Page 96 of One Wild Ride

“He’s about ten minutes away. Soon your son and Alexa will be married. We haven’t found Grace,” he said.

My shoulders slumped in relief. I had never been so thankful that anyone had to make a run to the store in all my life. By doing that, Grace saved herself from being kidnapped.

Mrs. Hawthorne slammed the desk again with her fist. “She has the access to what we need. All those resources at Mimir. We need that. How are we supposed to expose and take down those high-powered men? Those politicians, CEO’s, media executives, and industry leaders?”

How does Mimir play into this?

“Do you really think Grace can get access to that information at Mimir? She’s only the receptionist.”

My eyes bounced between Alex’s mom and the thug next to her. There was something about that guy that seemed familiar. Then it hit me.

“Hey, are you the guy from the coffee shop?” I said but the guy never answered.

“You can go, Jagger. I have enough people here to help me with my son and his soon-to-be wife. Why don’t you head back to Chicago and try to find Grace? I have a feeling if she thinks everyone left her, she’ll give up and head home,” Mrs. Hawthorne said.

He nodded and kept his head down, turning his back to me as he left the room. He didn’t want me to see him. Maybe that’s why he wore the sunglasses inside like a douche.

He’s the guy that watched Alex and I in Wake Up Joe’s a few weeks ago. Mrs. Hawthorne had him follow us. What did he know? Maybe the guy found out about Alex buying Henrik’s place. Mrs. Hawthorne knows more than I had hoped.

I had to get out of here.

Closing my eyes, I took a deep breath ready to do and say anything to save us. To get Alex and Alexa to safety.

“Thank you, Mrs. Hawthorne,” I said as I willed my eyes not to leak for what I was about to do.

“Thank you? For what? According to you, I’m a terrible mom and a monster.”

You are.

“No, of course not. Once you explained why you did what you had to do and from what Alex told me, I get it. I really do.”

She narrowed her eyes at me, unsure of my sincerity. “And what exactly do you get, Aria?”

“These people need to be stopped. If I had a chance and the resources to destroy the men who killed my sister, don’t you think I would have? But, I’m not you. I don’t have billions of dollars at my fingertips. I don’t have access to people in high places.”

She scrutinized me for a moment. Despite all the Botox that tightened her face I could tell she was considering my words. She had to know what happened to my sister. The woman knew everything. She even had contact with my father.

“That was disgusting what your father did to his children. I hated dealing with your father, but he knew people that could help me. As for the money, well, Alex has it really. My husband left me nothing. That’s one of the reasons I needed Alex for this.” She shook her head.

“Between the Hawthorne name and money and Alexa’s family connection to members of Congress, we can do so much to not only get back at the men who hurt us, but the men who hurt you, Aria. And get the people who want to hurt our country.” Mrs. Hawthorne smiled. And she looked unhinged. “If we can get access to the Mimir information then I won’t need your father anymore.” Mrs. Hawthorne pursed her lips as she leaned against the desk. She muttered something about some Russians but I couldn’t make out exactly what she said.

“I could help you.” My heart jumped madly in my chest as I pushed out the words.

“How could you help?”

“I don’t know what you need, but since both my friends work there, I don’t think they would be suspicious of me stopping by.”

“Hmm.” Emma’s brow pinched as she tapped her finger against her chin. “We would need you to gain access to certain files that would only be allowed through a high level executive computer. These files contain very personal data on lots of people including politicians and leaders throughout the country and the world.”

Everything was coming together in my head. She was going to use their information against them in some way.

“Morgana is an executive. I could use her computer. Wait until she steps out to use the restroom or something and use it then.”

I made fists behind my back as I prayed she believed me. The woman was crazy after all. She could be playing me as I was playing her.

“That does sound solid. We have someone in the company who can tell you exactly what files to download,” she said before walking around the front of the desk.

Mrs. Hawthorne removed a cell phone from one of the desk drawers and tapped at it a few times.

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