Page 77 of Hellbent

She looked forlorn there on the couch, leaning against the arm, her legs tucked beneath her.

Evan glanced at Vera II.

“Fine,” he said.

He called Joey’s burner phone. He watched her start, and then she crossed to the table and picked up.

“X?”

“How are you doing?”

She glanced at the laptops. “Making headway.”

She’d misunderstood what he was asking about. It seemed awkward to backtrack now.

He said, “Good.”

She went into the kitchen and slid a pack of ramen noodles into a bowl.

“Do we have an ETA?” he asked.

“We’re dealing with ten thousand virtual machines,” she said, filling the bowl with water and shoving it into the microwave. “There are a lot of variables.”

“We need to—”

“Sprint the marathon,” she said. “Right. Consider me chained to the laptop. When I’m done with this, maybe I could stitch some wallets for you.”

An unfamiliar ring sounded deep in the penthouse, and Evan stood up abruptly. It had been so long since he’d heard it that it took a moment for him to place what it was.

The home line.

When he’d moved in, he’d had it installed so he could have a number to list in the HOA directory. Aside from a telemarketer three months ago, no one had called it in years.

“I’ll check in on you in the morning,” he said to Joey, and hung up.

He raced out of the Vault, through his bedroom, down the hall to the kitchen, and snatched up the cordless phone. “Hello?”

“Hi.”

Hearing her voice caught him completely off guard.

34

The Job to End All Jobs

“I know we decided not to be in touch,” Mia said, her voice light and nervous over the phone. “But, I don’t know, you seemed messed up when I saw you in the parking garage last week.”

Evan cleared his throat.

“And…” she said. “I know you were gone for a while. I saw your truck back in your spot tonight and figured … I guess I figured maybe you could use a home-cooked meal.”

In the background he could make out some Peter-related commotion. She muffled the receiver. “Put the lid back on that!” she shouted. Then she was back. “Anyway, it was just a thought.”

He heard himself say, “I’d like that.”

“Really?”

He was asking himself the same thing. He’d responded before thinking. What part of him had that answer teed up, ready to deploy?