is listening, yes.” He took a deep breath, slid the drive into his pocket, and opened the door.
Kyle was walking down the hall and stopped when he caught sight of Hutch. His gaze went from slightly concerned to steely in a heartbeat.
“What the fuck are you doing? Noelle is worried about you.”
“You’re supposed to be with her.” He didn’t like the fact that Kyle had left Noelle alone.
“It was this or bring her with me, and then she would know that you’re a liar and you’re hiding something from her.” Kyle stopped in front of him. “And me. What is going on and why am I out of the loop?”
He didn’t have time to deal with Kyle. “I saw an opportunity and I took it.”
“Is MaeBe in your ear? Because if she is, then you didn’t see an opportunity,” Kyle insisted. “You planned this. You planned it when you let Noelle stay late. You planned it because you thought I wouldn’t be here.”
Well, no one had ever said Kyle was a dummy. “We will talk about this later. We need to get Noelle out of here now. Get the car and meet us at the front of the building.”
He had to get out of this building with the information on that drive.
Kyle stared at him for a second before he nodded. “Fine. But we’re going to have a long talk, and we might need to bring Ian in because if he approved this, I have a problem with him, too.”
Hutch didn’t look back as he jogged down the hallway, praying Kyle did his job. “Have the cameras come back on yet?”
“No,” MaeBe said. “I’m blind. You should know I already sent Tag a text updating him. I thought you would be all right with that.”
“Of course, but he’s at Sanctum.” It was a play night, and Tag tried not to miss Friday nights. “I want to know the minute those cameras come back up, and I want you to check CCTV anywhere around the building. I want to identify that woman.”
He made it to the lab and Noelle was starting to pack up her laptop. He grabbed his own and shoved it into his satchel.
“Hey, I was worried you got lost.” Noelle’s eyes were wide, concern for him plain there.
He was crazy about this woman, and he prayed she could forgive him. He’d thought he could honor the deal with the feds, but now he knew he should have walked out of that meeting and laid it all out to her. He couldn’t talk to her now because Pete was standing behind her.
“I told her it was likely that the janitors hadn’t gotten to the men’s room yet and you couldn’t make yourself go in.” Pete shuddered slightly. “Some of our techs, I swear they need to see the doctor. She doesn’t understand because women’s rooms are never nasty.”
He needed a reason to leave and fast. “Hey, sweetie, I sent Kyle down to get the car. I got a call from home and something’s happened to my mom.”
She paled because she knew damn well his mother wasn’t alive. She knew a whole lot about his family. She nodded. “Is she okay?”
“I don’t know. I need to get home and call my dad. We might have to head down to Louisiana if it’s serious.”
Her grip tightened around her cane as she obviously realized something had gone wrong and she might not be coming back to the office soon. “Of course. Let’s go.”
“Hutch, I’ve got cameras again,” MaeBe said in his ear. “Be careful what you say until you get in the car.”
Well, of course they would come up now. Fuck.
“Go,” Pete said. “I’ll take care of closing everything up. Please let me know if I can make things easier on you.”
She nodded and walked out of the lab with him.
The minute the door closed, she looked up at Hutch. “What’s going on?”
“Like I said, I’m not sure. Dad was upset. He said something about an accident, but the doctor called him back in the middle of our conversation. I’m waiting for him to get in touch again.”
Noelle stopped, and for a moment he worried she might argue with him. Then she started for the elevators. “I hope everyone is okay and not in danger.”
Smart girl. “Me, too. Kyle is getting the car and we’ll go back home and take it from there. Hopefully we’ll have more information soon.”
They made it to the elevator, the tension palpable between them. He reached out