Westin cocked his head. "I have so many questions.”
I shrugged. "Ask your boss."
He shook his head, "I fucking knew something was off. So let me guess. Not the devil incarnate after all."
I shrugged. "Yes, well, can we go now?"
As they drove me to my car, Gabe studied me. "You know we need that ledger you took from the vault."
"And as soon as I'm done with it, you can have it." If I was willing to fight dirty, I could take all of them. I’d rather not, but I could do it. He wasn’t leaving here with it. I was.
Studying my face, Gabe sighed. "I guess there’s no point in telling you not to go down this path?"
I shook my head. "No. No point at all."
Westin cocked his head. "You're going to need help with those files."
"If I need help, I'll call you."
The muscle in his jaw twitched. "Okay, then."
When we reached my car, I climbed out. "Thanks for the assistance that I didn't need."
Gabe shrugged. "Just a heads up, I talked to Igno Senior. He doesn't know what the hell his son is up to. He's very angry that the kid hasn't tried to spring him. So, like we suspected, Massimo has gone rogue, which means he's either trying to work his way up in the Syndicate, or he's the one taking them out."
"Noted. Thanks for the assistance."
"Anytime."
And in less than two hours, I was on my way back home to Daphne.
I was almost there when a text from an unknown number came through.
I know you have her, and I want her back.
32
Daphne
My palms were sweaty. My heart was no longer beating in a steady thrum but at a rapid, galloping pace. Why the hell had I agreed to this?
You agreed because you’re trying to claim back some of your life. Not in a safe structured way, but in a way that actually makes a difference.
"Would you relax? Everything is going to be fine. Remember, everyone thinks that we've been at an event in Barcelona for a week."
"I still don't like it."
"Do you have any other ideas? We've been over the data that I collected the other night. Right now Tanashi looks like our culprit. So I need into that account. I just want to have a look around. We're not going to touch anything. I'm just making a copy, and taking a peek at the data. I didn’t want you out in public, especially not since Massimo knows I have you. It’s too risky, but I had no choice."
We walked into the Baines Data offices like we had every right to be there. All of this felt like somebody else's life. Suddenly, I didn't feel like me anymore. The job I had loved as of last week, the importance of it, the need for adventure… That woman just felt a million miles away.
Michael Knighting, our night security guard, lifted his head and grinned when he saw me. "Miss Winslow. Welcome back. Hello, Mr. Foster."
"Hi, Michael. I'm back a little early. I need to access some files though."
"Yeah, go on up. Nice to see your beautiful smile.”
"Flatterer."
Drake scowled as we marched off. "You don't have to be so friendly."
I slid him a glance as we reached the lift. “If I'm not friendly, he'll notice. And I assume we don't want to standout for any reason."
"Yes, you are correct," he muttered.
"Then fair enough. I'm being nice."
Drake scowled. "There's being nice, and then there's being too friendly."
“Are you honestly jealous of our security guard?”
In the lift, he gave me what looked to be a grimace. "You know what? Never mind. I'm just saying, you never smile at me like that.”
I bit the inside of my cheek to keep from laughing. “To be fair, Michael has never kidnapped me.”
“You're still on that, I see,” he groused.
I laughed and bumped him with my hip. I was surprised when he pulled me closer, locking my body against his as he asked, "Are you okay?"
"Yeah, actually I feel fine. Just odd. My whole life went topsy-turvy ten days ago. Feels like a different me coming back."
“I know. And I walked into your life like a bloody tornado. I swear, I'll put it back the way I found it when I'm done.”
How could I tell him that there was no putting it back. And not necessarily in a bad way. I’d just changed so much. I couldn't become that Daphne again. Somewhere between hiding in my room from Massimo, getting kidnapped by Drake, and starting to fall for him, I had become a completely different person. I couldn't just slap myself back into my old life.
"Now at least I’m being proactive. Before it was this scary thing of: this might just be my life and there’s no stopping Massimo’s obsession with me. But this isn't about me. Or maybe not just me. This is about what he can get from me. So let’s stop him from getting it or at least make him think that I don't have what he needs, and maybe he'll stop pursuing me."
I wished I could believe that. The problem was that Massimo didn't seem like the kind of man who left loose ends. I was worried I would be the ultimate loose end, but I needed to believe Drake wouldn’t let him hurt me.
You have a lot of faith in a man you don’t know.
The scary part was, I felt like I did know him.
Drake
I had one job, to keep Daphne as distracted and calm as possible. "Tell me about Tanashi."
"Great client, kind, polite. Very precise about his data. It requires a two-factor authorization. He has basic data storage and he wants it protected. He’s very particular and constantly wants us to test his firewall.”
"Should he want his data out, how does he get it?"
"He has to come in. It's a two-factor authorization process. Both of us have to grant access for him to access the data."
"What happens if you're not here anymore?"
"I can give authorization to someone else. Usually, it's one of the owners of the company. Obviously, we can't access it without the client, and they can't access it without us. That means if they want access to their data, they have to come in. Or we go to them. Which explains why Massimo wants me at that meeting in Italy.”
“Exactly. Show me the data setup, and maybe I can see what he’s storing. Is there any other way in?”
"There's a brute force way to do it. But it’s hard, and it requires data from both the account owner and me."
"Okay, so with you alive and kicking, that means that they need you to get to this data."
"Yes. If they want to see the details, they need both me and Tanashi to download it. Each of us can look at a portion of the data, but most of it doesn't make sense without the other half. It's like looking at a redacted letter."
"But you can only look at it from inside the office?"
I nodded. "Yeah, that's right."
"What's to prevent you from taking a photo for example?"
"Well, nothing." She frowned, thinking about it.
"Perfect."