Chapter 35
LUKE
My fist pounds on the table, causing Savannah and Rory to jump. “Fuck yeah! He took the bait.” Hunter jumps up from his desk and moves over to the conference table where the rest of us are sitting.
Hunter watches from over my shoulder. “Who took what bait?”
My fingers fly across my keyboard as I keep an eye on my screen. “The hacker. I’ve been monitoring our system. I left a back door open for the hacker to access the dummy file. When he downloads it, the trace will start, and we’ll have his location.”
Savannah sits up and goes to town on her laptop. “I’ll hop on and help you track his activity.”
“How can I help?” Rory questions.
Savannah pats his hand. “Just sit there and look pretty.”
Rory pouts. “I should take offense to that, but I won’t.”
Hunter and I watch the hacker bypass the honey pot for something else. “Why is he poking around HR files? There’s no client information there,” Hunter observes.
“But there are employee files,” I point out.
Rory sits forward. “Whose file is he trying to access?”
I watch as a specific file is opened on my screen. “Shawn Winthrop.”
Rory tilts his head. “Why look into Shawn?”
Hunter grits his teeth. “I don’t think he’s an intended victim.”
“Maybe he’s the man on the inside,” I pose.
“Shawn?” Rory lifts one brow higher than the other.
“It’s not a stretch to believe he’d want to hurt us. We rejected that awful idea of his that proposed we fire Hollis Calder and give Shawn the department,” I return.
Savannah’s brows draw together lightly. “Who’s Shawn?”
“He’s the head of cybersecurity,” Rory answers her.
Savannah’s hands still for a moment, and her mouth turns downward. “But why not just steal the information from inside? Why the whole charade of hacking?”
“We would’ve caught him much easier and much faster,” I respond, then the fake file on my screen opens. “He’s downloading the honey pot.”
Hunter leans in closer. “Can you start the trace?”
I shake my head. “No, not until he has the whole file.” The progress bar fills slowly, indicating the download's progress. When the bar fills, I type again, activating the secret software upload. “Complete and starting the trace now.”
Rory nervously taps his fingers on the table, and Savannah shifts in her seat. We all know how important this is.
Hunter keeps his focus trained on my screen. “He won’t be able to see what you’re doing, right?”
“Do I look like an amateur?” I scoff comically, trying to bring some light into the moment. When he doesn’t respond, I look up at him and find his face unamused. I drop the humor. “He shouldn’t, but there’s always a possibility.”
When the location comes up on my screen, I know Hunter sees it too. Savannah and Rory go still, making me think they figured it out as well.
“Is that right?” Hunter’s voice is tight. “How accurate is the program?”
“Very…” I trail off as I dig deeper. “Son of a bitch. He’s masking his location by routing it through other servers. Assuming he’s not too smart, I’ll have his real location in…” I type a few more commands and my computer beeps. “Got it. He’s here. It’s him.”
“Calder!” Hunter shouts.
Hollis Calder hurries into Hunter’s office. “Yes, boss?”
“Check and see if Shawn Winthrop is in his office on the fifth floor. If he’s there, bring him up here,” Hunter directs.
Calder nods. “I’ll send Emmett.”
We sit in silence as we wait for Calder to return with our guy. My mind whirls as I try to make sense of everything.
Thinking out loud, I say, “If John gave Shawn the code, a lot about this would make sense.”
“Like what?” Rory asks as he rubs his forehead.
I lean forward on my elbows and steeple my hands in front of my face.
“The code that Savannah wrote with John is very sophisticated. It’s years ahead of what Shawn can do.
But this hack today? It was practically layman.
” Hunter and Rory nod, and Savannah tilts her head, thinking through my theory.
“Shawn on his own? Not capable. We should’ve fired him a while ago. Shawn with Savannah’s code? Genius.”
“Would John give the code away?” Rory asks.
Savannah shrugs a shoulder. “I’m not sure. Maybe?”
Shouts echo from the hall. “Get your hands off me!”
Emmett Slade enters the office, shoving Shawn into the room ahead of him. “We found him trying to sneak out the fire exit in the stairwell.” Brooks Hale and Hollis Calder walk in behind them.
Shawn rights himself, tugging on his shirt to straighten it, but he looks just as disheveled as the last time I saw him. He glares at Hunter, Rory, and me. “You,” he spits and beelines for us.
We all jump to our feet, blocking his way to Savannah, but Hunter reaches Shawn before he can get to us. Shawn takes a swing at Hunter, but Hunter ducks and returns a hit of his own. Hunter’s punch lands on Shawn’s right cheek.
Our three security employees move to intervene, but I lift my hand. “Stop. Hunter’s got this.”
Shawn recovers from the blow and charges Hunter, grabbing him around the waist and pushing him backward. Savannah gasps and tries to take a step forward, but Rory holds her in place.
Hunter allows Shawn to drive him backward into the wall of windows.
Hunter’s strong and skilled enough to lay this guy out in ten seconds flat, but he’s toying with Shawn.
When Hunter looks at Savannah and sees the worried expression on her face, he breaks Shawn’s hold and lands a punch to the side of Shawn’s head.
Shawn falls to the ground like a sack of potatoes.
Hunter kneels over his prone body, straddling his torso and trapping his arms. Shawn thrashes to get free, but Hunter wraps a hand around his neck.
“All because we rejected your stupid idea?” Hunter shouts.
Shawn laughs, drops of blood flying from his mouth and landing on Hunter’s white shirt. “You’re just angry because I bested you. The great Ghostline was taken down by his subordinate.”
“Taken down? You’re delusional.” Hunter shakes his head.
“Admit it. I won,” Shawn persists through clenched teeth.
Hunter narrows his eyes. “What the fuck do you think you’ve won here?”
“I proved that I’m better,” Shawn hisses.
“No, you proved that you’re a scared little boy who throws tantrums when he doesn’t get his way.” Hunter sneers down at the pathetic man. “Now tell me how you got that code.”
Shawn’s smile is filled with abjectness and red. “I have friends in high places too, ya know.”
Hunter leads Shawn in a specific direction to get some answers. “You mean a friend in Green Haven?”
Shawn rolls his eyes. “Does it matter?”
“Yes.” A vein in Hunter’s neck throbs as he applies pressure to Shawn’s neck.
“Alright! Alright!” Shawn croaks. “I don’t know who gave it to me. A package was delivered to my apartment. In it was a memory stick containing the code, a burner phone, and a note.”
“What did the note say?” Hunter pushes.
Shawn rushes through his answer. “I was given specific instructions with a name and an address. I was told to use the code to hack RHL’s system and shut off their security. The next name and address came on the burner.”
“How much did you get paid?” Hunter rages.
“One thousand each time,” Shawn admits.
Hunter angles his head. “Why Gabriel Castillo?”
Shawn’s nostrils flare. “I deserved more. Everyone is always undervaluing my services, so I decided I was going to give myself a payday.”
Hunter scoffs, belittling Shawn’s desire to feel important. “So what? You took out an ad in the classifieds?”
Shawn squints, snarling at Hunter. “The dark web, genius.”
Hunter finally looks up from Shawn, speaking to Calder. “FBI?”
“Already called them.”
“Good. You’re going away for a very long time. If I’m not mistaken, aiding a felony means you can be charged with each murder as if you committed them yourself. Enjoy prison.”
“Better than working here,” Shawn retorts as Calder, Slade, and Hale lift him to his feet and secure him in handcuffs. When they move toward the exit, Shawn digs his heels in and beams a slimy smile right at Savannah. “He has plans for you, Miss Bartlett. Lots and lots of plans.”
“It’s Foster,” she grits out.
Shawn laughs as Slade and Hale push him toward the door.
“We’ll wait downstairs in the lobby for the FBI to show up,” Calder informs us.
“Good,” Hunter responds. “If they have any questions, tell them to contact our lawyers.”
“You got it, boss,” Calder says with a nod and leaves.
We all breathe a bit easier when Shawn is gone, but we learned something else in the process: Shawn was working with John’s copycat. And now, I’m leaning more toward the copycat and the stalker being the same person.
Savannah plops down in her chair, and Rory and I follow her lead. Hunter slowly makes his way back to the conference table and sits in a chair next to me.
“So I guess this is it then,” Savannah says, and we all make confused expressions.
“What’s it?” I question.
Savannah refuses to make eye contact with any of us. “I did the job I was hired to do.”
“Yes, you did,” Hunter confirms.
Savannah fidgets with her hands in her lap. “Then I’m done here, right?”
“Absolutely not,” I bark.
“But—”
I grasp her hand. “You don’t get to walk away now. You’ve captured us. We’re in your snare. If you walk away now, we won’t be able to pick up the pieces.”
Savannah’s eyes water. “I thought that—”
Hunter interrupts her. “We know what you thought, but you thought wrong. You’re staying with us. At the penthouse, at RHL.”
“But what about Mocha Lisa and my apartment?” Savannah looks to us for the answers.
And we have them.
Rory leans forward. “You’re quitting that job, that’s for sure. You were attacked there. I’ll have nightmares if you go back.”
“And you can sublet your apartment, sell your contract, or something else,” Hunter adds.
Savannah’s brows furrow. “You all seem to have given this a lot of thought.”
“We have,” I admit. “Because it was an easy decision to keep you.”
“What is this?” Savannah’s face pinches, and she starts typing on her laptop.
Rory turns his attention to her screen, and his eyes widen. “Oh. That’s not—”
Savannah cuts him as she reads from a list. “Gabriel Castillo. Isn’t he the head of MS13? Why does he need separate systems instead of a centralized one?”
Shit.
Rory rubs at the back of his neck. “I believe he manages an…organization of some sort.”
Hunter drags a hand down his face, and I mentally do the same. It’s one thing after another right now.
What I wouldn’t give for a break…
“Patrick O’Connell. He runs the IRA, right? Why does he need a compound-grade system for his house?”
“Because it’s a compound,” Hunter answers in a dead tone.
Savannah eyes the three of us. “Do you provide services to criminals?”
“Maybe…” Rory answers with a shrug and a frown. He clears his throat and sits up taller, the insecurity gone from his frame.
This isn’t something we discussed together as a group—Savannah finding out about our other clientele. I knew it was inevitable. She’s smart. I knew she’d find it at some point. I’m afraid, and by the looks on Hunter’s and Rory’s faces, they aren’t either.
Savannah’s mouth opens and closes a few times. “Is there a reason you haven’t told me about this? You three wouldn’t stop digging until you found my secrets. I expect the same transparency in return.”
Irritation flickers across Hunter’s face. “But like you said. We had to go searching for them. You didn’t exactly offer them up freely.”
Savannah waves off his argument. “Semantics.” She looks back at her screen. “It would’ve been nice to know that I’m not the only criminal here.”
“Did we make you feel less than because of the choices you’ve made?” Rory drops his head to an angle, expressing concern.
Savannah chews on her lower lip, thinking over Hunter’s questions. “No,” she finally answers.
“Good,” Hunter concludes, then shifts the topic. “Well, we need to go through Shawn’s laptop and find out who he freelanced our system out to.”
“The FBI will want to claim it as evidence,” Rory points out.
Hunter curses. “You’re right. Let’s hurry up and dig through it now and delete any information we don’t want the FBI to have.”
“I’ll get on it,” I reply and square my shoulders, readying for the task.
Rory’s lips thin. “Gabriel’s going to want to meet when we tell him.”
Hunter leans back in his chair and drops his head to rest along the top of the seat. “Yeah, I know.”
“I want to come,” Savannah claims.
“Absolutely not,” I bark.
Just the thought of her in the same room as someone like Gabriel Castillo has everything in my gaze turning various shades of red.
Her brows pull down, and her lips flatten. “Why not?”
“Too dangerous.” I shake my head.
Savannah holds her shoulders tight. “I’m more than capable of handling myself. In case you’ve forgotten, I’m quite handy with a knife.”
I push my chair away from the table and stand. My feet carry me away as I begin to pace. “I’m well aware, but you shouldn’t have to use that skill just because you want to tag along with us to a meeting with a gang leader.”
Savannah rises and moves to block my path. “Is this because I’m a woman? Am I about to get a lecture on how I should learn how to embroider and cook a grand dinner?”
Her line of thinking is way off base, but I understand where she’s coming from.
“That’s not it at all,” I reply.
“I don’t like the idea either,” Hunter says to me, “but I’d rather keep Savannah in my line of sight until the copycat is locked up.”
Savannah’s shoulders droop. “I ran from that life once before. I don’t want to do it again.”
I hold her face in my hands, bringing our mouths closer together. “Never again,” I promise her, and move my lips over hers.