Page 63 of Curvy Quirky Omega

“No,” Lucy admitted. “She hasn’t logged into Gideon’s account since his death, but it looks like she used his account to create another executive-level admin account with override privileges.”

Well, fuck.

“Wouldn’t we notice something like that?” Liam demanded, turning from the board to glare at me. “It’s not like we wouldn’t see that there’s an executive who doesn’t exist messing with internal cyber security.”

Before I could answer him, Lucy blurted out the answer. “You wouldn’t actually.”

We both turned back to our omega, and I tried to bury down the dread I could feel growing before it could affect her.

“It’s like when I created an account using Liam’s, but better,” she explained with begrudging admiration. “A few months ago, one of your employees was promoted to executive and when she created their new admin account, she gave herself a backdoor. That’s the account she’s been using since Gideon was killed.”

Lucy absentmindedly grabbed another piece of the cut-up omelet and popped it in her mouth. Liam was right about the bite-sized food. She was eating without having to be reminded by either of us.

“I went through the corporate profile Frankie put together on Helen Moss when she first started interviewing Valor employees, and she was hired on to the IT department a year before the malware was installed on the servers – right around the time she was promoted to the director of IT.”

Lucy shrugged and finished the last bite of her omelet before using the chopsticks to grab one of the strawberry slices. “Everything she’s sent to the Tinley pack over the last two years falls under corporate espionage. It has nothing to do with Gideon specifically. Even the information on his computer is all regarding the corporations owned by Valor. Stuff like the notes from all the board meetings. That kind of thing.”

I forced myself to eat the omelet I’d made before it got cold and erased my disappointment before it could get too overwhelming. No one needed that right now. We needed solutions, not more problems.

Liam sat down at his desk and dropped his head into his hands.

Maybe I should have bonded him the other night so he would know how pissed off I was right now that he was being useless.

Then Lucy cleared her throat and looked between the two of us warily. “So…after going through the data packet, I went back into Gideon’s computer,” she admitted. “Things weren’t making sense. How did she know his password anyway? That’s when I found a keylogger installed in some obscure, hidden folder that was password protected, but since all the executive accounts have an override function, I was able to force it open with Liam’s password.”

Of course she knew what his password was after seeing him type it in only once. I should be furious, but I felt weirdly proud of her for being so…sneaky.

“Here.” Lucy pointed to some random numbers on the board in the corner. “These are all the PIN numbers I was able to find and this is the one that opened his encrypted drive.”

Jesus. How long had she actually been up? I’d stayed up until Liam came back to bed around six in the morning, holding Lucy while she slept so she didn’t get restless while sleeping alone. I checked my watch. She had to have gotten up only an hour or two after that.

Liam stared at the circled number for a long time. “That’s the combo to Gideon’s safe.”

Lucy jumped up and grabbed one of the dry erase markers to write that down next to the circled number. “You’re the only other person who knows the combo to his safe, right?”

“As far as I’m aware.” Liam scrubbed his face with his hands. “So, he was hoping me or Cas would eventually find all this?”

Lucy rubbed her index finger with her thumb as she considered her conspiracy board. “The only thing I can think of is he thought he might end up getting stabbed in the back one day, but Frankie would know what his reasons might have been better than me.”

I got up and went to the kitchen, grabbing the pot of coffee I’d started and two more mugs before heading back to the office. I set one on Liam’s desk and poured as I tried to figure out where we were even supposed to go from here.

Liam grabbed his coffee and drained it with a straight face despite how fucking hot it had to be. “We have to meet with Lopez and Valor in a few hours for lunch.”

I eyed him and refilled his coffee cup, not sure why he’d change the subject so awkwardly like this.

“Yeah, so Frankie’s coming here first,” Lucy told us. “Then we’ll all go together.”

I went over to her desk next and refilled her cup, leaving room for the cream. Lucy grabbed my hand before I could head over to my own desk and looked up at me with those imploring eyes I could never fucking resist.

“I need to go through the encrypted drive, and then I want to go back to Valor Enterprises after the meeting with Valor and Lopez.”

Gritting my teeth, I tried not to glower too much, but I couldn’t fucking stand the idea of taking her back there where Helen Moss would be watching our every move. “Can it wait until we remove the director of IT from her position?”

“No.” Lucy shook her head, releasing my hand. “I want to go right after the meeting. Before she knows we’re on to her.”

“Why do you need to go back there?” I turned to see Liam pulling his omelet apart with his chopsticks.

It wasn’t the new information that was the problem. I knew that much at least without being able to feel what he was feeling. No, it was a different problem entirely.

---