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It felt like Jax drove a thousand miles an hour, and even then it didn’t feel fast enough. He got pulled over twice for speeding. Both times he produced his EMT badge, and was let go with a warning. Both times he slowed down for just two or three miles, then floored it right back to maximum speed again.
Route 390 stretched out before us like an endless road. I cursed every mile of bleak, featureless pavement as I fought to keep my stomach from rolling over. My head was a storm of miserable, sickening thoughts.
Telengard…
The internet handle was utterly meaningless now. Yet I’d once held the name in such high regard.
How the hell could I have trusted him?
The remaining pieces of the puzzle came together during the long ride down. Telengard hadn’t just stolen my project, he’d done even better than that: he’d waited patiently for me to finish it. He’d recognized the initial innovation, encouraged my ideas, and mentored me through the design process. Knowing of course, the entire time, that one day he’d drive up and steal the finished product.
Motherfucker!
Telengard had been with me the whole ride, without really being with me at all. And when the vehicle that was my brain would get stuck from time to time? Telengard would get out and help push. He always provided precisely the help I needed, or somehow produced the resources I was missing to get back on track. He wasn’t just riding my coattails, he was shadowing me the whole time.
“I still can’t believe I didn’t suspect him,” I mumbled aloud, from the back seat of Jax’s truck. “Of all the people who could’ve done this, I should’ve known it had to be him.”
“Look, you said it yourself: he was a mentor,” Adrian said consolingly. The hand resting on my knee gave a reassuring squeeze. “So you confided in him. That’s the kind of person you are, Harper. It’s nothing to be—”
“It’s stupid, that’s what it is,” I growled. “Naive. Idiotic. Gullible.”
“Trusting, not gullible,” Preston called back from the passenger seat. “Generous, not idiotic.”
“But he was pushing me the whole time,” I protested. “Guiding me to finish this thing so he could steal it.”
“That doesn’t make you stupid,” said Adrian. “It only makes him a thief.”
The truck rolled on, devouring the road. Either we’d find the things this man had stolen from me, or we wouldn’t. But I was more certain than ever; we would find him.
The idea of that was of course satisfying, but also scary. Telengard was resourceful. It was obvious now that he’d created the fake YouTube channel to light a fire under my ass, hiring some kid to mimic my system, my designs, my original ideas. He made me believe I had direct competition. That I had to rush to get things finished.
I had to admit, it did keep me motived.
The scary part was I didn’t know what would happen when we inevitably found him. The guys could easily do something rash. Jax, in particular, looked ready to take my ex-mentor’s head off. He’d barely said three words during the long drive down, other than to call Jennifer, who’d unselfishly dropped everything to take care of both Emma and Brayden.
There were some pieces of the puzzle still missing, of course. I didn’t know how Telengard — or Bennett M. Papas — or whoever the fuck he was managed to find me in the first place, but for someone as computer savvy as him, it probably wasn’t too hard. And once the connection was made, I’d been the idiot who’d given him my full address and personal information. He’s snuck in here like a thief in the night, not caring I might eventually suspect him, or learn who he was.
Or maybe, I hoped, he just didn’t think I’d figure him out until it was too late.
The thin-lipped face on that driver’s license was still burned into my mind. I could picture him driving all the way up here, on this very same road, ready and willing to steal my work. Thinking about our online friendship disgusted me now. I’d been so happy and grateful to him, too. So willfully blind.
But as the miles between us and New York City bled away, I realized that my anger and disappointment would only hold me back.
Hold us back. Remember?
Of course I did. I wasn’t alone, I had three incredible men with me. My men. Men determined to not only follow this through to the end, but to make me whole in every single way.
The plan was still sketchy, and I didn’t fully understand it. But these were men who’d dropped everything in their lives to take care of me. Men I trusted.
Men I loved.
That part I knew now more than ever before. In fact, I was sure of it, and I couldn’t wait to tell them. Adrian. Jax. Preston…
I loved these men with all my heart, every bit as they loved me. No matter what happened next in my life, I had that going. Unlike that which had been stolen from me, I would never, ever lose it.
And with each passing moment, that seemed more important than anything else.
~ 44 ~
