“I do, sir.” He smiled at her.
“I’ll have the facilities team get on fixing those lights right away.” Doug moved to the door and stopped with his hand on the jamb. “Charlotte, you let me know if you need anything.”
“Thank you … for everything, Doug.” There was an odd sense of finality to her words.
“You bet.” He tapped the doorframe twice and walked away.
Her boss was a genuinely nice man with a family and a wife he seemed to dote on. He treated his employees with respect and cared about each and every one of them.
Charlottereallyhoped he wasn’t involved in this mess.
She closed her door, locked it, and tugged her laptop from her bag before hurrying over to sit behind her desk.
Hawk held his finger to his lips so she wouldn’t say anything that might be overheard, grabbed a piece of paper off her desk, and scribbled a note.
Scanning for bugs. Phone will beep if I find one.
He extended his arm to sweep the phone up and down, all around her desk, her laptop, external monitor, telephone. No beep.He moved over to the file cabinet near the window and scanned the file organizer on top, then ran it over her little Bluetooth speaker, picked it up, turned it over and checked the bottom, the charging cable. Still, nothing.
Remy tracked his every move with his eyes.
Hawk’s gaze lifted to the ceiling and stopped. He picked up a chair, set it under the fire sprinkler, then stepped up onto it. He held the phone up close to it, and there was a longbeeeep.
They looked at each other.
She’d known it was a possibility, but Charlotte felt violated and sick to her stomach at the idea of people eavesdropping on her.
He tucked his cell phone in his pocket and pointed at the pencil cup on her desk. He made a scribbling motion in the air, and she handed him a pencil.
Hawk reached up and wedged the tip of the pencil beneath the edge of something and popped it loose. A black device about the size of a dime dropped to the carpet near Charlotte’s feet.
Hard to believe something so tiny could be used for something so awful.
Hawk stepped off the chair, squatted down, and frowned as he examined the small device. He popped a tissue from the box on her desk and spread it out next to the electronic bug.
Charlotte realized what he was going to do, so she slid her drawer open and shuffled through it until she found small needle-nose pliers. Peeking out from the back of the drawer, she spotted a small zip-style bag that once contained a charging cord.
She tapped him on the shoulder to get his attention and held out the pliers and the small bag.
He smiled and accepted them both, then carefully picked up the flat, circular device and set it on the center of the tissue. After examining it a bit longer, he took a picture of it, then flipped it over, poked the sharp point of the pencil into a small hole, and wrapped the bug up in the tissue.
“Okay, we’re clear.” Hawk stood and set the chair back in front of her desk. “Let’s get this done and get the hell out of here.”
“Okay, I’ll get my laptop set up.” She lifted the lid on her corporate laptop. “Sammy said to connect it directly to the internal system, right?”
“Yeah. Let me see if she’s available to walk you through this.” He lifted a hip, pulled his phone from his back pocket, and tapped the screen. “Now that we’re free to talk, I’ll put her on speaker.”
While he waited for her to answer, Charlotte plugged her laptop into the blue cord that was attached to a wall outlet and powered it on.
“Hey, Hawk.” Sammy’s voice had a cheerful lilt. “What can I do for you?”
“We’re at Charlotte’s office, and I’ve got you on speakerphone.” He set the phone on the desk. “Is now a good time to walk her through accessing the system files?”
“Hey, Charlotte,” she said.
“Hi.” Charlotte hoped she’d get to meet Sammy at some point.
“Actually, it’s a perfect time.” Sammy continued, “The situation we were dealing with has abated, and aside from a few minor cuts, scrapes, and colorful bruises, the team is all good. And, bonus, they were able to get all of the victims out.”
