Kennedy repeated her mother’s motion, then pressed her own pinkie to the screen. “I love you, too.” She sniffed, and then forced a smile. “Maybe we can read together tomorrow.”
“It’s a date.”
At that moment, Claire walked down the stairs, extending her hand to Kennedy. “Come on, sweetie. Bedtime.” She leaned over the screen for a moment. “Hi, Caitlin, I’m Claire. I’m so grateful you’re safe. We’ll bring you home.”
Caitlin blinked back her tears. “Thank you, Claire.” A hint of a smile. “It will be great to get to know the woman who stole Ryan’s heart.”
Smiling back, Claire gripped Kennedy’s hand and led her out the door of the lair and to the stairs.
She shut the door behind them.
Caitlin was quiet as Ryan seated himself behind the computer. Still, the tears continued to slide down her cheeks.
“Shane’s gone, Ryan,” she whispered, her bravado gone, her shoulders shaking as she wept. “We’ll never have him back again.”
Ryan gave a hard swallow, knowing now was the time for him to be strong.
“I know, Caity,” he said with more than a touch of emotion. “There are no words?—”
“They don’t exist. So let’s not even try to find them,” she interrupted him, dashing the tears off her cheeks.
Ryan’s jaw tightened. “We’re going to get the bastards who did this. I swear. But I’m going to need your help. Whatever Shane uncovered, whether it involved the Bureau or the NYPD, whoever?—”
“It wasn’t the Bureau or the NYPD,” Caitlin interrupted. “It was Scott Security. And Shane wasn’t the target. I was.”
22
Ryan’s jaw dropped. A long moment of silence followed Caitlin’s reveal.
When he spoke, his tone was incredulous. “You?” he managed.
Caitlin nodded. “Yes. My employer, not Shane’s. I stumbled into hell, and I couldn’t escape. Shane was investigating for me. For our family. Because the danger spread to all of us. He was trying to protect us. And it got him killed.” This time, she fought back her tears, knowing that the only way to help Ryan was to provide him with as many facts as she had—and she had plenty.
Ryan was still recovering from the shock, and his mind was racing. Caitlin was an intelligence analyst at Scott Security, Inc. Ryan didn’t know a lot about the company or its CEO, Charles Scott. He knew that they were an international company based in White Plains, New York, and that the clients they safeguarded were high-profile—the rich, famous, and powerful, from Hollywood celebrities to business moguls. Their motto was: We protect our clients and what’s important to them.
The company operated under the radar, but as far as Ryan knew, there’d never been any lawsuits associated with it. Just a stellar reputation and quiet, privileged clients. He wasn’t naïve; he was sure payoffs and confidentiality agreements were the tools Scott Security deployed with a vengeance to make bad situations disappear without a trace. But no scandals involving their clients had made their way into the media. Ryan did vaguely remember that, at one time, Emma’s recording idol, Rebecca Merland, had been followed and threatened by a stalker, and law enforcement had come up empty. Scott Security had stepped in, ferreted out the offender, and made sure the guy was found guilty and had to endure a disproportionately punitive jail sentence. Scott Security had resources and connections at their beck and call.
Were they slimy? Most likely. Companies like Scott didn’t keep their hands squeaky clean. But slimy and illegal were two different things. How well Ryan knew that after his years working for FI. And like FI, Scott Security’s success rate was sky-high and they were in high demand. But in Scott Security’s case—had they crossed the line for criminal reasons?
Ryan was about to find out.
“Talk to me about the company,” he instructed Caitlin. “I remember the Rebecca Merland stalker. Oh, and that supermodel, Alison Madding, whose über-valuable blue-ribbon-winning Brussels Griffon was kidnapped while she was walking him on Rodeo Drive. Scott Security recovered the dog when the Beverley Hills Police Department came up empty-handed. That rescue was splashed all over the news.”
Caitlin gave a shaky nod. “The rescue was public but the investigation was not. Scott was careful to always keep those under wraps.”
“That’s not a surprise. Did you have a role in that investigation?”
“Yes, just as I did in many other projects. My job was to analyze all aspects of Alison’s life, video appearances, video surveillance, alarm system data, GPS car tracking, social media accounts, press releases, public media—every potential vulnerability in her life. That was typical of what my role at Scott Security entailed.”
Ryan was, once again, reminded of the breadth of Caitlin’s abilities. “And in doing your job, you tripped on something you weren’t supposed to find?”
“Not then. But recently, yes.”
“How?”
Caitlin sucked in her breath. “On my own time, I developed a new security operations screening process—an untried approach to penetration testing. It’s good, really good. So I decided to test it out on Scott itself, to see if the company systems were vulnerable. Obviously, I used an external network to probe the security systems.”
“That makes sense. Just like a real hacker would.”
