Page 39 of Perfect Order
I step into the room and find not only the primary server equipment destroyed, but the secondary equipment—something only someone from Hudson should know about—disabled. “Oh, holy hell.” The implications for this cause my head to reel. Not only would someone in the building have to be involved, but someone in Hudson was here as well.
I step out and prepare to face Beckett’s wrath.
He’s in the middle of shouting, “Are you kidding me? I wasn’t even here! And we’ll be able to defend that once the security team…”
I shake my head.
“You’ve got to be fucking joking, Kane. What did they do? Use a kitchen knife to pick the…” His face flushes when I lift my arm and he sees his broken Grammy in my hands. Before I can speak, he grinds out, “Are you telling me that whomever was in this place used one of the crowning achievements of my career to smash the keypad lock your team installed on the server room holding the data we need to prosecute them?”
“Yes.”
“I suggest you get building security to figure this out before I call Hudson and get all of you fired for oh, say, gross incompetency?” he drawls sarcastically.
I frown, thinking of the backup server loss. “Someone has to stay with you.”
“Someone has to come with me because I’m sure as hell not staying here. One more minute in this place and I’ll be arrested for murder.”
A few minutes of him and Carys discussing where he’s going tonight, I declare, “We will figure out who did this, Becks. That’s a promise.”
“It’d better be.” He ducks inside the elevator and heads downstairs.
I bark out to Mitch, “No one leaves until I get Beckett secured.”
“Secured where?” he asks.
I don’t bother mentioning that’s going to be need-to-know until I get ahold of the two people who might lose their minds more than Beckett has. And if I still have a job after being lambasted by Caleb and his partner, Keene Marshall, then they can give me direct orders about how to handle this situation. Because the first order of business is protecting Beckett, not the feelings of my team.
Protecting Beckett is the only thing that matters, and even though I wasn’t here, I still failed abysmally at it.
If I see one more ad pop up after I’ve been having a conversation in the privacy of my home, I swear I’m going to move to a deserted island. Well, let’s get real—we all know I won’t. But I just might use the Wi-Fi at Niemies to write this column. At least I’ll get higher-quality dresses in my feed instead of crap that will fall apart after one use.
—Moore You Want
I was briefed thoroughly about the men I’m going to meet this morning, but still I’m paralyzed by the unexpected one who shoots me a sympathetic smile after he ducks behind a closed door. When the doors snaps shut behind him, I whirl on Carys and gape. “That wasSam Akin.”
Her face lightens for a moment with amusement. “I know. He introduced himself.”
“My junior year in college, I completely crushed him at Defcon. At first, I was in shock. Then I couldn’t stop crying after it hit home,” I whisper. Sam Akin. He has no idea how he changed my life. I’d hoped we’d one day have the opportunity to meet again now that we’re both professionals so I could openly admire his work face-to-face, but today isn’t that day. Hell, if someone succeeds at killing me, I may never have it.
We stand as a ridiculously gorgeous man steps from the same office Sam disappeared into. Following him, Sam hangs up his phone and nudges him. The dark-eyed man’s question immediately alerts me to the fact the outer lobby is bugged—not that I’m surprised. “The question, Ms. Miles, is were you happy about it or upset?”
Even though I know exactly who he is from my briefing, I cut a quick glance to Carys as if I’m clueless to his identity. After she nods, giving me leave to speak freely, I respond openly to the first man as she holds out her hand to the other. “I was stunned. I went back to my dorm room and began writing what became my senior project based on the experience.”
Sam throws his head back and laughs. “Best news I’ve ever heard.”
The dark-haired man chuckles. “If Sam had more time with you here, he’d be dragging you down to his lab. As it is, he’s been all up mine and Keene’s asses for years for IT upgrades we haven’t given him budget for.” Sam immediately begins nodding frantically, lending credence to the other’s words.
I blush. “You flatter me.”
“I didn’t think that was possible with your reputation. Oh, I apologize for not introducing myself. I’m Caleb Lockwood, co-owner of Hudson Investigations.”
Temporarily forgetting my grief and fear, I hold out my hand to shake his. I recall what was said about him.“Caleb is cleared, but not at your level, Q?za. Still, if you interact with either Lockwood or Marshall, they’re completely on our side. Implicitly. You have no reason to question their loyalty.”
Caleb takes it. “Welcome to Hudson. I must say, it’s nice to put a name to the face after the last few years.”
I immediately slip into my CEO guise. “The lawyer who leads your contracts team is a pain in my ass. He’s an arrogant, royal prick. Completely autocratic, demanding—” Then I clamp my lips together, remembering being told Keene Marshall saved his best friend’s life by walking straight into a hail of gunfire.
Caleb, obviously, isn’t that impressed with the long-ago act as he encourages me, “Don’t let that stop you from enumerating Keene’s high points, Leanne. So often, people try to tiptoe around him.”
