Page 27 of Cuckoo (Kindred)

Art didn’t like Cuckoo, neither did Tuck, so she didn’t mind reiterating her reservations about having the European at the helm. Cuckoo might know business, but Zara knew a scorned woman wanted leverage. So the last thing the Kindred should do is give it to Cuckoo. They had to decommission Winter Chill right under Cuckoo’s nose, without revealing their actions to the woman Brodie had put in charge.

“It will take her time to settle in,” Zave said. “We should take advantage of that window.”

“Because once she’s confident in her role and in the systems, it will be harder for us to get in,” Tuck said. “I can limit what she can see, but if she figures out what we’re doing, we might just make her curious.”

“Mischa won’t cause trouble,” Brodie said, and he was so blank that Zara struggled to read if he was serious or how he could be so sure.

Brodie had been intimate with the woman and so knew her better than the others in the room. Cuckoo hadn’t made a great impression on her, but Mischa’s attitude towards her may have been motivated by sour grapes. Zara had the man Cuckoo had once loved. Either Cuckoo wasn’t as despicable as Zara believed her to be or Brodie was confident in his ability to control her.

Asking more questions in this environment, in front of their audience, wasn’t appropriate, this was a business meeting. Trusting Brodie, and their love, meant although she was curious, she had no real reason to question his assertion.

While she was examining her man, Thad piped up. “What is your plan for Cormack Industries?” Thad asked Brodie. Zara was glad that she wasn’t the sole person at the table invested in that answer. “What’s your plan long term? You can’t mean to keep Cuckoo there forever. She has her own company to run.”

And the last thing Zara wanted was Cuckoo in their lives full-time. Brodie’s answer didn’t assuage those concerns. “Mischa gave up full time responsibility at her father’s firm a couple of years ago. She flips around different boards, different companies, different countries,” Brodie said. “She doesn’t have a great professional attention span.”

Zara could hope that meant Cuckoo would eventually get bored at CI. But for the woman to drop everything and run at Brodie’s command, it suggested she was interested in more than just the McCormack firm.

“Why did you bring her into CI then?” Thad asked, and she appreciated that he probed for the answers she wanted but couldn’t request without coming across as a jealous girlfriend.

“Because she’s the only person I know who has the experience needed to run a multinational like CI. And she has the reputation to support her being given the position,” Brodie said. Forcing Brodie into a corner was more likely to get a person killed than satisfied. That he gave these answers without appearing pissed made Zara think he’d anticipated the questions and maybe even rehearsed the answers in his head. “I just needed it off our plates and so I put it on hers.”

The doctor wasn’t done and started to speculate. “You could absorb it into Knight Corp,” Thad said, twisting to Zave, who was at his side. “You could take over.”

Tuck laughed. “When was the last time you set foot in the Knight building?” Tuck asked Zave, though Zara didn’t know what Knight Corp was. “Have you been there in the last ten years?” Zave just shrugged. “It’s running on its own steam and that steam will run out. You don’t get the rep of being the ghost director by showing up for work every day.”

“What’s Knight Corp?” Zara asked.

“Zave’s company,” Brodie said. “He started it when he was a kid. He made his first million before he was sixteen.”

That was impressive and as her brows rose, she watched Zave’s annoyance grow. “It keeps us in chopper fuel,” Zave grumbled, and for the first time she saw him get riled, though he tried to conceal his annoyance behind an angry glare and a clenched jaw. “I don’t want CI. I don’t even want KC.”

“Which I knew,” Brodie said, giving a logical explanation for why he hadn’t done what Thad suggested. “CI can wait, let’s just forget about that and focus on finding Kahlil and shutting down Game Time.”

The rest of the group were happy to move on; they’d gotten all the answers they would get from Brodie today. “I’ll set the system to monitor his email and search facial recognition until we get a hit,” Tuck said.

“Zara and I can go through the paperwork that’s upstairs,” Thad said.

She appreciated the doctor’s support, and grunt work was all she was good for given their current situation. “I’ll take his computer,” Zave said. “When you’re done, Swift, we’ll go hunting.”

“Sounds good,” Tuck said and everyone began to rise.

The group began to disband and she crossed to intercept Brodie. “What are you going to do?”

“Clean the rifles,” he said, brushing his thumb across her chin. “Always gets me in the mood for a fight.”

NINE

Thad was a lot of fun. Working with someone who made jokes and was easy about showing his emotions was refreshing in comparison to what she’d been surrounded with of late. She and her workmate spread out in the dining room they’d once all eaten in to go through all of the files from Grant’s office.

Every once in a while, Tuck came in with a pile of printouts from the laptop and added them to their in-tray. As he and Zave pulled more data from Grant’s computer they brought it up for a second look, since the two techies were tasked with retrieving, not analyzing, the data.

“You’ve held up well, given all that’s happened since you joined the Kindred,” Thad said, putting a file into the done pile.

“It’s been tough,” she said, still reading. “You and Zave always show up right on time.”

“Brodie’s the only one Zave trusts,” Thad said, picking up another pile of papers to pull them over to him.

Thad was always so chipper, but she saw the flicker of disappointment he tried to hide by turning his head down. She could only imagine the kind of missions the cousins had been on together and how each one would have affected familial politics.

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