Chapter 20
Both of Leo’s brothers were looking at him with raised eyebrows.
It was Neil who said, I might not be in a long-term relationship, but the one thing my father taught me was how to apologise and grovel. There is no place for an ego when the woman you love walks out angry.
Fuck, Leo muttered then ran. He rushed through the living room, across the house, to the front door.
Was Molly already gone? Had she taken the car keys? Where would she go?
But when he burst through the front door, he belatedly realised Molly had been in a housecoat and not dressed for the day. Neither had Rose. He performed a non-elegant pirouette and raced back into the house and up the stairs. Molly! Molly!
Molly had gone up to her room and was pacing with Rose in her arms. She stopped and shot him a glare. What do you need?
Leo paused in the doorway not wanting to step into her space before she forgave him. Molly, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean what… I… I worry about you and Rose. I don’t want either of you getting hurt. Yesterday, after Alasdair told me what happened, I thought I would die, I was that scared.
He held up his hands in a gesture of surrender.
This is intense and crazy, I know. I’m not Rose’s father, or your partner.
I have no right, but you both mean a lot to me.
More than I have allowed myself to quantify.
Me taking over was not done because I am a man, or that I want to boss you around. I want to keep you safe. Protect you.
It may not seem like it, especially under the circumstances we met, but I am capable of more than taking care of Rose and me. Molly narrowed her eyes. I told you what I used to do, before I met Johnny.
Yes, I know. I’m so sorry. Leo shut his eyes.
I get you’re sorry. But I can’t stay here anymore. Molly set Rose on the bed. You know I can’t.
Please. Leo took a step inside, his hand raised to stop her. Please don’t. You want to go after Johnny, and I overstepped. Molly, you’re a strong human being who doesn’t need me to protect her. But I want to get that man too. For what he did to the two people I care deeply about.
Molly laughed. So you want to avenge me because you’re a hero on a crusade?
Fuck’s sake! This was so not what he meant.
Leo curled his hands into fists. If he was going to do this, he had to dispense with being a coward.
Even if that would kill his chances of getting what he wanted.
He licked his lips and blurted out the words he’d been choking on for over a year now.
I love you. Both of you. Very much. The reason I didn’t want to sleep with you last night was because I want to be more than friends with benefits.
I want more than just a passing affair. I want to be the man who teaches Rose to ride a bike, to swim, to drive.
I want to ground her when she becomes an errant teenager.
I want to watch you grow older and more beautiful.
Explore and understand your power. Know the woman you were before Johnny.
And fine, you want to fight him? Let me fight alongside you.
Now Molly was frozen, as if petrified by Medusa.
It wasn’t surprising. He had spewed a bunch of intense shit at her especially after what had happened last night. Still, for him this had been a build-up over two years. Two years of being cautious. He didn’t want to be a rebound or a crutch.
Rose squealed, slicing the tension in the room. ’Eo!
Leo took a step towards her and, when Molly didn’t stop him, picked Rose up. She hugged him immediately. He held her closer, worried this would be the last time he’d ever hold this sweet girl. Hey, Rosie Bear. Are you hungry?
I hungy. She bobbed her head, then touched her stomach. Pancake, ’Eo?
He pressed a kiss to her forehead, then turned to Molly who was still gaping at him.
Molly?
She huffed out a breath. You’re an arsehole. Then she stalked out of the room.
Unsure where they stood, he followed her with Rose on his hip.
Molly strode into the kitchen and took her seat on a stool. Neil and Alasdair were sat, sipping on their beverages. Leo strapped Rose into her highchair and started making pancakes again.
As the silence grew, punctuated by the sound of Leo’s cooking and Rose’s low murmurs, the tension mushroomed in the room. Even Alasdair sat in silence, chewing on an orange.
When Leo finally set the soft pancakes in front of Rose, cut up so she could eat them, Molly spoke.
If Newtar is the clandestine part of Buchanan Security, and Johnny is the unnamed enforcer for Buchanan, he has to be involved in that operation.
So, I want to pick Newtar apart, dismantle it. And see Johnny sent to jail.
Neil sighed. We don’t know if Johnny’s involved. Besides, if you want him out of your life, how is going after him going to do that, exactly?
Molly curled her lip. If he is a part of Newtar, he has almost as many resources under his thumb as a law enforcement officer.
It’s easy for him to come after me. I want to strip that power away from him.
That’s step one. Step two is to make sure he goes to prison, so he can’t come after me or Rose.
That sounded like a sound plan, in theory.
But reality was so different. Newtar, as far as he knew, was still just protecting people, albeit somewhat unsavoury individuals.
And even if there was something illegal about Newtar, would Johnny be caught in its web?
People didn’t go to prison for a long time on petty charges; it had to be something big.
And they needed strong evidence for a conviction.
So you want to break into Knox’s office and find more information on Newtar?
Leo ventured. He was going to keep his doubts about this to himself, at least that morning when he stood on rocky ground with Molly.
He didn’t want her getting angry and doing something drastic on her own.
This new version of her he’d discovered since yesterday was capable of it.
Molly walked over to Rose, who had eaten up her pancakes and also managed to slather the maple syrup all over her arms and T-shirt. Could you pass me the kitchen roll, please, Alasdair?
Leo reached into a cabinet and set the wet wipes on the counter next to the kitchen roll.
As Molly cleaned Rose up, she said, Newtar wouldn’t exist if it weren’t into something illegal. We need to find out what that is. How hard would it be to break into Knox’s computer? Neil, you designed that system.
Er… Neil turned to Leo, as if asking for his help.
But fuck, Leo wasn’t getting involved in this.
He jerked his head towards Molly, wordlessly ordering Neil to tell her.
Neil opened his mouth, then shut it, opened it again, and sputtered, I did design the system.
But it’s done so that no one can break in without Knox allowing them.
Molly paused in her attempts to get the syrup out of Rose’s fingers and shot Neil a scathing glare over her shoulder. I might not be a tech wiz, but even I know no system is unhackable.
She was right on that front. In fact, didn’t Neil have a few ethical hackers working on this team, constantly testing out their new IT systems for flaws?
It’s not un hackable. It’s just that it needs Knox’s ear impression—because those are more unique than fingerprints—and an authenticator code to log into his computer that he receives via his phone and separately on his smartwatch.
And the man’s never without his smartwatch.
That’s just the first hurdle. The system maintains a log of all the files accessed and stored on Knox’s computer, on an offsite computer, and our company server like a mini-blockchain.
If a certain log of a file being accessed is deleted, the other computers will see the missing log and freeze the entire system.
Neil gripped the back of his neck. I’ve built it so that every micro-second counts in case someone breaches all three.
Molly straightened, having given up on cleaning the syrup that had somehow found its way into Rose’s ear. A bath would probably be the best solution for that.
Leo bit his lip. At least this conversation was keeping her occupied and not angry enough to realise Leo had perhaps added a bit too much syrup to the pancakes. But it had been his silent apology to Rose.
So you have a log of all the files he’s got on his computer, or at least the ones he’s opened. Can’t we use those files to know what he has on Newtar?
Neil’s smile appeared brittle. That’s your other hurdle. Our system doesn’t maintain the logs using file names. Every file has a unique code in the backend. That way no file can be lost. Those codes are what you’ll find in the log. They’re not indecipherable, but—
You’ll need to go through each file the log has ever mentioned to find it. Not handy if you don’t know which file you’re looking for, Alasdair, who’d been unusually quiet, pitched in.
Leo cleared his throat. The IT part of it might be a challenge, but why don’t we do what HR does best?
Molly raised a brow, her eyes no longer looking at him as if she couldn’t believe they’d ever been friends.
He hoped this won points for him and brought him back in her good graces. I have an idea.