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“Really?” Cal’s head popped up over the back of the sofa. “Excellent. It’s almost my turn.”
“Your turn for what?”
He flopped back down, the leather creaking as he changed position. “Fieldwork. This part has been all your thing, all the hacking and digging and research and whatnot. Once you get a lead we can follow, Nero and I can go and take the guy down.”
“Uh, hate to burst your bubble, but I meant I had a lead on the file we are trying to track down, not on the person who’s after me.”
“Damn it.” Cal huffed out a frustrated sigh. “Is there anything I can do? I’m going stir-crazy here.”
I shrugged, but he didn’t see it. “I promise I’ll let you know the second you’re needed.”
“Good enough, I guess.”
My focus returned to the file path Julius had decrypted. Something about it felt familiar and for more reasons than that it was an FBI server. Grabbing the laptop Julius had set up for me, I started following the path. By the time I got past the FBI-encrypted firewall, I knew why it felt familiar. I had hacked this server for fun right after I graduated from college. I remembered it well. I’d been new to the dark web, taking jobs that paid pretty well to hack the unhackable. On a dare, someone in a forum where everyone bragged about their biggest conquests challenged me to get into a classified FBI server. Up until then, I’d stuck to smaller banks and businesses and some local government files. Thinking I had something to prove, I took the bait and found an older classified server that hadn’t had much activity on it in years. The dare included showing proof in the form of a file transfer, and since I’d gone into the most dormant server I could find, I figured it would be harmless to steal a file. I picked the biggest encrypted file on the server, grabbed a screenshot of the file downloading with the FBI server extension visible, and got the fuck out of there the second the transfer was done. Thinking I’d have time to dig into what it was, I stored the file on a jump drive and tossed it in my safe.
Wait.
I tossed it in my safe.
Which meant I had it here.
“Fuck.” I pushed back from the desk and crossed the room to Julius’s safe, where he’d let me store the drives I’d grabbed from my apartment.
“What? What are you looking for?”
“Shh.” Sweat beaded on my brow as I entered the code Julius had set up for me with shaking fingers. It took two tries to get it right, and I pulled out the lockbox Julius had insisted I store the drives in. The key to the box was on the shelf above the computers, so I brought the box back to the desk and set it down. Key in hand, I took a breath and slid it into the lock. Twelve jump drives stared back at me, but I knew in a second the one I needed was missing.
“Damn it.”
Cal had gotten up from the couch and was watching me with his arms crossed over his chest. “What’s wrong?”
“I’m missing a drive. I swear I grabbed them all, but I must have left the one I need in the safe at my apartment.”
A sly smile stretched across Cal’s face, and he rubbed his hands together. “Then let’s go get it.”
Slamming the lid closed on the box of drives, I met Cal’s eyes. “I can’t do that. Nero told me to stay here.”
Cal’s eyebrow rose. “Do you need this drive thingy?”
My stomach turned over. Without a doubt, the file that was at the heart of all this was on the Spider-Man drive that was—hopefully—still in the safe at my place. I’d never gotten around to looking at what was in the file because shortly after I’d met Jordan and not long after that, I was arrested for my role in his Ponzi scheme, but there was no way the incomplete file path didn’t lead to the file I’d stolen. There was no way in heaven or hell this was a coincidence.
Someone knew I had that file, and they were willing to threaten my life for it.
We needed to know what was on that drive.
“Yes. I really do.”
“Then let’s go get it.”
Outside of a couple of days in the field with Nero, I hadn’t left the Hunter estate. I hadn’t left at all without Nero by my side, and thinking about doing so now felt wrong all the way to my bones. Leaving was a huge risk, but I’d have Cal with me. If we were going to make ORCA work when this was over, I was going to need to be able to trust all of Nero’s brothers. I needed to have faith that while leaving with Cal would no doubt piss my mate off, getting that drive was worth the risk for the greater good of ending the threat against me.
I nodded. “Okay. Let’s go, but if Nero is pissed, you better tell him this was all your idea.”
Cal smiled, his eyes full of glee. “Understood. I just need to grab something from the garage. I’ll meet you at the front door.”
He slipped past me and raced up the stairs. I didn’t want to know what he was getting from the garage, but I could probably guess. Guns weren’t my favorite thing, though the FBI had made sure I knew how to shoot. I didn’t own one, but Cal had alluded to having an arsenal, and I half expected him to be waiting at the front door decked out like sea panda Rambo.
Taking a deep breath, I followed him upstairs.
