Rage flares through my body. Even though there are three guys around me who are all more skilled at fighting than I am—not to mention Riva herself—my fist is flying before I’ve realized what I’m doing.
I punch the guy right in the face, catching his cheek and the side of his nose. An ache radiates through my knuckles, and his head snaps to the side with a painedwoofof air escaping his mouth.
Zian has leapt to join me a second later, but the jerk is shuffling off, swearing under his breath and cradling his bruising face.
I lower my hand, staring at it for a second as if it could tell me where that split-second reaction came from. A faint hum of fury is still humming through my gut.
Riva has turned to peer at me. When I hesitantly meet her bright brown eyes, she offers me a slanted smile. “I could have walloped him myself and saved your hand. But thank you for defending my honor.”
Jacob snorts at the second comment, and I feel twice as awkward about my reaction.
“Yeah,” I mutter, ducking my head.
But I remember how Jake reacted when the hacker guy started putting the moves on Riva. I wouldn’t be surprised if he’d have punched this jackass if he’d seen him first.
She belongs with us. She left us behind, but now she’s back, and she isours.
Even if I don’t like thinking that way, the understanding is here, simmering away in the back of my skull.
No one speaks again the rest of the short walk to the out-of-business restaurant where we’re meeting the hacker. The back door is unlocked, as promised.
We step into a room quite smaller than the one before, empty other than a couple of bare shelves and the smell of stale bread. Zian stays poised near the exit, and Jacob immediately moves to the inner door to check it as an escape route.
As he rattles the doorknob, it jerks in his grasp. He backs up a step so the hacker can step into the room with us.
The beady-eyed man looks us all over, his arms crossed over his chest. His attention narrows in on the bag Zian has slung over his shoulder.
“Where’s my payment?” he asks.
Zian pulls out the action figure in its box but keeps it close.
Andreas cocks his head. “Where’s our information?”
The hacker turns to him. “Your target was difficult to trace. Someone’s done a lot of covering of her tracks. She must be important. But they weren’t quite good enough to completely throw me off.”
“So, what do you have, then?” Jacob says sharply.
The hacker shrugs as if our impatience means nothing to him. “I was able to confirm that she worked in a very hush-hush branch of a specific security company starting about thirty years ago, for several years after that. I have the address for the office where she was located. I can’t tell you what happened to her after that, but the people there might have more answers for you.”
After that, she probably moved on to the facility. It’s the right timeframe.
My heart beats faster. Jacob motions for Zian to come closer, and the bigger guy does, carrying the action figure.
The hacker pulls a folded piece of paper from his pocket. “Full directions and coordinates,” he says. “I didn’t slack off on you.”
“I should hope not,” Jacob grumbles.
Andreas holds out his hand. As the hacker extends the paper to him with one arm, he reaches the other toward the box. The exchange happens perfectly simultaneously.
The hacker shoots us all a broad grin. “A pleasure doing business with you.” Then he vanishes into the front of the derelict restaurant again.
While Andreas unfolds the paper, my breath catches in my throat.
“All right,” he says. “Let’s see where we’re heading tomorrow.”
Fifteen
Riva