Page 18 of Killian

“That’s...” She trails off.

“Why I need your help,” I finish it for her.

“You need an outsider view. Makes sense. Bash has other hackers, though. Why face the possibility of his wrath for me?”

I smirk. “Besides the view?” I let my eyes take in her body, lingering on that damned shirt.

She smacks my chest. “Be serious, Kill.”

Leaning in, I press my lips to hers. “You’re the best at what you do. If anyone can find this fucker, it’s you.”

Her eyes warm at my compliment. I meant it too. She has been taking down corporations from her computer for years now.

“Tell me what I need to know.”

“I think we need to start with our books. They all balance, but I have a gut feeling something is being hidden there. It’s almost too perfect, if that makes sense. Everything is matching up to what you would think it should be,” I say as I pull up the file on my computer.

“Yet everything isn’t always as it should be. There will be times the till will be off count by a small amount. Or even over. That is odd. How long has it been going on?” she asks as she scrolls through.

“Four months.”

“Jesus, Killian. Why didn’t you just ask me to help? I don’t need the dog and pony show to help you.”

“I know, but I’m wary to tell anyone else about it. Phones aren’t safe. Cashel doesn’t even know the full extent. Just that there is an issue that I’m handling and that I’ve involved the Italians. I didn’t tell him about you.”

“You’re hiding things from your closest friend?”

“It’s none of his business.”

I watch as she shakes her head. “Makes sense.”

I shrug. “I need you to figure this out for me.”

“Of course. I’ll do everything I can.”

“I know you will.”

“I would’ve anyway. Why did you make a deal with Bash?”

I breathe out hard. “Honestly?”

“No. Lie to me,” she deadpans.

I chuckle. “I didn’t want to kill Matteo. He did me a favor getting rid of that waste of space, but I can’t say that. I can’t let it go that he killed our man, even though they were robbing theirs. Even though he killed one of theirs. There’s a system in place to take care of these things. We were working through that system when Matteo went rogue. It wasn’t the act of killing itself. I would have approved it, anyway. It was the lack of respect for doing so without waiting for our stamp of approval. That sealed his fate.”

“What made you make the deal?”

“It wasn’t a conscious decision. It was the most impulsive thing I’ve done since I met you. In that moment, staring at Bash, I realized he had something I wanted. You. So I tossed it out there without thinking it through. I apologize for outing you. It wasn’t premeditated.”

She huffs. “Still caused me a world of trouble. Although I made my own deal with Bash, so maybe it wasn’t so bad.”

I feel myself tense. “What deal?”

She chuckles. “Wouldn’t you like to know? Now come on, big guy. Let’s dive into your business.”

It’s beena couple hours since I arrived.

Killian explained he believes someone is stealing from him, which is a serious offense in their world. I also know how hard it is for him to trust, so I want to do this for him.

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