Wicked as Lies (Wicked & Devoted 3)

But the minute he opened the door, it wasn’t Hunter, Logan, or Joaquin who greeted him. Instead, the place was still dark except for a hint of a light from the far right corner of the office, and Trees stood waiting for him, looking both tired and grave.

“Jesus…” Zy peered at him. “You’re still wearing yesterday’s clothes. Did you even go home last night?”

“No. I made my way through Cutter’s computer in a few hours. Josiah thought he’d be cute and added all sorts of extra bits of security and encryption that took forever to get around.”

Zy’s heart started pounding. “And?”

“Grab coffee and meet me at my desk.”

Trees turned away, then. He was always a man of few words when he wasn’t sure what to say.

Dread crawled through Zy’s gut as he poured some much-needed java in what looked like a clean mug. Besides Tessa, Cutter was the only other person around who’d washed the cups regularly. Vaguely, Zy wondered if he should step up and pitch in.

Another day. Right now, there was too much happening to worry about someone else’s day-old cooties.

Sipping his joe, Zy made his way to his desk, sat, and rolled his chair beside Trees to peer at his friend’s screen. “What did you find. Anything?”

“Nothing on Cutter’s. It was clean to the point of boring. Since the bosses texted me late yesterday and asked me to wipe it for the new guy, I started there. I thought Josiah’s would be similar, but he tried to be a wise guy.”

“To hide something?”

“It’s taken me about nine hours and cost me a night of sleep to give you an answer, but no.”

“Did you find anything? At all?”

Trees shook his head. “It looks like he merely added his own layer of security, just in case. It wasn’t a horrible idea. Of all of us, he took most of the dangerous missions, so if his machine fell into the wrong hands…”

True. As former CIA, Josiah had taken those gigs because no one had his field or spy experience. His shoes would be incredibly hard to fill. And Zy wasn’t totally shocked that Trees hadn’t found anything incriminating, just frustrated.

Who the hell was their fucking mole?

“Yeah. Did you check the network?”

“Only enough to ensure that we haven’t been breached and don’t have any detectable trojans or malware. But I haven’t done any sort of deep dive through internal communications. I ran out of time.” He sighed. “And now I’m out of steam, so I’m going to go home, grab a few hours of sleep, and I’ll be back this afternoon to finish up. I called Hunter to let him know. He told me he’s got a new assignment for me in Florida starting tomorrow, so I’ll be sure to finish this before I go.”

Zy’s impatience made him wish Trees had all the answers now, but his buddy had done what he could after their seven-hour drive yesterday, and he needed to tamp down his expectations. “Thanks, man. I appreciate it more than I can tell you. Really.”

He nodded and got to his feet, then grabbed his keys before lumbering for the door. “Try to hold your shit together while I’m gone. We’ll have more answers soon.”

Zy nodded and let him go. He didn’t want to…but fuck. He couldn’t expect Trees’s engine to rev when he had no more gas in his tank. “Do you need me to take you home?”

“Nah. I’m good.” His buddy waved, then he was gone.

In the silence, minutes ticked by like hours while he waited for the bosses to arrive so they could have the conversation he’d been dying for since Christmas Eve. He downed coffee and tried to catch up on emails, watching the door all the while.

Finally, Hunter came in, went straight to his office, and shut the door. Logan came in a few minutes later and did roughly the same thing. Joaquin finally appeared thirty minutes after that, and the bosses immediately holed up in the conference room for what appeared to be some super-secret powwow.

Motherfucking sons of bitches. He was tired of waiting for them to make good on their promise.

At close to eight, Zy rose and paced the reception area in front of Tessa’s desk, feeling like he might crawl out of his skin. He wanted to see her, talk to her. And if his “negotiation” with the bosses—when he finally got to have it—went well, he wanted to touch her. But she was running late.

Hopefully, nothing was wrong.

Suddenly, Logan emerged, grabbed a black coffee, then approached him. “You have a desk.”

He did—way in the back and around the corner where he couldn’t see Tessa walk through the front door. Logan knew it, too.

“Waiting to say hey to the new guy,” Zy lied.

Logan shot him a dubious stare over the rim of his mug. “Sure you are. Lucky for you, Kane is already here, finishing up some paperwork with Joaquin. I’ll take you right to him since you’re so eager to shake his hand.”