She followed him to the back of the pickup. He dropped the tailgate and slid into the bed, back to the wall, one knee pulled up to his chest, and arm resting on top.
She hid her frown. His posture wasn’t a good sign. There had been a time when they’d have lain down in the back of the truck to watch the stars, her head on his shoulder, and never thought anything of it. Now he looked as though he didn’t want her anywhere near him.
They could talk through this. It would have been nice if he’d agreed to take things to the next level, but she’d saidno hurt feelingsif he wasn’t interested. She crawled into the truck bed opposite him and leaned forward, legs tucked to the side.
“So, not that it’s a big deal...” he said.
Oh geez, she really had screwed up. “You know it sounds like a very big deal, right?”
“I do.” He dropped his forehead onto his knee for a moment before looking at her again. “You wanted to know where I’d been for the last two years.”
Her breath caught, and her pulse slowed. Desire skittered away in favor of hearing whatever he needed to say. “I figure it’stop secret, but I am curious.”
He gave a bitter laugh. “Top secret.Yeah.”
“Tell me what you’re allowed. I’m listening.”
“A couple of years ago, I got a new assignment. They wanted me doing some heavier surveillance. It was a huge challenge, so I jumped on it.”
Of course he did. If his tone weren’t so somber, she would have smiled.
“They told me I was getting them into some really tough places. Networks most people couldn’t crack. Then they gave me someone new to report to.”
“Okay...?”
He ran his fingers over the stubble on his head. “We did this differently than I’d ever done surveillance before. This woman excelled at her half of the job, and the entire idea was brilliant. Terrifying, but brilliant.”
Riley forced back her wince at the unabashed compliment for another woman. “How so?”
“You know how phishing and spoofing work, right?”
She nodded. The recipient clicked on a link they thought was taking them to one place, and it took them to another instead, while capturing the associated login information.
“This is spoofing meets psy-ops. She chatted people up online. Nothing damning. Friendly shit—How’s the dog? Did you have a good vacation?If she couldn’t connect with her target online, she’d do it in person. Pose as a waitress, barista, or random lady at the gym. Whatever. The goal was never to dig deep. She only wanted to talk about the kind of things most people let slip to the right stranger. That work is stressful, or their back hurts, or the kids kept them up all night worrying about college admissions.”
It sounded so benign. Which cranked Riley’s curiosity.
“My job...” He paused. “My job was to send those people email. Spoof it and make it look like it was from someone they knew and trusted. A boss. A girlfriend. A daughter. I had to make the email completely real and passable, so it didn’t get stuck in some spam filter. The recipient clicked the link—I don’t know, social media, whatever—and it passed through a gateway that downloaded the tiniest little Trojan in history, and we had full access to their computer. They ended up where they thought they were going and never questioned it.”
“Wow.” She was wary enough not to click those stupid links from strangers that said things like,guess what I just heard about you online, but never hesitated when the messages from her friends looked genuine.
“Yeah.” He dragged out the word. “It wasn’t my job to look where we were going, just to get us there and make sure we stayed.”
Riley’s head spun with the information.
“Except one night, things changed.” Zane traced tight lines around a bolt in the tuck bed.
“What?”
“She left me alone for the first time.”
“Before that, you were together twenty-four, seven? Long stakeout?”
He let out a dry laugh. “Something like that. I only figured out later, but it had a lot more to do with the fact that I wasn’t under the same watch restrictions as before.”
“Watch restrictions?” This was some straight-out-of-the-movies shit.
He nodded. “I poked harder than normal that night. I got bored and skimmed one of the computers I’d planted the back door on. The name caught my attention. American name. American IP... There was absolutely nothing top secret about that machine. It was some teenager’s laptop. The worst things on it were a couple of emails she’d sent a friend, about sneaking out to get drunk that Friday night.”