that when I’m naked?”

She huffed. “Don’t fuck around right now.”

Waters reached for the towel he’d just abandoned, then wrapped it around his waist. “If he knows exactly where the computer in question is, and it’s plugged in, he can access it remotely. If it’s off or unplugged, not sure. Probably. What is it?” He grabbed her shoulders. “Kubrick. You’re hyperventilating. What is it?”

“I think I had the key to Ka-Bar’s ‘package’ all along. The problem is that it’s in my personal email, and I only ever access it on my personal laptop, which is at home on my desk. It’s a Gmail address, but I deleted it almost immediately after I got it, and I delete forever old emails religiously the first of every month.”

“So pulling it up on your work computer or your phone is a no-go. Okay. Let me get dressed, and we’ll call Midas.”

Two minutes later, Waters was in front of the telescreen in the War Room, tapping in his code. Midas appeared on the screen. “What’s up, Boss?”

Waters ignored the stunned look on Kai’s face as she saw the computer hacker’s face on the television as well. “Midas, I need you to remote access Kubrick’s laptop at her home.”

“Two seconds.” Keys clacked, then suddenly, he was also pictured in the upper left corner of her new laptop. “Hello, Kubrick.” He grinned. “Nice to finally meet you.”

She sat down in front of the screen. “Hi,” was all she could muster.

“No worries, beautiful. I have that effect on a lot of women.” He winked. “Hey, Waters.” He acknowledged his boss, who had pulled up a chair behind the desk next to her. “Shall I patch everyone through?”

“Yeah, go ahead.”

“Okay. Gimme a moment.” More keys clacked, and within ten seconds, several faces popped on like the Brady Bunch grid. A blank square appeared as well. “Hail, hail, the gang’s all here.”

“Kubrick, this is my team. God and Demon, you already know. Midas, our computer guru, you just met. The others are Steel, he’s the teammate your brother called his favor in to; TB, who’s here on overwatch; Nemo, Midas’ brother, who’s also here on overwatch.” Each of the men gave a wave of greeting or head nod as they were introduced, except for God, who was still invisible. “Guys, Kubrick has something.”

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