“If I want a look at their firewall to see what Gideon’s IP address is for that other phone we do, and we need any security footage we can get from that night without making it obvious what we’re looking for.”
This was going to start getting dangerous.
CHAPTER 42
Lucy
I turned to see Liam watching me with sleepy eyes and I knew he was thinking the same thing I was. “Do you happen to own any guns?”
He smiled like I was being cute. “Maybe.”
Cas narrowed his eyes and pinned me with a look. “Why?”
“I think you should start going around armed. Just in case.” I studied Liam’s dark red eyes and wondered if he’d be able to handle this part of my job. “I need to go to the café and I need access to the server room at Valor Enterprises without making people question what I was doing there and why.”
Liam kissed my temple, way calmer than I thought he’d be about this. “Looks like I need to give my omega a tour of Valor Enterprises, don’t I?”
“Tomorrow’s Saturday. We could go then,” Cas suggested as he reached for my mouse. “There will be fewer people around. Is there something specific you need?”
“Well, I’d rather go tonight,” I admitted. “Whatever data is being sent off site goes out at three in the morning. It would be faster to get set up before that happens, rather than doing it tomorrow and having to wait another day for the results.”
“So impatient,” Liam chastised. “I thought you wanted to go through that list of locations.”
I sighed and pushed his face away, needing some space. “I do, but this is important. I can’t restore missing data without tipping off whoever erased it, but I can set up a program to monitor where it’s going. If that information is saved to my drive instead of sent to me externally, I should be able to keep whoever it is from finding out what I’m doing.”
Cas started going through the same files I had, his mouth a hard line. “But it’s not guaranteed they won’t see it. They could find the drive, or have a program set up to alert them of unusual activity.”
“Yeah, they could, but if I set up an admin account on the authentication server, I can reroute those alerts. They wouldn’t know unless they physically inspected all the servers and I plan to remove the program after a week. I’ll have what I need by then.”
Cas grabbed my chair and turned it so Liam and I were facing him, caging us in when he set his hands on my armrests and leaned in.
His black hair fell into his eyes and I found myself staring for way too long. I didn’t think I’d ever get over just how bright his blue eyes were…or how dangerous and predatory they always looked.
“And what if this person comes down to the server room while you’re in there?” he demanded. “What if they’re the one who killed Gideon?”
“I’m not going unarmed.” I made a face, wondering if he thought I was really that stupid. “If they try to stop me or hurt me, they’re hiding something and we’d have a legitimate reason to hold them for questioning.”
“You’re not the police.” Cas leaned in closer and I held my breath. “You can’t legally hold someone for questioning. That’s called kidnapping.”
Frankie snorted and then covered her mouth when Cas glared at her.
“You would know, wouldn’t you?” I pushed his arms off my chair and scooted back so I’d have some room. “It’s not my job to worry about that, Cas. All I’ve been hired to do is deliver the information I find. What Valor decides to do with that information is none of my business.”
I stood and turned around to glare at Liam. “If I suddenly had to defend myself, would you want me to hand whoever it is over to the police, or to you?”
Liam’s smile was playful and teasing, reminding me of that very first day. “Obviously you should hand them over to me, but it’s not like you’ll be going into that server room alone.”
Instinct told me to get the fuck out of the way when Liam turned that playful smile on Cas and I leaned back so I wouldn’t be in his direct line of sight.
“It’s our job to keep her safe,” Liam reminded him, his voice so soft I shivered. “If she needs to get into the server room, she’s going to get in to that fucking server room. Lucy’s job is to find answers even when it’s dangerous, and it’s our job to make sure she can do hers safely.”
Cas didn’t growl in frustration, but I could feel the emotion through the bond, pulsing like a heartbeat. “There’s no guarantee she’ll be safe in this situation even if we go with her. She could get hurt.”
Liam stood from his chair and I leaned so far back I was practically climbing on top of my desk. This was not an argument I wanted to get in the middle of.
“We promised that her job didn’t matter,” Liam snarled. “Don’t you dare break that promise now, only a day after you bonded her.”
My chest ached and I swallowed hard.