Page 27 of Lethal Salvation

Reaper laughed as he leaned forward to shake his hand. “Ha, I wish that were the case, mate, but usually it’s for other reasons. The scary shit is a bonus.”

“An Aussie.”

“Yep, sure am.”

“I spent a summer there when I was a teen. It’s the most beautiful place on earth.”

Reaper’s smile was wide. “It sure is.”

“Right, that’s enough with the introductions. Let’s get down to business.”

Gideon nodded at Nadia as she led them into his living room as if it were her own. The large space looked dwarfed as the seven of them sat or stood in different places around the room. Lotus produced a laptop from her bag and opened the screen before clicking on some buttons.

“I’m pulling Watchdog and Bein in via video link.”

It was strange to feel like a guest in his own home but the way they took control seemed natural to them. To him, who’d always needed his own control, it was difficult to let go. It left him feeling surplus to requirements and he didn’t like it.

As the screen filled, he saw another two men. Again, they both looked like they chewed nails for breakfast.

“Did you know that Koala fingerprints are almost indistinguishable from a human’s, so much so, they can confuse a crime scene and ruin a case?”

Nadia laughed but nobody seemed shocked by the man’s opening statement.

“This is Watchdog, our resident tech genius and fact procurer.”

“I think you mean overall genius.”

“Fine, an overall genius with an IQ score that looks like it is in fact the measurement of his big, fat head.”

Reaper snorted and Lotus belly laughed, giving him a glimpse at the true dynamics of this team.

“Cut the shit, we have work to do.” At Bás’ tone they all quit laughing and he turned to Nadia. “Duchess, update please.”

“Well as you know, Gideon’s father reached out wanting Carter to handle the Macey deal. Enough that he threatened to have Gideon fired if he said no, which shows us how much Carter wants this to happen. We found bugs in this property, but none have ever been found in the offices.”

Reaper sat forward. “Did you destroy them all?”

“No.” Nadia reached for her bag and produced the tiny bug, handing it over to the blond man.

He turned it over in his hand and squinted before nodding. “I’ll get this over to Bishop but I’m pretty sure this is what SIS is using.”

“SIS?” Gideon was getting lost already and a headache was forming behind his eyes as if things were spiralling out of his grasp.

“SIS is what we call MI5 and MI6. It’s what they’re known as now,” Bás informed him as if he should already know this.

“It’s not.”

Gideon blinked at Nadia’s sharp tone.

All eyes turned to her and Bás cocked his head in question. “What’s not?”

“The bug isn’t an SIS-approved brand, at least not anymore.”

“You spoke to a contact there?”

“Kind of. I have a CI that gives me tidbits sometimes and she told me a few months back that SIS had switched distributors for their equipment because of a cost issue. They stopped contracting with the company that makes those ones about a year ago.”

He felt his heart quicken watching her in this role. Although today had been the first time he’d seen this side of her, watching more of her unfold was disconcerting and a little bit arousing.