26
Sawyer
We throw ourselves into work over the following days, setting up a temporary HQ in Xavier’s warehouse in Rydeville because I don’t want Dad to know what we’ve done yet. Not until I have something concrete to share with him. All he knows is we’ve had a breakthrough, but we need to keep it contained until we have investigated it fully.
Unfortunately, Denton’s safe was a dead end. We got it open okay, but all it contained were some fake passports, bundles of cash, and the deeds to the house. The camera removed from Denton’s secret room yielded no bounty either. It was wiped clean. Most likely, he had it set up to automatically wipe the footage after it had been uploaded to the cloud somewhere.
“Hunt! Come see this,” Xavier says, popping his head out of the main room.
I’ve been working with Charlie in the main part of the warehouse, trawling through the contents of Mathers’s computer, as well as bank statements for Techxet, Mathers, and Jamison, trying to find some clue as to where the first stolen haul is. We are also trying to locate Jamison’s Cayman Island account while Lauder and Anderson are meticulously examining the intel we have compiled on Hamilton to see if they can find something we can use or some kind of lead. Xavier has been focusing on the files on Jamison’s cell, trying to trace the path they took to infiltrate Techxet’s system so we can work out a way to shut them out before they realize what’s happening.
Abby is pissed she can’t help, but she’s working hard with ballet rehearsals, and Van has her brother and sister staying for a few days. Shandra has been dropping by with food and drinks, but she doesn’t hover because things are strained between her and Drew again.
Getting up, I walk across the space and into Xavier’s office-slash-meeting room. He is seated at the large oval table, tapping a pen against his chin, as he stares at the row of screens on the wall in front of him. “I found it,” he says as I drop into a chair beside him. Excitement glitters in his eyes, and it’s good to see it.
He’s been cool with me since we returned from Alabama. I asked him to stay with me at Van and Lauder’s house, but he chose to stay with Abby and Kai instead. I haven’t pushed him, because I don’t want to upset him when I know he’s still processing, but I’m not backing off either. I’m just giving him some space. For now.
“Look.” He enlarges the screen nearest us. “That’s how they got in. See there.” My eyes follow the route they took, and I nod. “They snuck in under the firewall, and then they downloaded employee records and used legitimate logins at times when certain staff members were on vacation or on training or after they have left before the internal IT team had disabled their accounts.”
“They’ve been snooping in plain sight. Man, I feel so dumb. Why didn’t we think to trace employee logins against leave records?”
“It was simple but brilliant. No one would think to check those records unless they were tipped off.”
“Do we know which employee logins they are using?”
“We don’t,” Xavier says, “and going through thousands of employee records will take too long. If we time this perfectly, we can plug the hole and then reset all the company logins simultaneously. At the same time, we will embed new alerts and an extra few layers of security. As an added precaution, I suggest we move banks because I wouldn’t rule out some leak from the banking side. This was a dual attack. Security and finance.”
“We should move everything to Barron to manage,” I concur as the thought occurs to me.
“I think that’d be wise,” he agrees. “We can trust Charlie to keep the money safe.”
“Dad will be fucking delighted,” I say as Anderson strolls into the room.
“I was grabbing some shit from my car, and I intercepted a delivery driver,” Kai says, setting a slim rectangular box down in front of Xavier. “I signed for it. You’re welcome. Also, Hunt?” He locks eyes with me. “Abby wants you at our place for dinner. The whole crew will be there.”
“I’m in.” I readily agree because it means I get to spend some downtime with Xavier. Anderson nods and walks off.
“I didn’t order anything,” Xavier says, looking perplexed as he picks up a scanning device and runs it over the box.
“It’s safe,” I confirm. “I ordered it for you.”
His brow puckers as he grabs scissors and opens the box, removing the special edition fire-engine-red MacBook Pro with a shell-shocked look on his face. “Holy fuck.” His Adam’s apple bobs in his throat as he runs his fingers reverently over the smooth exterior. “How the hell did you get one of these?”
“I called in a favor. I know you’ve been pining since you lost yours in the explosion. It’s no biggie.”
“Thanks, man.” His voice sounds choked.
“You’re welcome.”
“I’m still not fucking you,” he adds, flipping the screen up and pressing the power button on. “I’m done having sex with married men.”
I hate he’s including me in that lineup, but technically, it’s true. “It wasn’t a bribe.” I lean my elbows on the table. “I’m worried about you.”
“Don’t be. I’m fine.”
“Are you really?”
“I made another mistake. It sucks that I chose the wrong guy again. Let another prick manipulate me, but I refuse to let a dead man destroy me. I’m moving on.”
Ignoring my hurt at his words, because I know he’s grouping me with that dick from his hometown and Jamison, I tell him what I’ve wanted to tell him for days. “I told Sydney I’m filing for an annulment.” Either party being coerced into marriage is one of the five grounds for annulment in New York, so it should be a cakewalk, even if we have to stand in front of a judge, at a trial, and explain. My parents will throw a hissy fit if the news leaks that our marriage was an arranged sham, but I have zero fucks to give these days.
“Isn’t that a little premature? We haven’t located the missing money yet.”
“I’m confident we’ll find at least some of the money.”
He cocks his head to the side. “Why annulment? Divorce is actually easier.”
“Annulment means the marriage no longer exists in the eyes of the law. It’s as if it never happened.” I drill him with a look. “I want to remove all trace of it so when I get married for real it’s my first marriage in every conceivable way.”
Silence engulfs us for a few minutes, charged with a tense undercurrent that lingers in the space between us.
“What about the merger?” He swipes his finger across the keypad of his new Mac.
Trying not to take his apparent disinterest to heart, I let him steer the conversation wherever he wants or needs it to go. “It hasn’t been finalized yet, so this can be quick and easy.”
“I doubt your father will be pleased. Leaving your new wife a few weeks after you got married will look shady as shit.”
“I don’t give a fuck what he thinks. Or my mom. He should never have asked me to do it in the first place, and I should never have agreed.”