“It’s not ridiculous, Kathleen. Your brother would kill me if anything happens to you. As it is, he’s not going to be pleased.”
“Well, some jerk breaking into my room sure as hell wasn’t your fault,” she said.
“No. But I never should have let you come upstairs by yourself.” He didn’t mention that she only accomplished that by sneaking past him.
“Look, it’s not up to you to ‘let’ me do anything. I’m not a small child. I can do what I want. How were we supposed to know someone was here breaking in?”
Enzo said nothing to that, because it hadn’t been random. If he’d known the full scoop, he would have known exactly what they were going to do.
Kathleen frowned. “Shit. I should have known… I just didn’t put it together.”
“I want you to stay here. Please. And eat something. And then I’ll come back with a full report on what exactly is going on. It would be wise for you to call your brother, because God knows the hotel management is going to feel it’s necessary to call him as well. They are going to want to cover their asses with him.”
“Fuck,” Kathleen muttered, then blew out a breath as her shoulders slumped. “I’ll call him after I eat.”
“Great,” Enzo said with a low chuckle. “Anything to put that task off.”
She shook her head. “You know what my brother’s like.”
“Yes, I do. And he loves you very much. But yes, after you eat will be sufficient.” He walked across the room, picked up the phone, and dialed the front desk. He explained who he was, what he wanted, and told them he’d be down in two minutes. Then he hung up.
“Okay, Kathleen, we’re all set. There’s a guard already outside your door, apparently. I’m going to head down now and check everything out. I’ll get back to you as soon as I have a handle on what’s going on.”
She nodded, but he had to admit she looked sad and miserable sitting there. And not just a little bit scared. It tugged at his chest, hard, and his protective instincts surged in massive waves. He’d promised Drake he’d look after his sister, and instead, she’d been attacked again. He wasn’t doing a very good job. Maybe retirement was catching up with him.
He nodded at her and then turned, heading out and into the elevator. As the doors closed, he made himself a promise; he’d be better at this. Better at looking after Kathleen. Because she deserved it. He knew her backstory, and it wasn’t a good one. Then he turned his mind to what was going on now.
The statue. That god-awful, ugly thing. He had no idea why anyone would think it was worth money, but clearly, it was worth something to someone. The question was what to do about it now. The elevator doors opened, and he crossed the lobby, heading straight to the desk where the head of security met him.
“Come. I will show you.”
They went behind the desk and down a hidden hallway. Cavalli opened the door and ushered him in.
The room was filled with a wall of monitors, each flicking through different camera shots around the hotel. Two men sat before the monitors, working and Cavalli told them to bring up the relevant footage.
Enzo watched as they pulled it up, and the glaring issue struck him immediately.
“You were hacked,” he said flatly.
Cavalli nodded grimly. “Yes. When we first glanced through it, we didn’t realize, but yes, we were hacked.”
“Drake’s not gonna like this.”
“No,” Cavalli agreed grimly. “Mr. Drake will not be pleased.”
“Do you know how it happened?”
“Uh… sort of.” Cavalli gave a small shrug. “We are currently upgrading some of the systems, and we think that somehow, they accessed the company that’s doing the upgrades and gained access that way.”
Enzo cocked an eyebrow. He knew Drake probably hired the best, and the chances of Cavalli’s story being true were slim. The man was trying to limit his culpability, something Jameson Drake would not appreciate. His old friend hated anyone passing the buck. Still, Cavalli had done all the right things so far, so Enzo decided to throw him a bone.
“My best advice? Find out the truth of what happened and be honest with Drake. Try to fudge anything, and he’ll know. And he will not be pleased.”
Cavalli met his gaze and gave a single, sharp nod. He’d gotten the message.
“The other option,” Enzo added, “is someone here either gave them access to the system remotely or let them in physically.”
Cavalli nodded. “I don’t think it was remote. The systems we have in place here would make that exceedingly difficult. Itwould take some planning. Signora Drake only just arrived, and her visit was a last-minute thing. There was no way they could have known she would be here. She explained that she changed her destination once she was already on the tarmac. There simply wasn’t enough time.”
