Page 9 of The Twilight Theft

As for Evelyn? She may have acted like she was more boss than mother at the office, but after someone had messed with two of her kids, the woman was out for blood—in her own silent and ultra-scary way.

I rolled my suitcase past Emmett and into the corner. The white box of treats was in front of him, so I took the chair beside him, dragging the box to its rightful position in front of me. Chocolate and sugar invaded my nostrils. It was good to be home. “Brie joining us?”

Our tech wizard’s office was upstairs, directly above the boardroom. Hurried footsteps on the stairs nearby announced her approach. Evelyn’s youngest bore little resemblance to her mother or siblings. She was plain compared to Scarlett’s glamor, gentle compared to Evelyn’s intensity, and hesitant compared to Emmett’s smooth-talking ways.

“Can’t stay long.” Brie was already speaking before the door closed behind her. “The Trojan’s making its way through his layers of security, but we’re being careful. His programming’s amazing. We’re mapping the parts of the network we can safely, with about thirty percent of our steganographic messages getting through. First step is upping that to fifty. Nothing useful yet—nothing on the scarab, nothing on the location of the data center. Can I go now?”

I popped a profiterole in my mouth, biting down slowly on the crispy exterior, sinking into the airy dough, then the creamy middle. The chocolate drizzle over the top was divine.

“Is Will monitoring it?” asked Evelyn.

Will Reaney was our gadget guru, Brie’s backup, and her lifelong bestie. I didn’t know a quarter of what they did about computers, but despite all his talents, the one thing I did know was that she was better than him in this arena.

“He is.” Brie held up a tablet, tapped it a few times, then looked back at us. “Ash is on her way in, and she can cover me when I have to sleep.”

I selected another treat, letting it hover in front of my mouth. “It’s that touchy you can’t sleep while it’s working?”

“It is. One wrong step and his AI finds us, then the Trojan gets destroyed. We need to go slow.” Brie shrugged. “And if Tremaine Industries has gone through all this trouble to hide that data warehouse, it’s going to be behind a lot of security. Who hides something like that if it’s completely above board?”

We had two targets at Tremaine Industries. First, we’d received a tip that an ancient Egyptian scarab, stolen from a museum in Cairo, was on its way to Tremaine. A museum patron of some sort requested we retrieve it, so we were searching for details before signing a contract.

Second, and the higher priority for the people in this room, was tracking down a data storage center in the Arctic Circle that didn’t exist according to the Internet. Word was that many criminals housed information there, including the Fenix Group. After Emmett’s kidnapping, Scarlett’s near-fall from grace, and our recent adventure in the Roman Catacombs, Evelyn had the shadowy organization in her sights.

Brie had started with hacking into low-level employee computers, but she’d been working all her angles for a month with no results.

Which had given me my chance to shine.

“Tech billionaires do whatever they want.” I tossed the profiterole in my mouth and covered it with a hand as I kept talking. “He seemed like a nice guy, though. Surprised he’d be collaborating with such lowlifes.”

“I doubt he’s collaborating. More likely, they don’t do extensive background checks.” Brie stretched her neck and rubbed at it before glancing at Scarlett. “We’ll find those photos.”

Her older sister shook her head. “Even if you do, I’m sure they’ve been downloaded all over the world.”

“Which means I can remove them and trigger a cascading delete to every synced computer and phone.”Thatwas Brie’s primary goal. Protect Scarlett by destroying the photos Fenix had of her stealing something in London. Brie was the shy Reynolds, a dramatic contrast from her siblings and mother. But somewhere deep inside, she had the same cutthroat instincts.

What was it like to have people who loved you so much?

“Moving on.” Evelyn tapped a tablet in front of herself and the television came alive. “We have some positive news.”

“Can I go back to my office?” asked Brie.

Evelyn nodded and her youngest slipped out of the boardroom. “In case Brie’s efforts don’t yield the results we want, Scarlett and I have negotiated a contract that brings us closer to Gideon Tremaine.”

Leaning forward, I grabbed another pastry and slid the box toward Emmett, who shook his head. “I doubt I can get into his office again.”

“True.” Evelyn’s lips thinned and she hit play on an audio of my bathroom waltz with Drew. We listened to the whole thing, from him whispering in my ear about the fire alarm to our chat about the window, confessing we weren’t after Gideon, and the dance over the mints and cleaning spray.

It was hard not to smile. I’d come up with some awfully clever lines.

“Jayce,” she said, all her frost on full display. “Get some self-control.”

Not my strong point, boss. “It was all Donovan. You can’t hear it on the audio, but he was harassing me.”

Just by standing there, glowering at me, wearing his tailored suit and yummy cologne. What else did they expect me to do?

“Perhaps you should spend some additional time with Scarlett on the next job, so she can show you—” A knock at the door cut off Evelyn’s mini-lecture. “Come in.”

One of the front office staffers whispered to her from the doorway, and Evelyn stood, walking out with him.

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