Page 38 of Moth to a Flame

Makes sense that he’d call it that. This thing I infected our systems with.

And it doesn’t just collect information from our existing database.

My search reaches everywhere online. To our users’ social security number, his workplace. My worm goes as far as finding out what his family members have been up to.

Because this is the endgame, isn’t it?

Locate someone who has connections in Brinestone.

I tilt my head at my friend.

“What the fuck.” This is a hiss. He inches closer, angling his head up although he feels just as tall as I am. Just as furious as I was before I let off some steam tonight. “What the hell were you thinking? We have the authorities breathing down our necks. They don’t just let anyone into the stock market, and you know it. If what you’re doing comes out, we’re done. Finished. The stock market will be the least of our problems. We could all face hard prison time.”

This isn’t the worst that could happen. Actually, I’d pay for a short stint in Brinestone if it means I’ll get thirty minutes with a certain Lester Burkes.

A smirk spreads on my lips at the thought. My heart pounds louder. Can’t help it.

“Are you listening to me? This”—he waves a hand to the door behind me—“whatever it is you’re doing here, all our hard work would go to waste.”

Annoyance is a snake slithering inside my veins. None of it is aimed at Vince.

Moth to a Flame is mine.

Mine. Mine. Mine.

I’m almost as mad about some strangers poking through my company as I am about the men who looked at my Regan.

I’m tempted to call the whole thing off. Vince’s angry stare tells me this isn’t the time to do it.

So I keep being an asshole. “It’s you who’s not listening tome. How did you know I’d be here?”

A shake of his head. “You didn’t even bother covering your tracks. You were on this girl, Regan’s…”

I growl, the sound reverberating in my chest. No one’s allowed to say her name like this. Like she’s just a face in the crowd.

“…profile,” he goes on, undeterred. Fixes his glasses on his nose in an impatient gesture. “Then on the profiles of the two other matches she had. Two. Only two. She’s beautiful. We have dozens of subscribers who are the perfect match to her kink.”

This time, I back him up to the wall. Push at his chest. No one talks about my Regan’s kinks but me. No one.

“I went to her apartment. And Marshall’s. Your car wasn’t there. I went into every parking garage around their blocks before I came here.” His shoulders sag. “What is this? You’re into her?”

I growl.

“Since when are you into anyone? You’ve been anti-relationships ever since…” He shoves my hands off him. I take a step back. “Your parents.”

Technically, ever since my sister. But I’m not in the mood to reminisce.

I’m interested in getting rid of a body without getting caught. In delivering my woman her gift.

“She’s intriguing.” The understatement of the millennia. I take another step back, glancing over my shoulder for any nosy neighbor. Don’t hear footsteps, nothing. Good. “And the worm? Don’t worry. Once I find what I’m looking for, I’ll kill it.”

And him.

“So considerate. Wow. I truly appreciate that.” He doesn’t sound appreciative at all. Can’t blame him. “It won’t be needed, though. Beverly took it down. You can thank her later for it.”

“She what?” This isn’t the moment to lose it. This isn’t the place to start the first-ever fistfight with him. “You know what, never mind. Go home.”

“I instructed Bev to remove the wall you put up around Regan’s profile too.”

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