Page 17 of Tango
“You can always trust me.” He covers my hand with his. “Even if we didn’t work out, I’m still your friend.”
“You are.” I smile at him, feeling a bit of the weight I’m carrying lift. “I need to know if anything strange has been going on at work since I’ve been gone. Anyone acting weird, any new policies put in place…anything.”
He withdraws his hand and leans back in the chair again. “Not particularly. We got a memo the day we showed up and the windows were broken. It said there was a drive-by and the windows would be getting replaced, but the server room was off-limits to everyone until the repair was made. They said it was too dangerous for us to go inside.”
More like there was too much blood that needed to be cleaned up. “Nothing else?”
He shakes his head. “You said Darren shot Ramiro. Why would he do that?”
“I’m not sure. Ramiro said he found something big. An issue with the security of certain accounts.”
“Which accounts?”
“He wouldn’t tell me. He insisted I write a patch, so I did. That’s what we were there that night to install. A patch that would make it impossible for anyone to gain access to the information hidden behind it. Well, difficult, anyway. So we would have time to find out where the threat was originating from.”
“You said he wouldn’t tell you which client accounts were affected?”
I shake my head. “He seemed scared. Almost like he was afraid to trust me.”
Logan’s brow furrows. “Not trusting you is a big red flag that something was going on.”
Back when we’d been dating, my friendship with Ramiro was a bit of a sore subject between Logan and me. He’d always insisted that Ramiro wasn’t around just to be my friend, and while I’d always known how Ramiro felt, we had an understanding. I just wasn’t interested in him that way, and he never held it against me.
Logan couldn’t see that, and his jealousy is a big reason we didn’t work out. I wasn’t willing to shove the friend I’d had for years aside, and Logan didn’t trust him.
“That’s what I thought too.”
Logan is quiet for a moment, likely processing everything I’ve told him. “You believe Darren has something to do with this? I mean, the guy is a jerk—no one’s questioning that—but a murderer—I just don’t know that I could see him killing someone in cold blood.”
“Well, I did see it. With my own eyes. I watched those bullets penetrate Ramiro’s chest. I watched him fall to the ground. And I watched him fall still.” Tears burn in my eyes.
“Alice.” Logan reaches over and covers my hand with his again. “Have you gone to the police?”
“I can’t. If Web Safe is behind this, then they’ll do whatever they can to bury it.”
“So now you’re not trusting the police?”
“Not until I know how deep this is.”
“Then why are you coming to me?”
“Because I know that, no matter what went on between us, you’re an honorable man. I know you wouldn’t do anything to hurt me.”
His jaw clenches. “No, I wouldn’t.”
“Which is why I’m here. I need to know what’s going on inside Web Safe. If anything feels off, or if you notice any issues with the accounts, can you tell me?”
“How do I get into contact with you?”
I withdraw a piece of paper and offer it to him. “This email address. Contact me here.”
Logan studies it before offering it back to me.
“You don’t want to keep it?”
He taps a finger to his temple. “Memorized. And if there is an issue, I don’t want anyone to find it.”
“Good thinking.”
