Page 20 of Crosscurrent

Tom went motionless. Gabe had worked with him long enough to recognize what that stillness meant. For the last month, Sweet & Sawyer had been trying to pry open the Coastal Heritage Trust without success. Public filings looked pristine. Financials dead-ended into shell nonprofits that looped neatly back into protected holding groups.

And now the name sat in the middle of a dead marshal’s ledger.

Cara moved beside Tom so quietly Gabe didn’t notice until she spoke. “Hello,” she murmured softly, “way in.”

Tom nodded once without looking away from the screen. “Very way in.”

Gabe looked toward Skye. At the exhaustion lining her face. At the rainwater still darkening the hem of her jeans. At the USB drive that had probably just escalated everybody’s lives considerably. “Also hello, enormous problem.”

Nobody argued with that either.

Wade watched Skye. “So what’s the story?”

Skye explained things carefully after that. Not nervously. Not defensively.

Ray Harney had been her handler, then when the operation they’d been working blew up, her savior. Unofficial. Off book. Quarterly check-ins and an emergency dead drop at the Overlook that she’d never had to access. Until yesterday. Only the cache was empty.

Whoever got there first now had her alias information, and her new ID, plus probably a nice chunk of emergency cash.

“Ray would have thought of that,” she whispered, tears filling her eyes.

She cleared her throat, clearly shaking off the emotion. “Then they came to my studio,” she said. “Two of them. Sent to grab me, I’m certain. I came here because I heard them say they were going to question Cara. Today. You don’t want that.”

She twisted her fingers together, avoiding eye contact. “That’s why I broke in. Partly. Also, I don’t have anywhere to run now. They ruined my Plan A. I need time to think through my next move. Not long. I just need––“

“I get it,” Cara interrupted. “I’ve been where you are. Take all the time you need.”

“But any intel you can share would sure help us help you,” Reagan added.

“For sure,” Skye continued calmly. She walked them through the courier routes Ray used. She’d personally run four of them herself. She could connect the Coastal Heritage Trust to a shadowy outfit called Neptune logistics. “Nothing you’ve probably heard of,” she added.

Wade choked. Tom laughed, one harsh, disbelieving chunk of sound. “You’d be surprised. We’ve––“

“––heard of them,” Gabe finished for him.

Tom winced, catching his own error. “Exactly.”

Head tilted, Cara studied the woman. “We’ve worked cases that lead in their direction,” she specified. “If they’re behind your handler’s death, running won’t be the smartest option.”

Face blank, Skye shrugged her thin shoulders. “Not much choice.”

“You could help us take them down,” Reagan said. “Then you’ll never have to run again.”

“That’s adorable.” Skye smiled for a second. “I love that you really believe that. The organization’s called the Neptune Brotherhood, only it runs so deep no one even says that name. It’s like that wizard book, Harry Potter? You know, where no one names the super bad guy.”

“We’re aware,” Wade said. “Both the wizard thing and Neptune. And we’re still planning to take them on.”

“The Neptune dudes,” Tom corrected. “Not the wizards.”

That at least got a smile from Skye. “This is what I can give you, for now.”

“Because you don’t trust us yet,” Tom said.

Skye shook her head. “Because I don’t know you yet.” Her voice stayed calm. “Those aren’t the same thing.”

Tom leaned back in his chair, clearly dissatisfied.

Gabe understood the reaction. Skye was exhausted, grieving whether she admitted it or not, and off-balance in ways that probably made her more willing to talk now than she’d be tomorrow.