Page 22 of Knight Moves

There was no way I’d be stupid enough to search for information on my dad on a government network, but I could read the information I’d already downloaded.

Although I’d already read it a hundred times, I opened the police report on my dad. I flipped to the page where the police discussed my father’s workplace, King’s Security. Wally and I had traced it and discovered it was owned by the NSA. I’d never been told my dad worked for the NSA and apparently neither had the police, because it hadn’t been in the report. My dad’s official title had been security engineer. I knew that meant he would have been responsible for testing and screening computer security software and monitoring networks and systems for potential intrusions. They also implemented and tested strategies to plan and prepare for security threats. But my dad’s background was in cryptology and encryption. Cryptologists created and deciphered codes and cryptograms. So what had my dad been working on when he disappeared?

I googled for inventions and advancements in cryptology around the time my dad disappeared and read until I almost fell asleep at the keyboard. That’s exactly when Frankie woke up and announced we had to go to dinner.

We met Wally in the cafeteria. Everyone was there except for Jax and Kira. I hadn’t seen Kira since lunch, and she lived with us. Where did she disappear to all the time?

After dinner, we invited Wally to go with us to the pool. He declined.

“Are you kidding? I don’t want Kira to see me in my bathing suit. As you can see, I’m not exactly buff.”

“Seriously?” I crossed my arms, frowning. “You’re not going to start pining over Kira, are you?”

“How can I stop myself?” Wally sighed and pressed a hand to his chest. “Have you taken a good look at her? She’s gorgeousness times a million. The most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen in this close proximity. And she’s got to be smart if she’s here. The perfect woman for me.”

I rolled my eyes. “You don’t know anything about her. You just met her. Don’t lose sight of what’s important here.”

“Oh, trust me. I know what’s important. I know you’re going to say I’m overreacting, but I feel like she’s my destiny.”

“Ugh.” I threw up my hands. “It’s lust, Wally. Knock it off.”

Frankie giggled, but Wally crossed his arms and glared at me. “It’s not lust. Well, maybe a little, but you donotknow what’s in my heart.”

“Fine,” I said, huffing out a breath. “Your loss. If you don’t want to come swimming, we’ll go without you.”

We got dressed in our swimsuits and headed out. When we got to the gym, Jax and Bo were on the mats wrestling. Kira was in another corner lifting weights. Mike was nowhere in sight.

Jax saw me and waved cheerfully. “Hey, Red, you want to wrestle next?”

“Um, no, thanks.” My cheeks heated. “I’m going swimming.”

“Your loss,” he said grinning as he picked up a towel and swiped it across his brow. “Maybe next time.”

“Sure, maybe,” I called out. Biggest. Lie. Ever. No way was I going to get that close to him.

Frankie and I headed on to the swimming pool, grabbing a couple of towels on our way and dumping them on a chair.

“I think Jax likes you,” Frankie announced.

“What?” I frowned fiercely at her as I pulled my hair back in a ponytail, securing it. “I just met him. How can you extrapolate that?”

She raised an eyebrow. “He didn’t ask me to wrestle.”

I didn’t have an adequate answer to that, so I dived into the pool. We had it all to ourselves, so we swam a bunch of laps and then splashed around a bit. When we got out, Jax and Kira were gone. Bo was in another corner of the gym using a bow and arrow to hit a target. I wrapped myself in a towel and watched him hit the bull’s-eye three times in a row.

Holy crap. He had some mad skills with the bow. He must have felt me watching, because he turned around and gave me a little wave. I waved back, and he resumed his target shooting.

Anxiety swamped me. I’d never used a bow in my life, and I totally sucked at darts. I hadn’t held or fired a gun and didn’t play on any sports teams, other than when forced to do so in gym class. Other than swimming, I had no ability in anything physical, which was kind of scary after watching Bo nail the target time after time.

Frankie was chatting with the lifeguard, so I went into the locker room to change. When I came out, Bo was gone and the lifeguard was closing down the pool.

“The lifeguard is so nice,” she said. “I thought it must be a boring job watching us swim, but he told me he likes the solitude to think.”

“Well, hurry up and get dressed,” I said, a bit irritated I had to wait for her. Did she have to talk to everyone? “We’re the last ones in the gym.”

“Oh, sure,” she said, hustling into the locker room.

The fourth bunk in our room was still empty by the time we finally got back. It looked like it was going to be just the three of us. Kira was just getting out of the shower. She walked into the room, toweling her hair.

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