AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Her mouth puckered as if she’d tasted something sour and her anger sparked a fire right in my gut. She didn’t like orders. She didn’t like me mucheither.
“You’re good.” Aiden jumped in. “The shop’s receivables need work, sure, but we also got tons of tech work, stuffyou’dlike.”
Aiden was a techy like Nina. His brain worked a lot like hers. He knew what she needed. To ply her trade, I guessed. To feel useful. I glanced at Tanner. He concurred with a slight, virtuallyimperceptiblenod.
“It’s a great idea,” Tanner said. “Joinourteam.”
Nina’s jaw dropped. “Me? Part of your team? But…” She grappled for words. “You guys won’t even acknowledge that a team exists and you said you couldn’t share information with me, on account of myconviction.”
“That’s correct,” I said, onboard with Tanner and Aiden’s strategy but also balancing the team’s security risks. “Since you don’t have security clearance, you can’t have access codes or exposure to classified information. But we could arrange it for you to have partial access. Aiden’s right. We’ve got plenty of work for someone with your…err…skillset.”
“I told you before,” she said stubbornly. “I don’t dohandouts.”
“No handouts,” I said. “I’d expect you’d hold your own. You’d have to work on a limited capacity and under Aiden’s direct supervision. There will be no hacking anybody, no going solo, no illegal hacker tricks and no playing cyber vigilante. Most of the job will be tedious stuff, but it’s proper, legal work and it will take care of your bills. You won’t get a better deal. What do yousay,Leon?”
“I say your recruitment spielstinks.”
I bit my lips to keep from busting out laughing. That sassy mouth showed so much promise. Her eyes were sparkling with interest. Now we were gettingsomewhere.
“One more thing.” She needed to know I’d be watching. “Your keystrokes are gonna be recorded, so you’ll have to stick to our rules of engagement whether you like them or not. I want your word that you’ll play by our rules and I wantitnow.”
“My word?” She scoffed. “You mean you’d take the word of a convictedfelon?”
“No, he won’t.” Tanner tucked his crutches under one arm and offered Nina his hand. “But we’re willing to takeyourword.”
Her throat rippled as she struggled to contain a flood of emotion that softened her mouth and liquefied her eyes. Oh, shit. If she started to cry I was out of here. She took Tanner’s hand and limped into his arms, leaning her forehead against the lucky bastard’sshoulder.
“You’re okay,” Tanner murmured, stroking her back and caressing her hair, which flowed like gold strands between his fingers. “You’re safewithus.”
I was gonna make sureofthat.
“There’s something else,” I said. “We have rules in this house. You need to knowaboutthem.”
Nina stepped out of Tanner’s arms, dried the corner of her eye with the back of her hand and sniffed. “Ruleslikewhat?”
I glanced over at Tanner. This was his territory. He refitted his arms in the cuffs and, bracing on his crutches, faced Nina. My belly flip-flopped like a slinky.Here goesnothing.
“Zar, Aiden, and I made a pact,” Tanner said. “We live by the terms of that agreement. We’re a team, at work and in life. We watch each other’s back. You need to know how wefunction.”
“Um…okay,” she said guardedly. “Soundsreasonable.”
“Not completely,” Tanner said. “There’s something you mayfind….odd.”
“Andthatis?”
Tanner took a deep breath. “We shareeverything.”
Nina frowned. “You mean as in sharing expenses and thingslikethat?”
“I mean, we shareeverything.”
“I don’t think Iunderstand.”
“Nina…” Tanner hesitated then pushed on. “We promised you truth, so here it goes. We are all adults and we wanna do the right thing—no lies, no deception, no pretense. We wanna lay it all on the table and let you make your ownchoices.”
“Tanner?” she said, hugging herself. “Just say it. Whatever it is. I canhandleit.”
“Okay, yes, sorry.” Tanner tightened his hold on his crutches. “Here’s the deal. You stay with us. You work with us. You live with us. And if you want, you explore and experiment with us, kind of like you mentioned in yourdiary.”
