How little time we had left.

Chapter Twenty-One

RILEY

By the time I got up the next morning, Evie was already awake, sitting on the couch and bent over the laptop. I rolled out of the bed and walked over to her, leaning over the back of the couch to peer down at what she was looking at.

“Morning.” I bent toward her, pressing my face into her neck and inhaling. Citrus and flowers filled my nose, and I closed my eyes at all the memories that came rushing to me, memories that transported me right back to being eighteen again. Even after five years, she still smelled exactly how I remembered.

“Hey,” she mumbled, her fingers constantly moving on the keyboard, her focus intent on the screen in front of her.

“When’d you get up?”

“Hmmm?” she answered distractedly. “Oh, I, um…” She trailed off, leaning closer to the screen to read something before swearing under her breath and leaning back. “I didn’t sleep very well. I’ve been up since around five.”

“You haven’t slept good for days. I guess I need to work harder to wear you out.”

She turned her head back to smile at me, but she was distracted, her gaze flitting right back to the computer.

“You find anything?”

“Um … maybe…” She flew through the data on the screen, switching programs and scrolling through everything faster than I could even comprehend what she was looking at in the first place.

Raising my eyebrows, I asked, “What do you mean, maybe?” Maybe was better than nothing, and after all day yesterday of nothing but dead end after dead end, I’d take a maybe.

She pressed a couple keys on the keyboard, then turned her head toward me. “I found a tiny error in the records, so I’m digging into it further, seeing if it leads us to anything.” Moving her attention back to the laptop, she started going through the information again. “It’s gotta be in here somewhere … I know it…” She brought her hand up to her mouth, biting on her thumbnail as she searched through Max’s accounting records. I had no idea how they’d gotten access to them in the first place, but I wasn’t going to ask. Aaron could do just about anything with a computer, and Evie was a fast learner.

Not wanting to distract her, I headed into the kitchen. As I was pouring a cup of coffee, the sound of my cell phone ringing filled the loft. Evie must’ve had it by her on the couch. She answered it on speakerphone, and Aaron’s voice came across the line. “Hey, you find anything?” he asked.

“Yeah, actually. There’s a small discrepancy and I’m following that, hoping it leads to what we’re looking for. What about you?”

“Not a goddamn thing.”

I grabbed my coffee and headed to the couch, sitting down beside her as she rambled on to Aaron about the error she’d managed to uncover. When Evie said, “Holy shit,” I knew she’d found something.

“What?” I asked, leaning closer.

She was reading from the screen, talking to Aaron and me at the same time. “Do you see it? All those transfers to Ipsum Technology?”

Aaron hummed on the other end until suddenly he said, “Got it.” There was a pause, the sound of keys clacking on his end, then he breathed out a curse. “That company has generic information online, a static front page with nothing else. Probably enough to fool most people who randomly come across it, but what supposed multimillion-dollar company doesn’t even have a contact page?”

“It’s a front,” Evie said.

“That’s my guess. Have you added up all the deposits? How far back does it go?”

“I’m tracing it back now and doing the figures,” she mumbled as her fingers flew over the number keys, adding up the data she’d found. When she suddenly stopped, I looked over at her, and she was staring at the screen, her mouth open. She turned to me, her eyes wide. “He’s been doing it the whole time, skimming in frequent small amounts.”

“What’s the total?” I asked.

She huffed out a laugh and shook her head, glancing back at the screen. “Twelve point seven million.”

“Holy fuck,” I said, leaning toward her and seeing the numbers right there in front of me.

“We’ve finally got the bastard.” She relaxed back into the couch cushions, running a hand through her hair. “I can’t believe we got him.”

“Nice work, Evie,” Aaron said.

“Yeah, well, it’s not over yet.” Evie’s relaxed posture disappeared as she leaned toward the phone again, her eyes back on the computer screen. “Not even close. Now we need to figure out what the hell we’re going to do with the information. Knowing it and using it to get Max to back off are two different things.”

“Well, whatever you do, you need to do it fast,” Aaron said. “I was calling this morning for more than just this.”

Aaron’s voice had gone hard, all business, and I straightened up. “Why, what’s happening there?” Even as I asked, I thought about what it’d be like for us if we didn’t have someone willing to work both sides like Aaron was. If we didn’t have someone there who still had access inside the crew, who had the rank and the expertise—who had the trust of Max to be in on everything he was doing, all the directives he was handing out. Aaron was instrumental in every step we’d taken, from the very first one letting me know Evie had been in trouble until now. I had no idea where we’d be without him.

“Max is having Jade make a visit to Evie’s parents.”

She stiffened beside me, her back going rigid, every inch of her body freezing at Aaron’s words.

“When?” I asked.

“Today … later this afternoon.”

“Why? What’s her directive?”

“Just recon right now. He wants Jade to get a feel for what they know about Evie, if they know anything.”

“They don’t,” Evie finally said, her voice hard. “They don’t, and they’re not going to.”

I glanced over at her, remembering how adamant she’d been when we’d first gotten here that they were never to know she was still alive. “Evie … Maybe we need to contact them. Warn them what’s coming.”

“No,” she snapped.

Before I could ask her more about it, Aaron cut in. “I have to agree with her, Kid. At least for right now. Jade is just going to get information, posing as an old friend of Evie’s, so they shouldn’t think anything’s up. Not yet, anyway.”

Blowing out a breath, I tugged at my hair. “Well, yeah, that’s fine for now, but what about when Max gets desperate? I think we should be prepared to warn them.”

Evie stood from the couch and spun around so she was facing me, her eyes narrowed. “No one is warning them. None of you are speaking to them, period.”

“Evie, I’m not talking about now. I’m talking about when shit starts getting real. When we think Max might go after them just to flush you out.”

“Then let him go after them.” Her voice was so chilling, so cold, I barely recognized it.

I stared at her, at her set jaw, her rigid shoulders, the clench of her fists, the hard look in her eyes. Shaking my head, I said, “Think about what you’re saying…”

She didn’t even pause as she said, “I don’t need to think about it. I’ve thought about it a hundred times—a thousand times over the past five years. No one is going to call and tell them anything, at any time. Ever, no matter the circumstances. As far as they know, I died five years ago, and I’m going to stay dead to them. Is that clear to you both?”

“Evie…”

“I said no, Riley. Now fucking drop it.”

EVIE

I stormed into the bathroom, slamming the door behind me, breathing a sigh of relief as I leaned back against it. Thankful that in this loft that had little to no privacy, I at least had this. This small piece of solitude.

And I needed it.

I’d do just about anything to keep Riley from seeing me like this, from seeing me break down. Seeing me crumble. And I knew it was coming, could feel it lurking under my skin, bubbling up until it had nowhere to go but out. I couldn’t predict how the flashbacks would come to me. If they’d blindside me during the day, sneak up on me while I was doing something menial and transport me back to the place I never wanted to go. Or if they’d come to me in my sleep, like they so often did. After fighting sleep for so long, I’d eventually have to succumb to it, and then I was helpless to stop them. And those were the worst ones, when they came to me in my dreams. Because it was like living it all over again …