Page 10 of Be Very Quiet

“What’s the difference between that and Face Timing on a phone or a video conference call?” Christian wondered.

“My coolness factor is off the charts with this,” Tyler insisted. “I mean, watch.” He spun the machine in a circle before rolling backward and forward again, showing off the machine’s capabilities . . . or dance moves. Luca wasn’t sure which.

A smaller vision of the same contraption zoomed up and executed a three-sixty before coming to a stop. The screen clicked on, and Kai Costa’s adorable grinning face appeared. Kai was Dante’s son, the man in charge of training the agents.

“Hey, guys, isn’t this the greatest? Watch.” He performed several impressive moves with the device.

“You sucked Little C into your robot world?” Luca chided.

“He’s a natural,” Tyler declared. “Who else would be my doppelgänger but Dante’s mini-me? I mean, come on guys, you can admit Dante and I are practically twins since we have the same body type.”

“Yeah, right,” Jalen coughed into his fist, and they all chuckled. While Tyler was fit and had honed his muscles, Dante Costa was in a class by himself . . . along the lines of Ares, the Greek god of war. The former Navy Seal was the textbook example of a physical specimen.

“Hey, everyone, do you know what a robot’s favorite food is?”

“If we’re talking about you, Kai, it’d be meat lover’s pizza,” Christian answered.

“Yes! But no.” Kai shook his head, and the machine wiggled.

“Mac and cheese,” Presley guessed. “I heard you tell someone you would lop off their hand if they tried to steal a taste of your dish . . . oh, and, by the way, that was me.”

Kai grinned sheepishly. “Yeah, sorry about that, Presley. Kaitlyn’s mac and cheese is the bomb, and I lose my mind the second she places it in front of me. I zone out, and all I see is the tastiest, creamiest pasta on the planet.”

Kaitlyn was the sister of their boss Luke and was married to their other boss Logan’s brother, Dan, who was also a coworker. She was a world-class chef.

“Corndogs,” Kayne tried. “I heard you say that it was the perfect food.”

“They are! I mean, you can carry them around on a stick, dip them in ketchup or mustard, or nothing at all, and they are still delish. But no.” Kai’s robot twisted from side to side in what Luca assumed was another shake of his head.

“All right, we give,” Christian capitulated. “What is a robot’s favorite food?”

“Microchips!” Kai hooted, and his robot spun in several circles.

While they were all laughing, Luca’s phone buzzed. He didn’t recognize the seven-eight-six area code and almost let the call go to voicemail. Something made him punch the button to answer. “Russo.”

“He’s back.”

Luca froze. Every muscle in his body seized. Christian and Jalen noticed, giving him questioning looks.

Though the caller didn’t identify herself, he would’ve known Liliana Lima’s voice anywhere. He’d been waiting for her call for years—ten, to be exact. It was why he’d worked with the COBRA Securities tech department to add a second SIM card to his phone so he could keep the number he’d given her all those years ago.

“Liliana?”

She didn’t respond for so long that he feared she had hung up.

“I’m sorry, Luca. I overreacted and shouldn’t have called you.”

“Liliana, wait!”

Too late. She’d disconnected. He instantly redialed but got a busy signal. She must’ve used a landline.

“Is something wrong?” Kayne asked.

“I’m not sure.” He searched the seven-eight-six area code and discovered it was Miami Beach. Luca had known Liliana had fled to Florida after she’d left Minnesota, but he’d refrained from using his contacts to track her down all these years. If she had wanted to talk to him, she would have called . . . like now. He had made sure to search for similar crimes to Ted Rader around the country, but nothing had ever popped up. If it had, he would’ve flown to her in a heartbeat. “It’s about a case I worked on years ago.”

“Anything we can do to help?” Presley posed.

“I don’t know what’s happening yet, but I’ll let you know. You guys go on. I need to talk to Tyler.”

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