Page 11 of Hidden Ties

Suddenly, Sal felt the three men’s gazes turn toward him.

“The hacker was arrested last night, but arresting them won’t undo the damage done to the Horseshoe and their credibility.”

“Good to know.” Kent gave him a satisfied smile, puffing on the cigar. “Whoever they were, you’d almost think they did you a favor.”

Each man in the room looked back to the lawyer, conceding his point.

Picking up his glass, Kent drained the contents before putting out the cigar. Standing, he stared down at Dante. “I’d hire whoever took out my competition.”

He laughed while he’d said it, pretending to mean it as a joke, but Sal could see the wheels already turning in Dante’s and Lucca’s heads.

“Well, I better get to work. I do miss being my own boss.” The lawyer huffed out a sigh after raising his arm to look at his watch. “You all have a great day.”

The three of them watched Kent breezily leave the office.

Dante gnawed on his cigar with clenched teeth. “Sal …”

“Yes,” he said, sensing what was coming.

“Get us everything we need to know about the hacker who was arrested last night.”

It wasn’t until the new boss nodded in agreement with the old one that Sal regretfully agreed himself. “All right.”

“I want to know where he sleeps, eats, and shits,” Dante continued.

“That’s the thing …” Sal had to clear his throat from keeping his spit from strangling himself. He seriously doubted Valerie was the hacker, but … “It’s not a he … but a she.”

Rarely was the old boss ever surprised, but Dante certainly was at that revelation.

His son, however, intently leaned forward, and Lucca’s strange-colored eyes clearly showed his interest had been piqued. “Sal, why do I sense there’s more?”

Because there was.

“And …” The Great Salvatore wished there were a god to strike him down dead in this moment. “She’s my next-door neighbor.”

SIX

OBSTRUCTION OF JUSTICE OR SOMETHING

Sal drove back to his house on Prairie Drive, determined to finish his glorious weekend while reminding himself along the way that it had nothing to do with Lucca telling him to hire Valerie. There was abso-fuckin-lutely no way Valerie Monroe was capable of the cyberattack on the Horseshoe. Hell, he had known it despite what he had told Officer Daniels.

The Great Salvatore knew a gamer when he saw one, and Valerie was exactly that.

From her colored hair that shined a brighter blue in the sun, the MoonPies she packed in every weekend, to her oversized colorful hoodies and the big clunky pink headset he watched her wear as she desperately peeked through the window.

Valerie was practically a walking billboard for the company Razer, and on her forehead was spelled “gamer.”

So, when he pulled up to his house to find a police car had returned to hers, he was shocked to see what Officer Daniels was carrying.

Well, shit.

Huffing, he threw on his glasses, wondering if he was really about to do this, when he caught a closer glimpse of what exactly was in his hands. That was when he regretfully decided he was.

Sal got out of the car and approached the officer and got an up-close look to find his suspicions confirmed. The computer Officer Daniels held was a custom-built PC that even had him curious.

“Hey, Officer Daniels, how’s it going?”

“Not too bad, Sal.” He continued lugging the big thing toward his patrol car. “Just about to head to the station. Do you mind opening the trunk for me?”

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