Page 36 of No Stone Unturned

“I will. Thank you, sir.”

An idea suddenly occurred to him, and he waited until she passed. Tapping his key card to the door pad, he went inside. As expected, both of his internal wire traps were tripped. They wouldn’t have found anything, but he was certain they’d be back. This time, he’d make sure they found something. Now he knew the game, he was ready to make his first move.

But first, he had a lot to do.

Chapter Twenty-Three

Lexi

Gray and Basia left well past midnight. After they were gone, I gathered up all the papers and Gray’s thumb drive, which she’d left for me, then slipped my laptop under my arm and climbed the stairs to the home office Slash and I now shared. I was stressed and exhausted, but my mind was on overload, churning with an endless stream of information that needed sorting, clarification and organization. Before I could sleep, I had to determine what pieces of information were important and which ones to discard.

What I needed was a spreadsheet and a clear strategy.

I tapped in the security code for the office and blinked into the retinal scanner until the door clicked open, the lights automatically turning on as I entered. I loved this space. We had filled it with the things we cherished most—top-of-the-line computer hardware and software. We had not spared any expense in this room, which in our case meant we pretty much had the virtual world at our fingertips.

Slash had his desk and work area on one side of the room, and mine was on the other. Not because we wanted to be apart, but to help us focus on the work and not each other. That was difficult when we were in close proximity. We’d chosen sleek module furniture, and Slash had wired the entire house to handle the most optimal speed. His black desk had three large plasma monitors, two vertical and one horizontal on his desk, with two more on a nearby table. We had a cluster of laptops dedicated to various tasks, completely customizable, depending on what we needed. My desk was white with two oversize monitors and a laptop, which I now held under my arm. I set it on the desk and slipped on the sweater draped over the back of my chair because we kept the room arctic cold as a result of the equipment. I reattached the laptop to a large monitor on my desk before I got to work.

Several hours later, I’d printed and taped a series of spreadsheets to the wall with all the pertinent information I’d gathered, creating a visual timeline of Slash’s life. Unfortunately, I needed more information, which meant one thing—it was time to hack. But I needed help for this one. Powerful help.

I glanced at the clock. It was already five in the morning. Thank God it was Saturday. I shot a quick text to Elvis, asking him if he’d have time for a consult later today.

He texted back almost immediately, which was unusual since he told me he’d been working on a big project and going to bed early so he could function during the day when he led a team.

Just heading to bed. Looks like we are both keeping hacker hours. Let’s meet at my place at two o’clock. Does that work for you?

I smiled. He was one of my best friends, and somehow it was comforting that our schedules were back in sync. When we both worked at the NSA, before we left for the less restrictive private sector, we typically kept hacker hours. But now we both had significant others, which meant less time to game and hack at night. So, it surprised me he was awake now.

I tapped out a text stating my agreement before standing up and yawning. I desperately needed some sleep to function properly. I got into my pajamas, washed my face and brushed my teeth. Before I fell asleep, I realized I hadn’t talked to Slash today. He hadn’t called me, and I hadn’t called him. When was the last time we’d gone twenty-four hours without speaking to each other?

I looked down at my engagement ring, and pressed my thumb against the band. Part of me wanted to call him right at this moment and be damned with time zones and painful secrets, but part of me was afraid.

As I was summoning my courage to call him, I fell asleep. Another day passed without us talking to each other.

Lexi

It was exactly 1:58 p.m. when I pulled up in front of the Zimmermans’ house. I wasn’t feeling awake or well—stress and lack of sleep were all playing a big role in that. I rang the doorbell and Gwen, Elvis’s girlfriend, answered.

“Hey, Lexi.” Gwen ushered me in. She looked cute in a navy T-shirt, jean shorts and bare feet. Her flaming red hair was loose around her shoulders, her face void of makeup, full of freckles.

“Elvis said you were coming over,” she said cheerfully. “He’s getting out of the shower. Guess he had a late night on the computer.”

“Yeah. Me, too.” I strolled into the twins’ command center, which was a converted dining room where they worked and kept all their equipment and computers.

I stopped in the doorway. It was the same room, but it looked...different. The couch had been pushed against one of the walls and now had pretty throw pillows and there was a new rug spreading color across the wooden floor. The cords on the curtains had been neatly gathered and tied. Holy cow! Were there curtains on the windows?

“Wow.” I did a three-sixty revolution. “You fixed things up.”

“Just a little. I’ve been staying here an awful lot, and Elvis encouraged me to do it, so I did.” Gwen tucked her hair behind her ears. “Do you like it?”

“Yeah, I do. It looks great.” I spotted a small table to the side with a chair on either side covered in Legos and what looked like a half-finished project. I spied the box nearby on the floor. “No way. Is that the Taj Mahal Lego set?”

She smiled. “Elvis bought it and we’re spending our free time building it. Cool, right?”

“Totally cool. Gwen, everything looks really nice. Seriously.” She’d been careful not to change up anything big, just small, homey touches. I spotted a little plant on Elvis’s desk. Plus, the Lego area was prime, and I knew Elvis had to love it.

Gwen picked up one of two blankets draped over the back of the couch and handed it to me. “You still have your own blanket here. I had to get one, too, because they keep it so cold in here, but this one is still the Lexi blanket.”

“Thanks.” I took the blanket, surprisingly touched by the gesture.

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