Page 74 of Lavish
Mistakes. Mistakes. Mistakes.
Once inside the bathroom, I locked the door and leaned against it, exhaling slowly. My pulse was racing.Reaching into my clutch, I slipped my gloves on, each finger fitting snugly. The sensation was strangely comforting, but there was no time to savor it.
I glanced once more at the door. Silence—no one outside. I moved quickly. The hallway was quiet, but I could hear faint murmurs in the room.
Alan’s office wasn’t far away.
I had maybe two minutes.
I quickly but quietly checked each door down the hall’s right side. The first opened to a supply closet, rows of neatly stacked linens and catering supplies. Then a mailroom, a mess of boxes and cubbies.
Locked. Locked. Another locked door.
I let out a sharp breath. Time was running out.
Then, finally, one handle gave way.
I went in quietly and closed the door, on high alert.
Alan’s office. The desk was super clean, just a stack of papers and a few photos.
I quickly scanned the room for anything useful. A filing cabinet was on the left, locked up tight, no surprise there. The desk was the most important thing. I stepped closer, fingershovering over the top drawer, and started opening drawers, hoping he left a laptop somewhere in here.
Bingo.
I pulled out the laptop, opening it.
I looked at the sign-in screen. Jenese didn’t tell me a password or anything, just to put the USB in. I reached into my clutch and slipped it into the laptop’s port.
Immediately, the screen lit up. The screen went blue before white text started to form across the screen. This…
Whoa. What the hell was Jenese into now?
We didn’t have this technology before. It was mostly just talking, manipulating people out of their money or deals. Viruses? When the hell did she learn this? I tried to track the lines of code, but they were moving too fast.
Finally, the laptop lockscreen opened, revealing his homepage.
Jenese was definitely holding out on me.
Then things began to move on the screen. It started to open things up. Files, folders, an open email inbox, and…shit. Another window popped up that showed something I hadn’t expected. Financial transactions, personal details, passwords.
This was bad. This wasfelonybad. And I didn’t know if I was the accomplice…or the bait.
Think. Compartmentalize. Control.
The files kept pulling up, one after another, too fast for me to process. Whatever Jenese had set up, it was working on its own, scanning, collecting, taking.
Then—footsteps.
I froze, my pulse hammering in my throat. Quickly, I grabbed the laptop, fingers hovering over the USB. Could I pull it out now? Would that screw up whatever Jenese had running?
The screen stopped, and I yanked the USB out of the laptop.
A shadow passed under the crack of light at the threshold. Someone was standing there.
I slipped the laptop back into the drawer.
I scanned the room. The desk was too obvious. The closet was too far. Then, I spotted it. A narrow gap between a tall filing cabinet and the built-in bookshelf in the dark corner of the room.
