Page 103 of Only the Devil
“And where exactly is he planning to send me?”
“St. Kitts.”
“You don’t actually believe he’s going to send me to his personal vacation villa, do you?”
Silence spreads. In the apartment, and on the line between Phillip and Weaver.
“For Christ’s sake, Phillip, St. Kitts is nonextradition. That’s all this is. You need to move before someone shows up at your door.”
“His private hangar?”
“Yes. You’ll take the small plane to New York. Fly in the corporate jet. You’ll be gone before customs flags you. It’s probably an unnecessary precaution, I doubt anyone’s moving that quickly to flag you but, just to be safe.”
“Are you coming?”
“No. Someone has to stay here to clean up this mess. Do you know who altered the presentation?”
“No. My first thought was Jonas, but she was as shocked as me.”
“I’ll figure it out. You go pack.”
“Should I be worried?”
“Bring security with you if you’re worried.”
“Good idea. Thanks, Jillian. What a clusterfuck.”
“You can say that again.”
The call ends, and Jake announces, “That’s it. She’s closing up, turning off the lights.”
“You think that’s it?” I ask.
“Probably. I’ll watch her on the feed until she exits the building.”
Brie and Noah are chatting, but I’m not listening too closely.
Jake sits behind his laptop, presumably watching the surveillance views of the office across the street.
Notifications light my phone, sometimes in such fast succession I can’t keep up. I lose interest and go to the window as an unease settles. It’s a familiar enough sensation. But I usually get it when I’ve deployed an update after passing testing. There’s a bug in the code, and with enough tests in the right conditions, everything’s going to break. That’s the sensation, and what it tells me is that something’s off.
If the investigators believe Sterling is the culprit, how deeply will they investigate? Sterling didn’t sound like a man who orders murders. Maybe that’s the piece that’s bothering me the most. This Bennett guy sounds like he would, but I can’t be positive. If Sterling winds up dead…
“You’re thinking too hard,” Jake says, coming up behind me.
“Am I?”
“Yeah. For tonight, just let yourself feel good about what we accomplished.”
I lean back against his chest, allowing myself this moment of closeness.
“We won,” Jake says.
He’s right. We did. Sort of. It’s a partial win.
“Should we be doing something to protect Sterling?”
“Not sure how we would without exposing our hand. Guy thinks he’s heading for a tropical vacation.”
