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Julius smirked. “Don’t worry, big brother. I’ll help keep him safe online. You worry about keeping him alive.” He nodded at Cal. “Cal can help. It’ll be fine. Besides, if art thieves are going missing, it’s in our best interest to be informed, don’t you think?”
Nero glared at his brother. “Fine, but I don’t like it.”
“You don’t have to, but I have a feeling Felix would rather not wait for the SPD or the FBI to figure out who’s after him.”
I shrugged, indicating Quin was right.
“So let’s back up.” Julius’s fingers flew across his laptop keys. “You said digging into this Amanda Vanderkaamp’s financials triggered the threat against you?”
I nodded. “Yes.”
“But you don’t know why?” Julius glanced up from his keyboard.
I shook my head. “No. I had just found a file on an archived FBI server that detailed her financial transactions from before her arrest.”
“What made you dig that far back in her history?” Quin’s question made me pause to retrace my digital steps.
“If you were working for the FBI, why did you need to hack their files?” Cal seemed confused.
Julius and I shared a look and a smile. “Because it’s good to keep one’s skills sharp. And it’s a fun challenge. Asking for access to archived information that’s considered sensitive, classified, or beyond the scope of what my handler considers my job requires a shit ton of paperwork for them to ultimately sayno anyway. Part of my role as a ‘consultant’ is to identify any security issues and report them to the cybersecurity team. I was killing all the birds with one stone and cutting through a bunch of bureaucratic red tape.”
“You didn’t answer my question.” Quin looked at me with shred eyes.
“I’m not really sure. There were a number of deposits made to Amanda’s accounts under her new name that felt suspicious. I traced the account numbers to an account in the Caymans, which traced back to a shell company in the Netherlands that allegedly transports art around the world, which ultimately led me nowhere. It felt important and definitely illegal. I wanted to know if Amanda had ever received similar payments from the same company in the past.”
The brothers all nodded, Cal rocking back in his chair again.
“I think we need to start by retracing your steps and see where that leads us. If there really is a mole in the FBI or even the SPD, they might not recognize my digital footprint like they recognize yours. Let’s see if we can get past where you got locked out.”
“I agree with Julius.” Quin inclined his head toward his younger brother. “You obviously found something someone didn’t want you to see. Retracing your steps so far feels like our only lead.”
“What am I supposed to do while you nerds play on your computers?”
Nero kicked Cal’s chair, and he fell forward again. “If you’re serious about working on the bounty-hunting side of this business, you’re going to get started studying for your PI license.”
Cal stuck out his bottom lip. “But I don’t need a PI license to be a bounty hunter.”
Nero slid his fingers away from mine and crossed his arms. “You do if you’re working for me.”
“Fine. But I’m not going to like it.”
“You don’t have to.” Nero uncrossed his arms and took my hand under the table again. “Before we get started, my mate and I need to spend some time alone.” He stood and pulled me with him, effectively ending the family meeting.
When he towed me all the way upstairs and backed me up against the wall just inside his closed bedroom door, I couldn’t say I was mad about it.
CHAPTER
NINE
NERO
I wouldn’t have saidI was a paranoid person by nature, but something about what was going on with Felix just felt wrong. Maybe it was that I didn’t like the fact that, so far, our enemy was faceless and nameless. There was nowhere to channel my rage over someone threatening my mate, and it was making me antsy.
Felix and Julius had retreated to Julius’s lair after I’d fucked Felix senseless against my bedroom wall and sent him to meet up with my brother with a little bit of a hitch in his step.
They’d been downstairs for hours, and I’d been doing all I could not to go down there and sit looking over his shoulder. He’d been in my life for two days, but I missed him like he’d been part of my life forever. Even though he was still in the house. Even though I’d be able to hold him in my arms all night.
The soft, squishy feelings I had for Felix felt totally foreign, and while I wouldn’t trade him for anything, he made me feel vulnerable. And I didn’t like it.
