Page 53 of Carnal Risk

“Close your ears, Lars.”

“Just sayin’. She can hack just about anything. She could have taken the files without you ever even knowing.”

“Would you please shut up?” Garrett walked to Selby and took her hand. He both hated and loved the sizzle that traveled up his arm, all from just touching her skin. “Selby, listen. Whatever happened to Evan…I’m not going to let anything else happen to you. I want you to stay here so I can protect you. I’ll bring more guards on the property. More at work, too. Maybe we’ll just work from here to be on the safe side. I need time to think about it. Last night, all I could think of was you.”

Garrett sensed Selby was about to interrupt, so he continued.

“I have Evan’s laptop. The one that he kept in his office. He didn’t have another one, because you know you can’t take it out of the building. If he needed something at home, he could always virtual network into the office, but no one can save anything externally. Technically you can’t even do it from the office, but it seems like someone is looking for something. It has to be data. I don’t know how or why Evan would have ever saved anything or even if he did it, but I need you to look at it for me. No one else has seen it. I’ve gone through the files but I don’t see anything out of the ordinary. But then again, I’m no IT expert either.”

“Of course I’ll help you, but Garrett, do you really want me here? I could go stay at a hotel or I don’t know, I could stay with Lars?”

“No.” Both Garrett and Lars responded at the same time. Garrett couldn’t believe she’d even suggest that she would live with anyone else. Uncomfortable with his reaction, he recognized the foreign emotion, one he couldn’t fathom he’d ever feel over any woman: jealousy. “No. You’re staying with me. No arguments.”

“You can’t just boss me around. If I want to leave, I’ll walk out that door right now. This is an agreement or I’m out of here.”

Garrett took a deep breath and walked back to the kitchen. His anger surged at her demand. What didn’t she get about the fact that someone could have killed her? Why would she ever want to stay with Lars after what had happened between them? He settled his palms on the counter and locked his eyes on hers.

“You’re right about me not being able to boss you around in your private life, but I care about you.” Garrett’s eyes locked on hers. “I just watched my friend die. I will not let that happen to you. So when it comes to where you’ll be safe?” Garrett strode over to Selby, invading her personal space. As he took her hands, his expression grew serious. “You’ll stay with me.”

The possessive tone of his voice surprised him, but he wasn’t leaving it up for discussion. The thought of her sleeping and eating with Lars didn’t sit well. She could have her own room if she wanted, but she’d stay at his mansion.

“I…I’ll help you. But I can’t stay here forever,” she agreed, sadness lacing her words.

“You’ll help me?”

“I’ll help.” Selby wrapped her arms around Garrett, burying her face into his chest.

Garrett returned her embrace, and cradled her head against his chest. He caught the judgmental look on Lars’ face as he did so, and considered that Lars had been wrong to worry. Perhaps it wasn’t he who’d hurt Selby. She hadn’t further protested staying with him, yet she implied that she wasn’t interested in a long term relationship. While the idea of him dating anyone longer than a few weeks in itself was newsworthy, her statement stabbed in his chest.

Chapter Nineteen

When Selby woke, she’d happily recalled erotic memories of her night with Garrett. Her heart tightened as she pulled on his t-shirt, breathing in his scent. She’d decided to forgo panties, hoping to tease Garrett. He’d been confident in his lessons, she mused. He’d pushed her and she enjoyed the thought of tantalizing him the way he’d done to her.

But the conversation in the kitchen had turned sour after Garrett had insisted she stay with him. It wasn’t as if she didn’t want to spend more time with him. On the contrary, she’d been delighted waking up in his arms. But the attack weighed heavily on her mind. The reality that she’d almost died was setting in, that her home had been destroyed. After brunch, Lars had agreed to go to her condo to get her clothes, and other important belongings. Although she’d offered to go with him, she felt a wave of relief, not having to go back to the apartment. A killer remained on the loose, and violation was still fresh in her mind.

Her thoughts drifted to Evan, and guilt coiled in her stomach. She hated the dead man, regretting the day they’d ever met. Once Garrett found out she’d withheld the truth about Evan, he’d probably toss her out on her ear. Regardless, she suspected that Evan had a hand in his own death. Garrett was only just starting to trust her, and she needed time to figure out the right way to explain things to him. It was vital she had access to Evan’s laptop if she had any hope of discovering tangible evidence to present to Garrett. She knew it was entirely possible Evan had cloaked data beneath the layers of everyday applications.

Selby sat in Garrett’s palatial office, scrubbing the laptop for surreptitious anomalies. She’d done the cursory checks, and now was delving deeper, running programs to find hidden files. Selby didn’t expect it to be easy. If Evan was half as good as Garrett said he was, she’d have to work harder and smarter to find whatever he’d created.

After several hours of going through every last folder, she suspected that he could have been hiding secrets on Emerson’s own network. Connecting to it, she initiated a series of cybersecurity tools. Selby always worked bottom to top, keeping it simple, moving toward more complex solutions. As she launched the program, she hoped the sniffer would follow down a path, granting her access to files she hadn’t yet seen.

The door creaked open, and she gazed up at Garrett.

“Any luck?” He gave her a sympathetic smile, having realized that this project wasn’t as easy as he’d hoped.

“Nothing so far. The laptop itself seems pretty clean. I don’t see anything out of the ordinary. But that’s in line with protocol. If he was going to store something, he may have put something on here that can access other files at Emerson. I’m running some programs to see how hard it is to get into your files using his laptop.”

“You’re breaking into the company servers?”

“Yeah, I mean, we’ve got to give it a go. I hope you don’t mind but I started up your laptop too.”

“But I have a password,” he said.

She gave him a wide smile. “Yes, you do.”

“You hacked into my laptop?” He sat on the corner of the desk and propped his well-worn cowboy boots on the edge of a bookshelf. Craning his neck, he stole a peek of the screen.

“Yes, I did.” She laughed. “I know you know this, Mr. CEO, but you should be using strong passwords.”