Total pages in book: 86
Estimated words: 83040 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 415(@200wpm)___ 332(@250wpm)___ 277(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 83040 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 415(@200wpm)___ 332(@250wpm)___ 277(@300wpm)
I sit up, then remember the party and smile even though I’ve got a poundin’ in my head that feels strong enough to split it open.
It’s late morning, but even so, there’s no one around the compound. Just the sound of barking dogs down the driveway. Someone’s up—someone’s always up taking care of the dogs. But that’s it. Not even Collin or his guys are around. Hell, not even the women or the kid are around.
Helluva party. Really good party.
I look down at my new uniform and get an unexpected jolt of satisfaction out of it. I didn’t think it would matter to me, I really didn’t. But when we got home and I realized that they did all this for me? To make me feel like part of the team?
Yeah. It matters.
I stand up, yawn and stretch my arms up over my head, ready to go inside and pass out again in the dark bunkroom. But then I remember.
“Fuck.” I was supposed to meet that girl at the diner if I was still here today.
I go inside, pull out my phone to check the time, and realize it’s eleven twenty-two and I’m supposed to be in Revenant at noon.
Pausing at the bottom of the stairs, I wonder if I should just blow her off. She’s nothing to me, I’m nothing to her, and I’ve got a feeling that things will get complicated if I meet up with her now. It’s all so weird. In fact, everything about that girl is screaming ‘bad idea.’
She’s cute, I’ll give her that. But there’s definitely something strange goin’ on at that bar in the woods. She already admitted it was a honeypot, so my choice should be a simple one.
Stay away.
But then again, I might be able to get some good intel out of her. I bet Collin and his friends don’t know about that place yet. If they did, they would’ve warned us, and they haven’t. They definitely would’ve warned me, since I’m new here.
And anyway, I’m not going back there. I’m meeting her in Revenant. So I decide I will take a quick shower, ride the bike down and see if she’s still there because I’m definitely gonna be late, and if she is—then it’s a mission, not a date.
Satisfied with the plan, I go upstairs, shower, change, and twenty minutes later, I’m rolling onto the Loop Highway.
It’s quarter past noon when I ease into a parking spot down the street from the Revenant Diner and I’m fairly certain she’s not gonna be there when I walk inside. But to my surprise, she’s in a booth near the back.
The place is packed with families, mostly. It smells good though, and my stomach rumbles as I watch plates of food go by. The girl spies me from across the crowded room and smiles. Maybe even lets out a breath of relief, happy to not have been stood up.
I walk over to the table, set my helmet on the seat across from her and slide in next to it.
“Hey,” she says. “You came.”
I run my fingers through my hair, trying to rein it all in after the ride, and lean back into the seat. “I came.”
Before either of us can say anything else, a waitress appears. “He showed up! I told you he would.” The waitress—a middle-aged woman with lots of tattoos and big-time cleavage hanging out of her pink uniform—winks at me. “You had her worried.”
I shrug. “Well, I’m here now.”
“What can I get you two?” the waitress asks.
“Coffee,” I say. “Black.”
The girl smiles and lets out a breath, like she was holding it in. “I’ll have water with lemon.”
The waitress clicks her pen. “Be right back.”
I take my attention to the girl and get right to the point. “All right. I’m here. What did you want to tell me?”
10 - Olive
For a moment, I can’t think straight. Ean is wearing faded denim jeans, a black t-shirt, and a leather jacket, same stuff he was wearing the other day, but he looks… different. Maybe it’s the daylight without the shadows of the tree canopy, or maybe it’s just his mood, which comes across as light and possibly happy. The point is, he’s even more handsome than I remember.
Which isn’t going to help me. And when I catch Brose’s eye—he’s in a two-seater booth reading a paper about ten feet away—I force myself not to think of this guy as a man, but as a target.
Because that’s what he is. Our window into the inner workings of Edge Security.
Still, it’s hard not to notice how attractive he is. Especially when every woman in the place is gawking at him. I thrust my hand out. “Hi.” I try on a smile. “I’m Olive.”
Brose and I discussed using a fake name, but decided against it. The point of the honeypot was to get Collin’s attention. We came very early and walked around the town to see what kind of surveillance they have. It’s good. Of course it’s good. After all the shit that’s gone down in Trinity County since Collin came back, everything, in all three towns, has been wired up so Edge can keep an eye on things.