Page 24 of Stealing Sloane

A strange sensation stabbed her in her chest at the thought of Jacob. He had left so suddenly, without any warning. While she told herself she was glad that ass was gone, she couldn’t help but feel like something was missing the entire time they were having dinner. And last night, she could hardly sleep, wondering where he was. From Cliff and Lizzie’s stories about their firm, he could be anywhere in the world in the middle of dangerous situations.

What if something happened to him?

What if he got hurt?

Or she never saw him again?

“If you’re done we can start.” Lizzie said, wiping her mouth with a napkin. “Unless you’re still hungry?”

While she had finished half her plate, Lizzie’s were empty.

“No, I’m good.” She pushed away her plate, her appetite waning from worry.Get yourself together.Jacob’s just fine.

“Let’s get started then.”

Lizzie led her out of the kitchen and to her home office. A long desk took up an entire wall where four monitors were mounted side-by-side, while several PCs were stacked in the corner, the lights and faint whirring indicating that they were running.

“Good morning, guys,” Lizzie greeted as she sat down at the table.

“Can they hear you?” It still boggled her mind that hybrids existed. If Ronan had any among the Boston clan, he surely would have found some way to exploit them.

“Kinda?” She placed her hand on the monitor. “I just like to say it out loud sometimes, especially when I’m alone. But I can only reallytalkto a device when I’m physically connected to them.” She closed her eyes for a moment. “Ah, everything’s up and running.” Sitting down at the office chair, she swirled to face Sloane. “Let’s start.”

Sloane perched a hip against the desk. “Where?”

“I need some information.”

“What do you need?”

“Do you know anything about computers and servers?”

“I’m afraid not.”

“That’s okay. Then I need to know about how he runs his back office. Does he have an IT department? A cyber security team?”

“IT? Cybersecurity?” Sloane frowned. “I don’t think he even has a laptop. He might have an email address.”

“Oh dear.” Lizzie bit at her lip. “This might be a bit more difficult than I thought. I was hoping to get info about his computer network infrastructure.”

“Yeah I can help you with that—he has none. Ronan’s old school. He prefers face-to-face meetings, calls, maybe text messaging, but he doesn’t trust technology. Refuses to discuss business over anything electronic. And he’s so paranoid that anyone he’s meeting is wearing a wire, so he’ll sometimes have them come to the sauna at his gym.”

“Damn.”

“This isn’t going to work, is it?” A pit grew in her stomach.I should have just gone after Ronan.The belladonna would finish him off much quicker and she could put this all behind her.

“No, no, not at all. But”—she blew out a breath, sending a lock of reddish-blonde hair flying—“normally, this wouldn’t take too long. I can get into any network, find the evidence we need, and download it to my hard drive. But, from what I gather, Fortewouldn’t leave anything incriminating lying around, probably not decades-old texts or emails ordering a hit.”

“Definitely not.”

“But there’re ways around that. It takes longer, but it’s not hopeless. I’m already starting to compile a dossier on him from publicly available and not-so-publicly available information. Boston Police Department’s databases are already proving to be very helpful with tracking his whereabouts. Seems they’ve been keeping tabs on him for decades.” Lizzie grinned and began to tap on her keyboard. “So, we’ll have to think creatively. How about his security at home or place of business? Surely he has CCTVs? How about secondary devices that might be lying around, like Smart TVs, even refrigerators.”

“You can talk to refrigerators?”

Lizzie chuckled. “If it has a microchip, I can talk to it.”

Sloane thought for a moment. “I could probably list down everything I remember. The Boston clan’s main headquarters is a warehouse in the port. They control most of the traffic coming in and out of the harbor. Anyone wanting to do business there has to go through the clan.”

“Interesting.” Lizzie’s finger flew over the keys. “This is all good. I’m gonna need you to write down everything you can—everyone who works with him, their phone numbers and emails. Also, how he runs the clan, what’s the day-to-day like, his assets, other businesses.”

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