I scoffed. “Moose are more dangerous than bears, but self-important clients are more dangerous than all the things that can kill you in the wild.”
“Hmm,” she said as she studied me. I looked away so I could pretend I wasn’t under her microscope. “I’ve known you for more than a year, and somehow I think I don’t really know you at all, do I?”
“I’ve been on assignment for a lot of that time, and you mostly work with Gabriel.”
“You’ve been back in town for a month. I think it’s time for a girls’ night out, don’t you?”
“I don’t go to bars,” I said reflexively.
“Neither do I,” she said. “I meant on Darius’s boat. Anna will drive.”
Darius and I had partnered on a few jobs, so of all the Cipher agents, I knew him the best. His wife, Anna, was a bounty hunter, and I liked her. She made him laugh. He was only marginally more serious than I usually was at work, so by extension, she made me laugh too.
I raised an eyebrow. “Could be entertaining.”
“It’ll be fun,” Shane said with certainty. “I’ll call you.”
I shot her a skeptical look. “Shane, it’s March. Who goes out on the lake in March?”
“Yukoners, backpackers, and skydivers—and no one else. That’s kind of the point. I mean, we have the gear, right?
I chuckled. “I have the gear.”
“Good.” She started off down the hall, then turned back. “Seriously? Hunting guide in the Yukon?”
I slung my backpack over my shoulder and deadpanned, “Seriously? Stripper?”
She grinned. “Swing by Quinn’s office before you head out. He thinks the new client will be back.”
I nodded, and she threw a wave over her shoulder as she walked away. Her new prosthetic leg must have been perfectly weighted, because even the tiny hitch the old one had given her step was gone.
I veered away toward the corner office my boss used to impress those clients who were impressed by things like corner offices. I thought that, given the choice, Quinn would probably rather work from home or wherever it was his wife happened to be. It wouldn’t be obvious to most people who only saw a powerful man with a face carved from granite, but whenever I’d seen them together at office functions, something about the way Quinn looked at his wife made me think she was an oasis to a man who expected to spend his life in the desert. Janey Sullivan seemed oblivious to her husband’s … thirst. It was probably why they were perfect together. His focus would overwhelm someone who was attuned to it, like looking directly at the sun would blind someone without shades.
I heard the distant thrum of the coffee machine in the boardroom where Shane and Gabriel preferred to work, and pictured him setting a cup in front of her as he’d done ever since she began working at Cipher. The faint sniff from the sofa where Saahil, a cybersecurity recruit from Berkeley, usually sat told me he’d been eating sugar again. It made his nose run worse than any cold ever had, and a glance in the bin next to him revealed the wrapper of a chocolate bar. At least it had been good chocolate.
Avalon, who used to be a stunt driver for the movies, saw my sympathetic wince as I passed Saahil’s station, and she raised an eyebrow in question. Damn. She’d noticed me noticing. I always felt like I’d failed a little when people became aware of me, because so much of my job was about becoming the background. I let my gaze soften as if I were deep in thought, then schooled my expression into something carefully neutral as I tapped on Quinn’s open door.
“Come,” he said. His tone was distracted, and I caught the faint scent of Alex Greene’s soap as I pushed the door open, so it wasn’t a surprise to see him standing across the desk from Quinn.
“What’s your impression of Curran?” Quinn asked without preamble.
“I haven’t had time to form one yet,” I answered, careful to keep the lie out of my voice. My impression had been a complete knee-jerk reaction to the flirtatious pseudo-charm he used on everyone but me. He was so reminiscent of my ex that I had to deliberately shove the memory of Ashton right back down into the putrid long-drop hole where it belonged.
He shook his head. “No, Alex will get me facts. I want your gut.”
It was with effort that I didn’t flinch. “My … gut?” Was my loathing of the guy obvious?
His eyes narrowed as he studied me. “You said you tracked him last night to stay sharp. That is the action of a hunter, and a successful hunter understands her prey.”
It actually helped to think of Oliver Curran as prey, because Quinn was right, I was a hunter. I just hadn’t known that anyone else realized that was how I operated.
I exhaled and turned to calm, cold logic. “He’s an apex predator who just realized there’s something out there more dangerous than he is, and it confuses him. Scares him too.” His sudden anger when he saw me and thought he’d been set up exposed that fear. “He still believes he has options, which means he won’t behave like a cornered animal yet. But he also thinks he has the upper hand, so he’ll make stupid choices that’ll get him hurt. He’s resourceful under duress and isn’t likely to freeze in panic, but he has no practice at it, so it’s more instinct than skill.”
My word-choice became instinctual as I finished. “He’s an alpha hiding in the easy skin of someone unconcerned with pack hierarchy, which means he won’t take direction well and will likely be a very big pain in the a— eye for whoever has to protect him.” I stumbled over the invective, suddenly remembering that I was talking to my boss. He didn’t seem to notice, but the corner of Alex’s mouth twitched in what was, for him, probably the equivalent of a belly laugh.
I narrowed my eyes at Alex Greene, Cipher’s Director of Information Technologies, which was the corporate title for hacker. “Wait, you know everything in the tech world. Do you know Oliver Curran?”
“I know his code,” he said, as if that were an answer.
“Is he your friend?” I added, my stomach sinking a little at the prospect.
“I don’t have friends,” he said, expressionless. I nodded, unsurprised at his self-assessment. I didn’t either. I had family and people I worked with, that was all.
Quinn was still, and I recognized the quiet thoughtfulness of another hunter. When he finally moved again, it was to hand me a business card. “Familiarize yourself with Oliver Curran while Alex looks into the IP that he’s protecting. Somehow I doubt the interest in his health is personal.”
“By the way,” I said, tucking the card into my pocket, “the interested party speaks Russian.”
Quinn’s eyes narrowed. “Fascinating.” He glanced at Alex, who nodded.
“On it.”
Alex left the office with a brief tilt of the head at me, and I turned to follow him.
“Dallas,” Quinn’s voice stopped me. “When Curran comes back in, I’m going to put you on him. Will that be a problem?”
“Not for me,” I said calmly, ignoring the flip of my stomach.
“You think it’ll be one for him?” Quinn asked.
I considered for a moment. “It’s clear he doesn’t like me, so I imagine he would question the choice.”