Chapter 2
“Wow. I was not expecting that.”
Nick Blackmore glanced at his wife and rubbed the back of his neck. “Neither was I.”
When Taylor had asked for his help, he hadn’t expected her to tell him she needed to retrieve something from her cabin first. He’d used the opportunity to bring Charity in on the meeting, and given the turn of events following Taylor’s return, package in hand, he was glad he’d followed his instincts.
Taylor’s distress at the moment when she revealed how little time she’d lived in Texas before she and Charity had met had been heartbreakingly genuine.
Nick had watched something close to awe as his wife had yet again put the meaning of her name into action and comforted her friend. He was one hell of a lucky man.
He looped his arms around her waist and tugged her gently toward him. “Are you sure you’re okay?”
On tiptoe, she kissed him gently on the lips.
“Of course, I am. I’m not about to let what Tay just told us affect our friendship.
It doesn’t matter how long she’s lived here—it’s just details.
Our friendship means way more to both of us.
” She chewed her lower lip. “I know it was a hard thing for her to do. I wish she hadn’t left so quickly, though. Do you think she’s all right?”
Despite all their efforts to persuade her otherwise, Taylor had refused to stay once she’d finished telling her story. Nick wondered if she was embarrassed—totally unnecessarily—or perhaps was even afraid they might judge her.
Two facts, however, were crystal clear. One, Taylor loved her father—it was there in everything she’d told them.
Two, in Nick’s opinion, the man was pulling a dick move on his daughter, and had been from the moment he told her to leave New York.
How the hell could any parent tell their child to rip up their entire life like that?
As for his wife’s worried question, Nick wanted to say yes, that he was sure his wife’s best friend was fine, but the truth was, he wasn’t sure at all. “I have an idea. Why don’t you go and check on her?”
“I will, but before I go, what’s your gut telling you about this?” She pointed at the items Taylor had left with them.
Nick picked up the flash drive and turned it over between his fingers. “That it’s bad news,” he said gravely. Wondering what was on it that warranted such a high capacity, he was about to slot it into his laptop when Charity slapped his wrist.
“Really? Just like that? You’re going to plug a drive into your laptop without taking any precautions?” She folded her arms and leveled a piercing glare at him. “See, this is why I can’t leave you alone for five minutes. Have I taught you nothing?”
He’d clearly committed an almost unforgivable computing faux pas. “Would it help if I said words like ‘firewall’ and ‘anti-virus’?”
If his wife’s stony expression was any indication, clearly not. Not enough, at any rate. He braced himself for the incoming lecture.
“You have no idea where that drive’s come from, if the source is trustworthy or not… there could be any kind of malware on it, and it could do untold damage to our network.”
“True, but in my own defense, I wasn’t planning to do it without scanning the drive first.” He wasn’t quite that much of an idiot. At least, he hoped he wasn’t.
“That might not be enough. I have an air-gapped laptop you can use. Why don’t you let me prep it for you, before I go check on Tay?”
Nick grinned. “I knew there was a good reason why I married you.”
His loving wife stooped and administered a humdinger of a kiss. “I’m still trying to work out why I married you.”
“Very funny. We both know it was for my good looks, charm, wit, and outstanding intelligence. Not to mention my considerable prowess as a lover.” He could give as good as he got.
Charity snorted. “Drive of unknown origin. Networked laptop. Just sayin’, Casanova.”
She had him there. “Okay—you win.” With him, she always would.
“I know. I won the day you walked into my coffee shop. Give me a few minutes, and I’ll grab the laptop for you.”
While she was gone, Nick returned to his perusal of the documents.
The more he read, the more concerned he grew.
The picture being painted was disquieting, to say the least. Potential financial irregularities came flying at him left, right and center, but there was more.
His military training might have made him an expert in the use of firearms, but his knowledge of the details of their manufacture was superficial at best. Even so, the more he read, the more uneasy he became.
“Okay, I’m back. Where would you like me to put this?”
His wife’s cheerful voice liberated him from the disturbing nature of what he was reading. “Just here will be fine,” he replied, gesturing toward the small table by his desk.
“Great. I’ll get it set up for you.” She held out her hand, wiggling her fingers. “Drive, please.”
With an indulgent smile, he dropped it into her palm. While she busied herself with the power supply, he pulled a spare chair around his desk for her, pushing it neatly under her perfect ass just as she looked around for something to sit on.
Always appreciative of her wizardry in the field of information technology, he perched on the corner of his desk so he could look over her shoulder. After several cycles of a flurry of keystrokes followed by frustrated muttering, she sat back, shoulders slumped, and gave the sigh of the century.
“Okay, tell me what’s happening,” he said. “And is there anything I can do to help?”
Charity waved a frustrated hand at the screen, where some sort of login box was taunting her with a message flashing in red. “The encryption on this thing is wild. Military-grade, in my opinion.”
Nick tried not to show his disappointment at the prospect of not being able to examine the contents of the drive as soon as he’d like. If the security on it was enough to challenge his wife’s impressive skills, then it had to be pretty formidable. “So, there’s no way into it?”
The slight smile gracing her lips hinted at a secret. “I didn’t say that. There is something I can try.”
“Oh? What’s that?”
She pressed her lips together, as if debating what to say next. “I’ve been using this laptop to work on a piece of software.”
Nick pursed his lips. “And the problem with that is…?”
“It’s the kind of thing that could get me a free pass into just about any black-hat hacker group.”
He folded his arms, wondering how best to respond. “Have you contacted any black-hat hacker groups? I mean, at some point, do I need to start practicing how to bake a file into a cake, and have a plan for breaking you out of prison and going on the lam with you?”
He hoped the stupidity of the question would convey how appalled he wasn’t by her confession. His hopes were fulfilled when she laughed with relief.
“You’re not shocked?”
“Why would I be? You never know when something like that might come in handy for the kind of work we could potentially get involved in. Have at it, sweetheart. I love the initiative.”
“Okay.”
With the kind of smile that made him wish they could take a break for a quickie, she made herself comfortable again, tapped some keys, and the screen changed. Intrigued, Nick continued to watch her.
More key presses, and the screen flashed red.
Charity paused, hit another couple of keys, and screen cleared.
Whatever she’d done, she tried another variation on it, with the same result.
However, when she tried a third time, the gap between the last key press and the result was a fraction longer, and this time the result was a brief flash of green and the screen changed completely, to something that looked remarkably like a typical display of files on a drive.
“It worked,” Charity exclaimed. “You’re in, although looking at some of the file extensions, the files were created by some non-standard system—my guess would be it’s some specialist in-house system belonging to KDT.
We might need to bring in the heavy artillery if you want to take a look at the contents of those files. ”
The heavy artillery being John “Tex” Keegan, a man who had become a good friend and who was an incredible source for knowledge and connections when it came to finding out the impossible.
“If that’s what we need to do, then we’ll do it.”
As Charity stood, he stepped forward to intercept her by taking her in his arms for a kiss. “Thank you for working your magic again. Have I told you you’re amazing lately?”
She adopted an over-the-top thoughtful expression and tapped her lips with her forefinger. “Hm, let me think. I’m not sure, but don’t let that stop you.”
He kissed her again. “You’re amazing.”
She hummed with contentment. “Don’t stop thinking that. I’d better go. That took a little longer than I expected, and I don’t want Tay to start thinking we’ve abandoned her.”
“Good thinking. Make sure she knows she’s not alone in this. We’ll do whatever it takes to work this out. Tell her it might take some time, but it’ll be ok. I promise.”
Her fingers drifted over his cheek and cupped his jaw. “I think you’re pretty amazing, too. I’ll see you later.”
Once she’d gone, and safe in the knowledge he couldn’t unwittingly obliterate the network she’d worked so hard to set up, Nick made himself comfortable at the laptop.
He might not be able to access some of the files, but there were others with more familiar file extensions.
As he browsed the contents of the drive, the concerns he already had with regard to the paper documents snowballed.
The readable files referenced some of the bespoke files, and from what the former contained, it appeared that the latter consisted of technical specifications for military equipment, more contracts, and more complex financial records.