Chapter 2 Bomb
BOMBSHELL
* * *
I followed Scott out of the dining room, attempting to leave my anger behind at the dinner table and failing.
I silently cursed myself for not using a surrogate so I could still beat Jaden’s ass when it suited me.
But I wanted to see her swell with my child too damn much.
Maybe I’d reconsider it for round two and three.
My brother was also definitely owed a fist or two to the face in the very near future.
“What the fuck happened now? My corporate headquarters get raided by Homeland Security?” I asked sarcastically as I followed Scott up to the security room.
“Worse,” he replied. “The server farms were destroyed.”
That gave me pause, my blood already reaching a dangerous temperature as it was. Out of the dozens I had, there were only three that truly mattered to me.
“Which ones.”
Scott shook his head and sighed. “All three of them.”
I swore I heard him wrong. “What?”
Scott opened the door to the security room, the guards sitting at the computer stations where all the monitors were secured to the walls. “Look,” Scott said, pointing at three different screens.
Smoke and fire filled the camera view, barely giving enough distance from the parking lot to show the entire scene.
But I could see enough. The entire building was up in flames, parts of the exterior already collapsing in on itself.
The same thing appeared in the two other facilities, all three of which were spanned across the entire state of California.
My heart rate skyrocketed, and I saw red.
“How in the fuck did this happen?” I nearly roared.
Scott reached out and rewound some footage until ten minutes before the blast. A line of people burst from the doorway into the parking lot, most of which were a few on-site guards, cleaning staff, and the operations team.
A total of fifteen people. But then two minutes later, a group of six men in all black exited the building.
I narrowed my eyes, recognizing a fucking tactical team when I saw one.
One of the men paused under the camera and took off the black mask he wore to conceal his face. When he finally looked back up, a shit-eating grin split across his face. And then he mouthed the words that had been taunting me for too fucking long.
“Another. Step. Ahead.”
The fucker then winked at the camera and walked out of sight. Ten seconds later, the building began to erupt in a series of explosions until it was swallowed by fire.
My fists curled so tightly, I was sure I was about to break the skin of my palm and knuckles.
I recognized the asshole the second he looked into the camera, clearly wanting me to know it was him. That it had always been him.
Jason. Jaden’s ex.
I suddenly no longer had an interest in killing the meddlesome piece of shit anymore. Now, I would make sure he spent the next long years of his life wishing I’d been that merciful.
Tearing myself away from the security feed, I slowly paced the room as I worked to regain control of the absolute murderous rage that wanted nothing more than to destroy everything in sight. This whole thing was going to end up on the fucking eight o’clock news.
“How the fuck did they know exactly which server farms to attack? There are dozens of them!”
Scott shook his head, clearly at a loss for what to tell me.
He had no idea how these fuckers bypassed all the firewalls and security measures my managing company put in place to protect the locations of my greatest secrets and most damaging blackmail material imaginable.
Not to mention the majority of the data stored from Triguard headquarters and dozens of shell companies.
With the click of a button, every debt I had ever secured, legal or illegal, was wiped clean in a matter of seconds. Video files, photographs, contracts, mergers, investments, loans—all up in literal flames.
The strings I had been able to pull for so long over people in positions of power that benefited me were now cut from my grasp, and there was no way to retrieve any of it.
Politicians, judges, investors, CEOs, lawyers, agents, police, and dozens more all wiped clean of my influence in a matter of seconds.
Besides me, Scott, and Dan, only three other people knew what was contained in those servers, and the world could never know that their destruction meant the ultimate freedom from my grasp.
“Eliminate the others who know the contents of those servers,” I ordered. “No one can know what happened to the data or why. Destroy the security footage and get a team at each site to confiscate evidence of the explosives. I want to know everything before the goddamn government does.”
Scott nodded as he pulled out his phone but paused when he saw me head for the door. “Where are you going?” he asked.
“For a ride,” I said, slamming the door behind me and making my way into the garage.
Flinging open one of the lockers against the garage wall, I changed into the spare set of clothes I kept in different places around the house, switching my suit for a pair of jeans, a leather jacket, and boots.
Grabbing my keys and helmet, I opened the garage door and turned on the ignition to the Ducati 1299 Panigale S. Ironically, it was the same bike Jaden had used to escape my estate all those years ago.
To this day, I still couldn’t believe how she managed it, but at least she had good taste in bikes.
My phone buzzed in my pocket again, the caller ID being the only reason I answered.
“What have you got, Marx?” I asked. He’d better have answers if he was calling me this soon.
“Did their operations team tell you they had a breach in their system a week ago?” he asked me.
I paused as my hand clenched tightly around the phone. “No.”
If they had a breach and didn’t inform us that my data had been compromised, there would be hell to pay.
“Figures,” Marx continued. “It was pretty big. Whoever it was, they were there for nearly fifteen minutes before anyone knew, and by then, they were already gone before anything could be done. It doesn’t look like they ever found out who it was either.”
Son of a bitch.
“Anything else?”
“No, that’s all I have for now. I’ll let you know when I find more,” he answered.
“Good. See if you can figure out who it was,” I said and hung up.
After securing my helmet, I shifted into gear, riding out of the garage and down the driveway, the iron gates opening in perfect timing as I peeled out onto my private road. Reining in my rage, I forced myself to save it for the right time and concentrated on the road instead.
Speeding down the highway, I zipped past several cars, weaving in and out of traffic as I made my way toward my destination. It took about twenty minutes for me to pull up to the house in Spring Valley, hidden away up a private drive.
Pulling off to the side, I removed my helmet and hid my Ducati in an obscured section of the property. The desert landscaping didn’t offer much cover, but it would have to do.
As I maneuvered around the modular desert house for a quieter entrance, the mostly glass exterior showed virtually no one inside. The back door was too easy to break through, the lock disengaging without effort as I silently pulled it open and stepped inside.
The house was quiet. The 1970s vibe of the interior gave away its owner’s age and their obvious refusal to renovate to the current century. Rounding the corner, I found my target sitting at his desk, his back to the open door as he typed something on his laptop.
“Damage control, I hope?” I said from the doorway.
Patrick Edgar jolted from his seat, turning around frantically with the ghostly white face and wide brown eyes.
“Davis,” he gasped as he clutched his chest. “What are you doing here?”
I cocked a brow at my longtime manager of Digital Frontiers, leaning against the doorframe, unimpressed. “Haven’t you heard the news, Pat?”
He stared back at me for a moment, unsure of himself. “Of course, I have. I just got off the phone with the insurance company.”
I almost snorted. The insurance company. As if that was a top priority right now.
I dipped my chin as I casually walked farther into the room. “And what did you tell the insurance company?”
Patrick frowned as he looked up at me from his chair. “That I don’t know what or how any of it happened.”
I raised my brow at him. “No? Not a clue, huh?”
His eyes followed me as I moved closer throughout the room. “It sounds like you do,” he insinuated cautiously.
I nodded in acknowledgment as I turned to fully face him. “Turns out, those particular buildings were specifically targeted by a certain group of individuals looking to cause me trouble.”
Patrick looked confused for a moment as his eyes focused away from me. “Why would they target those specific buildings?”
I folded my arms across my chest and stared him down. “The question isn’t why, Pat. It’s how,” I affirmed, my voice cold with disdain. “How did they know which buildings to target?”
Patrick shook his head, his eyes bouncing all over the place. “I-I have no idea.”
“No idea? You don’t think it might have anything to do with the little data breach you neglected to inform me of?”
Patrick’s eyes widened as his mouth dropped open. “I-I was told it was just a fluke by the security team. N-nothing happened. Nothing was stolen.”
I cocked a brow at his response. “Three destroyed buildings would suggest otherwise,” I deadpanned. Patrick stammered as he tried to come up with an excuse, which annoyed me even more. “Why didn’t you tell me about the breach, Pat?”
He blinked several times at me, his brain spinning for anything to justify his incompetence.
“I-I didn’t think it was something to report,” he answered. “Like I said, nothing really came of the breach. Everything was fine!”
I subtly shook my head at his blundering. Denial was not a good look on desperate men.