“Did she hurt him?” Trent asks again.
Kelsey sighs. “He’s sporting a new haircut—which honestly looked surprisingly good—and will likely have nightmares for the rest of his life after his stalker crawled through the vents to get a few pieces of hairfor her fucking love-potion, but yeah, mostly fine. At least he talked her out of needing pubes.”
Trent’s eyes widen. “The vents? She went off script.”
“No way,” I say, unable to keep the sarcasm from my voice. “The woman with significant mental health issues and an imaginary friend didn’t follow your plan? How strange.”
“She was just supposed to take down a couple of cameras. Just continue what I did with the earpieces…I mean, what happened with the earpieces. Damn it. It was just supposed to be little things like the earpieces.”
“Someone almost broke into his dressing room when the earpieces were down!” Kelsey says, venom dripping from her voice.
Trent looks at the ceiling. “Yeah, I may have underestimated that woman. She was very intoxicated, and I may have casually given her a badge and told her when it would be a good time to try to get backstage, but I swore her to secrecy. She seemed harmless. Who knew she came so well prepared?”
Kelsey’s face is a mask of disbelief at his statement, but she quickly focuses her attention.
“And then, after that was so successful, you decided to find Bennie and pay her to upskill your sabotage?” Kelsey asks. “How did you even know she could hack like that? It’s not in any of the information we had on her.”
“I didn’t know. I was in San Francisco for a meeting, trying to get a loan, and when I saw a shelter, it hit me—I could use Bennie to make sure I won the contract. She was the reason the last team lost their contract with him. It seemed like an easy solution. But I was just goingto fly her out here, put her in a wig, and help sneak her backstage after the show. Then just blame Kelsey’s team loudly as one last failure to make sure Jaxon left the tour with a clear understanding that we are the team he needed. Then once we landed Jaxon, we’d get the contracts for the Holton tour and with the comedian. I’d have enough money to at least keep up with all my payments.” Trent massages his eyes with his hands. “When I talked to her, she offered her hacking abilities up without me even asking. I suggested she do a couple of trial runs, telling her she needed to test your systems to make sure Jaxon was safe.”
“So how did she end up giving Jaxon a haircut in his dressing room today?”
“I don’t know. She hasn’t responded to my messages in a few days. I figured she just disappeared.”
“How are you such an idiot?” Kelsey asks, her hands on her hips as she stares at Trent with a look of disgust on her face.
“I don’t fucking know,” he admits, his posture one of defeat. “It just…spiraled. It’s not like I masterminded some evil plan. Things just kept…happening. I was in the supply closet and accidentally spilled my drink next to the box with the earpieces. And I just thought…but what if I spilledon them? And then Kelsey’s team looked bad, so I thought, why not do it again?”
The room is silent as Kelsey and I absorb his confession.
“What are you going to do?” Trent asks. “If you tell Jaxon, Mitchell Security will be ruined. I’ll be ruined.” He looks at Kelsey. “Carter will be ruined too.”
Kelsey’s eyes meet mine, and I can see the war taking place inside her.
Luckily, I don’t have the same issue. I know exactly what I need to do.
Taking out my phone, my fingers fly furiously over the screen as I do what needs to be done.
“What are you doing?” Trent asks, his tone curious.
I hold up a finger, asking for a second, and smirk as Kelsey raises her eyebrow.
“Almost done,” I say, typing out the last few words.
“What are you doing?” Trent asks again. This time, his tone has changed from curiosity to confusion.
“Check your email.”
Both Kelsey and Trent pull out their phones, and Kelsey audibly sucks in a breath as she reads.
“Are you fucking kidding, Carter?” Trent growls. “You just destroyed our business!”
“Ididn’t destroy it. Didn’t you read the emailyousent out to our employees and current contracts—the one fromyouremail?Youdestroyed the business.Youput our client at risk.Youput our entire team at risk.Youdid this. Notme.”
“That’s a risky move,” Kelsey says, her voice softer than normal.
It pulls me up short. Shit. It was risky. And impulsive. And I’m never impulsive. I’m just so frustrated and angry at Trent for putting Jaxon and our team in danger. For putting Kelsey in a spot where shehad to choose between what was right and what would protect me, damn it.
I didn’t think about it. I just did what needed to be done to ensure she was going to be okay. To make sure she didn’t have to sacrifice her principles, her morals, to protect me.
