Page 34 of Temporary Vows

Salvatore leans forward and waves a hand over the documents on the table before us. “Alright,” he says, tone all business now, “here’s where we are at.”

He opens the file and shows me a list of names, timestamps, a blurred photo.

“What’s all this?” I ask, scanning the page.

“Your internal access logs. They don’t match your staff roster. Somebody’s using credentials that shouldn’t still be active.”

My jaw tightens. “What? Like from terminated employees?”

“Old accounts,” he corrects. “Dormant, old versions that become inactive when the system updates.”

“How did my team not notice that?”

“Because it’s the kind of thing nobody notices unless you know what you’re looking for.” He smirks. “The old accounts are designed to link to the new ones. An analysis would look normal to anyone. But we looked deeper and found a glitch in the system.”

Fuck. This sounds worse than what I thought. But realistically, if this person has been around for years, they’d have to be high tech.

Salvatore taps the table once. “We traced the first leak to three possible touchpoints—two human, one digital. The digital one is protected. Not amateur protected.Professional.”

“Meaning it’s not just a random employee.” I keep my voice flat, but something hot moves under my ribs.

“Exactly.” Salvatore’s mouth quirks. “And whoever it is has help.”

“I’ve run a thorough check on everyone, and they came up clean.” He continues, calm as a priest delivering confession. “But that doesn’t clear them. It just means they’re careful.”

I lean forward. “So, we’re back to square one?”

“I wouldn’t say that. It’s more the case that we now know what we’re looking for.” He nods. “We’ll continue surveillance and tracking. That’s all we can do for now.”

“Should I still keep my teams grounded?”

“No. Give them back their full access but keep your personal devices protected.” He sits back and gives me a crude smile. “When you want to catch a rat, you have to let him run free and set a trap.”

I smile, too, understanding. “I like that.”

“Of course, whoever these people are, they’re going to be more careful now. They’ll be aware that you know you have a leak. I would imagine they’d be working hard to cover their tracks so you can’t find them.”

“What if we can’t find those tracks?” I don’t want to have this problem for longer than necessary.

He shakes his head. “There’s always a way. Nothing ever stays buried or dead in the digital world. Everything leaves a trace. Even when you’ve taken every measure possible to get rid of it. People like me can find it. It just takes time.”

He almost sounds poetic. And his words also confirm I came to the right place. I’m just pissed we don’t have more.

My patience is… well, I have none. I hate being kept waiting, and I loathe not having control.

I exhale slowly, forcing control back into my voice. “Okay. Is there anything more I can do?”

“Try to be on your best behavior.” Salvatore’s smile is faint.

I chuckle. “I guess I’m not so good just by being here. The press would have a field day if they knew I was in a sex club.”

“But it isn’t any sex club now, is it? It’s mine, and the press don’t want to fuck with me.” He picks up his glass and raises it in toast.

People know I’m dangerous, but this guy… He’s right; the press don’t fuck with him.

No one does.

They’d be too scared to either die an awful death or go missing and never be heard from again.