“Maybe I chose the wrong career.” He winked at her.
Luke appeared just as Isaac reached his office door, and even with the hat and jacket tucked under his arm, the large man startled.
Luke Chambers, big and burly and imposing, with black eyes and skin nearly as dark, was a former enforcer for hire and an ideal choice for muscle as Isaac’s lead field agent. He’d also been a bouncer at the bar down the street and pointed Dalton in his direction. He and Kathleen were Isaac’s oldest friends, butformercriminal or not, Luke had an intense aversion to anyone in uniform.
“The fuck’s that getup for?”
“Police briefing on the city’s newest thief.”
That halted Kathleen from disappearing down the hall.
“Anything good?” Luke asked.
“I’d say so. Now I know everyone who was hit, which includes our newest client.”
“Larson?” Kathleen pressed, as she and Luke followed him into the office. “You got Larson Manufacturing?”
“Signed proposal came into my email this morning. I’d say we should celebrate, but we have work to do.” Isaac sat at his desk, shoving the jacket and cap into his bottom drawer to be dealt with later. “If we can figure out how to best protect against this new thief, or better yet, figure out who it is, we’ll pick up all the businesses that were targeted before Wen can even look their direction.”
Kathleen’s eyes twinkled at the prospect, but Luke clenched his jaw. He thought theirhealthyrivalry was a waste of time.
It hadn’t felt like a waste earlier.
Isaac patted his pockets to be sure nothing else remained from the precinct but froze. In his right pocket was his phone. In his left… was something foreign.
A Bluetooth tracker.
“What’s that?” Kathleen asked.
“Get Riley in here,” Isaac said with a grin. “I’ll forward you the Larson contract and we can discuss that later. I promised we’d survey their current security this week.” He rolled the tracker between his fingers. “Let’s make that right now. Looks like I have a tail.”
Usually,Isaacdidallhis security testing at night while a business was closed, since that was when a thief was most likely to strike. Today, he was making an exception and leading Andrew Wen on a wild goose chase.
“Anything yet?” he asked of his surveillance and tech specialist, Riley Sedgwick. Riley was the youngest of his crew but had been the most promising talent before his hacking skills landed him two to five behind bars, which he’d gotten reduced due to good behavior.
“Quick check-ins but nothing ongoing or that says where he is. Definitely following you though. You must have him smitten, boss. How exactly did he get that tracker in your pocket?” Riley was clever, but he had no filter or sense of decorum. He’d hit on Isaac blatantly from the first day they met.
He had a similar physique to Andrew, although shorter, with dark hair and eyes just the same too, but Riley didn’t interest Isaac that way. Not that he had to compare everyone to Andrew; he just happened to be thinking of him now.
“Mind your business and keep me posted,” Isaac ordered over the two-way radio. It was clipped to his belt, but he also had an earpiece. “Once you learn a location, let me know.”
Cell phones were the cheaper option for a small security firm, but they were less reliable and only good for one-on-one, something Andrew knew too, since he also used two-way radios.
Which were easier to hack, especially for Riley.
Larson Manufacturing was closed for the day, still recovering from their recent theft, and had agreed to the impromptu run on their security. Breaking in to test defenses, even if Isaac never stole anything anymore, was usually a thrill that reminded him of the good old days and assuaged his compulsions. But this place was a joke.
That wasn’t what troubled him, however, once they got inside and made it to the monitoring room, like something out of an 80s action movie, complete with ancient TV screens. What concerned him was that they hadn't come across anything to suggest the place had been broken into before.
“You sure they haven’t altered anything since the theft?” Luke asked as they stood staring at the screens.
“Positive. It was my main line of questioning before they hired us.”
“But there’s no sign of jack shit.”
“I can see that. Same story as several others, according to that briefing this morning. It’s as if they were hit by a ghost, or their security was shut off from the inside by one of their own.”
“You don’t think that’s what it was?”
