My throat clogs at his words.
“I love you, Pen. I’m glad you’re here with me. With us.”
I raise my hand and cup his cheek, the butterflies finally settling.
“I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else. I love you, too. I have for longer than I can remember. We can get through this together. But Elijah, you’re shutting me out, and that’s not something I can cope with.”
“I’m trying, but old habits die hard. I want to be better. I like who I am around you. I’m looking at making changes. Please don’t give up on me.”
“Never, if that’s what you truly want. But you need to be honest.”
“I’ll try my best. And when I’m reverting back, I give you full permission to kick my sorry ass from here to kingdom come.”
I chuckle until his lips cover mine, his tongue teasing the seam. My hands snake up around his neck, pulling him closer.
We both groan as my phone rings.
Our foreheads touch again before I pull away, instantly missing the warmth of his embrace.
“Pen,” I say.
“Is Elijah with you?”
“Kat,” I say, flicking the phone away from my ear and putting her on speaker. “I’ve put you on speaker. What’s going on?”
“Elijah, why the hell haven’t you been answering your phone?” Kat seethes down the phone.
“It’s in the bedroom. What’s up?”
“We have an incident.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, someone has hacked into the hotel’s systems and has basically blown up my booking system, ordering everything.”
“That’s not possible. The firewall is secure.” Elijah shoots me a look, and I shrug, confused, but I decide to step in. The siblings don’t need to be arguing. This is about damage control.
“What do you know, Kat?” I say, holding up my hand when Elijah goes to open his mouth.
“I have the perpetrator on camera. One of the cleaning staff logged on to the hotel system using one of our terminals.”
“Do you have him in custody?”
“No. We have a good picture. His credentials are fake.”
Elijah blanches. His team run background checks on all the family’s employees.
“Send the picture across. I’ll see what our facial recognition software can find.”
“Already done.”
“Are you reinstalling the backups?”
“Yes. Thank goodness it’s only affected this hotel as far as I’m aware. We’re going to have to try to follow a paper, email trail, and hope we don’t miss anything or anyone.”
“I’ll head over to your office and see what I can salvage. Leave Elijah with the investigative stuff.”
“Thanks Pen. I’ll tell the guys to expect you.”
