Page 66 of Stealthy Seduction
Kennedy’s eyes sharpened with concern as she studied her friend’s face. “I’ll make you some tea instead. Chamomile might be better.”
Meanwhile, Sophie paced near the windows, her usual calm demeanor replaced by restless energy. Her hands twisted together as she walked back and forth, back and forth, like a caged animal sensing danger none of them could spot.
Izzy set up her laptop on the countertop, but any research she’d planned to do for her book was impossible. After several long minutes of watching Sophie, Izzy couldn’t take it anymore.
“Sophie, what’s wrong?”
Sophie paused midstride, head bowed as if she could find the answer in the marble veins on the floor. “It was too easy.”
May looked up from where she’d been staring at her untouched breakfast. “What was too easy?”
She brought her fist to her lips, pressing it against them as if she could stop the words that wanted to flow out. “The cipher. The code. It was too easy to break.” Sophie’s voice carried an edge that Izzy hadn’t heard before.
“You got intel that sent the men on the op,” Alyssa breathed out.
Sophie nodded.
May shifted uncomfortably. “You’re getting better at knowing his moves. You’ve been dialed into his patterns for months now.”
“Could be,” Sophie said, but her expression remained troubled. “But something feels off. He’s too quiet, too…patient. That’s not his style.”
Silence hovered between the women, but soon Sophie poured herself a mug of coffee and settled with it cradled between both hands, staring at the creamy depths. The teapot bubbled, and Kennedy fixed some chamomile tea for Alyssa. May nibbled on a scone.
And Izzy tried to find some balance in all of this, which right now meant working on her research.
The light conversation the women forced out faded to background noise as Izzy logged in using the private browser that Dante had set her up with.
So when an email from her newsroom account landed in her private inbox, she blinked at the screen.
What in the world was that? She always kept her work and personal emails separate.
Maybe it was a message from her director or one of her colleagues, asking about her after the Times Square incident?
But the subject line made her blood run cold.
Tip About Anonymous Donor
She shouldn’t open it. She should tell Sophie. Or any of them.
With a nervous glance at her friends sitting around the island, each looking worried and drawn, she couldn’t bear to add to their anxiety level.
She would do anything to help them capture Cipher; to end this nightmare so she could go back to some semblance of a normal life. If someone had information about the anonymous donor funding Dr. Webb’s clinic…
She didn’t make it as a journalist by not pursuing things even when it wasn’t one hundred percent safe.
Her heart hammered against her ribs as she opened the email.
It contained a video file. No text, just an attachment with a timestamp from earlier that morning.
She clicked play and watched grainy drone footage of a helicopter landing. Military personnel disembarked with practiced efficiency, their faces too distant to make out clearly. It could have been old footage—after all, Steele’s team had flown countless missions, and helicopters were standard transport.
But then the camera zoomed in, focusing on one particular figure, and Izzy’s world tilted off its axis. An ice-cold geyser of terror made her stomach plummet and her mind whirl.
A flash of light caught the morning sun—and something reflective around the man’s neck, glinting against his tactical gear. The image was brief, lasting only a second, but it was enough.
The crystal.Hercrystal, hanging from its leather cord around Hudson’s neck.
Oh god.
