Yael checked her messages to see if her boss needed anything before she headed home, but he hadn’t replied to her last note which meant he was probably catching forty-winks on the flight down to Charlotte. She planned to head back to her house and maybe score a few hours’ sleep before going back to her data. So far, she had just under a thousand hits on the code EG had used in his executable file that she was working her way through.

She looked up and realized the room had cleared, everyone going about their business. Shane was nowhere to be seen and she squashed the sense of disappointment that he hadn’t bothered to say goodbye.

Another reason not to get involved with anyone at work. The emotional energy put into any relationship was exhausting. All the second guessing, the constant fear of rejection or embarrassment. Better to be alone than always wondering if and when someone was going to walk away. And possibly humiliate you in the process.

She heard Ashley and Sloan talking in the next room. Apparently, Ashley Chen and Lucas Randall had adopted a girl called Becca before the holidays and Sloan was asking after her progress.

Yael was finding that many of the FBI agents knew one another and many considered the Bureau one big family. She’d found working at Cramer, Parker & Gray was similar. The bosses looked after the staff. People genuinely seemed to care for one another. She’d noticed they seemed to employ a lot of people who on first glance might not fit the usual corporate mold, but who were smart and dedicated and honorable. Her colleagues made her want to be a better person, and she suspected many of them had secrets or backgrounds like her own.

Yael was about to close her laptop and head home when a notification popped up on her screen. It was data regarding this guy Zenko.

“What’s that?” Shane asked from behind her.

She jumped in her seat. She hadn’t heard him come back into the room.

She turned and he was so close she could see flecks of silver in the green of his irises.

He sat. “Sorry. Didn’t mean to startle you.”

“Do they teach you to creep around like that at the academy?”

He snorted. “No. Special Forces. HRT too. What is that?” He nodded at the screen.

She returned to her messages. “I set up property searches for the Zenko family last night before we figured out he’d rented an apartment in Fayetteville. I included his mother’s family and grandparents’ names to see what popped.”

It wasn’t a long list.

She eliminated those that had clearly been sold outside the immediate Zenko family. Shane peered intently at her laptop screen and she forced herself not to react to his closeness.

“Was everything okay yesterday?” She wanted to kick herself for asking. HRT business was highly confidential for obvious reasons.