Page 34 of The Perfect Lie
The expression on his face let me know he was annoyed at my question. “It’s been a little slow. Most of the men from my unit either have families or are no longer in the country. I’m still hopeful, though. Three men haven’t responded back yet.”
Disappointed by his efforts, I placed my coffee mug on the table and logged into the computer next to him. “Any more information on McCall?”
“Waiting on that too.” Patton was zero for two. I wasn’t happy, and based on the way my fingers hit the keys, he knew it. “I do have some information on Salko.”
“Finally,” I stared him down, ready to deal with the information he had
“Once your meeting was over with Gwen, Marcus got the bright idea of using our drone to follow the two cars that Salko and one of his men were in. When the cars took different routes, Marcus made sure the drone followed the car that Salko was in.”
My morning was getting better by the minute. “Go on.”
“You will never guess where the car ended up.” He paused for a moment waiting for me to bite. When I didn’t, he continued. “The McCall Agency.”
“Did he go inside?”
“Nope. But he didn’t have to.” Punching a few keys on his keyboard, he brought up video footage I assumed was taken from the camera on the drone.
I watched the feed as the drone followed Salko’s car through the streets of Atlanta until it came to a stop on the top floor of the parking garage connected to the building where the McCall Agency was located. Patton hit a few more keys, which zoomed the picture in on Salko’s car and the car he pulled up next to. There was no mistaking that the man who got out of the car and walked over to the back passenger window of Salko’s car was Crosby McCall. When the window was lowered, Salko’s arrogant mug came into view.
“I fucking knew McCall’s association to Salko was more than he let on.” Looking at Patton, I knew it was a long shot, but I had to ask. “Is there any way that drone picked up what was said between them?”
“Sorry, Davian. I wish it did. But keep watching. I think you’ll be happy with what happens next.”
As I continued to watch the video, the conversation between McCall and Salko must have finished because McCall returned to his car and pulled out of the parking space. It wasn’t much longer until Salko’s car also descended the parking garage. The video was still going as the drone proceeded to follow Salko’s car. We might not have known what was said between them, but Salko just led us right to his hideout.
∞
I was pleasantly surprised to find that the joint effort on making breakfast between Reyna and Kenzi turned out to be delicious. Not only were the pancakes very appetizing, the roasted potatoes, sausage, and fruit salad were equally delicious. Based on the moans and groans surrounding the table, the men were also enjoying the meal.
Unable to take another bite, I pushed from the table and leaned over, kissing Reyna on the cheek before I straightened my body and said, “Thank you, ladies, for the wonderful breakfast.”
Reyna gave me an appreciative smile, which warmed my heart to see her so happy. Not long after I stood, Patton, Marcus, and Calvin were up on their feet, thanking the women as well. Axe, on the other hand, was a different story. He and Kenzi were carrying on a conversation like there was no one else around. They were oblivious to everything around them. The look they gave each other caused me to believe that something more than a conversation was going on between them. The first chance I got, I needed to ask Reyna about what was going on between them.
As I headed downstairs, Marcus and Patton were close behind. A lot of work still needed to be done given the new information we had on Salko. Then there was the work that needed to be done with my companies. I had neglected my responsibilities at The Regency and Cross Enterprises, and it was time to get a handle on what was going on. Even though I contacted Samantha, the general manager at The Regency, and my secretary, Helen, daily, I hated that I had resorted to micromanaging my businesses.
Once this shit with Salko was behind me, I really needed to give Samantha and Helen a well-deserved vacation. Switching gears, I took a seat at the computer station next to Patton and typed in my password. The first thing on my to-do list was to check my email. I tried to do this every day on my phone, but I got behind for few days. Reyna was more important. One hundred twenty-three unopened emails waited for me in my inbox, which didn’t surprise me. Scrolling down the unread emails, I clicked the box next to the ones I knew needed to be trashed, which cleared about a quarter of them.
As I was going through the rest of my inbox, Axe entered the computer room with a smile from ear to ear. Having taken advantage of his absence, I had no choice but to give him a hard time. “The way you’re smiling, Axe, one would think you just got laid.”
His expression was priceless as the smile from moments ago vanished, only to be replaced with annoyance. “I would tell you to fuck off, but that would be inappropriate given that you are technically my boss.”
I shook my head, unable to hold back a laugh. I totally deserved that. Still, the look on his face was worth the wisecrack remark. Focusing my sights back on the computer screen, an anonymous email popped up on my screen. I didn’t dare open it until I knew for sure it wasn’t one of those emails that as soon as you clicked on it, your computer started doing strange things. Then a Roblox hacker face appeared. “Patton, come look at this.”
Patton rolled his chair next to mine and pulled my wireless keyboard in front of him. He tapped his fingers against the keys and said, “It does look pretty suspicious, but let's see if we can find out where it came from before you open it.”
Patton was a computer genius. He knew every backdoor available to dissect every email, right down to the IP address that it came from. This was a great tool, especially for determining if an address was legit or not.
As we both stared at the screen, the sequence of keys Patton typed on the keyboard ordered the program to begin scanning the anonymous email. If ever there was an email that looked suspicious, the protocol was to have Patton run the email analysis. If the results didn’t come back with a 90% probability or higher that the email was clean, it was removed from the system. Even though we had procedures in place to ensure the system never got hacked, this was just another measure to secure our network.
Once the scan was complete, the results showed that the IP address location was local, and the email address where the email was sent was legit. It also showed a 99% probability that the email was safe to open.
Patton moved my keyboard in front of me and said confidently, “I think you're safe to open the email.”
“Don’t go anywhere. I think you should see this as well.”
Taking a deep breath, I hovered the mouse over the email and clicked on it. As I began reading the email, I thought,Leave it to Salko to send me an anonymous email. He was covering his ass. Little did he know, I already knew about his hideout and could get to him whenever I wanted.
As we read the message, I wondered if Salko was losing it or was actually serious. Patton must have thought the same thing. “Are you reading this, Davian? I think Salko has gone completely nuts. I don’t know what world he’s in, but if he seriously thinks you would agree to meet him here, he should be put in a straitjacket and locked up in a rubber room.”
