Page 78 of Roots of the Wicked

Chapter Thirty-Two

Jax

A few hours later, TK and I were still hard at work. The asshole who sent those pictures was a slippery bastard who had taken every precaution to prevent being caught. If there was one thing I was sure of, if I couldn’t figure this out, my father or TK would.

“Hello,” I answered when I saw it was Chase. “Jax, something bizarre is happening to my laptop,” he shouted into the phone, his voice troubled and laced with uncertainty.

“Tell me what you see.” I turned my gaze, meeting TK’s.

“It’s blinking and flashing like a strobe light, and there’s a big black blinking Pac-Man eating up my file folders.”

“What the hell!? I set up extra protections so your laptop wouldn’t be affected.” There was no way I’d left a trail to his VPN.

“It’s not the laptop you used at my house acting up. I’m in my office at Swift Capital.”

“Fuck!” I yelled. “How could I have fucked up your work laptop?” I questioned myself. A hundred different scenarios popped off like camera flashes in my head.

TK’s probing gaze landed on me. He didn’t speak a word, but I knew what he was thinking, the realization socking me in the center of my forehead.

The responsible for Swift Capital’s Network fell on me. The virus had my signature, my coding, therefore the chances of it finding its way into the network I had help set up was possible. If Chase’s work laptop was being affected by the virus I had sent out, it meant he was directly connected to the person who had stalked and leaked our personal business to the world.

Chase shouted into the phone.

“Jax. What’s happening? You’re going to have to explain this to me.” TK’s voice was pinging my ear at the same time as Chase was asking for an explanation.

“Jax, don’t be an idiot. The rich asshole is the one who those files came from. His laptop’s probably been off. He hired his people to record you. The people he claims are working to help you are probably the ones running interference to keep us from discovering their cover-up. He wants to destroy your name and livelihood, so you can be dependent on him for help.”

Chase’s voice came through so loud, I may as well have had a bullhorn in my hand.

“Jax, what the hell is going on? Are you listening to me?”

To shut TK the hell up, I flashed him my palm. In the calmest voice I could muster, I spoke to Chase. “I’m on my way to your office. Power off your laptop, and I’ll be there in about fifteen minutes.”

“Let me come with you, J,” TK offered.

“Thanks, but no. I don’t need you two biting each other’s heads off, while I sort out what’s going on.”

He attempted to utter more, but I held my hand up and shook my head at him.

“Please, let me handle this,” I stated, my tone firm enough to quiet the words scratching to spill out of him.

He gritted his teeth and coiled with irritation.

“If you leave before I return, lock the door from the inside and pull it close,” I called over my shoulder before I snatched my purse and slipped on my shoes.

“Okay, I got you.” I think his smile grew at the idea of me leaving him alone in my apartment.

***

By the time I arrived at Chase’s office he was pacing the floor with his fists clenched tight at his sides. When his gaze found mine, relief swept away some of the stress he carried.

“Thank God,” he stated. Not even his stress had stopped him from placing a sweet kiss on my lips. I glanced around to make sure none of his staff had witnessed the intimate gesture.

A virus, set off by me, may have destroyed his work and business dealings, but he had acknowledged me with a kiss. I sat at his desk and powered up his laptop. As he’d described, the black Pac-Man was still devouring his files.

The evidence on Chase’s computer was telling a story I didn’t want to believe. Chase couldn’t have set up the drone. He wouldn’t have done something like that to me on purpose, would he? I had open doors for him that I hadn’t for any other man. I had given him my trust.

The diagnostics I was running would tell me if his computer had been tampered with, or remotely accessed. Disappointment started to rush through me when my findings didn’t net the results I prayed for.

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