After she dressed, Kinsey made her way to the kitchen. This morning there was no sign of Lexi, Thorn, or anyone else. There was a plate of bacon next to a toaster and a loaf of bread.
Kinsey poured some coffee while the bread was in the toaster. When it was done, she lightly buttered it and stood by the counter eating toast while looking out the window.
The snow still fell heavily, thickly covering the ground. It was going to make things difficult for the MI5 agents, which worked in Dreagan’s favor.
That made her smile. Then she stilled. Was she on Dreagan’s side? After the talk Con, Henry, and Ryder had had with Esther, it was all Kinsey had been able to think about.
The dragons still frightened her, but not as much as the day before or the day before that. The longer she was around Ryder and the others, the more comfortable she became with the idea of who they were.
That wasn’t something she’d seen coming. But it made sense. Just as it was easy for her to acknowledge that she was on Dreagan’s side. If she could be neutral, she would, but someone at Kyvor had made sure to put her smack in the middle.
So Kinsey chose a side. Dreagan’s.
After what she saw the night before with Ryder weakening Esther with his power, she wondered if there was someone at the estate who could control the weather.
She finished eating before she made her way up to the computer room. Ryder was there finishing off a jelly donut, a deep frown on his face as he looked at something on one of the screens.
“Good morning,” Kinsey said.
He gave her a nod without looking in her direction. “Morning.”
“Did you stay here all night?”
“No.”
That’s all she was going to get. Kinsey shrugged and took her seat. She pulled her chair forward and rested her hands on the virtual keyboard that immediately lit up. She could really get used to this kind of technology at her fingertips all the time.
No sooner had she touched a key than one of the screens flashed red before listing pages of information.
“How long has this been ready?” she asked.
There was a pause from Ryder as he glanced at her screen. “A few hours.”
“Why didn’t you look?”
“Other business,” he said before turning back to his monitor.
Whatever Ryder was looking at must be important. Kinsey scrolled through the pages of documents listing Esther’s assignments and the reports filed by her and her handler.
After reading a dozen reports that were putting her to sleep, Kinsey switched to another monitor and checked more Kyvor e-mails. She opened each and every one, scanning the words.
This is the part of her job she hated. Ryder could probably write some software to do this for her, but Kinsey wanted to be the one to find the needle in the haystack.
Clarice Steinhold had been used as a patsy, and so had Kinsey. But people made mistakes. It was just a matter of Kinsey looking in every nook and cranny, every e-mail and memo that went out. There was something, somewhere.
Ryder believed she was innocent, and right now that sufficed for everyone. How much longer would Con and the others leave her be before they questioned her as they were most likely doing with Esther?
Kinsey didn’t want to think about Henry’s sister right now. Her attention needed to be directed at the information before her. It was bad enough that the words began to blur. She was so tired of reading stupid e-mails talking about meetings and how some person or other wasn’t doing their job that she could puke.
She stopped and rubbed her eyes. A glance at the time showed she’d been at it for hours. Kinsey then rose and stretched to give her poor muscles something to do. When she looked over at Ryder, he was still intent on whatever he was working on.
With a yawn, she sat back down and spotted the note Ryder left her. It was a code to another piece of software he’d designed that would look for encoded e-mails.
Kinsey didn’t waste another moment opening the software and putting it into action. While it worked, she decided to read more of the reports from Esther when an e-mail to Harriet Smythe caught her eye. It was from someone named Brewster.
She opened it, her stomach dropping to her feet as she read.
It’s all set. If KB has knowledge of the truth, it’s hidden well. A search of the house and computer came up empty. We’ll try for the mobile phone within the next day or so.
Kinsey could barely pull in a breath. KB. That was her. It had to be her.
She scrolled down to read the previous message from Harriet.
Is everything ready? We’ve put a lot into this plan. Nothing can go wrong. I need to know everything she knows.
Kinsey’s hand was shaking as she moved the cursor with the trackpad to the attachments sent in a previous e-mail. As soon as they loaded and she saw pictures of her and Ryder, Kinsey leapt from her chair.
“Kins?” Ryder asked in concern as he turned to her.