17. Maxim
17
MAXIM
T he safehouse reeks of gun oil and stale air. I stand at the head of the table, my fingers tracing the worn grooves in the wood as I wait for Nikolai and Victor to finish their argument.
Their voices bounce off the concrete walls, sharp, clipped, both of them too stubborn to back down.
“She’s a liability,” Victor says, his tone as cold as the steel door behind him.
His gray hair catches the dim light, making him look even more like the ghost of every mistake I’ve tried to avoid. Am I Victor or my father? Too trusting or too brutal?
“We’re keeping her alive for what? Sentiment? That’s bullshit. She could go to the cops any moment. Kill her and be done with it.”
“We don’t kill women,” Nikolai snaps back. “You taught us that. What happened to the code?”
“The code only applies when we’re not all about to be busted.” He turns to me. “Why let her live?”
“It’s been three weeks,” I reply, my voice steady. “I've been watching her. She goes to work, shops with her grandma, goes home. That’s it. Our guys in the precinct have heard nothing. She’s not talked to the cops. She’s not talked to anyone.”
“What happened to no mercy?”
“She’s done nothing to deserve death.”
“What if she hacks into the file and steals all that money for herself?”
“She won’t.”
“You seem very sure.”
“Dimitri’s busy working on the file as we speak. He’ll have it cracked soon enough. We can let her live her life. She’s no danger to us.”
I don’t tell him that I dare not see her again. I’m already obsessed. One night and I’m addicted to her. See her again, and I’ll never be able to let her go. She’ll get swallowed up by my world and broken into a thousand pieces. I couldn’t do that to something so beautiful. It’s vital that I never see her again.
Victor’s eyes narrow, the weight of his judgment pressing down on me like it always does. He leans back in his chair, the leather creaking under his weight. “Evan Daniels is laughing at you. Federico too. You’re wasting time. We need that file unlocked. Now.”
“I told you. Dimitri’s working on it,” I say, my tone sharp enough to slice through his objections. “Evan isn’t the only problem here. Someone helped him. Someone with access to our system. I need to know who or our entire account might get drained when our backs are turned.”
Nikolai steps forward from where he’s been leaning against the wall, his arms crossed over his broad chest. “And you suspect who? Me? Victor?”
“It could be anyone in our organization,” I reply, leveling my gaze at him. “Including you two or the fucking housemaids.”
Victor leans forward, resting his elbows on the table as he looks at me like he’s trying to dissect me. “You’ve spent three weeks with Dimitri trying to get into that file. What have you achieved?”
The door creaks open.
“Ask him yourself.”
Dimitri strides in. He’s holding a laptop under one arm, his usual cocky smirk tugging at the corner of his mouth. The kid’s smart—one of the best I’ve ever seen when it comes to tech—but his attitude grates on my nerves more often than not.
“You wanted an update?” he says, sliding the laptop onto the table and looking directly at me.
“Talk,” I say, gesturing for him to get on with it.
He flips the screen upright, revealing a series of charts, codes, and timelines. He taps on one section, zooming in on what looks like a countdown clock. It’s bold and bright, counting down. 30 days.
“What’s that?” I ask.
“I found it buried in the system an hour ago. That’s how long we have left until the file locks.”
“So stop the fucking timer,” Victor snaps at him.
“No can do. It took weeks just to get this far. Uncovering that timer triggered more layers of encryption to pile up on top.”
“Meaning?” I ask.
“Once the timer hits zero, the file locks permanently, erasing all contents. No one gets in. Not you, not me, not anyone. She wasn’t lying about the kill code.”
Victor exhales sharply, sitting back in his chair. “And let me guess—you can’t get in, Mr. Tech Wizard.”
“I’ll keep working at it,” Dimitri replies, tapping the keys to bring up a new set of data. “But if I were you, I’d find Evan and force him to get to work on it. He programmed it. He’s your best shot.”
“He only tinkered around the edges,” I say. “He’s not skilled enough to unlock it on his own.”
“What makes you say that?” Nikolai asks.
“Sophie said so.”
“And you believe her?”
The room goes still again, and this time, the silence feels suffocating. My gaze shifts to Victor, whose expression is unreadable. Nikolai’s jaw tightens, and I can practically see the gears turning in his head as he pieces together what this means.
Dimitri glances between the three of us, clearly uneasy. “Look, I can keep digging, but if Federico’s involved—and you’re pretty sure he is—then time’s not the only thing working against us. If he gets to Evan first and they manage to unlock it together using others on his crew…”
“We lose everything,” Victor finishes for him. “I bet that was Federico’s plan all along. Either he gets the money or no one does. Either way, he wins. Hell, he might have killed Evan already just to make sure it’s locked up tight.”
Nikolai leans forward, his elbows resting on the table. “If that’s true, why didn’t he just get him to unlock it and sweep it into his own account?”
I fold my arms over my chest. “My theory is Evan planned to take the lot for himself when the fuss died down. Only then Sophie got involved with me and that fucked with all his plans. So he locked it to save his ass and now he’s got a ticking clock same as us. If he’s alive, I bet he’s working on it right now.”
Victor punches the desk. “So find him. Drag him back here before Federico uses him to unlock that thing.”
“Evan’s not the priority,” I say, realizing fate sure wants me to see her again. “Sophie’s the only one who can get in there in time.”
Victor lets out a short, bitter laugh. “The girl. You’re putting an awful lot of faith in someone who ran from your bed the first chance she got.”
“Evan used her to build the system. She did the bulk of the work. I bet she can get into it given the right motivation.”
Victor studies me for a long moment, his sharp eyes narrowing. “And what happens when Federico figures that out? You think he won’t send his people after her?”
The jab hits harder than it should. How did I not work that out for myself? I blinded myself, that’s how. So desperate not to have her again that I ignored the risks she’s running being out in the open. I don’t let it show. Instead, I turn my attention to Nikolai. “How likely is it that Federico knows about her?”
“If he doesn’t already, he will soon,” Nikolai replies. “We’ve got a mole, right? Got to be telling him everything. Now the timer’s visible, he knows how long he’s got before the money’s gone for good. If he wants it, or wants to make sure we don’t get it, he’ll try to grab Evan or Sophie. No offense, Dimitri, but you’re no fucking good at this stuff.”
“Ouch,” Dimitri replies. “Remind me not to send you a Christmas card.”
“We need to move,” I say, rising to my feet. “We need to bring Sophie in.”
Victor shakes his head, his voice cutting through the room like a blade. “What happens if she refuses to help us?”
“She won’t have a choice,” I say firmly.
Victor doesn’t look convinced, but he doesn’t argue. Instead, he leans back, crossing his arms as he watches me stride toward the door.
“Where are you going?” Nikolai asks as I pull it open.
I give him a cold smile. “To kidnap Sophie Hale.”