“So, the Solveig Consortium.” Ash leaned back and crossed his arms over his chest. “That got anything to do with the guy from the bar?”
“What guy from the bar?” Her cheeks warmed and panic fluttered in her stomach. She’d been sure Taryn wouldn’t say anything. She’dtrustedthe other woman. “Thank you for the update, Mr. Cutter. You should go now.”
“Taryn didn’t say anything, Portia.”
She should reprimand him for using her first name, but she was too embarrassed at how easily he’d read her.
“I live there too, in case you’ve forgotten. Some of the waitstaff are chatty. They mentioned you left with a hot guy, so I found his tab and did a little poking around.”
“Aw, were you worried about me?” She fell back on sarcasm because his concern—and the way it warmed a piece of her lonely heart—was disconcerting.
It was his turn to blush. “Maybe a little,” he said defensively. “It was out of character for you.”
If only he knewhowout of character it had been.
“This guy from the Solveig Consortium, Aleksander Lind. They send him to deal with problems.” He held her gaze. “Are you a problem to them?”
Portia sighed. How much to tell him?
Not all of it, but some.
“He’s here for Dizzie,” she said. “Her grandparents want to meet her.”
“That can’t be all they want.” His tone said he wasn’t buying it.
“No, they want revenge on my father. Since he’s not here, they’ve decided the company is an acceptable substitute.”
“Just the company?” Ash’s voice was hard.
She leaned back in her chair. That was the kind of question Killian would have asked. The absence of his friendship had left a bigger hole in her life than she’d realized, if Ash’s concern was affecting her like this. Maybe they had been on the way to becoming friends.
“Aleks told me that they want me out of the way so Dizzie can take over the company.”
“Aleks?” His brow rose. “No, never mind. We’ll deal with the first-name basis later. He threatened you?”
She shook her head vehemently. “No. It wasn’t a threat. He was warning me that they won’t stop. They physically want to hurt me, but he suggested that maybe they could just discredit me if the information about Vyne got out.”
“That’s seriously fucked up, Portia.” He stared at her and she looked away.
“I know,” she said. Oh, how she knew.
“That’s why you wanted us to dig into Vyne.” Ash pushed off from the desk and crossed to the window they’d used as a screen. He peered at it closely.
“Yes. We need to uncover who’s running the program and shut it down before they can use it against me.” Saying it out loud made the scope of the plan seem much larger.
“Do you want us to dig up dirt on them? Mendez penetrated their system last night. The security isn’t great, so it wasn’t hard.”
“You did what?” Portia jolted out of her chair and joined him at the window.
“Hackers gonna hack, Portia.” He shrugged. “It was untraceable. You asked us to explore their capabilities. Knowing their system’s weaknesses is part of that.”
Her head dropped against the glass. “Leave their system alone for now.” What could she do with access right now? She had no idea.
“You can’t take on the Solveig Consortium alone, Portia.”
She raised her head. Exhaustion washed over her. She was so damn tired of fighting alone. “Who else is there?” She gestured around the office. “Everything ends up here.”
Ash patted her on the shoulder. “You’re not alone,” he said quietly. “Let us know when you figure that out.”
