Full Circle by Rj Scott (top 50 books to read TXT) 📕

"This room, yes. The building, no. There's a room with a bed. It's not much but it's a place to sleep."

"You're not taking me back to the safe house with mom?" Josh's voice held an incredulous tone.

"No. Not tonight. Follow me."

Manny walked the convoluted corridors to a small room at the end. It was one of three for people to use as crash pads when work ran over and consumed normal life.

Nothing much to look at it contained a bed, a table, and a static computer. Josh walked in and stood by the bed.

Manny caught the quick glance Josh threw at the computer.

If he was anything like Manny then the minute he was alone Josh would be digging for information.

"Stay in the area. There's a kitchen a few doors down with bread, milk, coffee, the usual. Help yourself.

Stay on this floor. Okay?"

"Okay," Josh lied.

Manny smirked inwardly. There was no way off of this floor. Not even Josh with his sparkiness could get out of this level.

"Do you know SorayaCrypt encryption?" Manny asked conversationally. Josh's eyes widened. This was a test of what Josh actually knew and how fast the man could get into the first level of Sanctuary files. If he was a hacker worth his salt that Soraya would be on his to-do list to break into Sanctuary files. They needed another tech guy.

Maybe, if Josh could get past the shit in his head over his dad, then he could be suited to Sanctuary. Hell, getting involved with Jake had worked for Manny hadn't it?

SorayaCrypt wasn't the be all and end all; Manny had several layers of encryption in place that stopped access to the core. Yet, somehow Sean Hanson had managed to upload a worm to the system that had made it some of the way in. Josh could be useful. Maybe track down what the hell had happened? After all, Manny couldn't do it. He had other things he should be doing.

As he walked away from the room and his thoughts turned to the briefing that would be taking place in less than five hours he was tense inside. Five hours to come up with a reason why he needed to put himself in the firing line. Five hours to think of why his way was the right way.

Twenty minutes into his five hours and comms informed him that Josh had made it to level two encryption on the computer in the sleep room.

Manny considered this thoughtfully. He could probably have broken a new system and had access in ten.

But twenty wasn't bad.

Not bad at all.

CHAPTER 3

Manny had spent so long tracking code that for one of the only times in his life, he was running late. Josh intrigued him and he had found his thoughts jumping from code to the dark-haired guy who was conscientiously breaking through each layer of security before Manny shut him down. The whole thing had turned into a game and Manny could only imagine Josh's frustration at so many doors being closed in his face.

He slipped into the back of the large briefing room and exchanged a quick look with Jake who narrowed his gaze and frowned. Manny was never late to meetings—in fact he was never late for any event. If anything, it was Manny that was always first to the coffee and the best seat.

Always to the side so he could observe reaction, Manny was, simply put, a meetings expert.

Jake didn't yet know that Josh Headley was still in the building and wasn't that going to be a hard one to explain to his already stressed boss. Jake had tasked Nik with taking Josh back but Manny had thought otherwise.

He had assured Nik that Josh didn't need to be taken back yet and Nik had been happy to return to his and Morgan's place for sleep. That left Josh in Manny's care and Manny was determined to see what the hell had made the idiot leave safety just to find answers. Biting his lip Manny stifled the laugh that started inside him at the memory of a pissed off Josh facing off with the lawyer's son. All anger and fury Josh wasn't immediately pounding on the guy but was asking questions fired one after another. Manny liked a man who led with his brain. Especially tall men with dark hair and green eyes. He had gotten over his initial anger at Josh's stupidity. Could be interesting to see how the gorgeous man would be useful to Manny, and Sanctuary of course.

Thing is, not only was Jake working with the fallout of Sean Hanson's betrayal but Manny had a protected witness on the premises. Jake's day was about to get interesting—well, as soon as Manny admitted to what he had done. He grinned his widest of grins but all Jake did was look even more suspicious. Choosing a seat, Manny sat very still and checked out who was in this first of the more meaningful Senator Bullen briefings.

Jake, as usual, was standing at the back of the room.

The man never actually sat anywhere. Nik Valentinov was here in the last of the three rows of hard chairs. He was sprawled this way and that; giving the impression that he was unconcerned with what was happening in the room.

But Manny knew better. Morgan Drake was here to give his first ever Sanctuary briefing and Nik had confided in Manny that his lover was literally paralyzed with fear at facing all the hardened Sanctuary operatives.

Dale and Michaela were here, fresh from their short, sharp gun fight with the guys who had worked with Sean.

Dale was still pissed that he had let himself get caught out so badly. Manny only knew that because he had been on the sharp end of a tongue lashing about dead comms only a few days before. Hell, it hadn't been his fault the bad guys were getting clever. He gave back as good as he got, facing