Jess hugged herself, the position highlighting the colorful ink that ran up her arms—-a lot of which Jeremy and Ike had done themselves. “But that’s just it. I don’t know anything. Hell, I didn’t even know what all of you were doing here until Jeremy told me a few days ago.”
Yeah, and that conversation hadn’t gone great. He and Nick had lied to Jess initially, which Jeremy had hated. They’d thought she’d be safer if she remained in the dark regarding the team’s investigation and enemies. In hindsight, Jeremy should’ve known better. Jess had made it crystal clear what she thought of their secrecy.
“Did you see the -people who broke in? Did they say anything?” Nick asked.
“I didn’t see anyone,” Jess said, “but when they searched my closet, one of them said they needed me, whatever that means.”
Becca came up beside Nick, and Jeremy was glad for the millionth time that they’d found each other in the midst of all this chaos. Because Becca was awesome and so damn good for his brother. “This feels like what happened to my and Charlie’s places all over again. Someone looking for us and information they thought we had.”
“I was thinking the same thing,” Charlie said in a quiet voice from his seat at the desk.
“Shit,” Nick bit out. “Yeah.”
“Goddamnit,” Ike said in a tone close to a growl. He scrubbed his hands over his bald head.
Jess’s bottom lip quivered. “What now?”
Jeremy hadn’t seen Jess this rattled in years, not since her dad had died within a few months of her starting at Hard Ink, and he couldn’t hold back wanting to make her feel better for even one more second. He pulled her into his arms and petted his hand against her silky hair. She was so short that her head just touched the bottom of his chin. “For now, you stay here. I’ll help you put your place back together when all this is over. Okay?”
A quick nod. “Thanks.”
“Don’t mention it, Jess.” Her muscles trembled within Jeremy’s embrace, and it was clear she was trying with all her might to hold back her emotion. But after having her house broken into and tossed in the middle of the night, who would blame her for falling apart? No one here, that was for sure. Jeremy looked toward Ike. “Thanks for being there for her, man.”
His face still set in a deep scowl, the guy gave a single tight nod. Jeremy wasn’t surprised at how angry Ike seemed. He’d always been protective of Jess.
“I’m sorry you got sucked into this mess,” Nick said, bending down to peer in her eyes.
“Thanks,” Jess whispered. And the civility of their exchange—-when they usually drove each other crazy—-proved just how serious this situation was.
Ike crossed to Dare, and they clasped hands. “When Jess called, I came into the city early. But the rest of the guys will be down by eleven.”
Dare nodded, and looked to Beckett. “That’ll give us time to set up those lookouts.”
“Roger that,” Beckett said.
“Hold up a minute,” Nick said. “Before everyone scatters, I want Marz to show y’all something he’s been working on. Marz?”
“I’m going to project some images on that wall,” he said, pointing to the stretch of brick that ran along the side of his desk. Easy, his girlfriend Jenna, and Beckett moved out of the way. “These are stills I grabbed from the video surveillance footage during yesterday’s attack.” Marz was the team’s computer expert, and the guy among all Nick’s teammates that Jeremy had gotten to know the best. He was hilarious, dedicated to the point of pulling multiple all--nighters to get done the research they needed, and almost always upbeat.
Grainy images appeared on the wall next to a giant whiteboard filled with maps and questions and lists of information.
“Well, that wasn’t too bright an idea, was it?” Marz said, chuckling to himself.
The brick obscured the images so that Jeremy couldn’t really make out what they were. But it was more of the same all around, all the way up to the tall ceilings. “How about this?” Jeremy said, coming around to Marz. “Can I borrow your chair?”
“Sure, hoss. What do you have in mind?” Marz asked as he rose. The slight limp he had was the result of the prosthetic he wore. The ambush that had killed so many of the guys on Nick’s SF team had claimed the lower half of Marz’s right leg, too.
Jeremy climbed up on the chair, grabbed the small cube of the projector, and shined it down at the light--colored concrete floor right in the center of the group. Much clearer.
“Genius, Jeremy,” Marz said, grinning.