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“Ben didn’t hire anyone to break onto the property.”
“Exactly, unless he paid under the table, but I didn’t find any large withdrawals from his accounts. Either he has cash stashed away, or it wasn’t him. Which made me think, what if Ben was telling the truth? He hired that guy to stalk Wren and break in, but always planned for it to end at the break-in.”
“Then how did the alarms go off?”
“By someone smarter than him,” Dash concluded. “Hear me out. There’s someone who knew what Ben was up to and took advantage of the situation.”
“For what purpose?”
“To steal something. Information, maybe. If someone knew Ben hired someone to sneak onto the property, what better time to do their own investigation than when there’s already a fall guy?”
“They purposely set off the alarms, knowing someone else would be caught,” I nodded. “But we didn’t find anyone else on the property.”
“If they were as good as I think they are, they would have been in and out in five minutes. And the whole fucking time, they were watching our movements around the house as we were looking for the intruder. The first thing we did was get Ben and Wren to safety. His office was cleared the moment you grabbed him, leaving the office wide open for this guy to enter. And since Ben’s computer was air-gapped?—”
“What the fuck does that mean?”
“He wasn’t connected to the internet. It’s the only way to ensure someone can’t do an external hack. Think about it. They caused a distraction and got Ben away from his desk. When we were at the house, he kept odd hours. There was no way to predict when he would be working at night. But if someone set off an alarm, they could easily set a window of opportunity.”
“And steal the information they needed.” I blew out a breath, thinking it over. “It’s a definite possibility, but how do we prove it?”
“Well, that’s the beauty of it. We can’t. Ben would never allow us access to his computer, and if someone was good enough to hack in, they knew how to cover their tracks. Not to mention that it’s been long enough, someone could have gone back in at any time since we left.”
“The trail’s cold.”
“Not cold. Dead.”
“So, this was never about her.”
“From what I’m seeing, I don’t think so. You can return her home and move on with life. Unless…”
“Unless what?”
“Unless you don’t actually want her to go home.”
I hoped things would turn out differently for us. I had this whole plan in my head that I would win her over with time. But that time had run out, and even if I still had it, I wasn’t sure there was any way to convince her otherwise. She really was cold.
“Thanks for all this.”
“I take it that means you’re not continuing the chase.”
“You said it yourself. The trail is dead.”
“But not for her. You could still?—”
“Take her home,” I finished for him. “That’s all I can do. It’s over.”
“I thought you wanted her. Why are you giving up?”
“Because she doesn’t want me. Not like that.”
“Uh…I saw the video footage from her house. The hallway? That wasn’t an act. Nobody could fake passion like that.”
“I’m not saying she was faking it. I know it was real, but in order for this to work, she would have to actually admit that she wants me to.”
“Oh. I take it?—”
“Why would she give up everything she has for someone like me?” I sighed, resigned to the situation I found myself in. “I fell for a woman who would never want me enough to walk away from her life.”
