Say It Again (First Wives, #5)(59)

“Isaac isn’t paying attention.”

“That’s what he wants you to believe.” Sasha brought AJ’s coffee to her lips. He went back into the kitchen and refilled her mug and proceeded to use it.

“You’ve been staring at these for four hours?” he asked.

She looked at him over the rim of the coffee cup. “It’s called surveillance.”

He leaned back in the chair he sat in, pointed toward the monitors. “I can’t imagine anyone attempting to get into this compound.”

“Wade Thomas has a lot of rabid fans. Jeb has his hands full without the added stress of us here.”

AJ looked around the war room and at the lone guy seeming to rock out under his earbuds while the glow of the computer monitor washed out the color on his face. On the main board there were several new pictures, colored dots, and lines spreading in all directions.

Amelia’s image smiled down from the center of the wall.

His heart squeezed in his chest.

I’m going to find out who is responsible, he said in his head.

“You okay?” Sasha asked.

“Fine.”

The front door opened, and Jeb and Cooper joined them. A printer sprang to life on Isaac’s desk.

“Good morning,” Jeb greeted them first. “Anything interesting going on?” He crossed to Sasha, who was already pushing her chair back and giving him space.

“Absolutely nothing,” she told him.

“Excellent. Neil wants everyone back here in fifteen for a briefing.” Jeb sat in the chair Sasha vacated.

“The missus made some fresh biscuits,” Cooper told them.

AJ’s stomach growled.

Sasha glanced at him, lowered her eyes to his abdomen. “You go ahead. I’m good with coffee.”

He leaned close, watched as Sasha’s whole body stiffened. He put his lips close to her ear and whispered, “You need your energy after last night.” Then he walked past her without looking back.

In the main house, AJ found the kitchen and a whole lot more than just biscuits laid out.

Claire sat at the table, shoveling food in.

“This is nuts,” he said, looking over the spread of three different types of breakfast meat, scrambled eggs in a warming dish, biscuits, fruit, and potatoes.

“Rose, the cook, said she loves it when the house is full of people so she has something to do. She already started on fresh bread to go with lunch.” Claire pointed to the other side of the kitchen, where an extra large mixing bowl sat close to the stove and covered with a towel.

“As in homemade?”

“That’s what fresh means.”

AJ grabbed a plate and started to fill it. “Smart-ass.”

“One of my many talents.”

AJ set his plate aside, grabbed one for Sasha, filled it with fruit and a biscuit. He covered both plates with napkins and grabbed them with both hands. He watched Claire as she cleaned the last of the food off of her plate and moved to rinse it off.

“So what did Neil have you doing at five in the morning?”

“Scrubbing floors,” she said without complaint. “I was given fifteen minutes to eat and have to be with the team at eight for the briefing.” Adrenaline agreed with the girl.

He started to leave the room and hesitated. “Hey, Claire?”

She looked at him.

“When all this is said and done, you’re not going to be alone.”

Her motions stopped. Water ran down the drain and moisture gathered behind her eyes.

“We clear on that?” he asked. He wasn’t sure how that looked, after, but he knew there was no way he could watch an eighteen-year-old orphan live on the streets.

A single tear slid down her cheek.

She nodded and bit her lip.

Back in the war room, AJ placed a plate of food in front of Sasha and ignored the roll of her eyes.

It didn’t take long for her to start picking at the food.

AJ sat at a tall island in the back of the room while Neil gathered a stack of papers and started sifting through them.

Claire ran into the war room one minute before Neil’s start time.

“Am I late?”

“You’re fine, kid.” Cooper waved her over.

“I’m not a kid.”

Neil pulled a piece of paper from his pile and handed it to Claire. “You’re eighteen, but still a kid.”

Claire took the paper, looked at it. “My birth certificate.”

“Appears the administration at Richter is mistaken about your age. You’re not seventeen like they told the authorities.”

AJ met Sasha’s eyes from across the room. Relief sat behind her stare.

“One less thing for us to worry about,” AJ said.

“That won’t stop any legal action on their end. So we’re going to avoid that mountain of trouble by staying tucked away a little longer.”

“No running out for pizza,” Cooper teased Claire.

She nudged his shoulder with hers.

Neil nodded toward Cooper. “Bring everyone up on the new faces on the board.”

AJ finished his food while Cooper pointed out six new pictures, four women and two men, whom he and Claire found from The Mandarin File. “There were two dozen names in the file from three years before Hofmann graduated until now. Of those twenty-four people, these are the faces of Pohl’s recruits. The ones who took the job.”