“Then what is?” Lazaro asked.
Trygg didn’t answer. He was completely engrossed in his work now, his dark eyes laser-focused on the screen as he tapped out a few more commands. “There’s a hidden file here. I can feel it.”
“You canfeelit?” Sia stared at the side of his rugged face, his scar gleaming in the light of the display. “What is that, a Breed thing?”
He gave her an askance look. “It’s my thing.”
“We’ve all got our unique talents,” Savage interjected. “My man Trygg here has a special connection to technological devices. If he can’t romance them with his fingers on the keyboard, he can undress them with his mind. Kind of makes up for his lack of finesse when it comes to people.”
Savage winked at her as he said it, which made Sia’s face flush with a fresh wave of embarrassment. Had Trygg told his friend about what they’d done last night? She lifted her chin as if she didn’t care one way or the other, but inside she was dying.
“What kind of hidden file do you think we’ve got here?” Lazaro asked, leaning one hand on the desk beside Trygg to have a closer look.
“Not sure yet,” he murmured. “Probably something Tiaggi didn’t want Santino to know he had even if someone did find the card. But I’ve got a way around that.”
Trygg accessed a program that split the screen. On one side was the list of six files. On the other was a working string of code that seemed to be connecting to the data on the card, searching for fissures in the encryption. Finally a window popped up, but instead of opening, it displayed a denied access error and password prompt.
“Another firewall,” Sia muttered, losing patience. It wasn’t only that she wanted the data as badly as any of the warriors in the room with her, it was the fact that being this close to Trygg was wreaking havoc on her senses. Her frustration came out of her in an exhaled huff. “I thought you said you could crack it.”
“I have.” He stopped tapping on the keyboard and closed his eyes for a moment, his face held in utter concentration. A moment later, the window disappeared and a file opened. Strings of multi-digit numbers filled the screen.
Sia peered at them, trying to find some logic in the sequences. “What are those?”
Trygg gave her a grim smile as they kept scrolling, page after page after page. “I’m guessing by the looks of them, it’s a list of Swiss bank accounts.”
“Holy shit,” Savage hissed. “If that’s true, we could be looking at potentially accessing billions of dollars’ worth of Santino’s assets. If we play our cards right, we could have his accounts drained in hours.”
“True,” Lazaro said. “And that is good news. But a broke Santino isn’t nearly as good as a dead Santino.”
Trygg was still skimming the list when he paused his cursor over one set of numbers with degree marks beside them.
“What’s wrong?” Sia asked, leaning in to read them.
“This set of numbers is different. They aren’t account numbers. They’re coordinates, followed by what looks like a date and a time.”
He opened a new window and typed one set of coordinates into a search engine. A second later, a map of southern Italy filled the screen with a pin right over the Sicilian port city of Trapani.
“These are delivery schedules,” he murmured.
“Two nights from now,” she replied breathlessly, catching on to the number sequence and seeing the date now, her body humming with energy and adrenaline. They were so close to being able to take that bastard down now, she could taste it.
Savage grinned. “Whatever Santino is up to with these messages, looks like it’s going to happen in Trapani.”
Lazaro clapped Trygg on the shoulder. “Knew I could count on you. I need to call Lucan and let him know what we’ve uncovered.”
The commander walked into the hallway, his phone already held at his ear. Savage left the room without any excuse at all, leaving Sia and Trygg alone once more.
“Admit it,” he said after a moment, swiveling around in his chair. “You’re impressed.”
She scoffed. “Just because you have some obvious skill with the rather rudimentary technology of this world? Hardly.”
He shrugged. “Well, you impress me, Sia. Looking for the data card in the baby blanket was… That was really smart. We’d have nothing right now if you hadn’t put that together. Thank you.”
She hadn’t expected his praise, nor his gratitude. The fact that he offered it left her confused and unsteady. She’d come here fueled on anger and a bruised sense of pride. More than that, she’d gone to Lazaro Archer with a bitter, wounded heart. Now, Trygg was acting as if they were still a team—albeit an unwilling one.
She couldn’t let herself fall for it so easily. Hadn’t she learned a thing after Elyon and the other men who had walked all over her to get what they wanted?
Now, it was her turn to win something just for her. Something she wanted.
