Big Ben (See No Evil Trilogy #1) - Nana Malone Page 0,47
also corrupts the data.”
I frowned. I hadn’t even thought of such a thing. “Were you able to get any information at all?”
“A little. I’m not going to be able to make much sense of most of it though. It’s like a giant dump of data, some of it seemingly inconsequential. It could also be a code. I don’t know. And loverboy wanted this really bad? Enough to have you smuggle it out?”
“I guess. I mean maybe it’s corporate sabotage, but last I checked the Van Linsteds weren’t into property development. Or hotels.”
“No, they’re not, at least not as far as we know. If it doesn’t shine and glitter and they can’t steal from impoverished indigenous peoples, they’re not interested,” Telly muttered. “Okay, I want to keep trying. But I need you to be careful. Some of the data I am seeing points at Eton College.”
I frowned. “The secondary school for boys?”
“Yeah. I know that Ben and his mates went to Eton. Other than that, it just looks like bullshit data. I’m going to keep digging, but I might need another set of eyes.”
“What do you mean another set of eyes?” I clearly was no coder.
“Well, you know there are people better than me out there, people who black hat hack and white hat hack. I happen to know someone who rides the line. I’m going to fire off this data to him and see if he can come back with anything. Because it is bizarre.”
“Telly, if you think it’s at all dangerous, then maybe we should stop.”
“Oh no, Neo, we’ve gone down this white rabbit hole, we’re going to continue to take the damn blue pill.”
I chewed my nail. “Okay.”
“I’ll send it to my friend. He’ll be discreet. But in the meantime, I want you to be careful. Anybody with data who is this desperate to hide it is likely dangerous.”
“I’m not really in anyone’s target. No one knows I was there. But I have questions. So many questions.”
“I hear you. But just do me a favor and keep an eye on that Viking. Whatever he’s dragged you into, it stinks of bad news.”
“Okay, I hear you. And Telly, thanks.”
“Of course, love. Ride or die. Though I’d really like to know where we’re going and why one of us must die when we get there.”
With a chuckle I hung up the phone. I had no idea what I’d tripped into, but there was no way I could pull back now.
13
Ben
Two weeks later…
I was fucking distracted.
How was it one woman, in the span of two weeks, could have turned my entire world upside down?
I was a bloody disaster. Between fighting with my mates about how best to handle this fucking situation and waiting on East who was still working on leverage, I was twisting in the fucking wind. And now, I was sitting next to her and she smelled fucking insane.
Her perfume should be named Tease. Just a hint of coconut and lime. Just when you thought you had figured out what it was, where it might be coming from, it morphed and changed into something else. It was something both familiar and unknown. God, I was a mess. It was bad enough after our little adventure with the attempted mugging and my detour to Bridge’s that she’d been all I’d been able to see in my dreams. That fucking smile, her goddamn voice... And let me just say, in my dreams she was a hell of a dirty talker. Willing to beg, practically purring... Jesus.
I’d tried to be nice by replacing that stupid pin. I just wanted her to have something good, since I’d broken hers the night we met. I wasn’t sure how I knew that it was so important to her, I just did. But even that gesture had taken a wrong turn. Nothing about the woman was ever straightforward. And she was sitting there with a soft smile, smelling like temptation and every bad decision I’d ever made.
I dragged my attention back to the meeting, and next to me, Olivia shifted in her seat. Her skirt migrated and inched higher, and holy hell, was that the end of a stocking? I bit back a groan and dragged my gaze away.
Do not look. I didn’t need any more fodder for the goddamn wank bank. It was already too easy to think about her, to dream about her... She was already fucking torturing me. I didn’t need any more.
She cleared her throat and stood up. What was she doing?