Code Conspiracy. Carol Ericson

old-time swimsuit from the wall, ran his hand along the back of it and around the edges of the frame.

      As Jerrica twisted her fingers in front of her, he lifted the lid on the toilet tank and scanned the dry parts. Then he pointed to the mirrored medicine cabinet.

      Jerrica swung open the door and studied the inside as if deciding which medicine to take. “I don’t see anything. You?”

      “No, but we’re not talking freely outside of this room until I do a search with my cell phone.”

      “Your cell phone?”

      He plunged his hand into his pocket, pulled out his phone and tapped the display. “I have a program on my phone that will detect audio devices.”

      “That’s handy. How come I don’t know about that?” She tipped her head back and her gaze darted to the four corners of the ceiling. “Cameras?”

      “I doubt it, but I’m going to check for those, too. I’m pretty sure whoever is tracking you is more interested in what you say than what you do.”

      “And who I do it with?” She pointed a finger at him.

      “Me?” He swiped a hand across the back of his neck as the steam from the hot water swirled around him.

      “If these people are aware that Denver’s Delta Force team members are the only ones actively working on his behalf, you can bet they know who you all are at this point.”

      “You’re probably right.” He reached forward and plucked a strand of hair from Jerrica’s moist face. “Yours is exactly the kind of mind needed for this situation.”

      She cocked her head. “Only for this situation?”

      “Hell, I’d be happy to have you by my side in any situation, Jerrica West.” He ran his thumb along her lower lip. “I’m trying to remember if we said anything revealing out there before it dawned on me that they might have bugged the place.”

      “As far as I can recall, we spent most of our time talking about olive oil.”

      He snapped his fingers. “At least they’ll know they can’t get into your place again.”

      “We talked about Amit, but they know more about him than we do.” She sank to the edge of the tub. “What have they done with him? If they have his phone, they must have him…or worse.”

      “They’re not going to kill someone if they want to get intel from him.” He slammed a fist against his chest. “Take it from someone who knows.”

      “I don’t want to hear about what you do.” She made a cross with her fingers and held it in front of her face. “But if Amit refused to give them what they wanted, refused to take them to Dreadworm, they’d have no more reason to keep him alive.”

      “They would if they thought they could change his mind.” He sat down on the tub next to her and draped his arm around her shoulders as the water rose behind them. “I know it’s hard, but try not to think about Amit right now. When that guy had you cornered in the alley, he could’ve killed you with the knife, but he didn’t.”

      “I should warn everyone else, send out messages. Olaf has a warning system in place and neither Amit nor I used it. We just panicked.”

      “That’s understandable.” He squeezed the back of her neck, and then glanced over his shoulder. “I think we’d better turn off the water before it overflows, but until I do my search of the rest of the house, no talking about anything related to Amit or Olaf or Dreadworm.”