Angel: A Linear Tactical Romantic Suspense Standalone Page 16

  He was about to sign it. A few minutes from now, he’d be going into a meeting to let his core team know what was coming, putting the rumors to rest. Collingwood Technology—under a new name—would be in very capable hands, but those hands would no longer be Gabe’s.

  In a few weeks, for the first time in his adult life, he was going to be free to go wherever he wanted and do whatever he wanted.

  And the only place he wanted to be was back at Jordan’s house.

  He wanted to do everything with that woman. Build a company with her. Build a life with her. Travel the world with her. Be a part of every first she ever had for the rest of her life.

  The good thing about being in your mid-thirties? When you finally decided to settle down, you knew what you wanted.

  Gabe wanted her.

  When he got a call from the security desk in the lobby announcing Jordan was here to see him, Gabe felt like he’d almost conjured her out of his thoughts. He rushed downstairs to meet her, wondering the whole time why she would be here. He knew how seriously she took her parole restrictions.

  As soon as he saw her, he knew something was wrong. She was standing in the middle of the lobby, tense, both arms wrapped around her middle. As he crossed to her, she stiffened even further. He wanted to grab her, pull her to him—everything inside him demanded that he do that—but she looked so brittle, so breakable, he stopped without touching her.

  He hadn’t seen that look in her eyes for months now. What had put it back there?

  He kept his tone low, soothing. “Hey, beautiful, didn’t expect to see you here. What’s wrong?”

  “Nothing’s wrong,” she said brightly. Way too brightly. “I just wanted to see you. I should’ve called first, I’m sorry.”

  “You’re welcome here whenever you want, Rainfall. Were you feeling like a rebel?”

  “Something like that. I-I . . .”

  He stepped closer and wrapped his hands over her hunched shoulders. She immediately stepped away.

  “What’s going on, Jordan?”

  “Nothing! Nothing.” She smiled that smile again, it was almost painful to look at. “I just wanted to see you. Get a tour around or something.”

  Maybe she was just nervous because she was here. He didn’t care if she broke her parole, but he knew she did. “Is everything okay at the house? Did something happen?”

  Her eyes shot up to his. “No, everything is fine.”

  Things obviously weren’t fine. He reached over and cupped her neck. “Tell me what’s going on. We’ll deal with it together.”

  She swallowed, her eyes darting frantically around the lobby. He could almost feel the panic rolling off of her. Jesus.

  “Jordan . . .”

  Her eyes fell to the front door before she finally seemed to pull herself together. Her shoulders straightened. Her chin came up. She met his eyes and held them. “I’m fine. You know me, just nervous that I might get in trouble, I guess. I thought being here might give me some inspiration or something.”

  “Can you give me an hour? I have a conference room full of people that I need to deal with, and then I’d love to show you around.”

  She gave him a tight smile. “Okay, that’s no problem. I’ll just stay here until you’re done.”

  He wrapped an arm around her shoulder and led her toward the elevator, giving a small nod to the receptionist. “No, you can stay in my office. No need for you to stay in the lobby.”

  Because as soon as he could wrap up this meeting, he was damn well going to figure out why Jordan was really here. Inspiration, his ass.

  She didn’t say anything as they exited the elevator and walked down the hallway, but something was wrong.

  “Give me twenty minutes, and I’ll be back.”

  “I thought you said you needed an hour.”

  “I’ll cut it short. Whatever’s going on . . .”

  “Nothing’s going on.” She gave him a smile he didn’t believe for a second. “Take your time, I’ll be fine in here.” She sat down in the chair across from his desk.

  He gave her a curt nod and left his office. He definitely wouldn’t be taking his time. But at least he knew she would be safe in his office. Whatever had hurt or scared her couldn’t get to her now. She’d come here for a reason, he knew that much. She wouldn’t have risked it for nothing. Whatever it was, they would figure it out.

  And goddammit, if someone from Oak Creek had broken her windows again, Gabe was going to take a much more drastic approach than Mackay’s “wait for the town to remember who they really are” plan. It had seemed like things were getting better.

  But something had her here in a panic. And it wasn’t something good.

  Despite his efforts, the meeting took longer than he wanted it to. It was nearly forty minutes before he got back to his office.

  Jordan was gone.

  He checked his phone but found no messages from her. He sent her a text.

  I’m back. Where are you?

  No response. He was just about to go check the restrooms, although he had one attached to his office, when Kendrick came bursting in.

  “We’ve got a huge problem.”

  It took less than twenty minutes for her to gain entry into Gabriel’s computer—since he’d already trusted her enough to give her system access—and install the code that would let Michael worm his way into the CT financial system. She fought not to vomit with every keystroke.

  This back door into the Collingwood Technology system would put the whole company at risk. But Jordan forced herself to push that thought to the side. She would tell Gabe as soon as she could. As soon as she knew her friends were safe.

  This was going to change everything. How could it not? How could he ever trust her again knowing that she’d lied to his face and put everything he’d ever worked for at risk? He might understand, even forgive her, but he wasn’t going to be able to ever truly trust her again.

  She rubbed her chest to try to ease the pain there. But it wouldn’t go away.

  She swallowed a sob as she pressed the last key to run the program, then stood and rushed out of his office, taking the elevator down to the lobby and walking out the door. Maybe she’d handled this all wrong. Maybe she should’ve called the police from his office. But what if they didn’t believe her? It certainly wouldn’t be the first time.

  No, she would have to handle this herself.

  As soon as she got home, she could get on the other computer linked to CT and hopefully undo the damage she’d done here. That would work.

  For the first time since Michael had made his demands, she felt the slightest bit of hope. Yes, she could just rewrite the code once she got home. Maybe even stop her father before he could make his move against Collingwood Technology, or at the very least shut it down before he did much damage.

  Gabriel wouldn’t even have to know.

  She wasn’t going to hide Michael. She had to warn her friends so they could be on watch. After all, Linear Tactical was in the business of protecting and teaching people how to protect themselves. They would want to know. They had a right to know about the danger in front of them. And then law enforcement. Hopefully, they could pick Michael up before much damage was done.

  But she wouldn’t have to tell Gabe what had happened. She could fix this without him ever knowing. Things wouldn’t need to change between them.

  She rushed through the lobby and out the door to where Michael sat waiting in her truck. She didn’t hesitate, walked straight out, and got in, smiling at her father like nothing was wrong. The sooner she got rid of Michael, the sooner she could put her plan into action.

  “Call your people now and tell them to back off my friends. It’s done.”

  “Do you think I’m just stupid enough to believe you? We’ll get somewhere where I can check, and then we’ll see about your friends’ safety.”

  They drove all the way out of Idaho Falls before he finally pulled over to a café with internet access and took out his laptop.


  Her heart sank. Michael was quick, good. Some of her coding ability must have come from him. She would have to move fast in order to keep him from accessing accounts before she could stop him.

  The happy look on her father’s face—the pride he felt from stealing from others—made her want to throw up.

  Michael grinned at her. “I’ll be honest, I didn’t think you’d be able to hack their system in that short amount of time. Your skills are either better than I thought, or Collingwood’s security is much weaker.”

  Or Gabe had trusted her, and she’d just used that trust against him.

  “You got the access you wanted. Now call off Godlewski.”

  She listened as he called Allan. “We got what we wanted. You guys stand down.”

  Allan said something she couldn’t hear. That sickening grin came over Michael’s face again.

  “Yeah, well don’t worry. I’m sure there will be a next time.”

  Allan said something else, then Michael disconnected the call.

  “Your friends are safe. For now. And Godlewski said to tell you it didn’t have to be this way. Could’ve been much easier.”

  If she didn’t already know she had to turn him in, that sentence would’ve clenched it for her. Michael knew he could get her to do what he wanted. There was nothing stopping him from forcing her to do it again.

  They drove back to Oak Creek in silence. Michael, giddy with his win, actually tried to engage her in conversation, but she ignored him.

  As they came up on the outskirts of town, he stopped the truck. “This is where you get out. I think a nice walk back out to your house will do you good since, sadly as Allan reports, you don’t have many friends here who will give you a ride.”

  He took out his phone, a much nicer one than the one he’d broken, and spun it around so she could see the picture on the screen.

  It was her standing in front of Collingwood Technology. “That’s you very clearly outside of the state of Wyoming. If you warn any of your friends or decide to tell the police you’ve seen me, then I will send this picture to your parole officer. I’m sure you’ll have an interesting time explaining why you broke parole.”

  Years of practice keeping her feelings locked inside helped her hold her tongue now.

  Michael smiled at her. “Don’t worry, Daughter. I’m sure I’ll be seeing you again soon.”

  Chapter 25

  Jordan ran to the bakery as soon as Michael drove away, but no one was there, and Violet wasn’t in her upstairs apartment. Jordan ran to Aiden’s house next, since it was closest, but no one was home there either.

  She decided to run to the hospital to see if Annie was working. But the closer she got to the building, the more her stomach clenched. The last time she’d been here, she’d been in terrible pain, and nobody had cared.

  By the time she reached the emergency room door, her hands were visibly shaking. She had to force herself to keep moving forward. This wasn’t about her. This was about keeping her friends safe.

  She walked up to the nurse’s station closest to the door, relieved when she didn’t recognize the young nurse working there.

  “Is Dr. Annie Griffin working right now?”

  The nurse shook her head. “No, I’m sorry. She’s off tonight. Are you injured? Do you need to see a doctor?”

  “No. Would it be possible for me to use the phone?”

  The nurse shook her head. “I’m sorry, but this phone isn’t for public use.”

  Jordan braced herself when two nurses walked around the corner. Nurse Estes, the woman who’d almost gotten fired rather than treat Jordan, glared at her. But thankfully, Riley Wilde was with her. Jordan had known Riley in high school. They’d never been friends, but at least Riley never treated her badly.

  “Jordan, is everything okay? You look very pale. Are your hands bothering you?”

  “I need to get in touch with Charlie or Violet or Annie. Or just call Linear Tactical. Can I use your phone?”

  Nurse Estes just huffed and walked off in the other direction. Riley rolled her eyes.

  “Don’t pay any attention to her. Here’s my phone, but if you need them, I think they’re all at dinner at New Brothers right now. At least that’s where Anne was going when she got off work about an hour ago.”

  Relief flooded her. “Thank you.” She felt like she should say more but didn’t know what. “Thank you,” she said again before turning to leave.

  “Hey, Jordan!”

  Jordan turned back to the other woman.

  “There are a lot of people in this town who like you. Or would like you, if they had a chance to get to know you. Don’t forget that.”

  Again, Jordan wasn’t sure what to say. “I . . .”

  Riley shooed her with her hands. “Go find your friends. I just wanted to make sure you knew that.”

  Jordan nodded, trying to take it all in, as she turned and ran back out the door. A new friend was something she would have to think about later. Right now, she needed to keep her current friends safe.

  She dashed down the two blocks back to New Brothers Pizza, slowing as she reached the door. God, she didn’t want to go in there. All the nervous energy that had been coursing through her system was gone. Now, she just felt ready to fall over. She definitely didn’t want to face what was in front of her.

  But that wasn’t an option. She did have these friends, and they had stood up for her. She was going to protect them, even though she was probably about to be publicly humiliated.

  Jordan pushed the door open to the pizzeria and walked inside. Conversation in the front half of the restaurant stopped. Someone rushed to the back, undoubtedly to get Mr. DiMuzio. Jordan didn’t see her friends.

  She was about to start looking for them when both Mr. DiMuzio and Adam stepped forward and blocked her way. Mr. DiMuzio crossed his arms over his chest.

  Jordan had to clench her teeth to keep them from chattering. “I know you don’t want me here. I’m just looking for my friends. It’s important. But as soon as I give them the message, I’ll leave.”

  To her surprise Mr. DiMuzio didn’t argue the point. “Your friends are in the back.”

  “Oh, I—okay, thank you.”

  “Zac Mackay made it very clear to me that he has forgiven you for the accident. If he’s let it go, then I’m sure I need to also,” Mr. DiMuzio continued. “But seeing you here reminds me too much of what your father did. What we lost because of him.”

  Her throat dried up, making words almost impossible, but she forced them out. “I know. I’m sorry.”

  This was what she’d been trying to explain to Gabriel when she’d said the situation was complicated, and why she didn’t want to try to go on dates in Oak Creek. These were not bad people. They weren’t mean to her out of spite—usually. Many of them had lost so much at her father’s hand, that seeing her just brought back that pain and misery.

  “But you can rest assured there will be no more damages to your home.” Mr. DiMuzio reached over and grabbed Adam by the ear. “His mother and I are ashamed of what Adam did. Even worse, he did it because he thought we would approve. We do not approve.”

  It was more than she’d ever thought she’d get from one of the families who’d been hurt the worst by her family. “Thank you.”

  Mr. DiMuzio gave one solemn nod of his head as if everything was now settled. “Go and see your friends. They’re in the back room.” He dragged his son by the ear back into the kitchen.

  She didn’t waste any more time. Every second she took now gave Michael more time to do damage to Gabriel.

  She entered the private room, and just like out front, conversation immediately stopped.

  “I—I . . .”

  She rubbed her hand over her eyes. Was she doing the right thing? Even if she told them everything, would they ever be truly safe? Maybe she needed to run. Maybe the solution wasn’t trying to get them to protect themselves, but to take herself out of the equation so Michael would follow. She looked arou
nd at all the faces staring at her.

  “Want some pizza, Jordan?” Zac asked with a smile, his eyes compassionate, steady.

  Annie slipped her hand into his. “Yeah, sweetie. We tried to call and invite you and Gabe, but your phone went straight to voicemail.”

  They were all looking at her with smiles and welcome. Not a single one of them—even Dorian, who sat mostly alone over near the window—had a hint of distrust or dislike in their features.

  Jordan burst into tears. “I’ve put you all in danger.”

  Chapter 26

  When Kendrick had burst into Gabe’s office and told him someone had attempted to access the accounts they’d been monitoring, Gabe had actually thought it was a good thing. Finally, they could make some progress on this vulnerable part of their system—something they’d been wanting to do for months—before the sale of the company to Ian was final. He’d stopped hunting for Jordan as he and Kendrick had pinpointed where the leak had come from.

  When the results came back, the two men had looked at each other, then ran it again. Because that couldn’t be right.

  The IP address for the computer that had accessed the weakened account?

  Gabe’s.

  When?

  During the forty minutes he’d left Jordan alone there.

  “How the hell were you on your computer while also in that conference meeting?” Kendrick asked.

  Gabe slumped back in his chair. “Jordan came by. I left her here while I was wrapping things up.”

  Everything about his body felt numb as he tried to figure out a reason why Jordan would’ve accessed that account.

  Kendrick was already on the phone, checking to see if Jordan had left the building. When the receptionist confirmed she had, he had all security footage streamed to Gabe’s computer.

  Gabe sat, grateful Kendrick was functioning on all cylinders because he certainly wasn’t. “Why would she have accessed that account?”

  There had to be a reason.

  Kendrick clapped him on the shoulder. “That account and section of the system is vulnerable. Obviously, she didn’t know we were aware of the problem and was trying to take advantage of it.”