I turned automatically. A tall man in black jeans and t-shirt walked casually toward me. “Depends on who’s asking.”
“Brian. My name is Brian. I’m a big fan. Always read your articles.”
Weird. I didn’t usually write the kind of articles that made peoplefans. Maybe after the conservation project story. But now? My main claim to fame was my interview with Isolde’s pack back when they were anonymous.
I didn’t like his vibe, so I took a step back. “Oh, that’s nice of you. Always nice to meet a fan. I’m sorry, I’m afraid I’m running late.”
Taking another step, Brian didn’t stop striding toward me. Too fucking fast. I didn’t like it. I turned and didn’t make it another step before he grabbed my arm and yanked me backward. One hand was over my mouth before I could scream, but I did anyway, hoping someone heard the muffled sound. I kicked at him and dug my nails in, causing him to grunt in pain.
It didn’t make him release me. “Sorry. You’ll have to miss that appointment.”
Pain pricked my neck, and the world went fuzzy and soft. My body limp.
No.
I couldn’t keep my eyes open.
CHAPTER FIFTY-SIX
_____________
AIDEN
Idropped into my chair with a sigh.
My warehouse used to feel like home. Now it felt a bit desolate. Definitely lonely. I wasn’t getting rid of it—I needed the computing power I had in this building, but I didn’t miss the time I spent here.
As soon as I’d dug through all the information, I was going home to Trinity. And the others. I never expected all of us to gel so effortlessly, but I was glad. And grateful we’d found each other. It might have been a near miss.
All my crawlers dumped information onto my screens, gathered both over the last couple of weeks and overnight after I set up more. There were also a couple of things for clients back in Albion, and new clients here. I could work from anywhere, though I’d stopped doing in-person work since moving to Clarity. But today I was focused on my Omega.
There wasstillnothing that told me that anyone had caught on to Trinity and what she was investigating, other than the break-in. For the first time in my life, I couldn’t trust my instincts. Because everything in me wanted Trinity safe, I perceived everything as a potential threat even when there wasn’t one.
I wasn’t objective.
For any other client, I would have told them they were in the clear, but for Trinity it didn’t feel like enough. The break-in still didn’t make sense, but there was nothing else to add to it.
Pulling up all the data that had been compiling, I pored over it. And… nothing. Nothing out of the ordinary. No spike in executive communications after Trinity received the flash drive. No references to ‘reporter’ or her name. No thinly veiled memos or coded threats. If there was anything, it was being done covertly and in person.
Still…
If I was going to settle my mind, I need to go back to the beginning. With Trinity’s former boss, Tracy.
I pulled up the traffic cameras from the accident that had killed her. I’d already seen it the first time I looked into everything. This time I watched more closely. At first glance, it looked like a normal asshole running a red light and t-boning her car in the middle of the intersection. But now that I was staring at it over and over, the angle of the car looked wrong. Not by a lot. Such a small degree that I wondered if I’d watched the video too many times. But still a little off. Was there another traffic camera?
No, but there was a security camera on a nearby ATM that might show me. It took me no more than ten minutes to get into the network, and dread ran down my spine.
The car that hit Tracy hadn’t run a red light. It hadn’t been on the road at all, but in a parking lot exit. I wound the footage back. The car sat there far longer than someone would when running an errand. There were plenty of opportunities to pull out. Other cars got pissed and wentaround. It was only when Tracy’s car was approached that they gunned the engine and drove straight into the intersection.
Fuck.
She was targeted.
I pushed down the immediate guilt and panic. My own arrogance in my skills and being wrapped up in Trinity lowered my defenses. I should have seen this more than a week ago.
But in my sweeps, I truly had found nothing that spoke to this. No signs that it was planned. Not in my net, which was wide. I needed to expand it, but how? What was I missing? How active was the threat?
I closed my eyes and leaned back, letting the past days with Trinity flow past my memory and look for anything that might give me a clue. Which, admittedly, was hard to do without lingering on the sexier parts of those memories.
