“Found something!” Booker called. “Meet me in Hatch’s office.”
“Deep breaths.” I stroked his cheek. “We’ll finish this later.”
He nodded, closing his eyes and breathing slow and steady. “Jesus, you make me rock hard.”
“I know. That’s my job.” I smiled. “Well, when I’m not removing spleens.”
He kissed me gently, then once more before walking out the door.
* * *
Cash
I walked into Dad’s office and found him sitting behind his laptop, furiously typing away. He waved me over and I huddled behind him as he entered in a series of numbers and code. It was all Greek to me, but Dad’s fingers flew over the keyboard as he attempted to gain access to a secured server or something or other. “Where’s Hatch?” I asked.
“Making some calls.”
“What’s going on?” I asked.
“I’m trying to hack into the Spiders’ system,” Dad said. “The problem is Rail’s got safeguards so what I thought I found was a ruse. Right now, I’m trying not to set off his alarms.”
“I thought you could get around anything,” I taunted.
“I can, but I don’t want him to know I’m looking,” Dad said. “He’s got booby traps everywhere.”
“Does it matter if he knows?”
“Yeah, bud, it matters. We don’t want them to know we know anything.” He swore. “What I need is Claude.”
“Who the fuck’s Claude?”
“Not who, what. It’s an Invisible Man program Ducky wrote that will allow me to snoop around undetected. She named it after Claude Rains, the actor who played the part in the original show back in the 1930s,” he explained. “You know how much she loves old movies,” he said, just as my mother walked in, Teagan hot on her heels.
“What the hell is this business about someone fucking with Teagan’s car?” Mom demanded.
“Jesus, fuck,” Dad hissed.
“Sorry,” Teagan rushed out.
“Don’t apologize, honey, these men know exactly how difficult it is to keep anything from me.”
“Dani, you need to stay out of this,” Dad said.
“Like you wanted me to stay out of the bullshit with Lucian Harwell?”
“Danielle, leave it alone,” Dad growled.
“What’s goin’ on?” I demanded.
“Who’s Lucian Harwell?” Teagan asked.
“He’s the guy who murdered Chelsea,” I said.
“You both need to leave it the fuck alone,” Dad said.
“Well, I’m sure as hell not leaving anything the fuck alone.” I scowled. “But why does Mom need to?”
“I need to grab a different laptop,” Dad said, rising to his feet. “It’s got Ducky’s program on it.” He walked around his desk and made his way to my mom, sliding an arm around her waist. “You need to drop this, Dani. Seriously.”
