executive. “Preston, I’m sure that Lyle and Scott can figure it out.” He might not trust any of them with Hannah, but he knew from experience that they were more than competent at writing code and keeping a system safe. They’d do their jobs. And if either of them was Hannah’s stalker, they’d want to do whatever necessary to maintain professional ties to her.
But Slade’s money was on Preston.
“Already done, sir,” said Scott. “It’s weird. I isolated this virus. It’s nasty, but I can fix it in a couple of hours.”
“Excellent.” The sooner Scott fixed the problem, the sooner Slade could ship the corporate men back to Dallas. Until then, he had to watch these three like hawks. Once they left Alaska, Slade could breathe a sigh of relief, let Burke and Cole do what they did best, and focus on Hannah.
“We’ll have things up and running in no time,” Scott assured.
“Go make it happen.” Slade shot Scott a nod, and the IT guy scurried off to work. Ben and Lyle took the hint and followed. Soon, the trio looked deeply entrenched in their computers.
Slade nudged Preston into an adjacent room. “Let’s talk, Preston.”
“Lyle and Scott are very good at their jobs. They’ll fix the mistakes arising from that native idiot’s lax adherence to policy.”
God, Preston just didn’t know when to shut up. “Glad to hear it. But that’s not what I want to talk about. I’m hoping you’ll congratulate me on my engagement.” Preston shot him a bland smile. “Congratulations. I had no idea you were seeing anyone.
What is the lucky young lady’s name?”
“I believe you know her. Hannah Craig.”
Preston’s smile instantly faded. “You’re marrying Gavin’s secretary?” Slade took a step in and lowered his voice. “I am. Would you like to explain why you molested my fiancée?”
Preston swallowed once and then again. “I didn’t molest her. It was nothing.”
“It doesn’t sound like nothing to me, especially when you leave messages after calling her new, unlisted phone number and telling her to withdraw her HR action against you while calling her ‘baby.’”
He had the good sense to look sheepish. “She’s a cute thing. I guess…I misread her signals.”
“I can assure you, if you were reading Hannah’s signals, she wasn’t giving you any green lights.”
Preston held up his hands in defeat. “Since my wife and I separated recently, I haven’t been myself. I-I was looking for comfort in the wrong place. I didn’t hurt her. And she broke my toe.”
“I will break way more than that if you even look at her again. When we get back to Dallas, we’re going to have a long discussion about your employment with this company.”
“Goddamn it, you can’t fire me. I didn’t even know the girl was dating the boss’s brother.”
“So that made her fair game?”
“I thought she might be amenable. There’s a rumor that she’s sleeping with all three of you. I figured that if she was working her way through the executives, why couldn’t I have a turn?” Before the last word was out of Preston’s mouth, Slade’s fist was flying. He connected to the middle-aged executive’s ruddy face with a satisfying thud. Preston hit the ground and immediately started whining. A thick line of blood dripped from his nose.
Slade crouched down and got in the man’s face. He was pleased with the fear in the other man’s eyes. “You’re fired. I want you on the first plane back to Dallas. Your secretary can clean out your office. If I catch you on Black Oak property again, I will have you arrested. If I see you near our fiancée again, I will have you killed. No one will ever find your body. Is that understood?”
Preston hobbled back with a nod, and Slade had to wonder if this coward would climb a tree to take pictures of a woman. It didn’t seem like his speed, but Slade wasn’t about to underestimate anyone’s desire for Hannah. He knew firsthand how it burned, how it made a man crazy. Even if everything didn’t add up perfectly, Slade still didn’t want the bastard anywhere near his woman.
He heard footsteps behind him and turned to find Dex sauntering up. His younger brother stared at Preston, who whimpered and tried to cover his face.
“Punching him feel good?” Dex nodded with malice at the other man.
Slade smiled. “Imminently satisfying.”
“Perfect. I’ll let the receptionist know to book him on the first flight to Anchorage and to make sure his ass travels in coach.” Dex started to walk away, then stopped short. “Oh, and I came in to get you. We have a conference call with the Lenox brothers in five minutes.” As Dex left, Lyle rushed through the door, then knelt to help his former boss to his feet. Lyle pulled Preston up, and the rolled-back cuffs of his shirt sleeves slipped up, revealing wiry arms covered in scratch marks. Slade suppressed a smile. The quiet ones always had the freaky sex lives. He wondered who would have scratched the hell out of a twerp like him.
Slade turned toward the door, but before he could leave, Scott, the blond tech who had supposedly identified the problem, stopped him. “Sir. Can I talk to you privately?” Slade hesitated then opened the door to a small conference room. “What is it?” If Scott said a word to him about Hannah, Slade swore he’d lay the prick out flat, too.
“It’s about the bug, sir. Like I said, it’s a nasty virus, but fairly common. Mr. Ward thinks it’s Internet security issues from the p**n , but it’s not. It looks like someone uploaded this bug directly on to the system. Someone who had access to our software wanted this system to fail and at a very precise time.”
Slade felt his body go cold. Then he paused. Believe Scott or not? Too early to tell. He needed more information. “When was it uploaded?”