Chapter 5 Wes #2
Deshaun grunted, annoyed. “He left work early the other day, said there was a family emergency. He no-showed the next day. When we looked into it, we saw he had accessed your employment file from his personal computer—records that are confidential and should not be accessible to anyone, especially on a personal computer. It shouldn’t have even been possible.
We have tech looking into what happened, but .
. .” As he rambled off excuses I decided the why didn’t matter.
“We contacted his wife, who told us that Ramirez told her he was on a business trip. His phone is disconnected, his car abandoned in a nearby commuter parking lot.”
“I don’t get it. Why my personnel file?”
“We don’t know. He didn’t access anything else.
Only that. His record with us was flawless.
We looked into his finances and there’s nothing significant there.
If he’s been compromised, they were extremely careful to cover their tracks.
I have no reason to believe he has nefarious intentions, but at this point we can’t assume anything. ”
I chewed on my lip, thinking. It was so fucking strange. I remembered Ramirez. I hadn’t had a lot of contact with him, but he’d been excellent at his job and always very friendly when we had talked. His wife used to make tamales every Christmas for fuck’s sake.
“Do you have any ideas on why he might be interested in you?” Deshaun fished when I didn’t speak for a minute.
“No. Have you checked his phone records? Both work and personal? Something must’ve happened to have him leave early and then try to find me.”
“His work line was clean, but we only verified his personal wasn’t on anymore. My team is swamped here.” And this wasn’t a priority for him. I got it, though it should be. What would it do to his company if it came out that there’d been a security breach and personnel files had been leaked?
I knew I should’ve been more worried than I was.
In the wrong hands, that was . . . bad. I had carefully hidden my identity from my enemies for decades now, and this could not only put me in danger, but Riley and Beckett and my entire family here.
But my gut agreed with Deshaun, and whatever Ramirez wanted, he wasn’t trying to sell me out to the highest bidder.
“Hey, angel?” I called, not bothering to raise my voice because I knew they were listening.
The door opened, and four sheepish faces appeared. It seemed only Beckett didn’t snoop. Diego cleared his throat before answering, not quite meeting my eyes. I smiled softly at him, showing him I wasn’t angry.
“Can you get phone records for a line that’s been shut off?”
He blinked at me. “Yes?”
“Deshaun, can you send everything over to us? My boyfriend is going to look into it.”
“You’re going to handle it?” He sounded relieved.
“Yes, but if it turns out to be bigger than we think and there’s a breach—”
Deshaun cursed quietly under his breath. “If it’s a breach, we’ll take over. I just, Ramirez is a good guy, Wes. If he’s doing this, he has to have a good reason.”
I believed him. Deshaun’s instincts about people were always spot on. It was what made him so good at his job.
“I’m inclined to believe you. I’ll text you a secure contact. Send me everything, and if you find out anything else, let me know?”
“I will, and can I expect the same from you?”
“Most likely.” I didn’t want to get into it, but I was pissed at him for this. Shit happened, but we went through great lengths to make sure our personal information wasn’t leaked.
My gaze flicked over to my boys, who were watching with concern. Deshaun made an irritated sound but didn’t push it. “Be careful, Hayes.”
“I will. I’ll update you when I can.”
Deshaun hung up then, and I was left with racing thoughts and a ton of questions.
“Wes?” Diego’s voice was filled with worry. I forced a smile, then my eyes cut meaningfully to Riley, Matty, and Beckett. I didn’t want to get into it in front of them. There was no reason to worry them when I still had no idea what was happening.
Unfortunately, Riley was my kid and way too observant for his own good. He huffed in annoyance. “Yeah, whatever just happened, you’re not keeping it from us. Unless it’s some top-secret shit, though I doubt you’d answer that call in the hallway.”
I pressed my lips together, trying not to laugh. “It’s not top secret. I just don’t want to worry you.”
“We’re going to worry anyway,” Matty added. They’d all spilled out of the room now and were crowding the hall, including Beckett, who was standing protectively behind Riley, his arms wrapped around his middle.
I sighed. They should probably know anyway. There was a chance that, depending on what Ramirez was after and what he found, the boys could be in danger. Actually . . . I quickly pulled my phone back up and texted Leo, asking him to put a couple people on their apartment building. Just to be safe.
“Okay, but there’s no reason to panic. There was a small breach at my old company and some of my personal information may have been accessed.”
The was a collective beat of silence as they all processed, finally broken by Brooks. “Excuse me, but what the fuck? A small breach? That sounds pretty fucking big.”
“It would be, but we know who accessed it.”
I briefly explained the situation to them, but it didn’t seem to settle them at all. “What if he’s being forced? Like, someone snatched him and made him steal your information under duress?”
There wasn’t a zero chance of that, but still. “Deshaun believes it’s unlikely.”
Beckett frowned. “But not impossible?”
“No,” I admitted, “Not impossible. But that’s why we’re going to be careful. I’m going to follow you back to your apartment and have someone watch it until we get to the bottom of this. We’ll increase the security here as well. I promise we will all be fine.”
Brooks fiddled with his cuff, eyes worried. Diego was already on his phone, a frown on his face.
“I got the information. I’m going back to my office to work on it.”
He turned on his heel, forgetting about us.
“Angel.” A warning pulsed in my tone.
Diego stopped in his tracks and twisted his head to look at me. I tapped my lips.
Diego hesitated, but I didn’t think it was because of his touch aversion this time. No, he just wanted to get to work.
I thought he might just turn away from me, but eventually he huffed and took the couple of steps to close the distance.
I kissed him. “Don’t overwork yourself, Diego.
I know you’re concerned, but it will be okay.
I’m going to take the boys home, and then I’ll be back to help.
I’ll let the others know what’s going on as well. You don’t have to do this alone.”
Diego’s face expressed a complicated array of emotions, all passing quickly. “I know. I’ve been working on my delegating.”
He was trying. I’d give him that. Unfortunately, most of us were useless when it came to his job, but he always trusted Brooks to help to an extent, and he was also getting better at utilizing Skye, and even Matty when the work wasn’t too risky.
“I know, sweetheart. I’m proud of you,” I praised. Diego flushed. “I’ll check on you when I get back. If you find anything, let me know.”
He rocked back on his heels and glanced at Brooks. “Bring B with you? I’d feel better knowing you weren’t alone.”
Brooks chewed on his lip ring. “You sure you don’t need my help?”
“Nah, not yet. I can always grab Skye if I have to. I’d feel better knowing you were with Wes.”
“Okay, sure.” Brooks sounded a little surprised, and I didn’t blame him.
Typically, one of us always stayed back with Diego.
Though, I guessed we were only going across town.
Diego lifted onto his tiptoes and surprised me with an impromptu kiss on the cheek, and then with an awkward wave to everyone as he hurried away and to his office.
I thought Matty might go with him, but he was lingering, and I could tell there was something on his mind.
“Brooks, why don’t the three of you head down to the cars? I’ll be right there.”
“Sure, Daddy Wes.”
Riley made a fake gagging sound. “Can you fuckin’ not?”
Brooks grinned and threw his arm across my son’s shoulders. “Oh, why not? You always have the best reactions.”
“Asshole.”
Brooks’s laughter traveled down the hallway as they walked away, and I focused my attention on Matty.
I squeezed his shoulder and led him back into the media room.
“Talk to me.”
He didn’t answer right away. He had his arms crossed and his nails were digging into his forearms. I waited him out, knowing that pushing would make him clam up.
Finally, he met my eyes. “I don’t like this.
What if—” He swallowed and looked at the door like he expected someone to be listening on the other side.
“What if it’s my dad, my bio one, and he found me?
” he asked in a hushed tone, barely above a whisper.
“I don’t want you to get hurt, for him to hurt you because of me. ”
My heart broke. I opened my arms for him, “Oh come here, Matty. It’ll be okay.
” Matty threw himself at me, his face against my chest in an uncharacteristic hug from him, “None of this is your fault. Even if this is some complicated plot by your birth father, it wouldn’t be your fault.
I’ve had way worse come at me, and they couldn’t keep me down. ”
Matty didn’t respond right away, but eventually looked up.
He wasn’t crying, but he looked close. “You’ll be careful?
I won’t make you promise that you won’t get hurt, anyone could get hurt at any time, but you’ll take it seriously, take all the same precautions you usually do, even if you don’t feel like this guy is a danger? ”
I kissed the top of his head affectionately, “I promise, kiddo. I’m taking this seriously.”
“Okay. Good. I don’t want to lose you. Any of you.”
Well here he went again, shattering me. “You won’t. We don’t plan on going anywhere for a long time. We’re not easy to kill.”
Matty snorted, and then wiped at his face even though it was dry. “Yeah. Okay. Good.” He cleared his throat, and I could tell he was feeling awkward, “I’m gonna go finish up some homework. Can you let me know when you and Brooks get back?”
“Sure.”
He headed to the door, but before he left, he turned suddenly and ran back into my arms, taking me by surprise so that I didn’t hug him back immediately. Once I did, it didn’t take him too long to pull away. “Thank you.”
Then Matty ran off and out of the room.