Page 46 of Office Affairs

“They won’t be able to resist the challenge. Not if they’re as cocky as they seem.” I finally sat and the fury drained out of me in slow measure. My hands stopped shaking. The constant heartbeat of pain in my temples eased. I took a deep breath and held it, feeling my pulse slow. “Since we didn’t find anything in the employee records, we have to look at this from another angle.”

“They’re better than us.” Chase’s eyes flashed with a dark fury I hadn’t seen in a long time. “I never thought I’d say that.”

“What are the chances the thief doesn’t work here?” I sprawled in the chair, my legs stretched out in front of me. “They’re accessing our system, but we don’t know how or from where. It could be a remote login.”

Russell rubbed his temples. “If some hack job is getting in remotely, then our security is nowhere near as sophisticated as we thought.”

“Not necessarily.” Chase joined us, sitting on the edge of his desk. “I’ll talk to Leon again. We need to know who he bought the tech from.”

“He won’t tell you.” Russell was adamant, and I didn’t blame him.

“It’s a waste of time,” I agreed. “Leon is a close-lipped son of a bitch. If he hasn’t told us yet, he’s not going to. We have to look at this from another perspective.” I was sick and tired of talking about work, but this was more than a job. Grady International was our livelihood. Taking tech from us and making us look like we couldn’t do our jobs undermined our authority in apps and technological advancements around the world.

My thoughts danced back to Sabrina and the tension I’d heard in her voice. I remembered the first time I’d gotten in a fight in school. My mom blistered my ass. I’d deserved it. Unlike Keith, I started the fight for no reason other than I was pissed off and mad at the world. Same as now. Only I couldn’t fight this bastard face-to-face. Whatever happened needed to happen from the relative safety of cyberspace, where I couldn’t punch the living daylights out of whoever thought they could take from us without retaliation.

“What if Sabrina’s right?” I spoke into the void before remembering that the others didn’t know about my conversation with Sabrina. Too late to back down now. “What if other companies are experiencing theft, but like us, no one wants to talk about it.”

Silence so thick I tasted it lingered in the masculine office.

Chase recovered first. “We tried asking Leon.”

“And we all know that Leon wouldn’t admit he was on fire if we saw the blaze from a mile away. The man’s too proud, too arrogant, for his own good.” I eyed Chase as I said the last part. If he didn’t pick up that he was the same way, I’d tell him straight to his face.

He set his hands on the desk behind him and glared at me. “You think we should admit it ourselves and see if anyone else comes forward?”

“Wouldn’t it be worth it if we finally catch this guy?”

“Or girl,” Russell added. He waved one hand in a lazy motion when I faced him. “Don’t underestimate the feminine mind. Some of the best hackers we ever hired were women.”

“Where are they now?” Chase shot to his feet. “Did we file all their information?”

“I checked them all out. Most are still here, and from what I can tell, completely clean of any wrongdoing.” Russell’s voice kept that same low monotone that drove me insane and helped keep me calm all at the same time.

What would it take to shake the man up? Except for his panic when he ran back to find Sabrina, I couldn’t think of a single time when I saw him lose his temper or his control.

The sun fell below the horizon, painting the room in an orange glow that danced over the walls and darkened the shadows.

“When was the last time you checked if the security in here has been tampered with?” The thought came unbidden as I followed a beam of orange light to the corner where one of the hidden cameras sat embedded in a stack of books.

Chase walked around me, his steps firm. “Before you came in.” He lifted the books and unhooked the camera, waving the cord at me. “Feel better?”

Not really. I shrugged. “I still say it’s all bullshit. And it’s gone on long enough. We have to think outside the box. Our hacker certainly is, or they’d never have cracked our system.”

“We’ve been over this enough for tonight.” Russell stood and groaned. “We’re tired, hungry, and pissed off. None of those will help us figure this out tonight.”

I locked my jaw before an angry retort burst out. It wasn’t Russell’s fault.

“We’ll start fresh tomorrow.” Chase ran a hand through his hair and sighed. “I’ll make some calls and see what happens.”

“What else can we do?” There had to be more. All this sitting around doing nothing set my teeth on edge.

Chase flipped his cell around on the desk and tapped it awake. “We need someone to cover Sabrina’s duties for the next three days.”

“Not me.” I shook my head. “I’ve already checked my schedule. No meetings and nothing that needs an extra hand.” I wiggled my eyebrows at Chase, who rolled his eyes and snorted.

Russell shook his head. “I’m fine. I’d rather wait on Sabrina than have someone else in the office. I’m with Garrett. No need to bring in someone else.”

There was no one else, in my opinion. My heart gave a slow, methodical thud that felt like it lodged in my throat. I swallowed thickly as memories of our time together infiltrated my turmoil and soothed the ache that had been building for hours. “Is there anything else we can do to help her?” I walked a fine line with the question.

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