Page 16 of Aaron

“Not as much as you’d think. From what we’ve found, they were testing the waters, testing for vulnerabilities. That’s why the cover-up is so sloppy. Mercier panicked when he realized Jaclyn discovered an issue and went directly to Andrew. You were lucky—very lucky—there.”

Adrian and I exchange glances. “Is she in danger? I doubt Andrew will let her out of his sight, let alone off the mountain now that he’s married her,” Adrian comments.

Tristan shakes his head. “I doubt it. It looks like Enki cut Mercier off as soon as he tried getting in touch. When we got his phone records, he had several calls to an unknown number, but none of them lasted more than a few seconds. It never hurts to be careful, though.”

I agree. We won’t allow anything to happen to Jaclyn, even if she wasn’t part of the family. It’ll only be a matter of time before Adrian gives him the update about all of this.

“Exactly. What happens now?” Adrian asks.

“For JNG, not much. Aaron, has your audit uncovered anything?”

“I’ve made it through the first two quarters of this year and nothing so far. I expect to wrap it all up by next week. Do you think I need to go back further?” Since none of us is sure when or if a breach happened, I wasn’t sure if I’d need to go back two or three years.

“This fiscal year should cover it. Like I said, we think this was exploratory. They exploited Mercier’s financial need and hatred of your family, but it didn’t get them anything. How are you dealing with the current contracts?”

“Ronald Snyder is taking care of their cancellation. There are three contracts with them, but only one was altered; it still gives us grounds to dissolve them. They can sue if they want, but they won’t have a leg to stand on,” Adrian replies.

“Then just let the task force do their thing. If anything feels off, let me know. Enki is mine to deal with from this point on. JNG will be in the clear at the end of the contracts.”

Adrian blows out a breath, and the tension in his shoulders eases. He feels responsible for this breach, just as much as Tristan does. But thanks to Jaclyn, we caught it before it became an actual issue.

“What will happen to Enki?” I ask, genuinely curious.

Tristan studies me through the screen, his expression anything but pleasant. I fight the urge to squirm in my seat. Between his narrowed eyes and compressed lips, his anger is palpable. When he finally answers, his deep, gravelly voice echoes around the conference room, implying a threat. “Nothing you need to know about.” This is the main reason we keep his company on retainer—not just for Parker Associates, but for the other side of the company—the dangerous, black ops side: Forsaken, Inc.

I dip my head. “Got it. So then if that’s the bad news, I’ll be honest, I expected worse. What’s the good news?”

Tristan’s smirk is unexpected. “I guess I already shared that as well. JNG is in the clear, and Jaclyn should be safe. You’ll still have to work with the joint fed task force, but it should be relatively painless.”

“I guess we dodged a bullet,” Adrian comments almost to himself, but loud enough for me to hear him.

Tristan closes the folder and pushes it to the side of his desk. His stormy expression raises the hairs on the back of my neck. “You did. But it’s my fault that the bullet existed at all. An oversight we’ll resolve. If you need anything else, you know how to reach me. I’m closing the breach investigation from our side.” He raises an eyebrow as he waits for Adrian’s response. I swear he’s daring my brother to object. He won’t. We’re in the clear, and that’s all we need to know. Although I’ll complete my forensic deep dive into our financials before I consider the investigation complete.

Adrian’s grin is wicked as he speaks, “Happy hunting, my friend.”

Tristan's wry smile is the first I’ve seen in ages. “Oh, it will be very fulfilling. Later.”

Before either of us can respond, he disconnects the call, and the screen goes dark.

“I wouldn’t want to be whoever is behind Enki,” I mutter as I push away from the conference table and toss my empty water bottle into the garbage can against the wall.

“No shit. I am curious who is behind Enki and the other shell corporations he’s bound to uncover before he gets to the actual people responsible, though. Not sure we’ll get that information out of him—ever. I’m pissed they got through all our protocols, but Tristan takes that personally. I worry about him. I keep hoping he’s going to come back from that incident, but he seems to sink deeper into the darkness every time I speak to him.”

“You tried,” I add. “He has to move on, but it doesn’t look like that’s possible.”

“No, it fucking doesn’t. But I keep hoping.” Adrian shuts down the equipment and follows me out of the conference room. “Are you going back to work or taking the rest of the night off?”

The threat no longer exists, but I can’t leave my audit unfinished, even if I would like to head to my cabin and relax with a bourbon and a book. “Heading to my office. I need to get through the rest of this month tonight. How about you? Are you going to work, too, or heading to Andrew’s cabin?”

Adrian looks at his watch. “I’ll work for a while longer; it’s still kind of early to interrupt the newlyweds. I’d rather give them as much time as possible before I intrude on their marital bliss.”

“Marital bliss, huh? Don’t forget to bring dinner with you,” I remind him.

“Aaric texted during our call with Tristan. They left it on Andrew’s porch.”

“That was nice of them. But they probably figured you’d forget and leave our brother and his new wife starving to death.” I’m teasing him, but it would have happened, and wouldn’t have been the first time, either.

Adrian glares at me. “Eh! Fuck off. Like you don’t get lost in your numbers.”