Finish the contract and ignore Kristof. She shouldn’t have a problem with either. She’d pulled plenty of all–nighters–no sweat. She glanced at Kristof’s reflection in the limo’s window.
He was watching her. She’d caught him watching her a lot during their trip. She averted her gaze and focused on the scenery outside.
No more thinking about Kristof.
She half–listened to what Andras and Kristof were now talking about. They were going on about the other wolf clan that had attacked her at home. Kristof thought they were from a clan in Russia and Andras was listing the clan names.
While they talked, she kept her eye on the scenery rolling by. Michigan was so completely different from Florida. The sky had an overcast of clouds, which allowed for the sun’s rays to poke through every now and then. According to Andras, they were in Marquette, Michigan, which is in the Upper Peninsula or “U.P.” as he had called it.
Wherever they were, it was gorgeous. They passed by rolling hills and uninhabited land for as far she could see. Sometimes they would pass a farmhouse dotting the landscape, but when they began to pass through a city she felt tension rising within, getting anxious to begin her job.
“How far is Dark Wolf Enterprises from here?”
“About twenty miles,” Andras responded.
“Do you need time to refresh?” Kristof asked, providing the first spark of a conversation since their big blow–up in the motel.
She kept her eyes focused on the scenery of businesses and restaurants that had begun to pop into her view. “No, I want to get started right away.”
“It won’t be a problem,” Kristof continued, his voice sounding low, with a hint of sex to his drawl. “My house is on the way. We can stop for just a little while to allow for you to shower and eat. I’m sure Katalin might have something else for you to wear, something more comfortable.” Something sexier with easier access. Trudy swore she heard his voice in her head.
She turned to glare at him. “I said I’m fine. Besides, I wouldn’t wear any of your lady friends hand–offs anyway.”
He quirked a brow. “Katalin is our younger sister. Forgive me for making the suggestion. You’re about to spend hours on end at a computer. I thought you’d want to change into…something more comfortable.”
Well that was real smooth.
That’s not what he had in mind at all. He’d wanted her to go to his house, take off her clothes and spread naked across his bed. Before he could stop what he was doing, he’d sent her a “push” of his thoughts to her mind.
Andras stared at him with a hint of a smile. Kristof quickly turned away from his brother, not wanting him to witness how much of a mess he was making things between him and Trudy.
What was the matter with him? He searched for his wolf, finding him in the recesses of his mind sleeping. The overwhelming urge had been all Kristof. He couldn’t blame it on his animalistic side.
“What was that all about?” Andras projected to him.
“Since when do you find my love life interesting?”
Andras laughed and covered it up with a cough. “Ah, love life? So you’re admitting that you have one now?”
“That’s not what I meant.”
“That’s exactly what you meant.”
Kristof closed his eyes and took in a deep breath. “She’s human for god’s sake.”
“Yes, so I’ve noticed.”
“Humans are too fragile. She almost died the very first night I met her and the second night. I can’t bring her into our world. It’s too dangerous.”
“Last time I checked, she was already in our world.”
“I can’t…do it.”
Andras cocked his head to the side. “So you’ve imprinted on Trudy and you think you’ll be able to turn her away?”
Kristof inhaled sharply. “How did you know? Did Lajos tell you?” If Kristof had it his way, no one would’ve known about it. It would’ve been his dirty little secret.
“I’m your Alpha, I knew without anyone telling me. Imagine my surprise when I had another charge under my watch.”
Shit. He should’ve known Andras would feel Trudy joining the pack. “Is that the real reason you came to North Dakota?”
“Partly, I wanted to imprint on her as well. But I wasn’t lying when I said I wanted to make sure you were unharmed.”
“So she’s officially part of the pack now?”
“I’ll have a membership card printed up for her and everything,” Andras joked.
“Just great. What am I supposed to do?”
“I trust you to figure this out.” Andras leaned slightly forward and focused on Kristof. “Remember the responsibility of protecting her won’t fall squarely on your shoulders. She’s all of our responsibility.”
Kristof balled his fist and clenched his jaw tight. “What have I done? I just made a weak point in our defenses. If any of our enemies want to hurt us, they’ll go for her first.”
“True, our enemies will go to her first. We’ll have to get her acclimated to pack life and she’ll need a security detail. Besides that, I don’t foresee anything coming up that we won’t be able to handle. You know, a shifter and human mating has happened before–it’s been quite some time though.”
Kristof nodded once, remembering the story from long ago. A line of three brothers mated to humans in the fifteen–hundreds. “I’ll have to read up on their history when I get to my office.”
“You do that. I did a little research on the way to rescue you.”
Kristof glared at his brother. “You did not rescue me.”
“Sure, if that’s the story you want to tell everyone. Like I was saying, the women were embraced within the pack, but while their lifespan didn’t match their mates, they still exceed the normal human one–by about two hundred or so years.”
So she’d still die before him. The thought didn’t sit well with him. “What about offspring? Were they able to conceive?”
“The offspring were shifters, but with more human qualities. They were able to choose their mates.”
“You mean no imprinting?”
Andras nodded his head. Kristof leaned back, thinking about the information. If he didn’t have to deal with the pesky imprinting, he wouldn’t be in this situation in the first place. Maybe that wasn’t a bad thing. Unless… “What kind of mates did they choose, human or wolf?”
“Wolf. Their line still runs strong. The Gray pack in Scotland. I think any human traits they had have been bred out of them by now. Last I heard they are imprinting on their mates.”
The limo stopped briefly at the gates to Dark Wolf Enterprises. To the community it appeared as though the company didn’t want any trespassers, which was true. But the fifteen–foot high iron gate also kept the employees from roaming off company grounds when they were in their wolf form. Being a shifter at a shifter company had its perks. When the urge struck, a shifter could change and enjoy the freedom of the one–hundred–acre private estate with three lakes and wooded areas. The gates were provided so that no one had to worry about their wolf breaking the rules by venturing further into the residential areas.
“Is this it?” Trudy asked in awe, pressing her face against the window.
“Welcome to Dark Wolf Enterprises,” Andras said.
“Oh my god, this place is huge,” she exclaimed.
“I can give you a tour when we get inside,” Kristof said.
She shook her head. “No thank you, I want to begin working right away.” Then she paused, seemingly to think on it some more. “But when I take a break, I’d love a look around.”
Chapter Fifteen
Trudy rubbed at her weary eyes. She’d been searching the accounts for god knows how long. She’d taken a couple of bathroom breaks and she’d taken a power nap on the loveseat on the opposite side of the room. Someone had brought her dinner earlier–or had it been breakfast? It didn’t matter. The plate of food sat half–eaten on her desk–not her desk, she reminded herself. Kristof
had put her up in one of the guest offices next to his. He didn’t want her in the main accounting wing since whoever was embezzling money might be there in one of the cubicles.
Kristof poked his head through her doorway for what seemed like the fiftieth time throughout the night. “Do you need more sleep?”
She shook her head. “No, I’m fine.”
“Are you sure? Humans can’t stay up for extended amounts of time.”
She didn’t bother looking at him. “I’ll sleep when I find out what’s going on.”
She’d told him three hours ago that she’d found the same anomaly she’d seen at her house. It was easier to find this time since she remembered what she was looking for. While the next phase wasn’t hard, her eyes were burning from looking at the computer monitor for so long and yes–from not getting enough sleep. But she would never tell Kristof that.
He stepped into the office and the tension she had coiled around her neck and shoulders began to drain away.
“Making any progress?” he asked, as he crossed the expansive room.
“I am, but no matter how close I seem to get to the bogus accounts, I get redirected to another account.” She flicked her gaze up to him. Damn that man is fine.
She quickly drew her gaze away and back to her monitor. Even after everything he’d said to her, she still couldn’t keep her thoughts from straying to him. She’d never been a glutton for punishment, but having Kristof near seemed to calm her nerves–make her feel alright.
Kristof maneuvered around her desk to peer over her shoulder. He stood close to her–too close. His body was mere inches from her back and she felt her nerves awaken instantly.
He’s a jerk, she said to herself. Don’t fall to pieces over him.
She scooted to the edge of her chair, trying to put as much space between their bodies as possible.
“Have you looked into the accounts that you’re being redirected to?” he asked. His voice seemed to call out to her, luring her to lean back and rest her body on his.
Absolutely not.
She snapped out of her mini–trance and, for good measure, leaned closer to the desk, pressing her stomach almost painfully into the wood. “Every one. They’re real company accounts as far as I can tell, but I’m starting to get the feeling that this is the intent.”
“To send you on a scavenger hunt and waste your time?”
“Exactly. Watch.” She found a bogus account for him. To get a better look he leaned closer. She caught a whiff of his scent.
He smells so damn good.
A fine tremor began on her neck and quickly spread to her back and across her shoulders. She cleared her throat. “This is a bogus account.” She hovered her mouse over the account name so he could see which one she was directing him to look at. “I can tell because it just has debits, no deposits. You can’t have debits without some kind of funding source right?”
He nodded. “Right.”
“Now, watch what happens when I select it.” As soon as she did, she was immediately routed to another account with a different account name. “See?”
“That’s our holdings in the South Pacific,” he said. “Are you sure someone hasn’t hacked into that account and is using it as a funneling source?”
She craned her neck so she could look at him. Wrong thing to do. She got an eyeful of his chest, neck and jaw line–his strong jaw line. She turned away. “That’s the same thought the embezzler intended us to have. At this point, I’d spend at least twenty minutes going through the records of this account and this time, like all the times before, I’d come up empty handed.”
He straightened and took a deep breath. “That’s some pretty sophisticated handiwork.”
“You have to give it to whoever set all this up.”
“We could stay busy in this loop for years.”
“You maybe, but not me.” She closed out all of the programs on her desktop.
“You have a solution?”
“I double majored in computer programming. I was going to college on a scholarship and thought that since I was getting a free ride, I might as well get all I could out of it.”
He watched as she created a simple program. One she’d developed on her own when a virus had infected her computer and kept re–directing her to an oversea virtual shopping mall.
“What are you doing now?”
“I’m creating a simple program, one that won’t alert any kind of firewall systems that you have in place here. Hopefully, the program will do its job and kill any redirection loops. Easy–peasy.”
He stood back and let her do her work.
When she finished creating the program, she shut down and restarted her computer. “Keep your fingers crossed.”
She brought back up the accounting files and clicked on one of the bogus accounts. She held her breath as the file opened.
“Voila,“ she said.
“You did it.”
“Don’t sound so surprised. This is what you hired me to do.”
She hit the save button, saving them to her desktop, then she scrolled through the list of debits, so many of them, spanning back years. “Do you know anyone in the United Kingdom? All the debits are from Lloyds Banking Group. I recognize the name. Their headquarters are in London. Whoever is doing this is withdrawing the money straight from the headquarters. See, it lists the dates and their London address.”
He squinted. “We don’t have anyone from our pack living abroad–visiting maybe. I’ll have to check with Andras. Email both of us the files.”
“I don’t have a company email. Only my home email and it’s not encrypted.”
“You’re right. Your account might get hacked. Here, let me…”
She stood, allowing him to ease into her chair and log onto his company encrypted email address. She watched as he attached the file and hit the send button. He picked up the phone that was on the desk and dialed some numbers.
“Andras, she did it. I just emailed you the files.” He was silent as he listened to the voice on the other end. And then, “Hello, hello?” He pulled the phone back and looked at it. “I was disconnected.”
Just then the computer monitor began blinking rapidly before it shut off.
“What happened?’ she asked.
He scrunched his brow. “Your computer died too.”
His cell phone rang. He snatched it from his jacket pocket. “Yes?”
His face blanched and he hung up. “The computer system in the entire building is down.
She eased herself to sit on the edge of the desk. “They must’ve attached a highly effective virus to the files as a safety net. Just in case you ever found a way around their redirect loop.”
“I’ll get the IT team on the situation right away.”
Chapter Sixteen
“What’s the verdict?” She asked after he got off the phone. They’d moved to his office, which was larger than the one she’d been in. She was sitting in one of the oversized chairs on the opposite side of his desk. She looked so small, delicate and vulnerable. Her eyes were red and had bags underneath them. Trudy kept yawning, but even if she didn’t he would still be able to tell she was exhausted, while he wasn’t tired at all.
She’d never survive his lifestyle. She’d kill herself trying to keep up with him, or he’d stifle himself, trying to slow down for her.
“The entire system is shot,” Kristof said, running a hand through his hair. “Even our back–up is fried. Andras thinks the system is so corrupt that we’ll have to build a new one, meaning the file you found is gone. I asked him if we could reload the file after we get back up, but he advised against it. He said the virus was probably timed to open and spread as soon as the file was opened. You’re lucky you didn’t find this on your business computer. It’s going to be a very expensive fix.”
“So now what? Should I call and request the records from Lloyds Banking Group? Even if we lost the file, they’d still have a copy of the records.”
“I know.�
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He kept his eye on her, trying to appear normal on the outside, but inside his wolf was snarling and snapping for control. It knew what he was about to do.
While Trudy had been working on finding the bogus account, he’d been researching what happened to the three brothers who’d mated with humans and what he found wasn’t good. All the wives died before their mates, leaving the wolves to grieve. The wolves never recovered. One went crazy, one committed suicide and one left the pack and died alone, which is every wolf’s worst nightmare.
No, he couldn’t live his life knowing that the outcome of this bond would essentially leave him broken.
“We can call them and request they fax the documents.” Trudy looked around with a squint. “Well, they can’t fax them here, obviously, since the systems are down. Do you have a fax machine at your house? We could pick it up from there. We’d have to go through the pages by hand, but it’s doable.”
“Trudy, your job here is done.”
He’d finally said it. He’d been trying to form the words for the past thirty minutes. He’d known he’d have to say the words the very minute he’d met her and what he’d found in the research only confirmed it. He just didn’t know it would be this hard to actually get the words to leave his mouth. In order to finally do it, he imagined her body, broken, in a coffin. While his wolf had been busy mourning the thought of a dead mate, Kristof had rushed the words out.
Confusion flashed across her face. “What…what do you mean?”
“You’ve done what you were hired to do, there’s no reason to keep you here,” he struggled to say.
“I didn’t really complete my job. I found a source, but I’m sure it goes deeper than that.”
“It probably does, but it’s something we’ll have to finish without you.”
“But I’m supposed to finish.” Hurt showed in her eyes.
“And you did, thank you. We couldn’t have gotten this far without you.”
She looked as though she was struggling to find something more to say.
Brought to His Knees-Tough Guys Laid Low By Love Page 9