She chewed her lip, her mind racing. He had a point. The dual attack didn’t make strategic sense unless…
“Information,” she said suddenly. “They’re not after money. They’re after data.”
“What kind of data?”
“I don’t know yet. But TalkToMe has millions of user accounts. And the pack’s financial records would contain information about every member—names, addresses, account numbers.” Her blood chilled. “Someone could be building a dossier on both the pack and everyone connected to TalkToMe.”
“Who would want that?”
“That’s what I need to find out.”
They drove in tense silence for several minutes, the lights of the city beginning to glow on the horizon. Harper’s phone buzzed with increasingly urgent messages from the security team. The attack was intensifying.
“Harper.” His voice cut through her spiraling thoughts. “You’re drifting.”
She blinked, realizing she’d been staring at her phone without actually reading it. “Sorry. I’m just…”
“Worried. I know.” His hand found her thigh, warm and grounding. “But you’re not alone in this. Whatever we find, whoever’s behind this, we deal with it together. Understood?”
She covered his hand with hers. “Understood.”
“And when this is over—” His grip tightened possessively. “You and I have unfinished business.”
The city lights grew brighter as they descended from the mountain, and she felt the familiar pull of her work calling to her. But for the first time, she also felt something else—the pull of the man beside her, the bond they’d begun to forge, the promise of something that mattered more than any code or crisis.
She squeezed his hand.
“We have all the time in the world for that.”
“No.” His eyes flicked to her, golden fire in their depths. “We have forever. That’s what being my mate means.”
The TalkToMe building came into view, its windows blazing with light despite the late hour. Security guards waited at the entrance, and she could see Derek pacing inside the glass lobby.
Adrian pulled up to the entrance but didn’t immediately unlock the doors.
“Remember what I said.”
“Don’t disappear into my head.”
“And?”
“Let you stand with me.”
“And?”
She leaned over to kiss him, soft and quick. “There’s unfinished business waiting for us.”
His smile was slow and satisfied. “Good girl.”
The endearment sent heat rushing to her cheeks, but she didn’t have time to examine why. Derek was already striding towards the truck, his face grim.
She opened the door, ready to face whatever digital storm awaited her inside, but for the first time in her life, she wasn’t facing it alone.
Chapter Nineteen
Harper’s fingers flew across the keyboard with the precision of a concert pianist, her face illuminated by the glow of multiple monitors. Adrian stood in the doorway of the operations center, arms crossed, watching his mate command a room full of panicked technicians like she’d been born to do it.
“Reroute the traffic through the secondary clusters. Now. And someone get me a trace on those IP addresses—I don’t care if they’re spoofed, there’s always a breadcrumb.”
