Page 60 of Jack

“Pick up a waitressing job?”

“No. You’re a terrible waitress. Didn’t you nearly get mowed over twice last night?”

“Yes. Same guy. Like he had me on radar.”

And for a moment, Mr. Reflexes entered her brain. Steinbeck, someone had called him. Brown hair, blond highlights, dark beard, and those eyes—oh, she’d seen those ocean-blue eyes before. Still couldn’t wrap her grip around the memory, however.

“I hope not,” Nim said. “Okay, I found the blueprints of Stone’s estate. I’m sending them to you. It’s gated, of course, and he has a handful of security personnel, so obvs, they’ll know you’re not with them. But the guests won’t, so just avoid outside security and you’ll be fine.”

Emberly pulled up the blueprint of the estate from her email. “That’s a lot of room for a single guy.” She did the quick math. Six bedrooms, seven baths, twelve thousand square feet on thirty acres. “He bought it six years ago for four mil.”

“Originally built in 1928, so it needed a lot of upgrades. But I found a few holes in his system.”

She could almost hear Nim crack her knuckles.

“First, there’s a caterer coming in tomorrow with a delivery, so that’s easy.”

“Right. Carry in some canapés, hide, don my security suit, sneak out during the party?—”

“Find his office, find his cell phone.”

“He might have it on him.”

“He might. But the house has spotty cell service, so he installed a booster in his office, along with broadband. According to the usage from his provider, he syncs his computer—and I’ll bet his phone—every night. Probably on a base charger.”

“Brilliant. So I get in, duplicate the phone.”

“Download the vault information. All you need is the passcode from his app. That and the print you lifted should get you into the hard-copy cyber vault in Montelena.”

“And order me a pizza.”

Laughter. “Please come to Florida. Think beaches and surfing and good-looking tanned men?—”

And right then, bam, sheknew.

Oh no.She practically groaned, looked up at herself in the mirror, wincing.

She knew where she’d seen Mr. Reflexes before.

Please, please let him not remember.

Nim was still listing off beach perks. “And I mentioned the seafood, right? And ice cream—there’s a homemade-gelato place beachside that will make your eyes roll back into your head.”

“I mentioned that I’m freezing my tuchus off here, right? Reminds me of that double-wide we lived in for a while. In—where was that?”

“Rapid City, South Dakota. Buffalo Acres. An orange buffalo statue stared at me every night at the edge of the trailer park. I still have nightmares.” A slight chuckle, and then it died.

Oops.Maybe Emberly shouldn’t have brought that up.

“Anyway, so, don’t get caught, okay?”

“Nope. I got this.”

Her sister hung up.

As long as one former Navy SEAL didn’t suddenly remember the woman who’d left him for dead.

SEVEN