Page 36 of Wired Justice

Chapter Twenty

Jake resignedhimself to doing the long drive again. According to the GPS, Ocean View Terrace was located well off the beaten track on the other side of Volcanoes Park. They needed to try to hit this house while Paul Chernobiac, a.k.a. “Cypher,” was being interviewed. Jake was glad Sophie had downloaded and saved the map with the location as they drove an hour back in the direction they had come.

The sunset was a spectacular streaking of reds, yellows, and purples over the sky from the ocean to the west. Sophie sat quietly, her gaze out the window, her hands folded in her lap. The dogs snored peacefully in the back.

How could he move things forward between them? Chicks loved hashing over that shit. “Should we talk about what’s been happening?”

“With the case?”

“No. With us. You and me.”

Sophie glanced at him. “No.”

Her answer hurt, but he tried to sound humorous. “You’re the only woman I’ve ever met who never wants to talk about a relationship and where it’s going.”

She leaned even further away. “I’m not like other women.”

“You can say that again.” Jake winced. He was mucking it up. Stop talking now!

Sophie scrunched her nose. “Why would I say that again?”

“I never realized how many expressions and idioms there were in the English language until I began explaining them to you all the time.”

Sophie’s cell phone rang. She took it out of her pocket. Her mouth made a little O. “It’s Alika.”

Jealousy felt like a punch to the solar plexus, but Sophie had told him that jealousy was a turn-off after her homicidal bastard ex-husband. Jake smiled with difficulty. “Tell your helicopter buddy hi from me.”

Sophie rolled her eyes, and Jake laughed. That they could even kind of joke about it felt good.

She answered the phone. Jake could hear their conversation. “Sophie. How’s it going on the Big Island?” Alika had a nice phone voice. “I miss you.”

Jake never sounded good on the phone—too abrupt and too loud.

Damn the man and his slick manners, sweet chopper and those armband tribal tats . . .maybe Jake should get some. Barbed wire around his biceps, or some shit. But Sophie wouldn’t be impressed with that. It would have to have meaning. And other than his Special Forces unit, he had never cared about symbols enough to put them on his body.

“Well, actually I haven’t been able to do much of what I planned,” Sophie said. “I found a body dump on my second day hiking, and then was drawn into an investigation right after that.”

“You’re kidding!”

“Unfortunately, no. I am not.”

When was it that he had come to love even her pedantic speech patterns?

“Alika, Jake and I are working a case for Security Solutions. Searching for a missing young woman, and we’re driving to do a recon of something related to the case. I should go.”

A pause. Then, “Jake is with you?” Alika didn’t sound happy.

Jake leaned over and spoke into the phone. “Howzit hanging, Alika? I’m working with Sophie twenty-four seven. We’re even sharing a motel room. Catch you later, pal.”

Sophie scowled at him and lifted the phone tight to her ear. She turned away to face the window. “I’ll call when I can speak privately, Alika,” Sophie said softly. She murmured something he couldn’t catch, and ended the call. She slid her phone back into her pocket and turned to him. “Don’t be obnoxious, Jake.”

Jake rolled his shoulders. “Can’t help my natural charm.”

The headlights caught a reflective sign marking the turn off, and Sophie pointed. “There!” Soon they were bouncing along a rutted, unlit road.

Jake tightened his hands on the wheel. “I want to park away from the house. We need to drive by it, identify it, park with our lights off and go in dark.”

Sophie nodded. They drove slowly as Jake strained to see between the thick bushes that screened the driveway coming off of the narrow road. “I don’t see any mailboxes or other number identification,” Sophie said. “but the GPS says we have arrived.”

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