Page 34 of Guarded from Sabotage

Sarah bites her lower lip. “But… how do we stop them?”

“We’ve locked everything down,” Leo answers. “Your credit, bank accounts, credit cards, loans… all the identifiable information has been changed. There’s no way for anyone to access it unless we want them to.”

“Why would you want this hacker to access Sarah’s accounts?” Rhiannon shoots Leo a puzzled look.

“A trap, potentially.” Matt smiles grimly. “If we can’t trace their movements, we can set up something called a honeypot and hope they take the bait.”

I glance at Sarah’s file on my tablet, skimming the list of names she gave us as possible suspects. “Do we have anyone on our list that could fit the criteria?”

“We’re looking into it,” Matt replies. “But unfortunately, no one is jumping out yet.”

“We should look into financials,” I reply. “It’s possible someone paid a hacker to do this. Hired them on the dark web.”

Sarah sucks in her breath. “The dark web?” Her voice goes wobbly. “Like what happened to Charlie? With the deepfakes? Is that going to happen to me next?”

Shit. This is why I didn’t want Sarah here.

“No.” It’s quick. Adamant. I hold her gaze as I say, “We willnotlet that happen.” To the rest of the team, I add, “I want surveillance on Sarah’s ex. Just because we haven’t seen anything suspicious yet doesn’t mean he’s not responsible. She broke up with him, he could be bitter?—”

“I don’t think he is,” Sarah interrupts quietly. “Bitter, I mean. And he doesn’t have a lot of money. Not yet. He’s still a resident, and he has his med school loans…”

“Psychiatrists are paid really well, though.” Erik finally speaks up, looking across the table at Sarah. “And the cost of hiring a hacker online might not be as much as you think.”

Sarah sags. Her eyes drop to the table. “I just…” She swallows. “We were together for years. Even though he cheated…” Cheeks reddening, she continues, “I can’t imagine he’d be that angry at me.”

Shit.

I wish I could hug her. Cook her favorite meal. Watch as many sad movies as she wants. Literallyanythingto make her feel better.

“We’re going to find this person, Sarah.” Leo’s rumbly voice is quietly confident. “It’s just a matter of time. And we’ll fix everything they messed up. Your credit, your accounts, we’ll take care of it.”

Her chin quivers, and I can tell she’s trying not to cry. “I just don’t know what I did. How I made someone hate me this much.”

Would it be unprofessional to pull Sarah onto my lap and hold her?

Probably.

But I want to do it, anyway.

Instead, I reach under the table and take her trembling hand for a second. “We’re going to fix this.” As Sarah stares at me with a mix of hope and despair in her eyes, I tell her, “I promise, Sarah. Wewillfix this.”

I hopethis wasn’t a terrible idea.

In any other circumstance, I wouldn’t even have asked. If it were any other day, I’d offer to spend the evening with Sarah making dinner and watching whatever she wants.Beachesagain. OrThe NotebookorA Walk to Remember, both of which she said are guaranteed to make her cry.

Or there’s that new romance movie on Netflix, the Christmas-themed one about a woman who moves to a small town in Vermont and falls in love with the man who’s protecting her.

It’s funny, when my sisters used to watch these kinds of movies, I made fun of them. But now, I’m watching them willingly. Not just willingly; I want to watch them because it makes Sarah happy.

Hopefully, this party won’t do the opposite.

It’s Jade’s birthday, which is why I really don’t want to miss it. Since she moved in with Niall, Jade’s become like a little sister to me, and I want to support her. Especially after everything she’s been through. And I did agree to man the grill, so people are kind of depending on me.

If Sarah really didn’t want to go, I’d stay back with her. But when I mentioned it, she immediately said yes. Her exact words were, “Of course I’ll go. It’s Jade’s birthday. Do you think there’s some way I can get her a present?”

As if I’d say no?

So while Sarah called her parents, I made the trip into Seguin to pick up something for her to give Jade. “She loves to read, doesn’t she?” Sarah asked. “Could you get her a gift certificate from the bookstore in town? And maybe one of those cute totes with a saying about books on it? I’ll pay you back as soon as I can access my accounts again.”

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