“Are you going to help with that?”
“If you ever stop talking and let me do what I need to do.”
He stood. “Okay. I’m going to call Katy and tell her not to wait up for me.” He stopped at the door. “Reid.”
Pausing my frantic typing, I looked at him.
“You won’t go to jail. I won’t allow it, nor will the BAM boys. Somehow, if this goes bad, you have people on your side this time. You hear me?”
I met his intense gaze.
“You’re risking your own career and life to protect someone I consider my family. I won’t forget that.”
I nodded and looked back to the screen. He left, pulling the door shut behind him.
Becca was his family, but she was my world.
Even if I wasn’t part of hers anymore.
I rubbed my tired, aching eyes. I glanced at my phone to check the time. It was almost four in the morning. I scanned all the files one last time and saved them to an encrypted drive. I had done it. I even had a physical address and had already called in an anonymous tip to the police. I had sent Richard out to buy me a cellphone I used for that purpose and then disabled. My tracks were covered. I had managed to look around their setup, and it was scary. Scary how badly structured it was. I was in, invisible and undetected—searching fast. Downloading evidence. Reversing what they had done, with Becca being my number one priority. Then I planted my seeds and got the fuck out of there.
By now, their system was in shambles, computers frying. Hard drives wiped, and hopefully, police showing up at the door of the well-to-do home they were running their operation from, escorting them out in handcuffs.
The way I was certain Becca’s father hoped I would be later today.
I removed all traces of me from The Gavin Group’s system, making a mental note to tell Richard they needed to up their security and put some more firewalls in place.
I shoved my laptop into my knapsack and trudged down the hall. Richard was asleep at his desk. He had disappeared for a while, returning to hand me coffee and a sandwich and asking if I needed help. When I said no, he had left again, allowing me to work in peace.
I knocked on the doorframe and walked in, slinging my knapsack onto the other chair, before sitting down and scrubbing my face.
Richard stretched, rotating his neck to relieve his stiff muscles. “Is it done?”
“Yep. Becca’s money is back in her account. The same goes for several dozen other people. The rest will have to be handled—” I held up my fingers in quotation marks “—the right way.”
He chuckled. “Gerald has been an ass.”
I looked past him to the dark sky outside his window. “I’m not arguing.”
I risked a glance at him. “Did you, by chance, check on Becca?”
“I did. She went to see Katy and is currently asleep.”
“Okay.” I blew out a painful breath. Despite what happened, part of me had hoped she would show up here, knowing this was where I would come to work. But she was with her friend, and that was probably for the best. I could go back to the hotel, grab a few hours’ sleep, and be at the airport to wait on a standby seat before midmorning.
“What happens now?”
I held up the USB drive. “I’ll copy this and send it to the bank president and the police. It will give them everything they need to put these people in jail, and perhaps the information to help get more people their money back.”
“You shut them down?”
“Totally.”
“Wouldn’t the bank already be on it?”
I shrugged. “Probably. They’ll follow their protocols and proper procedures. I’m better and faster, though.” I chuckled.
He lowered his voice, making it sound like Al Pacino in Scarface. “Don’t fuck with you, eh?”
I chuckled. “There’re lots more where they came from. But if I stop one group, it’s at least something. Helping Becca was what mattered. They had all her information. She would have had credit cards in her name piling up the debt and God knows what else. It would have taken years for her to recover from it.”
“You risked your freedom to prevent that. Do you know how huge that is, Reid? I told Maddox, and he was furious with you, although he understood.”
I wiped my hand over my face, exhaustion setting in. “Yeah, there were a lot of texts. I ignored them. I’ll deal with them when I get back.”
“I’ll drive you to the hotel.”
“I’d appreciate that.”
We were silent on the drive. He pulled up in front of the building, shifting into park. He looked over at me. “Get some sleep, and we’ll talk when you’re more coherent.”
“I’ll call when I get home.”
He shook his head. “We’ll talk before that. Trust me.”
I opened the door, too tired to argue. He drove away, and I trudged inside, leaning heavily against the wall of the elevator.
Silence greeted me when I entered the room. The atmosphere felt as heavy as my footsteps while I stumbled into the bedroom, planning to fall face-first onto the bed. I needed sleep so I could think clearly. Prepare for the next step.
Nothing prepared me for the sight of Becca sitting on the bed, reclined against the headboard.
I gaped at her. “What are you doing here, Becca?”
She raised her chin. “Where else should I be, Reid?”
“With your father or Katy.” I closed my weary eyes. “Not with me.”
“My father is my family, Reid. Katy is my friend.”
I opened my eyes and frowned, not following her train of thought. “Okay?”
She tilted her head. “They’re important, but they aren’t you, Reid.”
“I don’t understand.”
“You were wrong earlier.”
I laughed bitterly. “I was wrong about a lot of things, Becca. Care to enlighten me?”
“You said I didn’t have to choose. But you were wrong. I did have to choose.”
My heart rate picked up. “And?”
Her voice quivered. “I choose you.”
Reid
I woke, surrounded by the feel of Becca’s arms around me, her soft skin under my cheek and her fingers drifting up and down my back. For a moment, I was convinced it was a dream, but I lifted my head and met her tired blue gaze.
“Hi, BB.” I sounded sleepy.
“Hey.”
“You’re here.”
“There isn’t anywhere else I want to be.”
Frowning, I cleared my throat. After Becca had dropped her bombshell, she had insisted I come to bed. I pleaded for five minutes and grabbed a hot shower, needing to loosen the tense muscles in my neck and back. The aching soreness had set in from hours of hunching over the keyboard in the cold temperature of the server room at The Gavin Group.
When I stepped back into our room, Becca was waiting. She lifted the covers, and I slid in beside her. Immediately, she pulled me to her body, encouraging me to lay my head on her chest, then wrapped her arms around me. I sank into her warmth, the feel of her against me better than any shower in the world.
“I don’t understand what’s happening,” I confessed.
She pressed a kiss to my head. “Sleep. We’ll talk when you wake up.”