The Laughing Assassin [Assassin's Diary] (Siren Publishing Classic) by Jennifer Willows Page A

place to satisfy that urge. Or so I heard.”
    Of course, Jaden thought, the way to this man’s heart lead right through his esophagus. “All right, I’ll feed you. What do you want?”
    “I missed you, too, Jaden.” The words were accompanied by an infectious grin. “Whatever you have is fine with me. Look at it this way. I tried to be good and not show up for every meal today. Can you at least give me that?”
    “Yes, I think you’ve been a good boy. But that doesn’t mean that I am the food bank either.”
    “And I was prepared to pay. But with all of the attitude in your tone, I think I deserve a free meal now. You don’t want to leave your customer disappointed now, do you?”
    “Really?” Jaden’s tone was drier than the Mojave. But she did miss the sight of him today, and she knew that she had already gotten too used to seeing him. So she fed him anyway and refused his money.

Chapter Six:
    Baggage
     
    Jonah had to nearly sit on his hands all day to keep himself away from the bakery that morning. He went across town and got a few doughnuts, along with a frou-frou cappuccino that Jaden’s shop didn’t serve. Nothing was as good as the muffins he’d devoured the other day, and he was far from happy about the fact that he ate one thing, yet craved another.
    Jonah always relished his time alone when he was about to start a new operation so he assumed she would think the same way he did. If she needed space, that was more important than his culinary hankerings, and he was sensitive enough to give it to her.
    He spent an hour at a local park as he ran a few miles then he talked to Dayna and Johannes about his change in plan afterward. The pair seemed game for anything, so long as they were together. The couple was in dire need of alone time, and the weeks they would spend at the bakery were the closest thing to a honeymoon that the two had to date. And they were nearly at their first anniversary. Jonah made a mental note to get them a block of leave time set up after this job was done, something that none of the teammates had gotten in a while.
    The rest of the day was spent in an attempt to locate the IP address of the PC that sent him his e-vite to the slave sale. The team had captured a lower level buyer named Gianni Lanham, and he rolled over for immunity from prosecution, along with anonymity for his help. But all of the information his team had received didn’t help with the singular, most crucial element.
    The computer tech that set up the automated messages was damn near perfect.
    The signal bounced from hundreds of locations and was housed in a virus that was sent to ignorant host computers. The host PC was used as a mule as the owner’s personal e-mail account spat out a flux of flotsam spam e-mails out to conceal the one real message.
    Each hacked computer was designated for one real e-mail recipient, while the spam was used to hide the intended message along with its prescribed recipient. He was pretty sure that his theory on how the whole situation worked with the messages was fleshed out logistically, but proving that was another story.
    Almost all of the locations from his recently received e-mail had been verified and didn’t even know the program was being harbored. But when the virus was activated, the computers would crash after the message was sent. Even a thorough check of the tower, hard drive, and the code content wasn’t enough to locate the malicious virus. When the computer was turned back on, it was if there was never anything there to begin with.
    Not to mention the computers were never used again, so tracking the source was harder than hell. The only theory he could come up with involved throwaway laptops at public Wi-Fi hot spots and at least ten people working simultaneously. When he thought about the headache of the virus and how outclassed he was due to his time constraints before the mission, Jonah could see the wisdom in finding Jaden. Hopefully between the two of them,