Under the Billionaire's Shelter - Jamie Knight Page 0,49

my arm. Picking up the envelope, he came around the table and crouched down next to me. I prepared for the worst. His tone was calm, which scared me even more.

“I’ve emailed you a link to the footage, so you know I am telling the truth. It is stored on the cloud, so don’t even think that you can get rid of it. It would take a top-flight Dutch hacker to guess my codes. I am going to ruin you. See you in court, bitch.”

I don’t know how long I stayed there. Time kind of lost meaning. The cold floor growing warm under me. I wondered if the jolt affected my brain. I ran through the alphabet. And all my favorite books. Everything seemed to be in working order.

Rallying my strength, I struggled my way back to the bedroom and got my phone. I had to know for sure. As the footage played, Tobias and I sharing our love in full color HD, I knew it was true. Everything he said. I was going to lose my son. I was going to lose everything.

“What’s wrong?” I heard Tobias asked. It was only then that I realized that I had dropped the phone.

“He filmed us. Dave. My ex. He broke in and planted cameras.”

“I know hackers,” Tobias said.

“Doesn’t matter, on the cloud.”

“What the hell happened here?” he asked, looking at my burn.

“Taser.”

It was like a jack-in-the-box springing. Up he got, taking a cell phone out of a drawer in the desk. Dialing a number with many, many digits, there was a momentary pause in the storm as he waited for the other party to answer.

Then it started again, the flurry of words completely unintelligible, mostly because it wasn’t English. Tobias spoke with the speed and veracity of a native. It sounded like German but friendlier. It was a good while before I realized that what I was hearing was Swedish.

“Tak,” Tobias finished, ending the call.

“Who was that?” I asked, as he put the phone back in the drawer.

“Someone who can make the whole problem go away.”

“You didn’t put out a hit on him.”

“Oh, goodness no!”

“Good,” I said relieved.

“I don’t have those kinds of connections anymore. I just made him wish he was dead.”

“What did you do?”

“I called in a big favor from an old friend. Not only is his entire cloud account about to be wiped from existence, much of the same will soon be too of his entire online existence from social media accounts to bank accounts and medical records. Strictly speaking, he will cease to exist.”

“You can do that?” I asked in wonder.

“I can and have.”

Struck by a sudden revival, I threw myself around him, holding him tight, smothering every available nice of his skin with passionate kisses. He had finally done what I had been fantasizing about for so long. He made Dave disappear without needing to kill him.

Chapter Twelve - Tobias

It wasn’t even light yet. I shouldn’t have been surprised, given the nocturnal nature of the occupation. Addie was still in bed. Another couple of chapters from Candide put her right out, which was something I guessed Voltaire would have had mixed feelings about.

“Did anyone see you?”

“Not that I noticed.”

“Was that a joke?” I asked.

“Sorry, yeah, just a bit of surveillance humor. No, I wasn’t seen. Not even your driver got a good look at me.”

“Good. Come in, please.”

Securely inside the house, we went to the dining room, which Addie had started avoiding for some reason. She preferred to eat in the living room or in the bedroom with the door locked.

It struck me as a bit odd, but I figured if she wanted to tell me what was going on, she would. Basic deductive reasoning strongly indicated that it had something to do with when her ex broke in. A violation for which I was about to get recompense.

“What do you mean?”

“Two loaves and three croissants,” He said, opening his handsome leather briefcase.

Combined with his three-piece suit, the briefcase gave him more the look of an attorney than his actual profession. Likely some kind of cunning decoy. He was among the best, which is why he cost so much.

Putting a fat envelope down on the table, I watched as he counted it carefully and pocketed it.

“I will be in touch,” he said, disappearing as through into the aether.

The computer hummed to life. I already had my suit on. Thinking ahead, I didn’t want to risk waking Addie by going into the bedroom and I had already