Page 89 of Wicked Suspicion

“D-Ro always called her Pickle. He never used her real name.”

“Pickle?” Oz sounded amused. “I bet she hates that.”

That’s what he commented on? But it was a reprieve from the conversation, so Case went with it. “She does. She almost didn’t tell me because she was worried I’d use it instead of Fireball.”

“I’m guessing there’s no family resemblance, but you knew her last name. Why didn’t that get you to start asking questions?”

Case grimaced. “Her mother was married three times. D-Ro was fathered by husband number two, the Fireball by husband three. Different surnames and they look nothing alike.”

“So she knew who and what you were from almost the beginning and she didn’t tell you she knew? Do I have that right?”

It felt like a trick question. Case shifted his chair to get a better look at his teammate, but Oz gave nothing away. “Yes,” he said, drawing out the word.

“You were aware the suite was bugged, correct? You would have cautioned her.”

Now he knew where Oz was headed. “I didn’t expect her to tell me who she was while we were under Vargas’s thumb. I even warned her that I might have missed a microphone when I was pulling the spy gear, but she had opportunities to tell me later after we escaped. We walked through the rainforest alone together. We were in a hut for hours before we walked again. There were multiple chances.”

“Yeah, sounds like it. Why do you think she didn’t use any of those openings?”

He stayed quiet.

The wizard answered for him. “Why don’t we start with the fact your walk through the rainforest was at night while you were escaping from Vargas’s estate.”

Case grunted.

“Let’s add that the rebels were coming over the wall of the compound and she had no way of knowing whether any were hiding in the rainforest surrounding the area. She’s also smart enough to realize there could be enemies around and she wouldn’t know they were there because she was blindly following you.” He paused and waited, but Case remained quiet. The Wizard asked, “What about the hut?”

“You have all the fucking answers. You tell me.”

Oz scowled. “I can guess one of them. She probably slept for a while. How’d I do?”

Nodding, Case said, “She was down for a little over three hours.”

“Clearly, she could have told you after her nap.”

Closing his eyes, Case grimaced. “I was edgy when she woke up. My spidey sense was tingling, and I was going from window to window.”

“What you’re saying is you were intense and not hiding it. If you were in her position, would you have said something then?”

Reluctantly, Case admitted, “No. She would worry about distracting me, but she did talk with me after we left the hut while we were walking again.”

Oz nodded. “She should have told you then.”

Except they’d talked about why Nyx was still a virgin, about her mom’s life choices influencing her, and then they’d talked about his mother and her drug addiction. Those conversations seemed more important than her telling him she knew who and what he was. “We talked about other stuff, and then the rebels captured us.”

“And she couldn’t tell you while you two were in the encampment for the same reasons she couldn’t talk while you were Vargas’s guests. Right?”

He nodded.

“But she could have told you last night. Unless you were busy doing something else.”

Oz sounded innocent, but Case knew better. He shot his teammate a hard look. He wouldn’t let anyone—anyone—talk shit about Nyx.

“Fuck,” he muttered as the Wizard’s maneuvering became apparent.

“From what you told me, it doesn’t sound as if there was much chance, and the few times there were openings, the two of you were focused on something else.”

“Yeah.” Case drew the word out again as realization dawned. He hadn’t given Nyx the benefit of the doubt. Because of his past, he’d immediately assumed the worst of her and he’d been an ass. And he managed to piss her off. His Fireball was no one’s doormat.

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