Total pages in book: 109
Estimated words: 103027 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 515(@200wpm)___ 412(@250wpm)___ 343(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 103027 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 515(@200wpm)___ 412(@250wpm)___ 343(@300wpm)
It wasn’t the time to spring forever on her.
I could be patient. We’d find the guy who blew up her van and killed Emily Shaw, get her banking issues sorted out, and get her back into her socials. Then she could take a breath, and I could fill her in on how things were going to go—i.e., I was keeping her—and by then I’d make sure she wanted to keep me just as much.
Great plan, a little voice in the back of my head piped up. But when are you going to tell her about Silas, who he is to you, and what this investigation is really about? She still thinks you’re working for a client.
I’d been dodging that question since the first day.
It wasn’t that I wanted to lie. And really, I wasn’t lying. She’d signed an NDA. She knew we weren’t telling her everything. We’d openly talked about it, so it wasn’t really that big a deal.
At least that was what I’d been telling myself.
I had a brief flash about how pissed off she would be when she found out I wasn’t keeping secrets for a client. That they were my secrets, and Emily Shaw was my case. It wasn’t about work. It was about family.
I looked at her again. The right time would come, but it wasn’t now. Sylvie didn’t need that stress right now. The truth could wait just a little longer.
My phone chirped with a text.
Sylvie shifted against me, the sound penetrating her slumber. I reached over her, trying not to jostle her sleeping body, and tilted the screen of my phone just enough for me to read Maddox’s name.
Fuck. Probably important.
Sylvie’s eyes fluttered open, and I rolled her to her back, leaning over her to snag my phone off the bedside table. I shot a quick glance at the full text.
Emmett needs Sylvie when you get here. He thinks he can get her accounts opened up.
I tossed the phone behind me on the mattress. Important, but not an emergency.
“We have to go?” Sylvie asked, her eyelids hovering open a few millimeters, her voice foggy with sleep.
“Not yet,” I said, reaching down to brush a strand of hair off her cheek. “In a little bit.”
“Okay,” she said, lifting her knee to hook a leg over my hip.
As she turned into me, I gave in to the temptation to kiss her, sinking into her lush, soft, warm body, taking my time—stroking her skin, absorbing every shiver, every moan.
For now, Sylvie was all mine. And by the time this was all tied up, I was going to make sure she wouldn’t be able to imagine leaving my side any more than I could picture her going on without me.
When we finally got out of bed, I steered her to the shower. I hogged the hot water, promising her, “Let me clean up first, and then you can take your time while I make us breakfast.”
She grinned up at me, leaned back against the wall, and watched as I scrubbed shampoo through my hair. “Sounds like a good deal to me. What are we having?”
Her hazel eyes were hot as they studied my body with open interest. I’d come less than five minutes ago, and still, that look in her eyes had me wishing I was still a teenager. Later. Maybe a long lunch break…
“Ham and cheese omelets and toast,” I said after I finished rinsing my hair, shifting to give her the hot water. I had to get out of the shower before her naked body and hungry eyes convinced me to make us late.
I had breakfast on the table by the time she finished showering and dressing. We headed down to the Sinclair offices, stopping long enough to say hi to Alice before making our way back to Hacker Central to see what Emmett and Maddox had for us.
I’d warned Sylvie that Emmett needed her for some banking-related thing, so she wasn’t surprised when he pulled her aside as soon as we got there, saying, “I commandeered an office. I’ve got most of the flags down. I want you to call, and I’ll coach you through what to say, and we’ll see if we can’t get them to unfreeze your accounts.”
“You think it’ll be that easy?” Sylvie asked, hope visibly brightening her face.
“It could,” Emmett said. “Whoever got in there did this by putting security flags on your accounts. Then the bank just did what the bank does when that happens and froze the accounts. Same for the credit cards.”
“So, you, what? Took the flags away?” Sylvie asked, raising an eyebrow.
“Something like that,” Emmett said. “Now you push, and when they look, they shouldn’t see any reason not to unfreeze the accounts.”
“All right, I’m game. Wish me luck,” Sylvie said, grinning up at me.
“I’m not sure you need luck,” I said. “You have Emmett.”