I smiled up at him. “Yes, I’m fine. Just wasn’t expecting to get attacked with love this morning.”
Kade motioned for me to sit. As I walked over to the chair, I gave Lucy a scratch behind the ear to let her know I was okay.
“So, what’s up?” I placed my hands on my lap.
Kade oozed dominance in his office chair across from me. My face heated at the memories of the night before. He gave me a knowing smirk before speaking.
“Well, Machine and I need your help researching some things for Ricci Enterprises.”
My heart skipped a beat. This was why I was here. “No problem, what can I help with?”
“There has been some interference with Ricci’s security system and we need you to help us uncover who’s doing it. We have reason to believe that Phantom is responsible for said interference. We need your help identifying Phantom.”
Fuck! This couldn’t be happening.
“No problem!” I gave a reassuring smile, covering the sheer panic I felt inside.
THIRTY-FOUR
KADE
Ricci had been blowing up my phone all morning informing me that information on his laptop had been leaked to the Sinaloa’s with Phantom’s trademark signature—a fucking grim reaper emoji. The emoji trend was something I’d started years ago by posting a ghost emoji anytime I came across another hacker.
Phantom had added to the trend with his own, as had others.
Phantom had also been dormant for almost six months. Why was he appearing now? What was the purpose of leaking any information? Was it in fact Phantom? Too many questions invaded my brain. I handed Evelyn a thumb drive with all of the information that I had.
“I need you to cross-reference the files on this drive to determine if the signature is in fact Phantom’s.”
She took the drive and gave me a curious expression. “If it does belong to this Phantom person, what then?”
Machine rubbed a hand down his face. He was exhausted, like I was, about everything regarding Ricci. “Some secured information has beenleaked to an ah… competitor and we need to find out if Phantom is responsible for the leak or if it is someone else trying to cover their tracks.”
I nearly choked on my own spit at Machine’s word choice.
Evelyn nodded in understanding. I heard the vibrating rings of her cell phone.
“Do you want to grab that?” I tipped my chin up at the lit-up screen on the desk.
She shook her head. “No, it's fine.” Standing up from her chair, she gave me a smile before turning around. Before she reached the office door, I rounded the desk and pulled her into my arms. Tension rolled off of her. Not wanting to get into it in front of Machine, I planted a kiss on her lips.
“Dinner? Your place?” I whispered.
She nodded and gave me one more peck on the lips.
When the door closed behind her, I looked over at Machine. Lucy was now lying on top of him with her nose nearly touching his. I scrubbed a hand down my face. I was tired of all the drama with Ricci. So far, all of our dealings had been going smoothly. No other shipments had been tampered with but I was waiting for the other shoe to drop, and I had a feeling it would be soon.
THIRTY-FIVE
EVELYN
I spent the rest of the workday trying not to panic. I hadn’t infiltrated any information from Ricci for a while. When I began sifting through the files and codes Kade had provided, I noticed that whoever was tampering with the files was sloppy.
I didn’t know if I should be insulted or not because none of this seemed like my work, aside from the signature. The culprit was good at that part at least. I rubbed my temples as I shut down my computer, not sure what to think. Maybe Badger would have some ideas since she had been tailing Ricci.
When I grabbed my phone, I realized I had silenced the ringer. I had four missed calls from the facility my mother was at and two text messages.
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