Page 11 of The Billionaire's Knight

Chapter Five

Gwen didn’t glance back as she crept quietly out of Jase’s bedroom. What the hell had she been thinking? Not only had she fallen completely under his spell, having sex numerous times in numerous places and positions, but she’d left her phone somewhere downstairs. Not once had she gone looking for it. Her clothes had appeared upstairs but none of the rest of her belongings.

She made it downstairs without incident and began looking around for her purse and phone. It was just past three in the morning. She hoped she’d be able to catch one of her friends still up and about. Jagger, maybe. Or Seth. Both had trouble sleeping. War zone survival could do that to a person. Seth’s hadn’t even ended when he’d left the desert behind. His girlfriend had been murdered in Chicago prior to him heading to Oklahoma and joining up with the Knight’s Watch.

Jagger had already been a part of the team when Gwen had come on board. Though the media liked to paint him as the Playboy Knight, he was far from it. He had a chivalry streak a mile wide. When he wasn’t on the job, he was running or boxing or sailing. Gwen thought of it as fleeing his demons. He couldn’t seem to run fast enough, hit hard enough, or sail far enough to outdistance them.

She found what she was searching for on the counter in the kitchen. Someone… Jase? Had placed her phone on a charging pad. She swore as she picked it up. She had no less than eighteen missed phone calls. The last one had come in while she’d been making her way downstairs. She almost dropped the damn thing when it began vibrating in her hand.

“Everything okay?” she asked Levi.

“That’s my line,” he told her. “I’ve been worried.”

Considering ten of the missed calls had been from him, she knew that. All she could think was that he must have found something. “What is it?”

“Your billionaire couldn’t have picked a better time to upgrade his security. Someone’s being using more than his sister’s credentials to snoop. They’ve hacked into his system though a pretty obscure backdoor. I’m not sure anyone else would have found it. I would have missed it if my curiosity hadn’t been so aroused.”

Gwen couldn’t imagine Levi missing anything so she ignored that. “Do you know what they were looking for?”

“Everything,” he replied. “They accessed so much information it’s hard to know for sure. I’m working with Ms. Hayes to try to figure out what’s important and what’s not.”

“Give me an example,” Gwen urged.

“They accessed Jase’s schedule for the next month as well as his sister’s. Board meetings, project deadlines, but also medical appointments, luncheons, and vacations. They went over personnel files for almost everyone in the corporate offices. Then they went into software patents. The path they left is convoluted, which I’m sure is what they meant to do. Either that or they had no idea how to access what they were really looking for.”

“You’ll figure it out.” She had no doubt he would.

“Yes, but it’s going to take longer than I anticipated. In the meantime, I need someone to stick to Jase Hayes. Everything considered, I’m nominating you.”

“Why?” Gwen asked.

“Something doesn’t feel right, and it all leads back to him.”

“You think he’s in danger?” She clasped her hand to her heart though she tried to ignore the pain that went through it at the thought of Jase getting hurt.

“I think it’s definitely a possibility. I’m keeping an eye on his sister. Jamison knows what’s going on. Jagger’s outside Julia’s house, keeping an eye. Seth’s got his eyes on the two of you.”

“What about Jase’s private security? I snuck downstairs earlier, and there doesn’t seem to be anyone in the house with us. That’s weird, isn’t it?” Didn’t most billionaires have a houseful of staff?

“Noah’s there somewhere. He left here about midnight,” Levi told her. “From what he said, Mr. Hayes let the rest of the staff off for the week. Seems he had plans to be alone with a certain blonde bombshell he can’t get out of his mind.”

“God,” she muttered, dropping her head forward on her shoulders.

“For what it’s worth, he seems to be one of the good ones, Gwen.”

That was exactly what she was afraid of. Her head kept telling her it was just sex. Incredible, toe-curling, multiple orgasm inducing sex. But only sex. Still, there was no way her heart could be invested this quickly. No possible way she could be contemplating the big “L” word every time she thought of him. It didn’t happen that quickly. It was lust. Plain and simple. And complicated. So complicated.

“Is Seth parked outside here?” she asked then barely contained a shriek when the man in question answered from behind her.

“I came in about an hour ago. It’s hard to look inconspicuous when you’re parked outside the gate of a billionaire’s private home. Especially when there are no other neighbors within a fifteen-mile radius.”

“Jesus, Seth! You almost gave me a heart attack,” she growled.

One corner of his mouth twitched as he stepped into the soft glow of light that had led her to her phone to begin with.

“Someone’s not on top of their game,” he pointed out, though there was no censure in his tone. He was right. She wasn’t. Not when part of her was still upstairs in the bedroom with Jase, snuggled against him. Not when she was fighting the part of her that wanted to wake him up and make love again and again. No. Not make love. Fuck. It was lust, and lust led to fucking.

“Call me as soon as you know anything,” Gwen told Levi as she watched Seth. For a man who was well over six and half feet of solid muscle, he was probably the quietest person she knew. As he’d just proven, he could be in the room without anyone else being aware of it. Unless he wanted you to.

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