AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Rebecca mentioned the Novaks a handful of times to me over the years, but nothing memorable from while she was alive. She also never said her parents’ plans that Christmas involved anyone else. She would’ve brought that up had she known. And the Novaks didn’t mention anything at the funeral either.”
“A secret meeting, then?” So many secrets when it came to the Barclays, I couldn’t keep up.
“Gwen found the flight details from the Novaks’ personal jet. Same time frame and destination to the Alps that weekend of the crash. The Novaks had a property there in the mountains, and they sold it two weeks after the crash. It sounds like we’re making a leap they’d planned to meet, but as the story unfolds, it seems much more likely to be true.” He tipped his head toward the whiteboard. “Here’s the part that gets a bit hard to follow. May be easier if I write it out?”
I followed his gaze to my messy board. Wild enough, it was still more organized than my chaotic thoughts. “If the news wasn’t so horrible, watching you write on my whiteboard would probably be turning me on right now.”
“I’ll be sure to remember that for later.” His smirk came and went so fast, I might have imagined it, the gravity of our situation tugging us both back to earth and reality.
I released his arm and went over and erased the half of the whiteboard that was only scribble. “All yours.” I set aside the eraser and stepped back.
He pushed up his sleeves and got to work, creating a timeline with notes starting with Rebecca’s parents dying.
Standing alongside him, I did my best to decipher his doctor-like handwriting, while also trying to ignore the vein popping in his forearm as he wrote. He started all the way back at his wedding, noting the attendance of the Novaks there, and hesitating for the briefest of moments as if not wanting to point out that detail to me. Not that I could be jealous or forget he’d been married. Rebecca was still very much at the center of both our lives, maybe more in mine than I’d ever realized before.
“Just noting that detail to show how far back the Novaks went with the Barclays.” He’d spoken directly at the whiteboard, feeling the need to explain himself, but for some reason not wanting to look at me while he did. “I had Gwen check the guest list since I had no memory of them being there.”
I set my hand on his back, letting him know as long as he was good, I was good.
He continued fleshing out details of any major interactions the Barclays had with the Novaks over the years, stopping when he hit the year 2018.
He tapped the Expo at the date, and I read the words for him, sensing he needed an assist to get through this part of his past. “According to Susan Mackenzie, Rebecca received anonymous intel that her parents were murdered. Rebecca then shared the photos with Craig Paulsen for another opinion. Rebecca sold off all Barclay holdings except The Barclay Group. Susan said Rebecca wanted to focus on her father’s dream of clean and sustainable energy and had concerns of an EMP weapon or solar storm threat.” I took a breath and paused. “Evidence now points to Craig Paulsen first meeting with Karl Novak after Craig had spoken with Rebecca about the anonymous photos.” Wait, what?
He set down the Expo and faced me. “Gwen confirmed that Karl Novak and Andrew Cutter were friends. Karl must’ve given Craig his name.” Hanging his head, hands on his hips, he spelled it out for me. “Karl’s why Rebecca is dead. He’s why Craig set up the meeting between Rebecca and Andrew, which led to her death.”
“Why would he do that?” I hooked my fingers through the empty belt loop of his jeans, urging him closer.
He lifted his head, letting go of a heavy breath. “To prevent Rebecca from finding out his family killed hers.”
64
CARTER
“So, all that back-and-forth theorizing on the jet was right?”
All I could do was nod. Oliver had been right on the jet. I had missed these details back when searching for Rebecca’s killer. “We should finish this with the others.”
Only Falcon was still present on-site. Easton, Mason, and the others were prepping for the next steps. We’d be leaving tomorrow, but I needed my team’s help to get through the rest of these details first. Sharing all of this with the woman I was falling for, having to dredge up memories tied to the woman I’d spent nearly half my life with . . . well, it was too fucking much, even for me.
“Yeah, um, of course. Let me take a photo of the equation to give to Sydney for the President’s team.”
That was an important detail I’d skipped over. Mya may have been letting POTUS know we’d been successful, but he needed the formula, too.
After Diana took a photo with her phone, she wordlessly threaded our fingers together, letting me lead the way.
Once in our makeshift command center, Sydney was the first to approach. “Congrats on coming up with the formula.”
I let go of Diana so she could take the moment she deserved to celebrate something positive.
“Thank you, and thank you on the cyber side.” Diana hugged Sydney and accepted a few more congratulatory words from the others. “We make a great team.”
Diana gave Sydney her phone, showing her the screenshot of the equation from the whiteboard. “If you want to get that to POTUS’s people, they should know what to do with it. I can walk them through everything when we’re done here just to be sure.”
My genius girl. Thank fuck for her in so many ways.
“On it.” Sydney cut away from the group, leaving the room to make the call to the President.
“I’m still in the process of filling her in on the Novaks.” I was addressing the entire team, but my eyes stayed on Griffin, a silent signal I needed help. I wasn’t so great at verbalizing the need for it, but he knew me well enough to pick up the slack.
