Free No Rules by Starr Ambrose

be something else,” Donovan insisted.
    She gritted her teeth. “There wasn’t.”
    “Just groundhogs and turtles and snakes,” Mitch said, and snickered. She simmered and decided he wasn’t so nice after all.
    “And a mossy log,” Avery added, pointing a manicured fingernail at Donovan’s notepad. “Don’t forget the log.”
    Screw you, Jess thought, drilling her with a hard stare. The Mossy Log stories had won numerous awards, no matter what Avery thought.
    Kyle shook his head. “We have to be missing something. There must have beena signal, and you just didn’t realize it meant something. Did he drop his napkin at any point during the meal?”
    “No.”
    “Ask for more water?”
    “No.”
    “Scratch his ear? Sneeze?”
    “No. What kind of stupid codes are those, anyway? What if a sneeze just meant he had a cold?”
    “Then he would have said something to that effect so we wouldn’t be confused.” Evan’s calm voice was obviously meant to soothe her. “Otherwise sneezing, for instance, would mean that whatever he’d just said should be taken to mean the opposite. Such things allow us to pass information even when someone might overhear it. Wally could have communicated to us through codes without you knowing it. It’s subtle and elegant in its simplicity.”
    There was the problem. The team’s expectations were getting in the way of reality. Taking a deep breath, she leaned toward Evan, doing her best to be sincere. “Look, I explained to Donovan that my father seemed to be living in the past. He couldn’t seem to grasp that things had changed. I’m sorry, I know he was your friend, but I suspect he had some form of dementia.”
    She wouldn’t have been surprised if he was offended. Even angry. What she didn’t expect was the thoughtful look that settled over him. “Son of a bitch. This one’s going to be hard. That man was always more clever than me when it came to codes and symbols.”
    She’d be better off beating her head against the wall.
    “Let’s get through this at least once,” Donovan said. Jess sighed heavily, feeling any chance of sleep slip farther away. “Wally talked about taking you on a picnic. What did he say after that?”
    She hesitated, remembering all too well what her father had brought up next, but reluctant to tell them. She was tempted to skip over it entirely, but thoughts of the two hostages forced her to be honest. She’d simply leave out the details. “He mentioned the day my mother and I moved out.” Seeing Donovan’s eyebrow rise, she forestalled his question. “It wasn’t anything important, just that he was sorry it happened. It’s not important.”
    “Let us decide that.”
    She narrowed her eyes. “It’s personal. Trust me, there was no hidden message, no sneezes or dropped napkins, just an apology for the way things worked out.”
    From the corner of her eye, she noted a flicker of interest from Avery. Now for sure she couldn’t talk about it.
    Donovan’s gaze was intent enough to make her insides squirm, and it had nothing to do with his menacing appearance. In fact, the feeling was opposite enough to be worthy of a sneeze. Great—she had a sexual response to a man who intimidated her. She tried to forget about all the sessions she was going to need with Dr. Epstein and concentrate on what Donovan was saying.
    “Jess, your mother left because Wally had started the Omega Group. If he talked about that, it pertains directly to us. It might even be the information we’re looking for.”
    She set her jaw stubbornly. “It wasn’t about you; it was about me.”
    She could tell he struggled to hold back his exasperation. “He apologized to you for starting the Omega Group?”
    “No.”
    “For what, then?”
    “None of your business.”
    “Jess—”
    “You don’t need to know. He shouldn’t have known. It’s confidential, and he shouldn’t have been able to access the files. It thought there were laws about