by Katie Reus
“You make me crazy! But…you’re making it really hard to be mad at you.” Then she gave him an unreadable look as she turned back around—giving him a nice shot of her perfect ass.
Grunting, he didn’t respond one way or another as he picked up his things.
He had a lot to make up for but he wasn’t sorry for this. Because no matter what, she was his to protect. He simply couldn’t turn off the part of himself driving him to keep her safe.
Chapter 14
“So tell me what you’ve got—in layman’s terms,” Isla said as she stood next to Ollie’s chair, eyeing the bank of computer screens in front of them.
“Like I told Evan, someone hacked into the security system using a backdoor. I’ve completely closed up the loop but I’m in the process of going through all of our old feeds. The whole team is. I’m going to see if I can discover if any of the original feeds were saved somewhere or if they were erased…”
Isla’s eyes started to glaze over as he explained things to her. She understood the gist of what he was saying at least, but half of it she had no clue about. When he was done, she said, “So basically someone hacked in, took over the feeds and made us see old loops instead of what was actually going on.”
“Yes. And whoever did it is very smart,” he muttered, annoyance in his voice. “We only caught this because of the audit.”
“Is this an inside job?” That worried her.
“It’s too soon to tell. And I don’t want to speculate either way.”
That wasn’t a no. “Can you tell when it happened exactly? How long they’ve had access to our feeds and how extensive the hacking was?”
“Barely a month ago, and it was restricted to a few of our cameras. And the security is on a separate server from everything else. So nothing else has been touched. No files, nothing. It’s very localized and it doesn’t appear as if any of our contracts or anything else important were touched or compromised.”
She breathed a small sigh of relief. “That’s something at least. Thanks.” She planned to have an outside security firm rip everything apart—because she was not happy this had happened in the first place—but she kept that to herself. “Can you look into all of Rodney Wood’s files and email communication before he was fired?”
“Sure. Anything in particular I’m looking for?”
“Anything that might be useful, that might point to him having a personal issue with me or anyone at the company.”
He swiveled in his chair to face her. Pushing his slightly too long blond hair back out of his face, he shook his head. “No problem. Anything else?”
“I know all his badges were deactivated when he was fired, but…dig deep.” Rodney fit the height for the man who had attacked her and he was the most recent firing—and the circumstances had been bad. She had to go with her instinct on this. “And this is a priority.”
“You got it, boss.”
“Soon I won’t be your boss,” she said, smiling faintly. He was moving on to a startup and had told her that he was looking forward to using his degrees more. He did a lot for her company but she could understand wanting to flex his mental muscles. She certainly wanted out of this corporate atmosphere, although for a different reason.
“Yeah, it’ll be weird, but I’m excited.”
“Good. Just know that if you ever change your mind, you’ll have a home here.”
“Thanks. I’m hoping this change fits… And I’ll be able to wear T-shirts and jeans every day,” he said, laughing as he leaned back in his chair, slightly flexing his arm muscles as he stretched. His button-down shirt was shoved up to his forearms, his jacket hung over his chair and she’d seen his tie shoved into one of the pockets. While his clothes weren’t ill-fitting, he’d never seemed comfortable in the formal gear.
She wished she didn’t have to wear such formal corporate attire either—then reminded herself that after these deals were closed, she’d be moving on too. No more skirts and uncomfortable heels for her either.
Just then Logan stepped into the security room, but he was on his cell phone. Tall with dark hair and a little scruff on his face, he had on a suit—complete with his shirt, tie and jacket all neatly in place. Now he looked like the epitome of a security guy who took his job seriously. They nodded at each other before he sat down in front of his work area, continuing to talk to whoever was on the other line.
“Well, you know where to find me,” she said to Ollie, heading to the door. “I’ll be here most of the day in meetings but if you find out anything, I want to know immediately. Especially concerning Rodney—or whoever.”
As she stepped out of the office, she found Madeleine walking down the hallway, looking at her tablet and frowning. Her heels clicked against the newly installed luxury vinyl tile.
“What’s up?” Isla asked as she shut the door to the security room behind her.
Madeleine blinked as she looked up. “What? Oh, our PR department just alerted me that someone left some horrible reviews about us on Glassdoor. One right after the other. They’re very clearly bogus and I have a feeling I know who left them.” She turned her tablet around for Isla to see.
As she read the garbage reviews, she frowned. She didn’t micromanage and there was no way for her to know every single thing about the company, but the majority of these complaints were definitely bogus. They had great health care, competitive benefits and annual bonuses on top of higher than industry average raises. Though according to these reviews, none of that was true.
“I think this is Rodney.”
Ugh. “Well, I’ve got security looking into all of his files and emails, doing a detailed comb-through.”
“I wouldn’t be surprised if he found a way to bypass security,” Madeleine muttered. “He’d been here long enough. I just don’t like any of this, especially what happened to you.”
Her either. “Let Logan or Ollie know about these reviews too. See if they can find any similar syntax in any of his emails. It might help if we have that kind of information when we hand things over to the police.”
“Good thinking.”
She was very motivated right now. More than anyone, she wanted to find out who wanted her dead. And she hated that she hadn’t gotten a clear view of her attacker. Everything had happened so quickly and she’d been so concerned with getting away that she hadn’t retained any details. Other than the man had been wearing a hoodie and had been fairly tall.
Super helpful, she thought, annoyed at herself.
The other images that flashed through her mind were the bright fluorescent light overhead, the way the vending machine had rattled as she’d slammed into it, the overwhelming sanitary scent—and the subtle underlying cologne of her attacker. Or maybe it had been laundry detergent.
Phantom pain flared in her neck as she remembered the feel of his arm wrapped around her throat, but she quickly murmured a goodbye and headed back to her floor. She knew she would have to mentally deal with her ordeal later, but she was putting a bandage over it for now and hoping it stuck in place.
* * *
Isla paused as she strode past the bay of windows of the conference room where Evan was working. After what had happened yesterday, he’d informed her that he would be working out of her building and sticking close to her instead of going into his own office.
She’d never been so simultaneously angry and touched by someone. It didn’t matter that he’d apologized for leaking that stupid story. She was still hurt by what he’d done—and pissed that he’d put himself in danger. The man made her crazy, but that was the last thing she wanted. He’d been through enough and now he was basically painting a target on himself by linking himself to her. It was maddening to say the least.
She was trying to let her anger go, she really was. But the fact that he’d made such a big decision and just decided to tell some random journalist that they were back together brought up a whole lot of feelings she was trying to keep buried. At least for the near future. But…she also under
stood he was trying to protect her, which was sweet if misguided. So, in short, her emotions were all over the place and he was to blame.
When he glanced up from his laptop and made eye contact, she couldn’t pretend she hadn’t seen him. As he waved her inside, she inwardly winced. She wasn’t sure she was ready to deal with Evan right now. Thankfully he wasn’t following her around to every meeting and office she visited but that was only because she’d fought him on that—and because the building was basically in lockdown today with security hyperalert.
“Hey, what’s up?” she asked, pushing the glass door open.
“I’ve got us a meeting with Nic Bentley tonight if you can swing it. He’s having a cocktail party but I think we can close the Cooper merger a lot faster than anticipated since he’s agreed to meet us. The groundwork is already there because of…” His expression shuttered and she knew what he’d been about to say.
Her father and Evan had already laid all the groundwork before the explosion that had ruined so many lives. But she did not have time to get emotional today so she brushed past it. “That’s great. You sure Bentley is ready to meet? Last I talked to his assistant, he was still blowing me off.”
“I’m sure.”
“Good.” Evan really did have the golden touch. Just not with her anymore. “Listen, I spoke to Ollie and he explained what he’s found. I’m also having him dig more into Rodney Wood’s emails. I think Rodney also might’ve left some bogus Glassdoor reviews trashing the company. Which, considering how many great ones we have, I’m not worried about it. But I am worried about him.”
“You think he might be the one behind the texts and your attack?”
“Honestly, I don’t know. We’ve had a few run-ins, and he wasn’t very respectful of me or other women in general, it seems. Which is part of the reason he was fired. At this point he’s the only person I can really think of with that kind of hostility toward me. Plus he was just fired so the timing works. If he was going to go postal, it would be right after he was let go, right? I’m sure I could have other enemies, but I just can’t think of anyone. So I figured we should go with the obvious, the person who sticks out.”
“Have you told Detective Duarte about him?”
“I gave his name and all the info I had to him so it’s probable that he’s either brought him in or plans to. But if security finds anything from mining his emails, I’ll forward that along as well. Hey…if you were going to do an outside audit of your security system, who would you use?”
“Red Stone, and not just because I trust Lizzy. They’ve got a small division that handles that sort of thing. It’s headed up by a crew with excellent credentials—Lizzy included. Pretty sure a couple of them used to be spies. Not her though.”
“Wow, okay then. The breach with our security never should have happened. I haven’t said anything to the team, but I’m going to bring in an outsider to make sure everything is truly secure. I’m not sure how angry I should be about this breach yet.” Since that wasn’t her area of expertise, she didn’t know if this truly had been an unavoidable mistake or if someone had dropped the ball. Her father would have known. And this was a reminder that while she could handle a lot of day-to-day things, she was out of her depth with the security angle.
“Good. It’s what I would do too. And…it doesn’t hurt to do security reviews annually regardless.”
“Thanks for the recommendation. Do you need me for anything?” she asked.
“No. I have a video conference call set up. So when does Geno get here?” His question was casual but his shoulders immediately tightened.
She knew he didn’t want her going anywhere, and after what had happened she wasn’t planning on leaving the building. Anyone who wanted access to this floor had to be scanned and approved. Unfortunately for him, Geno was on that list.
Security was ramped up today and she was sticking to meetings that were preset. “In the next hour. We should be finalizing everything today. Mostly anyway. Soon enough, everyone will sign on the dotted line if our lawyers can agree.”
“Do you want me in the meeting with you?”
She lifted an eyebrow. “Ha, ha. There’s no way Geno is behind any of this. If he was, I wouldn’t be working with him. I’m not afraid to be alone with him. You just don’t like him.”
Evan lifted a shoulder, not bothering to deny it. “Did he ever ask you out?”
She blinked and cleared her throat. “I’m not sure how that matters.”
All that tension ratcheted up as he shifted in his seat, his big body tense. “So that’s a yes.”
Oh, she was not discussing this with him. He’d lost the right to be jealous when he’d shut her out at a time when they’d needed each other most. “Well, you know where I am if you need me.” She smiled sweetly and left the conference room. For some reason she kind of liked that Evan was jealous—and then felt crappy for it.
It meant he still cared. And no matter how much she wanted to deny it, she’d never stopped lov— Nope. She wasn’t going there. She couldn’t handle it right now.
They were so close to closing these last few deals, and she was also worried about whatever lunatic out there wanted her dead. She had enough on her plate and could not think about Evan or her stupid feelings right now. Especially since she wasn’t even sure where she stood as far as he was concerned.
Chapter 15
“You look great.” Evan drank in the sight of Isla as she stepped out of her private office bathroom. She’d changed into a simple black sheath dress and had on heels that defined the slim curves of her calves. He flashed back to how many times she’d had those very sexy calves slung over his shoulders as he’d gone down on her. Quickly, he forced himself to think of anything else.
She gave him a ghost of a smile. “Thanks. I’m kind of tired of all these meetings, if I’m being honest. I feel like I don’t have a life anymore.”
Evan knew Isla hadn’t wanted to follow in her father’s footsteps, but she’d been so quick to take over everything that he just assumed she’d changed her mind. Clearly that wasn’t the case. Over the course of the day it had been obvious that she had no passion for any of this, even if she was good at it. “Why don’t you just pass this off to someone else? You don’t have to head up your father’s previous deals.” And he hated that she was taking all this on.
“Intellectually I know that, but there’s some part of me that needs to see these deals through. I need to finish them for him.”
“Your father wouldn’t think any less of you if you farmed them out to your very capable employees. People he personally hired.” Douglas McDonald had been vigilant about who he hired, especially senior-level employees.
Her lips curved up slightly. “Maybe. But you know I won’t do that.”
“Maybe you should.” Now he felt like an even bigger ass for dragging his feet on their deal. Even if he’d wanted to avoid seeing her, he should have sucked it up and dealt with everything. “At least with the one you and I are working on, it’s mostly done anyway. If you want, let me handle the rest of it. At this point we just need Bentley to sign off and we’re good.” And Evan could handle that trust-fund jackass.
She paused and he could see that she wanted to say yes, was desperate to. But then she shook her head. “Come on, let’s get this meeting over with. I seriously don’t understand why Bentley won’t meet during regular business hours.”
“Because he’s a jackass who sleeps in until three in the afternoon.” Evan’s tone was dry.
Isla let out a startled laugh—a real one, and the first he’d heard from her in ages. “Right? If we didn’t need him so badly, I would say let’s forget tonight, and forget him. At least a cocktail party doesn’t sound so bad.”
Smiling, he picked up Isla’s jacket for her and started to wrap his arm around her shoulders as they stepped out of her office, but stopped himself at the last second.
Bentley’s father had died in the same bombing that had killed Isla’s dad and
injured Evan—and subsequently Bentley had been given a multimillion-dollar business. Now Nic Bentley had more shares than any of the board, so they couldn’t get rid of him. Evan couldn’t imagine what his father had been thinking, leaving everything to the irresponsible partier. Nicolas Senior had wanted to give his son responsibility, but the older man had enabled the asshole son his entire life, so Evan wasn’t sure why Bentley Senior would expect him to change now.
Now Bentley Junior was running his business into the ground even more, and Evan and Isla wanted to scoop it up while it was still profitable and save thousands of jobs. But time was ticking because their investors would only hold on for so long. Really good people were already jumping ship, making things even more difficult.
“We should be able to get in and out of there quickly enough and gauge whether he’s truly interested in this deal or not,” Isla said. “If he’s not… How do you feel about walking away?” Her tone was hesitant and he figured he knew why.
The original deal was the last one Evan had worked on with Douglas, the one left unfinished. “I’m okay with it. He needs us way more than we need this business.” Evan didn’t want to walk away, but he also didn’t want Isla to work herself to death.
She needed to put the past behind her—they both did. If that meant this deal didn’t go through…so be it. Isla’s happiness was worth more to him than any amount of money ever could be.
* * *
Thirty minutes later, Isla glanced over at Evan. “Can you believe this crap?” she asked as he steered down the residential street teeming with traffic. Red and purple spotlights flashed around the house and up into the sky as if this was Universal or Disney. It was ridiculous. So much for this just being a cocktail party.
At least a hundred cars were parked in front of the mansion, scattered all over the expansive property. The thump of music was audible in the distance and she had no doubt it was coming from the party. Man, she bet Bentley’s neighbors hated him.