Heath shrugged. “You have plenty of other weird ones, including the freaky computer skills.”
“Maybe that’s why she was studying us,” Ryker said, his mind flipping the puzzle around. The woman had given them written test after written test and then watched them, recorded them, working out and playing sports. They’d even attended a military training camp once with her as their guardian. He shivered at remembering the way she’d looked at him when he started to gain muscle…like she wanted to take a bite. “What if we showed weird promise in some initial tests, and that’s why she arrived to test us more? What if she wasn’t some governmental social worker keeping an eye on orphans?”
Denver stopped typing and looked up. “But that would mean—”
“Yeah. It would be way too coincidental that we were all at the boys home at the same time being tested by the same woman.” Ryker shoved down unease until a ball formed in his gut. His skin prickled. “No way could she have engineered our lives that way.”
Heath pushed back in his chair. “You’re right, so stop thinking such a bizarre scenario. That Greg kid got to you, buddy. There’s no big conspiracy that put us in that shithole, and that Madison woman was just studying us as part of a governmental study, like she said. How orphans learn or something like that.”
It was totally farfetched to consider any other explanation. “Why give us a fake name, not her real one?” Ryker asked.
“Maybe the kid gave us a fake name and her name really was Sylvia, like she told us,” Heath said.
That was the most likely scenario. “The kid is wicked smart to have hacked us so well, but genius and madness, you know?” Ryker murmured. He settled back and tried to figure out the problem.
Heath glanced at his watch. “Did you see Special Agent Jackson on the news yesterday? She’s becoming the face of the Copper Killer investigation, and damn if her hair isn’t starting to look red.”
“So we stick close to her,” Denver said. “Right?”
“Exactly,” Heath said, satisfaction tilting his mouth.
“Great. Us tailing the FBI. What could go wrong?” Ryker sighed.
“I’m with you there. I’ve tracked down Jackson, and she’s still in Utah. I’m catching a flight in an hour to, well, bug her,” Heath said. “She has to know more than she’s told us.”
Denver nodded.
“Okay.” Ryker nodded too. “Denver, you keep working on Greg and finding Isobel Madison, and for the moment, I want to treat Zara’s issue like a case.” He needed to banish emotion until he figured out what was going on. Something had been nagging at his subconscious, so he tuned in. A buzzing sound. Barely discernible…but with a definite pattern.
He motioned to Heath, who instantly stilled.
Denver paused in typing, and Ryker shook his head, pointing at the keyboard. Denver nodded and continued typing, his gaze now wandering the room.
“We need to get furniture for the apartments,” Heath said, his head slowly turning as he scanned the room.
Ryker nodded and stood, trying to follow the buzz, anger swelling in him. “Why doesn’t Denver just do it? He did an okay job with the offices.”
Denver snorted, his voice calm but his eyes sizzling. “You two morons can choose your own furniture. I’ve done my charitable deed for the year.”
Ryker frowned and moved silently to the bookshelf near the window. Leaning around a potted plant, he saw the bug. It was rough and cheap, but it’d get the job done. His pulse spiked, and he had to take several deep breaths to keep from losing his mind. Son of a fucking bitch. They’d been bugged.
Nobody bugged them. They had an edge because of their abilities, and if somebody else was smart and smooth enough to bug them, then they lost that damn edge. Oh, hell no.
He walked toward the office’s entrance, his hands clenching. “I’m starving, but I don’t feel like cooking.” Even though his fridge was fully stocked.
“Me either,” Denver said, pushing away from the computer, his eyes glinting with a harsh light even as his voice remained cheerful.
Heath cleared his throat. “There’s a place just down the road. Kind of a hole-in-the-wall, but it looks like they serve breakfast. Let’s get a late one, and then I can return to this Internet search.” He jerked his head toward the other offices, his jaw clenching hard enough to look painful. “Sound good?”
“Yeah. I just need to grab something from my office,” Ryker said, heading out and walking along the worn wooden floor. It had to be the kid, right? Damn, he was good. A quick search of Ryker’s office found a similar bug, and as he exited, he caught Heath’s nod upon leaving his own. Shit. Were the apartments bugged also?
There was only one way to find out.
Chapter
13