Page 61 of Covert Temptation

The deeper he went, the more the picture came into focus. The son—Daniel Sheen—hadworked for the CIA. Not as field op or desk analyst, but as a computer tech in a secure facility in Northern Virginia. He climbed the ranks on his knowledge fast. His clearances were high enough to know too much.

To know about Blackout…and Echo team.

He quit the CIA after just six months. After that, he lived with his mother in the Virginia home where he grew up.

The son kneweverything—how to scrub records, how to slip through digital nets without raising flags. He was trained to vanish.

To fake his own death.

And now he was out in the wild, executing a plan that was likely years in the making. This was an act of revenge against those who failed to stop his mother from dying in that bombing.

Dante sat back, heart pounding.

They were one step closer. They had a trace to follow.

All they needed now was tofindhim.

And if this guy turned out to be Cipher —the man pulling all the strings, the voice behind the puzzles, the chaos, the terror—it would all end right here.

Or blow up in their faces.

Dante picked up the smoothie, took a slow drink and looked across the room at Kennedy. Her eyes were closed, her chest rising and falling in a steady rhythm, like she wasn’t carrying the weight of nations behind those long lashes.

He knew better.

She was carrying just as much as he was—maybe more. Hell, she already had a target on her back.

And every step they took toward the truth painted that target bolder. With every thread they pulled, they risked dragging the danger closer—not just to her, but to both of them.

From here on out, they had to tread carefully. One wrong move, one leak, and they’d be silenced before the truth ever saw daylight.

Failure wouldn’t just mean sinking the op. It would mean losing everything.

Including whatever fragile, unfinished thing had taken root between him and Kennedy.

* * * * *

Kennedy sipped the last of her smoothie and set the cup in the sink. Chalky vanilla protein powder wasn’t exactly a cafe latte, but she would have to make do, just like she did with everything these days.

She leaned against the sink, staring out the window that overlooked the front yard. The sun had melted off the snow, leaving slushy patches on the driveway and yard, and the sky had cleared to a pale blue.

The faint tapping noise of Dante’s fingers on the laptop told her that he would be a while. Now that they knew Daniel Sheen had faked his death, they were officially in the trenches.

Kennedy was here for Dante. After all, she always backed Alyssa on every project. She was prepared to assist in any way possible. Whatever it took, she’d be right there beside him.

She went into her bedroom. A quick glance around the space made her nose wrinkle. Kennedy was no slob, but she hadn’t been her usual fastidious self since coming to the safe house. A cluttered space cluttered her mind, so she set about tidying up.

First, she spritzed the bedding with a small bottle of linen spray from her suitcase. While that dried, she grabbed the few garments she’d left draped over the chair in the corner.

She could hang her things up in the closet…but she didn’t know what to plan for. They might be making a run for it any minute, and there wouldn’t be time for packing.

In the end, she smoothed the garments before folding them neatly and tucking them into her luggage again. With that task completed, she fluffed the pillows and made the bed.

The small act made her feel a little more human, and that meant she wanted to dress like one. She selected jeans, soft and worn in all the right places, and a red sweater with buttons down the front that she’d picked up in Paris.

When she looked in the bathroom mirror, she realized that for the first time in weeks, her complexion didn’t look ghastly. Maybe it was the red hue of the sweater…

Maybe it was being here with Dante.

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