Page 53 of Jacob

Work.

Shower first. Breakfast, then to work. There were Elias’s files to go over. She hadn’t finished. There might be some clue to what he was planning, what he’d been working on, but she doubted it. Still, going over his files was necessary, if only to cross that off the list. As she’d said to Jacob, a lot of dry holes in science.

She was showered and dressed and on her second cup of coffee when her laptop pinged. ASI. The company of the Queens of IT.

Good.

“Hey, lady.” Emma beamed at her. She looked fresh as a rose, though it was 2 am in Oregon. “Hey. Hey.” Hope and Riley chimed in.

“Hi guys. It’s late where you are.”

“Yep.” Hope grinned. “We’ve just finished a report on the ownership and governance structure of Teknolab. It’s pretty complete and has a few surprises. We’ve sent it to you and Jacob. You guys receive it?”

She checked her email. Sure enough, she had an email from ASIQUEENS, with a big attachment. “Yeah. Got it. I imagine Jacob got his, too. He’s not here at the moment, he’s out with Nikolai doing what they call recon.”

“Good,” Hope said. “Because we want to talk to you, not him.”

Alex put down her pen and looked at the screen where the three women, each in her own window, were looking at her expectantly.

“So… do you need some information from me?” she asked when no one said anything.

“Absolutely,” Riley said.

“Yep,” Hope said.

“You betcha.” Emma nodded her head enthusiastically.

“What do you want to know?” Alex imagined they’d want more information on the nature of viruses or on bioengineering and started ordering info in her head. Biology often confounded non biologists. It was tricky and slippery and she wanted to be clear.

“So… Jacob.” Emma rested her chin in her hand as she bent her head toward the screen.

“Yeah. Tell all.” Hope leaned forward, too.

“Don’t leave out any details.” Riley shook her head. “I had dealings with him in DC and man, that dude is scary. But super hot.”

Emma shook her head. “I think all our guys had more or less given up on him meeting someone. There was talk of a girl in his youth. Sort of like the one who got away…” her voice petered off and her eyes widened.

“You!” Emma practically bounced in her chair as she pointed at her screen. “You’re the Mystery Woman, Alex! The one who got away! I’d bet anything!”

By now, Alex was getting used to feeling her face going traffic-light red. She sighed and willed the blood back down. It was too late, of course, because the three women were super smart. Their voices became a babble.

“So, when did you get away?”

“And why?”

“When did you get back together?”

“Who took the first step?”

“What’s he like in bed?”

That last question, asked by Hope, came in during a little lull and she looked around. “What? We all want to know, right? I mean we all have our guys and no one’s complaining, but… Jacob Black. Need I say more?”

“On a scale of one to ten, how is he in bed?” Emma wanted to know.

Well, Alex knew the answer to that one. “A hundred.”

Three happy sighs.

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