Free Until It's You by C.B. Salem Page A

you got threatened that confirmed your suspicions, and so you made this protocol."
    "Correct."
    "Then when this Roy guy looked at you wrong, you bolted.”
    “That sounds right."
    “How do you know his name was Roy?”
    “The car dealer used it. Sounded like the guy knew Roy well enough. Like he might have been expecting him.”
    "What was the dealer's name?"
    "Mark."
    "Did Roy look anxious when you saw him?"
    Landon hesitated, then shook his head. “Couldn’t say, why?”
    “Just seems odd for one of these muscle types to be looking to buy a car or something in the middle of the day when things are as crazy as they are.”
    “You might be right.”
    She went to her tablet and made some quick notes. She could organize them later.
    “It could be a sign they’re cracking up,” she said, looking back up into the dark wells of his eyes. “They’ve been doing so much collateral damage at this point that they ought to be.”
    “So what? You think we should draw them out until they capitulate?”
    She shook her head. “I think we should be on the lookout for mistakes like the ones we’ve seen and be ready for them. In case we have a chance to grab onto a loose thread and pull.”
    He motioned to the tablet on the table and sat down. “Is that what you’ve been working on? Looking for a thread to pull?”
    He motioned toward the couch, as if to sit down. She moved over to let him. His sudden nearness threw her off for a moment, but she regained her equilibrium with effort. She had to.
    Ignoring her suddenly warm cheeks, she leaned forward and took the tablet in her hands. The screen flashed on.
    “This is a doc I create whenever I am on a new case. Gives me a systematic way to look at all the players, begin laying the groundwork for seeing connections.”
    He nodded, his full attention on her. “And you were able to complete it already?”
    “The base of it, anyway. There are always additions. It’s a little hard to find information on your assistant. Ms. Bruman. What does she do for you, exactly?”
    Landon straightened up in his seat. His eyes seemed to lose focus for a moment as he stared ahead, seemingly at nothing.
    Kristina waited.
    “Ms. Bruman has been with me since the company started,” Landon said. “She was a friend of Oliver’s wife. She’d just lost her husband unexpectedly and needed to go back to work.”
    “I see.”
    “As for what she does, it’s kind of hard to put a limit on it. Suffice to say she is responsible for a large part of administration at the company. Her eye for efficiency and professionalism is incredible.”
    “Is she cleared by DNA to your apartment like I was?”
    Landon shook his head. “No. I made sure to look at the list of people cleared for that after the fruit basket arrived.”
    “Who was on the list?”
    “You’re looking at him.”
    "That's it? No cleaners or anything?"
    "Cleaners get temp access. Nobody else was cleared at the time the fruit basket came in."
    Kristina nodded, then breathed deeply. So whoever had done this was an adept hacker, too.
    “Okay," she said with a deep breath. "At this point, I think we need to figure out next steps.”
    Landon nodded but said nothing. She felt acutely at that moment that he was testing her. This was her chance to take the reins. She hesitated, putting together a plan on the fly. It had to project confidence to Landon. Give him a reason to believe he’d been right to trust her when he’d drafted that protocol.
    “Whoever’s after you isn’t exactly laying low,” she said, thinking out loud. “Like I said before, they’re desperate. And that means they’re prone to mistakes. They’ve probably already made one by not catching me at the beach.”
    “I’ll agree with that.”
    “They might make another. We need to try to force them into a situation where that happens and be ready to latch on.”
    “How?”
    She brushed her hair out of her eyes. It was still slightly damp. “To start with, I can go talk