Say It Again (First Wives, #5)(52)

“Just a little female bonding,” Trina announced.

Claire smiled through her pain.

“C’mon, Claire, help me put Lilly down for her nap.”

Claire jumped at the opportunity to leave and Sasha was faced with the men alone.

“Is she okay?” AJ asked.

“She’s fine.” Sasha turned and wiped away a single tear that had managed to escape the jail she’d put it in.





Chapter Nineteen



AJ had never been in a war room before, but he was fairly certain the space Neil and his band of merry men congregated in resembled one. The night before, he’d met Cooper and Isaac, two of Neil’s security guards. Jeb was Wade’s personal bodyguard, who lived onsite and had joined them that morning. Two more men AJ hadn’t been introduced to were brought in to relieve the man at the front entrance, as well as one on the far end of the property where deliveries were made for the working ranch portion of the estate. From AJ’s count, there were eight armed guards onsite, not to mention the ranch hands, who had been told that there was a viable threat and they needed to report to Jeb or Neil if they saw or suspected anything.

They had taken over the guesthouse, moving living room furniture aside to make room for fold-up tables and laptop computers. The kitchen table was littered with pictures and information that eventually made it up onto the wall. In the center of the data sat an image of Amelia. Subject zero. Unlike anyone else on the wall who had died, the guys in the room hadn’t put a black line through her image. AJ was pretty sure that was to save his feelings.

He watched from the side of the room while men buzzed around.

When the front door opened and Sasha walked in, three of the guys stopped what they were doing and stared.

“Sasha?” Cooper asked.

She narrowed her eyes. “You saw me last night,” she said to him.

He looked her up and down. “Yeah, but I didn’t know you owned anything that wasn’t black.” Cooper started to laugh and one of the other guys joined him.

“I don’t. This is borrowed.”

Cooper laughed harder. “Thank God. I was going to ask Wade if there was a doctor in the house to make sure you were feeling okay.”

She walked by with a glare.

The man obviously knew her well. Personally, AJ liked the relaxed jeans and sweater look. The new clothes softened her hard edges. Or maybe that was Claire’s doing.

She stood across from the wall of pictures and crossed her arms over her chest. “Where are we?” she asked.

Cooper stepped around her and waved a pen in the air. “Hold up, let’s get Reed online.”

Sasha nodded and stepped back.

AJ moved to her side. “Why Reed?”

“He’s the private investigator. He sees things others don’t.”

One of the monitors picked up a live feed of a clean-cut man sitting behind a computer. “Hello.”

“How’s the picture?” Cooper asked.

“It’s clear. Is Sasha there?”

Sasha moved in front of the camera. “Good morning. Are you a father yet?”

“Any day.” Reed peered closer into his camera. “Are you wearing a sweater?”

Cooper chuckled.

“Yes.” Sasha was irritated. “Are we doing this or talking fashion?”

“Get your panties out of your ass,” Reed said, laughing. “Is AJ there?”

AJ stepped up. “Nice to see you in person,” he said.

Reed nodded his approval. “Glad you filled out since your high school mug shot.”

“That was a closed file.”

“I have a can opener. Okay, let’s get on with this. Turn the camera around and bring me up to date.”

Cooper ran the meeting and used a yardstick to point at the wall. “Since Hofmann is our subject, we started there. Green dots signify covert intelligence. Information we were able to obtain from the liberated files off the dean’s computer.”

“Headmistress,” Sasha corrected.

“The headmistress’s computer. Hofmann did qualify for the green dot, as well as a yellow, signifying political ties and access.” Cooper glanced at AJ. “Black dots are for honor marks in weapons and hand-to-hand combat. Again, not marks that Hofmann obtained.”

“Do we have the school’s definition of covert intelligence?” Reed asked.

“There are two. At least that’s what was indicated in the files. Computer skills, which included writing code or hacking into the back doors of computers. And observed intelligence through pranks and mischief the students got into while attending the school.”

“Sasha, did the school teach you how to hack into a computer?”

“Not in the general education classes.”

“So that’s a yes.”

“More of a problem-solving course. That some of us might have used to learn how to obtain information not otherwise given to us freely.”

“You should go into politics, Sasha,” one of the men in the room said.

“AJ, did you know your sister could hack?” Neil asked.

“That’s news to me. She could always fix our computers . . . but hacking?”

Sasha stepped forward. “If I remember Amelia, she was always following the rules. I doubt she was on the intelligence list for foul play.”