Page 17 of Power & Punishment

“Let me guess,” I say, rubbing my temples. “She’s one of the rookies that wanted to bring me in for an interview.”

“Bingo,” he says with a smile. He steps into the light, dragging a hand through inky black hair. “I’m not sure what she wanted, but if she approached you at the gala, it wasn’t random.”

His expression tightens.

“Wait. Let me see your phone.”

“Why?” I ask before sliding my hand into my jacket pocket. I find the object quickly and hand it to him.

“She’s smarter than I thought,” he says, blue light glowing against his smooth skin.

“Michael,” I warn, tapping my foot against the hardwood.

“Looks like she cloned your phone,” Michael finishes, tilting the phone toward me.

The hair on the back of my neck stands up.

“Bullshit,” I snap, slowly starting to come back to my senses. “There’s no way she had time to do that.”

Michael hums with a knowing smirk on his face. The bastard loved to prove me wrong. “She would if you were focused on something else.” He sighs, scrolling for a second and turning the screen again. A mirrored interface pops up displaying my contacts, my encryption app, timestamps from tonight. But not copied. Synced.

“She must’ve had some sort of RFID device. It was a clean transfer. Probably took less than five seconds.”

I let out a weak, humorless laugh. “So, you’re saying this detective seduced me and staged a fake cheating incident with her date so she could steal my data?”

“Fake cheating incident?” he questions, raising his brows while handing my phone back to me.

I ignore him, running my hands through my hair and giving myself time to think.

To breathe.

To rein in the urge to track her down and show her the consequences of messing with me.

“Fuck,” I seethe out loud. Then without another thought, I hurl my fist into the brick wall of my apartment.

It’s quick. Out of nowhere.

I never let myself react like that.

But dammit if the sting of the brick wall doesn’t feel good.

“How much damage can she do with what she found?”

Michael’s eyes widen, but he quickly hides his reaction and clears his throat. “It’s hard to say. But if she is smart, she’ll pull your call logs and find some way to connect you to Vince Russo. The thing is how she plans to use it. What she did tonight could get her into a lot of trouble. No judge is going to accept dirty evidence.”

My pulse spikes and the same excitement from earlier comes back in full force. “That’s right,” I smile. “If her boss finds out what she was up to tonight, she’ll lose her job and maybe even worse.”

Michael takes a step back and studies me closely. “What would you do with that kind of leverage?”

“Insurance,” I explain, keeping my intentions vague until I can wrap my head around it more. “Adrian has the police in his pocket; why shouldn’t I?” Mia was going to regret putting herself in my orbit.

Michael shoves his hands into his pockets and exhales. “You can’t threaten a detective.”

“Please, Michael. You should know me better by now.” I explain with a calm intensity. “I’m not going to threaten her. I’m going to offer her a choice.”

My lips curl tightly as I think about her mindset right now. She probably thinks she’s in the clear, but she has no clue what she’s up against.

She didn’t just steal from me. She announced herself.