Page 44 of Out of the Shadows

“Then there’s me. My position isn’t public information, but it’s technicallyIT Specialist.” She finger-quoted the title, and when they both chuckled, some of the hesitation she’d felt about letting go of her work eased. “Aside from doing information retrieval, which, as you know, is project by project, I oversee our cyber division. We have four people on the team—Abbot, Witherspoon, Torres, and Oliphant—with Abbot being the lead. They handle the majority of installation and monitoring of the various security systems, bothphysical and online. They’re an extremely talented group, but I test their systems regularly.” Bean couldn’t help her grimace. “I hate to give this up since it’s one of my favorite things to do, but aside from project-specific stuff, this is something I’d like you to take over.”

“By test, you mean hack into the systems they install?” Even through the online feed, Bean could see the twinkle in the man’s eyes.

“Yup,” she said, deliberately popping the P. “See where it’s weak. Suggest code to shore it up, and then hack it again until you’re satisfied with it.”

A giant grin grew over Tiny’s face. “Nice.”

“When we have specific missions—the kidnapping and ransom types—you and I, along with the cyber division, will get pulled to track and provide intel. We have to be fast and accurate. As you’ve just experienced, weekends and off-hours don’t matter.”

“Understood,” he said, nodding. “MacKay gave me the basics of the last mission with the McClintock child. Good work.”

“Thank you.” Though it had technically been a success, her heart still hurt for what that little boy and his family had gone through. “So now that’s all squared away, have you found anything on Constance or Roger Whitcomb?”

CHAPTER NINETEEN

It was almost noon, and Gavin leaned back in his chair, twisting his neck from side to side. As he’d been ordered to do, he’d made sure breakfast was brought in for everyone, and lunch was scheduled to be delivered within the next thirty minutes.

He’d arrived at the ass crack of dawn, and it had been a long morning checking in with MacKay and each of the security team leads, not to mention contacting a few high-maintenance clients who needed extra hand-holding. All the while, he’d been in a shit mood.

Generally, he was a fairly even-keeled guy, but today...

Not so much.

He was restless and out of sorts. And he didn’t know why.

Closing his eyes, he slouched in his chair and rested his head on the back. That was a lie. He knew exactly why.

He wasn’t a spur-of-the-moment kind of person. Everything he did was well thought out. Planned. Methodical. Every contingency was taken into account. But yesterday, he’d fucked up. He hadn’t thought of the possibility of someone targeting him, let alone firing at him. His lack offoresight could have gotten Bean hurt. And that was unacceptable.

On top of all that, he’d done something uncharacteristic—he’d acted before thinking. Last night, not only had he gotten more physical with Bean than was appropriate, but he’d bought her a gift...

His gaze landed on the two boxes sitting at the edge of his desk. They’d been delivered to the office an hour earlier via special courier. As requested, both were plain, nondescript, brown-lidded boxes.

Nervous energy coursed through him as he stood and peeked into both of the boxes. It wasn’t like he hadn’t checked them three times already.

It’s no big deal, Frazier. It’s just a friendly gift.

Bullshit.

It wasn’t just a damn gift. And as much as he could try to convince himself it was friendly, it wasn’t.

Standing, he grabbed the boxes and headed for his office door. His hand froze on the doorknob.

Holy shit. What the hell was he doing?

Part of him yelled to drop the boxes, turn around, and sit his ass back down at his desk. But the other part of him? It begged him to get his ass in gear. To stop being a pussy, open the damn door, and give Bean her presents.

Gripping the doorknob, he thunked his forehead against the door. Once. Twice. Three times. Then an image of Bean popped into his mind from late last night as he’d said goodbye to her. How her eyes had heated as he’d caressed her face. How damn soft her skin had been. How he’d caught her floral scent as he’d leaned down to kiss her forehead.

Yeah . . .

Decision made, he straightened and opened the door. Knowing their colleagues were milling about, he walked thefew steps to her neighboring office as nonchalantly as he could, knocked on her door, and waited.

“Come in,” her muffled voice called out.

Closing the door behind him, he approached her workstation. Finding a clear spot at the corner of her desk, he set the boxes down with the larger of the two on top.

Her eyes ping-ponged between him and the boxes. “What’s this?”

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