Page 36 of Unraveling Connections

Jensen shakes his head, already on his way to the cookies, “You say that, but I always want more; I never think you make enough.”

“That’s because you’re greedy,” Cash deadpans as he enters the kitchen.

Jensen holds his hands full of cookies up and says, “Whoa, that was a bit harsh.”

“True though,” Riot grins.

Jensen frowns, “What is this? Pick on Jensen day?”

“No, but we should definitely make that a thing,” Luc smirks.

“Right, fuck you all. I'm going to look through hours of boring footage,” Jensen says, a smile playing around the edge of his lips as he dramatically leaves the room.

Atlas looks at Peter, “Have you even finished sorting the footage yet?”

Peter chuckles, “Fortunately for him, I have. Just before Ever smelled the cookies, I sent them to your secure work emails.”

“Great, thanks, man,” Trick says and then adds to the rest of us, “I’m going to assume that we are all going to watch separately; if anyone finds anything, send out a message, and we will come to you to review it. Luc, I have just realized the only way for you to spot the glitches that signify that the footage has been messed with is to watch all of it, and I am not mean enough to make you do that. Is there anything that you can tell us that would help us identify the footage that has been tampered with?”

Luc looks visibly relieved that he doesn’t have to watch the whole thing and nods, “Yeah, it is pretty simple if you know what you are looking for. It’s like a little flicker in the top left corner of the screen. It is milliseconds long, and I have no idea why it only happens there, but that was the only sign that I had messed with the footage. So, unless they updated the system while I was gone and before he went to prison, I don’t think it will be any different. I will let you know if I spot anything different when I go through my footage.”

Trick nods, “Alright, sounds good. I think we can all handle that.”

“It’s not exactly rocket science,” Rage points out. “One of us should probably tell Jensen.”

Trick sighs, but looks amused as he replies, “Well, since you mentioned it, you can tell him.”

“Yeah, fair enough; I like working in the same room as him anyway. I’m going to take more cookies,” Rage warns, as he picks up a few more, sticking one in his mouth as he leaves the room and goes to find Jensen.

The rest of us take that as our cue and all grab more cookies too, I make myself a giant cup of coffee in the biggest travel mug we have as well.

Chapter Eleven

Ever

Imove in front of Rafe before he can leave the room, and, realizing I have my hands full, say, “Kiss?”

He smirks and leans down, kissing me in his slow and unhurried way that always makes me want him naked.

“Better?” he asks when he pulls back.

I nod, “Yep. Thank you for making breakfast and cookies and generally just making sure that we are fed. I love you.”

Rafe’s cheeks tint slightly as he leans down and kisses me softly again, “I love you too. Now, stop procrastinating and go watch boring footage.”

I fake gasp, clutching my cookies to my chest, “I would never.”

He rolls his eyes and chuckles, “Sure you wouldn’t.”

I don’t have a retort because, quite frankly, he is right; I am the queen of procrastination, so instead of replying verbally, I simply stick my tongue out at him and spin on my heel, his laughter following me out of the room.

Getting up to my room, I grab my laptop off my desk and take it over to my bed; I want to be comfy while I do this. I also put the TV on quietly in the background. There was no sound on the security cameras when we watched them at Luc’s parents place, and I can never concentrate properly if I am sitting in silence.

Settling on my bed, with my coffee in my hand I open up my emails and press play ready to settle in and hopefully find something useful on the footage.

**********

I stretch the kinks out of my back. I feel like I have been doing this for hours, but when I check the time on the screen, it has only been one. I have found absolutely nothing so far; it’s just an empty house and a curious raccoon, which I have grown strangely fond of. This is one of the more boring parts of working for the organisation, that, and paperwork. But it can’t be all excitement all the time.

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