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“No, you’re not.” Her voice trembled, equal parts frustration and fear.
Griff relented then, pulling off her glove to press a tender kiss to her bare hand. Electric heat coursed through her veins at even this faint contact.
He winked. “I’m better now.”
She dumped her backpack on the ground and pulled out the first aid kit he’d placed in there earlier. She unzipped it and popped two Advil for him. “Here.” He accepted the two pills and her water bottle, swigging the painkillers with a wry smile.
“Cabin’s clear.” Wyatt appeared with his father, shotgun braced across his stomach, his expression fierce.
Griff grunted as he pushed away from the rotting stump. “Let’s do this.”
Jo followed him, boxing up her anxiety over him—it would only get in the way. She needed to keep her mind clear.
Inside the cabin was a weathered two-room haven—a compact kitchen and diner blending seamlessly, with bunk beds nestled in a secluded nook at the rear. The memory of wood smoke from previous visits hung in the air.
Wyatt lifted the dust sheets from two small couches and shook them out on the porch. “It’s been a while.”
Jo headed inside to help Ty and Sophie while Wyatt disappeared to set up a perimeter with an unassuming box of equipment he’d produced from under the bunks. There was plenty of work to be done—unboxing supplies and long-life food from the cabin’s small pantry, sorting out sleeping arrangements and unrolling sleeping bags, as well as organizing the watch rota for the night. Vital survival tasks that needed to be completed before they could review the information they’d come to retrieve.
Jo soaked it up and pitched in as best she could. This sense of belonging, of people taking care of each other and working as part of an efficient team, was something she barely remembered experiencing.
She and Luke had been close, but two people against the world didn’t come close to what she saw as Wyatt worked with his parents to keep them all safe. He might be a poker-faced grump, but Jo observed his tenderness too, the gentle touch on his mother’s shoulder as he took a heavy box from her. The respect he showed his father, despite his own skills.
She was embarrassed to admit it, but she envied their closeness. The team dynamics at Guardsmen Security had struck a similar chord. The camaraderie and unspoken language of mutual understanding she’d noted in the small time she’d spent around Griff and his team mates—found family who clearly cared about each other far beyond the paycheck.
She sighed as she curled up on one couch, the last of the organizing completed. Her job was gone and Luke too. He’d been her last remaining family, the keeper of their shared memories. The only one who understood her terrible jokes, who reminded her of her silliness when she was little.
He’d been her connection to the past, the thread connecting her to a sense of family and belonging. Who would remember the girl she had once been or the woman she still wanted to become? The one buried inside her who’d thought she’d change the world with her journalism.
Now she was alone, or at least had been…
“Sweet for my sweetness.” Griff handed her a steaming mug of hot chocolate.
“Thank you.” She blew on the scalding liquid before taking a tiny sip. After the functional rehydrated meal Sophie had pulled from her stores, the sugary chocolate flavor was delicious. Heat flowed from her stomach and made her toes tingle.
She shot Griff a shy smile. Around him, Luke’s loss was less acute. The hurt was still there, but Griff’s presence was a deep comfort.
“First watch is Wyatt’s.” Griff tipped his head toward the nearest window where Wyatt’s ramrod-straight back was visible. Jo held no illusions about anyone daring to sneak up on him and surviving the attempt.
“I’ll take over after him. You should get some sleep.” Griff pressed a lingering hand to her shoulder.
“What about you?”
His forehead dented as he considered his reply. “I’ll be fine.” With a gentle caress, he brushed his lips across her forehead, a stark departure from his demeanor last night. They hadn’t had the opportunity to discuss what it had meant, but the way he touched her conveyed an emotional depth beyond just sex. “Don’t stay up too late.”
“Is that an order?”
His nose bumped hers, darkness flashing in his eyes. “Hmmm.”
“Here we are.” Sophie appeared from the rear of the cabin, carrying a large metal box. She sat beside Jo and placed it on the coffee table in front of the unlit fire. “Took a bit of prizing to get the floorboards up, but this is what we came for.” Happiness lit her eyes.
She fiddled with the key in the lock before it finally surrendered with a satisfying click. “Ah.” Sophie removed the padlock and lifted out crammed plastic files and placed them on the table, where she smoothed her hand over them. “These are important but…” She removed a small key-safe from the box and from inside removed a USB. “But this is the mother lode.” She inserted it inside the compact laptop she’d brought with her. After typing in the password, she clicked through several files before finally stopping on one document.
She pivoted the laptop to face Jo. “I think this is what you’re looking for.”
Jo scanned the document, her heart racing. It was a pre-print. An unpublished scientific paper on Carbon45 written by Dr. Sophie Ivanova.
“This is your original research.” This verified everything Sophie had told them the night before. “You developed Carbon45 for the chip.”
