Page 66 of Duplicity

Things happened and she couldn’t prevent pain or death.

Cat either trusted God had a plan or not. She either leaned on Him for the outcome—that she might not understand but which would be His best—or she had to walk away from her faith because it was meaningless.

Jasper said, “I’ll call Russ and get the PD to wake up a judge. We’ll get a warrant for Justice Spears’s phone.”

It would be out of order, given Simon probably had the information already. He definitely would before the judge signed off on the warrant to run his phone. She settled into the chair beside Simon. “What else can we find out so that when the warrant comes through, we’re ready to move?”

He glanced over, an amused expression on his face. “Yeah?”

She should roll her eyes, but the dull ache in her wrists and how she got the injuries dampened everything. “Fine. You could say I’m coming around to the idea.”

Simon grinned. There was a verycome to the dark sidelook on his face. Then he turned back to his computer, and it was almost like a switch was flipped. His attention was sucked intowhat he was doing. She probably could’ve tugged on the end of a longer lock of his hair and not have him notice. Or he’d have swatted at the annoyance like it was a fly.

Jasper paced the wall in front of them, walking to the window, and then back toward the wall at right angles from him, the conference room door, and the bank of elevators. He spoke into his phone as he paced back and forth.

Simon’s fingers flew across the keyboard, faster than she’d have thought possible if a person wanted to type with any kind of accuracy.

She eased down in the chair, leaning her head back. Her eyes drifted closed, and it didn’t take long before she was lulled into an exhausted slumber, accompanied by the rhythmic sound of the low conversation.

How long had she slept before Simon gently shook her shoulder? “Sorry. You should sleep, but you’ll want to hear this.”

Outside the bank of windows, the sky remained dark, and the clouds obscured her view of the stars. Cat sucked in a breath through her nose and blinked awake, trying to clear the cobwebs from her mind.

“We have him.”

She pushed the chair back and stood, stretching. The ache in her wrists was back. She raised her arms above her head anyway and stretched left, then right. She caught Simon eyeing her and then the blush on his cheeks. “Coffee, and let’s go.”

Simon stood, gathering his laptop and sliding it in his backpack. “Just like that.”

Jasper strode down the aisle toward them. “It’s a cop thing.”

Cat tapped a finger on her lower lip. “Probably doctors do the same thing. And soldiers. Not just cops.”

Jasper shot her a look as if he didn’t want to believe that. He wanted PD officers to be unique rather than part of a subset of people. He seemed to brush off the sentiment. “We’re loading upand rolling out.” He started to turn, then paused. “And the two of you are staying in the surveillance van.”

Simon nodded.

Cat didn’t argue, even though it crossed her mind. She needed more brain power than just having woken up to formulate an argument as to why she was going to be in on this…raid? Whatever it was.

He slid his backpack on and reached for her hand.

Staying in the van with him wasn’t going to be so bad.

They climbed in with a guy driving that Cat hadn’t met before. She buckled up on the bench seat in the back. “Where are we headed?”

Simon pulled his laptop out to set on his lap. Across from them was a table and full computer setup, like a mini–control room with a stool. In the corner was a stack of protective vests, a baseball bat, and a shotgun, beside which was a crate she didn’t dare look in. Vanguard was serious. And now that she knew Simon and had met some of the others, she could appreciate the job they did a little more.

Even if, at the same time, the normalcy of her day job sounded like heaven.

Simon said, “The spa. One of them, anyway.” He pointed to it on his map.

“That’s where Justice is now?”

“His phone, at least.” Simon nodded.

“Seems odd for a teenager who should be at school in the morning to be spending the night in a day spa.”

“That’s what we were thinking.” He paused. “It’s actually his birthday.”

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