tell me I need to stay behind, I’ll punch you both in the junk.” Hailey tucked her braid under her wig before pulling on a mask. Her fake blonde hair would be sticking out underneath for any potential security cameras. “Because this is literally what I do for a living.”
“You break into places for a living?” Cash eyed her with curiosity as he tugged his own balaclava on.
After driving by a warehouse with a huge, empty parking lot, their driver, Wilson, had parked about half a mile from the place, pulling off the two-lane highway into the woods. Unlike the site that Reese and Elijah had checked out, this facility was in a rural part of Kentucky.
The nearest home was six miles away, and the warehouse wasn’t in a city or town, but was part of the county. Which should make things easier for them for multiple reasons. She’d checked out the sheriff’s department, and they had only two guys working right now for the entire county. So even if they set off an alarm, they’d have time before someone responded to the call. They also didn’t have to worry about any nosy neighbors or businesses.
“I mean, I don’t exclusively break into places or anything, but sometimes it’s part of my job.” She had her tablet in hand, held it out for Jesse and Cash. “This is where the cops are now so we have a great window of time to act. But I should be asking if you two want to do this? You’re the ones with more to lose if we get caught.”
Jesse’s jaw clenched, and he actually glared at her as he tugged his balaclava on.
“I wasn’t saying that you care less for Easton or anything, just that—” She shut her mouth when even Cash glared at her. “I’m sorry. I’m a jackass.”
“You’re not a jackass,” Jesse murmured as he grabbed the drone case, then shut the back of the SUV. “But understand that neither of us care about our money or reputation compared to how much we love Easton.”
“I know that.” And she hadn’t meant to insinuate otherwise. She cleared her throat, trying to move past her stupid mouth. Their driver was in the front seat, on his phone, completely ignoring the three of them, which worked well for Hailey. “Okay, so we get in, take some pictures, see what this place really is, then get out. And if we see anyone, we run. This is just about information gathering at this point. I’m hoping we’ll find something useful, but considering that Reese and Elijah found a whole lot of nothing, I’m not holding my breath.”
Both men nodded, standing at alert. Okay, then. She was used to working with her Redemption Harbor Security team, and they were all former military—though Cash was actually former army, and Jesse had learned self-defense from a former Spec Ops guy on his security, so she knew they could both handle themselves.
Ask her how she knew that little tidbit about Jesse’s training. Oh right, a little bit of sneaky stalking.
“I’m going to take point,” she started.
“Ah, how about I take point?” Cash said, interrupting. “You’re the one with the drone-flying skills and the hacking skills.”
“You guys can’t fly a drone?” She looked between the two of them disbelievingly, especially since she knew for a fact that Jesse was backing a new prototype of drone that would probably make him another couple million once it hit the market.
Jesse cleared his throat, looking slightly abashed.
“That’s what I thought. Jesse, you fly the drone. And fine, you can take point, Cash. You have more on-the-ground experience than me anyway.”
Wordlessly, they made their way through the woods, using makeshift walking paths—probably from hunters—to get close to the border of the warehouse’s property. It was a gray day, their breath curling in front of them as they trekked over the brittle grass.
“All right, this is close enough.” Jesse spoke quietly as they neared the property line.
Through the trees they could see the parking lot and building, but as far as she could tell there weren’t any signs of life—no cars, no security, nothing. Not that the lack of all that necessarily meant anything. There could be people inside.
She and Cash were quiet as Jesse got to work, quickly deploying the drone with an efficiency that she could admit was impressive. She’d logged a lot of hours because of her job—in the Marines and the one she had now—and he guided the machine even better than she did.
As he steered the drone high above the warehouse, she made notes of each security camera location. “They don’t seem to be motion activated at least,” she murmured.
“No, these are fairly shitty actually. I mean, not the bottom of the barrel, but no real pharma company is going to use this kind of equipment, especially not Innovative Labs.”
Jesse frowned as he moved around, looking for a good way to infiltrate the drone.
“There,” he finally said. “If we move in from this angle, only one camera might catch us. And we’ll have enough time to get inside and look around.”
After he packed up the drone and propped the case against one of the nearby oak trees, they hurried through the woods until they were southwest of the structure.
“Everyone ready?” Cash looked at the two of them, and when they nodded, he said, “We’re silent now. No one speaks in case there’s any sort of recording devices inside.”
She looked back at Jesse, nodded once, then followed after Cash, the three of them sprinting for one of the back doors. She turned up the volume on the handheld radio she’d attached to the back of her pants so they could hear the chatter of the local deputies. This was old-school but worked in a rural place.
Even though Cash was taking point, she moved in front of the door and quickly picked the lock—and again, it wasn’t top-of-the-line with biometrics. Which was just plain odd for what this place was supposed to be.
Cash moved in front of her, and she was very aware of Jesse’s presence behind her as they stepped into the building.
Cash flipped on the nearest switch and…a flicker of overhead lights came on. She turned on the rest of them, and more lights sputtered on in a ripple, one after the other, illuminating… nothing. An empty building.
She looked up at the two men, and Jesse nodded once before they fanned out. She sprinted across the floor, her sneakers making squeaking sounds as she headed for a door on the other side. To her surprise, Jesse was right next to her, a weapon held loosely in his gloved hand.
She frowned at the sight of it since they’d agreed to no weapons—though she did have pepper spray, one of her favorite things ever—but didn’t say a word. Once they reached the other door, she tested the handle, but Jesse moved her out of the way with his body before sweeping in, weapon out.
Oh yeah, he’d had more than just a little training because he held that thing like a pro. But once he saw the room was empty other than built-in metal shelving, they stepped back out into the main room and tried another door.
Ten minutes later she heard an alert on the radio about a silent alarm going off at their address, so she motioned to Jesse and Cash, and they hurried out, racing back the way they’d come.
Normally she liked to do more recon and to completely disable any security systems, but this was essentially on the fly. By the time they made it back to the SUV, she could hear a siren in the distance.
So they worked quickly, shucking their masks, her wig and changing into different sweaters before Wilson, their quiet driver, steered out of the hiding spot. And two minutes later, as they headed down the two-lane highway to the interstate, they drove by a police cruiser that didn’t pause as it passed them.
Hailey shoved out a breath as their driver pulled onto the interstate.
“That was a whole lot of nothing,” Cash grumbled.
“Maybe, maybe not,” she murmured. “But I don’t think we should waste time looking at the other addresses. Unless either of you do?”
“Your team already looked at two and found nothing,” Jesse murmured. “I think you’re right. We should head back home.”
She liked the way he said home, had the sudden thought that she wished his home was hers. Shaken by the random thought, she simply nodded. Home wasn’t with him, not anymore.
Though it had been at one point. Walls and a roof had never mattered to her, just his presence. Unable to meet his gaze for fear that he’d somehow read her mind, she pulled out her phone and texted her team as well as Skye, updating everyone on what they’d found.
She knew that Skye’s crew was working on something big right now, but thankfully Gage was always willing to help with any type of research.
Unfortunately, she wasn’t sure what the hell else to look for. “Would it be a total breach of whatever for you to let me look at Easton’s work?” she suddenly asked, looking at Jesse. He’d already sent over all of Easton’s work files, but she wanted to see his lab. “Like his office space itself? Maybe talk to some of the people he works with? I know the Feds have already, but… I’m less scary than an FBI agent.”
Nodding, he looked at his phone. “We’ll stop by as soon as we get back.”
Well, that was easy. Unable to look at him for too long, she simply nodded her thanks, then leaned her head against the back of the seat. She shouldn’t be thinking about what she’d done with Jesse only hours ago. Too bad the sounds and images—and sensations—were right at the forefront of her brain, just waiting for any downtime she had to wave all the memories in front of her like a giant flag.
To remind her of all the goodness she’d had before. And now that she’d had another brief taste, she knew it was a matter of time before she lost it again.
Lost Jesse.
Because there were things he didn’t know, things she’d never been brave enough to tell him.
Sighing, and against her better judgment, she leaned into him, settling her head against his shoulder. To her surprise, he slid one big hand on her leg, gently set it against her knee. So she linked her arm through his and placed her hand over his.
He might not be hers anymore, but she could pretend he was for just a little bit.