Page 170 of Secret Weapon

Loslov’s men had violated her in so many ways.

But her ordeal was over.

Timothy Stern would fly up on the weekend to spend a few days with her too.Personally, I thought he was a bit of a dick, but Ottie liked him and he wasn’t a traitor, and those were the only two things that mattered.We’d got to the bottom of that matter too.Why had Ottie run?Because the night the weapon disappeared, she’d been working late and overheard Mark Fitz discussing the theft on the phone—a burner, we now knew—and when he’d called his partner in crime “Tim,” she’d assumed the worst.Believing she’d been betrayed by two close friends-slash-colleagues and unsure who to trust, she’d panicked, wiped the weapon’s software, and run.

The “Tim” in question?

Timonenko.

It had taken some coaxing, but she’d finally agreed to show us where she’d hidden the memory card containing the code, and tomorrow, we’d deliver it back to Sandy Peake where it belonged.

Why weren’t we leaving tonight?

Because tonight, Dasha planned to attend a salsa dancing class with a group of friends—Brooke and Paulo, of course, plus Brooke’s fiancé and Aaron, her brother, and a couple of others whose names I’d forgotten—which was basically her worst nightmare.But while she was out, Ana and I had agreed to break into Aaron’s apartment and leave a note from the Bad Samaritan, which was apparently what Dasha usually did, but this time, she’d have an alibi.It shouldn’t be difficult—she’d provided us with a door key and the alarm code, plus she’d explained how to log into the security monitoring app to turn off the cameras temporarily.

A car was waiting for us near the plane, and Hallie helped Ottie into the front seat.

“Are you comfortable?Do you need a hand with the seat belt?”

Ottie managed a tight smile.“I’m okay.”

Once again, Hallie had proven her resilience.Despite being abducted for a fourth time, she hadn’t cracked from the pressure.In fact, she seemed to have become stronger.Every time she survived an episode that would have broken ninety-nine percent of other people, she grew in confidence.Three days after the fuck-up with Ilya, I’d been surprised to find her in the gym, smacking Dasha around under Alex’s watchful gaze.I’d still insisted she take a break with Ford—they’d spent a week in the Bahamas, doing nothing but each other—but now she was back and ready for our next project: the search for Kaylin La Rocca.Investigating a hit-and-run couldn’t be as dangerous as chasing down a secret weapon.Could it?

We set off for Baldwin’s Shore.

“It’s so good to see you.”

Leona Curran flung her arms around Ottie, and they hugged for a long moment before Ottie took half a dozen shaky steps towards an armchair.Nico had arranged a sea-view suite on the ground floor, so Ottie didn’t have to crash on a fold-up cot this time around.Gidget yipped around her feet like a caffeinated fluffball, now fully recovered from the poisoning incident and ecstatic to see her owner.Someone—Leona, probably—had thrown a blanket over the chair so Gidget wouldn’t leave hair all over it, and when Ottie sat down, the mutt leapt up and snuggled into her lap.A happy ending.

Ottie fiddled with Gidget’s collar, cursing under her breath until she finally detached the tags.

“Here you go.”

I took the tags and turned them over in my hands.“Why do I need these?”

Ottie’s name, Gidget’s name, their address in Santa Clarita, phone numbers, proof of rabies vaccination, county licence number, a pretty little pendant with a paw print… The dog wore more jewellery than I did.

“Look closer.”

I did as instructed, and then… Ah, clever girl.I began laughing.The paw print wasn’t just a decoration; it was also a locket.The back unscrewed, and when I opened it, I found a tiny memory card inside.

“You entrusted the code to adog?”

“Gidget runs faster than I do.Plus she doesn’t much like men, so I figured she’d bite anyone who tried to take a closer look.”

“She likes Nico,” Leona said.“He bribes her with chicken.”

“I thought she’d gotten fat.”

“You’ll be walking properly in no time, and then we can exercise her together.”

“Tim can take her out when he gets here.”Ottie smiled.“He bribes her with cheese.Don’t let José mess with my code, okay?I’m almost certain I know what the problem is with the power consumption, and I’ll fix it when I come back.”

Yes, Ottie planned to go back to work.She believed in her job, and the idea of a non-lethal, non-contact weapon with near-instant stopping power was one that had grown on me.We didn’t live in a utopia.There would always be bad actors who aspired to turn a peaceful gathering into a riot, always be assholes who turned to crime rather than doing an honest day’s work.But was a bullet an appropriate punishment?Ottie’s work opened up all kinds of other possibilities.

As long as it stopped boiling people alive.

“I’ll tell José to keep his hands off.”

---