“And by we, he means me.” Lucky wore a smug smile. “Because we all know I’m the smartest one on the team.”
A roll of Archer’s eyes accompanied a highly sarcastic, “And the humblest.”
“You’re right, though.” Logan met Lucky’s blue gaze. “I hope you brought your computer.”
“Dude.” Lucky’s handsome face fell as flat as his tone as he shot back with an offended, “Did you seriously just ask me that?”
“We need this ASAP,” the former team lead bypassed Lucky’s feigned hurt. “And it needs to be clean.”
Natalie watched the two men exchange a look she didn’t understand.
A beat later, Lucky responded with a serious, “My stuff’s in the rental. I’ll go grab it and get set up.” To her, he pointed to the four-person table nearby and asked, “Care if I take that over for a bit?”
“It’s not my table, but sure. Knock yourself out.”
What was I gonna say? No?
Giving her a small glimpse into what Logan must have been like as a leader in the field, he turned to Archer and Van with their own assignments. “While Lucky works on that, you two go through the rest of this to see if there’s anything else you can use to support our suspicions. This has to be air fucking tight when we take it to the authorities. Otherwise Frost and Atkinson will fuck us worse than the Navy.”
Several grumbled agreements later, Chase was asking, “What do you want me to do?”
“Help Lucky with whatever he needs.”
“Copy that, Boss.”
Boss.
Natalie looked at Logan, who’d just turned back to her. The expression on his face one of command. “I think it goes without saying, but you don’t leave my sight for the foreseeable future. Got it?”
“Got it.” She nodded. “Not like I have some sort of death wish.”
There was a time not so long ago that she did. Or thought she did. But now—present situation excluded—she was so very thankful God hadn’t answered those particular prayers.
“Don’t even joke about that.”
Logan’s voice had dropped to such a serious, deadly tone that everyone in the room swung their heads in his direction, but his focus remained solely on hers.
He’d been there in those early days, so no. She didn’t suppose he would find the flippant comment funny.
“I’ll stick by you.” She amended her earlier response. “But does that still include going back to my house?” They’d had that discussion earlier. “Did Detective Knox ever text you back?”
“He texted while we were still outside with the guys. Techs gave him the all-clear. Your house is yours, again.”
She nodded but then considered the others standing in the room. “Where are you guys staying tonight?”
“Don’t know yet,” Chase shrugged.
“I know where I’ll be.” Lucky returned from outside. Over his shoulder hung a black leather computer bag, and his hands were filled with two separate computers monitors. “My happy ass will be sitting right here, at this table.”
He placed the monitors down with a sigh before slipping his bag from his shoulders and setting it into the seat of the nearest chair.
“Yeah, you guys are welcome to crash here. I have the couch, the recliner, and I think there’s an air mattress in the garage.”
“They don’t need an air mattress.” Natalie shook her head at Logan. “Not if you and I just stay over at my place.” Realizing I how it probably sounded to the others, she added a quick, “I have the two rooms.”
Something flashed behind his eyes, but all he said was, “You sure you want to do that? Your place is still a wreck.”
“Doesn’t have to be clean to be slept in,” she insisted. “And you have your bed and the spare, plus the pull-out, and…” She glanced around with her bottom lip pulled between her teeth. “Okay, so you’ll still need an air mattress, but—”