Page 14 of Talk to Me

Sure there were some shitty ass people in WitSec, but not all of them. There were also marshals just doing their jobs.

“Play with me, Patch,” Remy cajoled. “Twenty questions, truth or dare—just—tell me something about you that I don’t know.”

“I hate cell phones,” I told him after I zipped up the file on the first name and sent it off. I started building one for the second. After how much had been done to cover the first, I wanted to make sure I didn’t set off any alarms by digging too deep.

“Why?” He sounded legitimately surprised.

“You know anything about horses, Remy?”

“Some,” he said. “Probably enough to be dangerous. Like I know how to ride, for fun. Why?”

“Well, you know how they tell you that when you control the head on a horse, you control where it goes. But to do that, you need a halter and a lead rope.”

“Yes,” he said slowly.

“The thing is, sure, you have a grip on a thousand pound animal, but they have one on you.”

“Cell phone offers convenience, but it’s also a leash.”

“Exactly,” I said. “I don’t like that part of them. I think about when I was a kid and I didn't have a phone—and how badly I wanted one. My dad told me I was too young, etc etc.” I shook my head. “I had no idea how good I had it and once you get one—it’s like you’re now permanently leashed.”

All someone had to do was reach out and pull on that electronic lead to yank you back in. I’d worked hard to cut those cords. It was why I had three different phones now. One for each aspect of life. Not counting the burners in my go bag.

If I ever had to abandon this life, it would suck, but I had everything in place to do it.

“Were you a girly girl or a tomboy?” Remy asked. “When you were a kid.”

“Oh, I thought you were asking about now.” I deadpanned the delivery as I stared at the facts populating about the second name. Just as clean as the first, but also a co-worker.

That could be a problem. They wouldn’t usually put two witnesses in close proximity. Possibly just a friend developed in the new life? Or family member?

They might bring a family member?—

Oh, I backtracked the name then looked at the locations and the history. It was different. Almost too different from the primary.

“If you want to tell me about now, I won’t object,” Remy said. “But I’m trying to picture blonde, blue-eyed you with pigtails…”

“Who said I had blonde hair and blue eyes?” Amusement curved my lips. As skimming attempts went, it wasn’t a bad one at all.

“Damn, you’re a hard nut to crack.” The protest on Remy’s part carried a lot of humor.

“I thought it was a game, not an interrogation,” I reminded him.

“Who says it can’t be both?”

I zipped up the second file and sent it off. “Me.”

There was a beat of silence, then he blew out a long breath. “Understood, luv. Understood. Backing off.”

“Thank you,” I told him. “I have one more name here to finish building a profile for. Did you really need these or was it an excuse to talk to me?”

“Both,” he admitted. “You ever feel like something is too good to be true?”

“Every day.” The fact I’d survived this long? Definitely too good to be true. “What’s your gut telling you?”

“Walk away,” he said and the issue he was struggling with crystallized. Remy took a lot of black bag jobs, wetwork, and assassinations. I didn’t ask too much detail about his targets and he didn’t defend them.

It was all a job. A transaction. Once he accepted a contract, he fulfilled it. He just didn’t accept all contracts. If he was on this…