And maybe I’m tired of pretending I’m not affected.
When the pizza’s half gone and my second glass is dangerously low, I finally say it, “Will you tell me everything you know about all this?”
He sits back, jaw tightening, then leans in and gives it to me.
All of it.No sugarcoating.
Marco got involved as a freelance programmer and used his expertise to find a backdoor into a secure server for some German outfit, aHammerfall Technologies, that wasn’t supposed to exist.
And Marco, being Marco, saw an opportunity to skim access keys—encrypted credentials that let people bypass high-level firewalls.
Really, he saw dollar signs.And like the weasel he is, he sold his ill-gotten wares to some rival of thatHammerfall Technologies.
He got paid.
A lot.
But he didn’t deliver them all.
And now, he disappeared.
And worse, the people he stole from and the people he crossed both thinkIhave the rest.
I blink, stunned.
“That’s insane.”
“I just learned about the buyers while we were at the office.Both parties think Marco sent everything to you to hold on to.Or, at the very least, that you can lead them to him.”
“I haven’t spoken to him in months.Maybe a year.The last time I saw him was at our parents’ funeral.And the last time he called was to ask me for money.I sent him two hundred dollars.”
“I know,” Theo says.“We’ve been tracking his comms.”
I pause mid-bite.“So, you’ve been watchingmethis whole time?”
“No.Not until you filed that complaint with the Verona PD.And Angel, we’re notwatching.We’re protecting.”
My eyes narrow.
“Is that what you call not telling me the truth?”
He winces.
“Okay, I deserve that.”
“You do.”
Another beat.
“But I also mean it when I say this isn’t just a job to me, Angel.Not anymore.”
My breath catches.
Because he’s looking at me again—really looking.
Like I’m not just some assignment or collateral damage in Marco’s idiocy.
Like he sees something in me.
