Chapter 28
CHAPTER 28
ELIJAH
I stumble into my apartment, barely able to put one foot in front of the other. How did my life become so complicated? I can’t shake thoughts of Pen or that she’s hiding something major from me.
What the hell, and who is her handler?
It pisses me off my brother knows more than he’s letting on, but then he always was watertight. It’s why I wasn’t afraid when he found out about Lottie. Then again, he could simply be yanking my chain where Pen’s concerned. It’s hard to tell these days.
I sink down onto the sofa and drop my head back against the cushion, closing my eyes. I thought taking the initiative and splitting from Darra was going to be my biggest move. How wrong could I have been?
It’s dark when I open my eyes. The incessant ringing of my intercom forces me awake.
I run a hand over my face, rubbing my eyelids to get them to function.
“Lights on,” I say sleepily, activating the in-house system I installed a while back.
I get up and make my way across to the wall.
“Yes,” I snap, pressing the intercom button.
“About time.” Pen’s voice fills the surrounding space, my stomach clenching at the sound. “I was wondering if you weren’t in, but I hacked your phone’s tracker, and it said you were here.”
“I was asleep,” I grouch, hitting the accept button to open the door. “What the hell were you doing hacking my phone, and how on earth did you get up to this floor?”
She sweeps past me and into the space behind me, shooting me one of her don’t be ridiculous looks as she goes. I know for a fact she’s not on my accepted visitors list. She sometimes visits Lottie, but I would have been consulted before her name was added. It’s never been necessary. Yes, we’ve worked on projects together. Her hardware designs are some of the best on the market, but she comes with her designers to the office for meetings with Todd, myself, and the team. However, she’s never here and never alone.
“Well?” I ask, turning to face her, only to find she’s moved further into the apartment.
I shut and lock the door before following her.
“Pen?” I say, finding her by the window, staring out over the city.
“Quite the view you have here, although I’m surprised you moved from Hampshire. You always loved the greenery.”
I move to stand next to her.
“I do, but then needs must. It’s easier to live here,” I say as if that explains everything.
Pen turns to me.
I sigh. “Darra was there. It was easier to live here.”
Pen shakes her head as she stares at me.
“What the hell went wrong?” she asks.
I’m not going there, especially with her.
Only Gabriel and Leah know the truth.
“You didn’t answer my question,” I say, trying to distract her.
“You first,” she says.
“No way. I asked first.”
Pen pulls a face.
“My contact came back. I have a list of names I want to run past you. As for the other. Hacking is my thing if you haven’t realised by now, and getting up here was child’s play.”
I’m instantly awake.
“A list of names?”
I ignore the rest of her statement, which I’ll focus on later.
“You must have been in a deep sleep,” she mutters. “Keep up.”
I take the list she has in her hand, my eyes scanning over it.
“What are these names?”
“These are employees with unusually large transactions in their accounts or those of family members.”
I grab a pen and move to the table.
Five names are present.
The first three I can disregard immediately.
“Won the lottery.”
“Are you serious?” Pen asks. “That could be a ruse.”
“No, he had his face splashed all over the papers. His wife has run off with the gardener and is trying to take half of his winnings.”
“You’re not serious?” Pen’s face is a picture.
I smirk. “Not entirely. She didn’t run off with the gardener, but she has left him and is fighting for half. It’s a genuine win. The press and news stations were hanging around for weeks, wanting his story. I had to ban them from the building as a security risk.”
Oh, the irony!
“Okay, not him. What about the others?”
I look at the second name on the list.
“His wife received an inheritance. He’s retiring once this release has gone live. Didn’t want to leave me short.”
“Could be fake.”
“No, his father-in-law was a duke. Owned some stately home in Scotland. His wife hated her old man, but she’s an only child. Their children inherited the title, but they appointed her as caretaker until they come of age.”
“Next…”
“Another inheritance.”
“You’re sure?”
“Positive.”
Pen takes a deep breath. “Okay, that leaves the last two.”
I recognise the names, but they’re not people I’ve worked with directly.
I grab my laptop and pull up their personal files. Stopping when Pen adds a layer of anonymity to stop my search flagging up.
Who is this woman?
I take a seat, and she leans in next to me. My body hardens as the scent of her perfume invades my senses. She wears the same scent she did at uni. The light floral scent clashed in the past with her exterior look, but it suits her now.
“James Buchanon. He’s a number cruncher. Good at his job. I don’t know where his money has come from, but his history is in numbers, not programming. There’s a chance he’s let someone else in, I suppose, but looking at this file. I doubt it.”
“We won’t discount anyone. What about Peter Levon?”
I pull up Peter’s file the way Pen showed me.
I recognise the face as soon as it appears.
“He works under Todd. Is a bit of a loner. Can be gobby but normally keeps himself to himself.”
“Someone sent his money to an offshore account,” Pen admits.
I turn to stare at her. “And you didn’t think to mention that at the beginning?”
She raises an eyebrow. “Leading the witness. It was better you gave me your opinion on each of the names without me influencing you.”
I can see her logic, but I don’t like the idea of being played.
“He’s also our number one suspect.”
I wonder who the our are, but let it ride . Instead, I think back to Peter and what I know about him.
“I can’t believe he has the skills to do this. While a coder, he’s only mediocre, at best, from what I understand. He’s someone Todd has on his radar for letting go. He held off because the guy is going through a hard time. His wife ran off with his brother.”
Pen turns to face me.
I run a hand through my hair as the contents of Todd’s memo comes to the forefront.
“His wife was taking him to the cleaners in their divorce. Threatening to withhold access to the kids,” I say.
I remember the memo because it brought home memories of Darra’s threats.
Pen shakes her head. “Outsiders look for the weakest link. If someone found out about his divorce, then it’s possible they made him an offer that was too good to refuse. He may have seen it as the only way out. Someone has paid him a large sum of money. This is bigger than Peter. Organised. I’d say Peter is a puppet. Someone paid him to add code or enable someone else to do it. I’d guess someone bigger is pulling the strings.”
I can’t fault her logic. I just wish Peter had come to one of us.
Who am I kidding?
I’ve never been a warm and fuzzy boss. Too locked in my own soap opera of a life.
“What happens next?”
Pen straightens, her shoulder brushing mine, my muscles contracting at the contact. She should not be having this effect on me.
“Now we flush him out and hope whoever is behind this exposes themselves in the process.”
Pen pulls out her phone.
“It’s The Tailor ,” she says. “As we thought. It looks like Peter Levon is our guy. Proceed with caution. The trap is ready to be sprung.”
I turn and drop my ass on the table, watching Pen as she talks to the mysterious person on the other end of the phone.
She ends the call, and we stand and wait. Her phone rings again ten minutes later.
She turns to face me.
“They have eyes on him. He’s leaving the building.”
Her eyes lock on mine as she listens to whatever the person is saying on the other end of the phone.
“Great,” she says. “I’ll leave it with you.”
She disconnects the call and sinks into the chair next to me, looking up at where I’m perched.
“They’re going to let him move away from the office and close in. See what his next move is. I activated the protocol I inserted last night. It let him know we are onto him. If he’s working with someone else, he may try to contact them. Whatever happens, they will pull him in for questioning.”
I fold my arms over my chest and stare at the woman before me.
“Okay Pen. Now, will you tell me what the hell is going on?”