AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Well,yousearched us. You admit to searching us, and that’s fine.” She waves me off. “We’ve established you’re not our enemy–”
“Wedidn’t decide that, Soph.” Jay’s jaw ticks with residual anger. “Youdecided, and you’re not always the smartest person in the room.”
She rolls her eyes. “I didn’t give you access to anything I didn’t want you to have. But now fresh searches are being made. They’re a little clumsier than yours, but… here’s the kicker. They’re coming from your system.”
“Mine?” My heart gives a fast one-two-thump. “Come again,” I growl, “and reword your accusation so we’re all on the same page.”
“I’m not accusing you of anything, dummy. If I was, we wouldn’t have knocked on your front door. We’d have executed you and gone back to Kane and Jess’ sweet babies for more snuggle time. You wouldn’t be the first I’ve removed from–” She looks to Lib. Licks her lips. Swallows. “Forget I said that, officer.” Her eyes come back to me. “I’m saying we have problems, and since those searches are coming from inside your office at Griffin Plaza, or they at least appear to be routed through there, then I’m led to believe that you and I may have the same problems. Someone is trying to get up in our business, and whether you did it or not, it still ties back to your company. Someone is on your payroll, and they’re awfully interested in our lives.” She pokes a thumb toward herself, to Jay, to Spence. “We’ve come here to fix this, and we’re gonna do it before Kane’s babies grow up and he leaves his house. When he joins this expedition, shit is gonna get worse.”
“Why’s it gonna get worse?”
“Because he isn’t playing,” Jay inserts. “We’re looking for this person, we’re being tactical about it. Hell, we’re even using our manners, and since this guy hasn’t technically threatened us yet, we’re not coming in with a fuckin’ Uzi. But Kane will. He’ll throw gasoline and light up a flamethrower. He’s at a vulnerable point in his life, he’s not gonna ask questions and risk a slippery sucker getting away.”
“Define ‘hasn’t technically threatened’ you.” I look from one face to the next. “If he’s not a threat, why the fuck are you in our space?”
“Nice home.” Spence looks around, nods his approval.
“I didn’t say he wasn’t a threat,” Jay says. “I said he hasn’t made a threat. He’s searching our shit, so that’s a problem whichever way you wanna slice it. He doesn’t have our permission to do that, so we stop it.”
“Get better security,” I demand. “Jesus, are we looking for a foreign prince that asked your grandma for a thousand bucks, or is this a real threat? I’ll spot you a new firewall system if it’ll get you outta here.”
“Don’t forget,” Spence grumbles. “His grandma is your grandma. That makes this your problem, too.”
And there it is, the bomb has been dropped. Jay drops his gaze for the first time since arriving. He can’t look me in the eyes when talks of family are brought up. He can’t face biology.
“It’s not a firewall problem,” Soph says. “I see him moving in and out. I replace the files he wants with information I don’t mind if he has, I let him poke around. The best way to find out who he is, is to study him, right? He slides into Checkmate, into my dance school, into the gym accounts. He’s even trying to poke at Griffin.”
“At Griffin? How the fuck do you know he’s poking at Griffin?”
“Because I slid through your fancy pants firewalls in the three hours between you trying to buy me and our date. I amalwaysthe smartest person in the room, and there’s not a damn thing you can do about it.”
“You can’t enter my fucking data, Solomon!”
“But you can slide into Checkmate?” She challenges me with a look. “I’m not there to cause harm, and we both know you can still walk in and out of Checkmate whenever you please. We both know you do, and have since our meet. You’re just looking, and so am I.”
“You’ve been in their accounts?” Lib squeezes my hand to pull me around. “When?”
“Three days ago,” Soph answers. “A week ago. Three weeks ago.”
“Gunner!”
So much for holding onto the Theo cover when it’s not just us.
“Why? We’re here on a damn honeymoon, and you’re sneaking into their accounts?”
Spence’s eyes widen. “Honeymoon?”
“I was just looking!” I protest.
“Hewasjust looking. He’s auditing me, in a way.” Soph turns her laptop back to face her. “And I don’t even care. We have nothing to hide from you. Just as I know you have your regular files at Griffin. Your staff have level logins. Accountants have their own files, legal has theirs. Your assistant has most, and you have sole access to the files at the top. Our guy, the one with the clunky skills, is still trying to get to mid-level. He gets a peek sometimes at accounts.”
“How does he get those?”
“Oh,” smiling, she waves me off. “I put them there.”
“You p–” I can’t process… I can’t believe… “You’re so far into my files that you’re adding and taking files away? Solomon! Get the fuck outta my system!”
“I’m not messing anything up.” She rolls her eyes. “I copied all of your legit shit, moved it, then replaced it with what I want in there. Your staff are still using the correct versions of everything. They won’t ever know things were moved. I did it in the middle of the night a week ago. Griffin staff would have gotten to work the next morning, signed in again, and moved on with their lives. Meanwhile, your hacker only has access to dummy files, your data is safe, and now we get to watch what he’s looking for. You’re welcome, by the way. That would normally cost folks tens of thousands of dollars in consultancy fees.”
