Page 7 of Concerto of Crows and Cowards

Being shot in the head by Alexander Ramos was the best thing that could have happened to him—though it hadn’t seemed like it at the time. None of his family knew he’d taken a job with Dynamis Security. His family and society thought he was spending his days as a playboy, living off his trust fund and spending as much of his family money as possible on anything from cars to real estate to questionable investments and women.

And yes, the tabloids had started calling him Agent Danger—which gave those he worked with unending amusement and ammunition. It didn’t matter that he’d never slept with any of the women they’d interviewed or done half the things he’d been accused of. The important thing was that people believed the illusion he presented.

“It’s been a while since you and I stepped into the ring,” Max said. “I think it’s time for a rematch.”

“Hell, no,” Nate said. “Last time I sparred with you, Eden made me sleep on the couch because she couldn’t sleep with all the groans. You have an unfair advantage. I still think you cracked one of my ribs.”

“Nah, you’re just a girl.”

Max did have an unfair advantage in the ring since he’d had MMA training, but Nate made up for the lack of training by fighting dirty. Max had almost as many bruises as Nate, but it had been fun.

He locked the office door behind him and went over to the thin laptop on the desk.

“There’s a closed laptop on the desk,” he said. “You read me, Eden?”

“I’m here,” she said. “I didn’t want to interfere with your male bonding time. Go ahead and open it. You’ll need to put the device in the USB port, and then I can run it from here.”

Max opened up the laptop and watched the screen flicker on. It was password protected, but Eden could get around that.

Davis Henry was a member of the Senate Defense Committee, and there were enough leaks coming from that office to sink a ship. Too many of America’s enemies knew more than they should, and it couldn’t be a coincidence any longer. It was a mess the government didn’t want to dirty their hands with because Henry held a lot of power, and where there was power, there was money. Always the bottom line when it came to the government. And when the government didn’t want to dirty their hands, they called Dynamis Security.

Their mission was to get into the senator’s personal files where they suspected he kept records of what he was selling and to whom. As of yet, they hadn’t found a money trail, but it would only be a matter of time.

“This champagne is terrible,” Nate said. “You’d think they could bring out the good stuff for five thousand dollars a plate.”

“It must be terrible to rub elbows with the rich and famous while some of us are sweating our asses off in the car,” Eden said.

“Well, when you put it that way?—”

“Could we pretend we’re on a mission here?” Max interrupted. “Y’all can do marriage counseling later. The device is in the USB. Get me the password, Eden.”

Numbers scrambled across the screen before he finished the sentence, and one by one the numbers turned into letters until the password was revealed. The screen went black and then the computer flickered on.

“Go ahead and put the flash drive into the other USB port,” Eden said. “We’re just going to download his entire hard drive, and then I can sort it all out back at the office on our own computers. He’s got several encrypted files that are going to take some time.”

“Uh-oh,” Nate said. “Looks like the senator had a bad hand. He’s headed out of the game room and making his way toward the center stairs.”

Max looked up at the door to make sure it was locked and he willed the computer to hurry. He got up and looked around the office. It was bigger than most people’s living rooms. Floor-to-ceiling bookshelves were lined up across the wall at his back and a small sitting area sat directly across the room from his massive oak desk. An ugly painting hung on the wall over the sitting area, and it was so obviously a wall safe Max wondered why the senator even bothered to hide it. If he had more time he’d look inside and see if the senator kept hard copies of his records or a journal.

“He’s heading up the stairs,” Nate said.

Max went back to the computer to check the progress and did a quick search through the desk drawers while he was waiting. His hands were steady and his search methodical.

“Can you stall him?” Max asked.

“Not without jumping over all these people and making a fool out of myself. My other options are to shoot him in the arm or throw a glass of champagne at his head.”

“Maybe you should just stay where you are,” Max said dryly. He quickly flipped through a stack of loose papers in the top drawer but didn’t find anything of consequence. He closed it softly and opened the next drawer. There were still two minutes until the download was complete.

“Wait a minute,” Nate said. “It looks like the governor has a bone to pick with Senator Henry. Neither of them looks very happy.”

“Not surprising. They hate each other’s guts. The governor is a moron but he has impeccable timing. I just need one more minute.”

Max finished looking through the drawers and started on the bookshelves. More than one person had the thought that the best hiding places were those in plain sight.

“It looks like the Secretary of Defense needs an urgent word with Henry as well,” Nate said. “The governor has walked off in a huff, and now Henry and the secretary are headed back down the stairs in a hurry. Something must be wrong.”

“Not our problem,” Max said.

---