account holder’s name, which just happens to be Isaac Holt, she linked his account to multiple other offshore accounts.
I send Melody’s worksheet remotely to my printer before returning her email. I’m halfway through a gushing bout of praise when my phone dings, announcing I have another message. Hopeful it’s Melody, I tap on the notification band at the top of my screen.
Although my message is from an unknown caller, I know who it belongs to. The tone of his message is very descriptive, not to mention the demand behind it.
Unknown number: Should I follow your plan or make one of my own? If you’re not here in thirty, the decision will be out of your hands.
When an image of the Ravenshoe courthouse stairs being swarmed by media downloads onto my screen, I snag my jacket off the coatrack and hotfoot it out of my apartment.
With traffic light, I make it to the courthouse in half the time Dimitri demanded in his text. I’ve barely thrown my arms into my suit jacket when my gallop up the stairs is unexpectedly cut short by Alex.
“It was you, wasn’t it?” Anger pumps out of him as readily as air whizzes out of his nose when he stops next to me. “I asked you to show me how to work her laptop, not steal information off her computer!”
My hands ball as I struggle not to scream my frustration into the street. Out of all the days in the year, today has to be the day Alex discovered I snooped on his Honey Pot’s computer.
It was for the greater good, but I don’t see Alex understanding that when he roars, “Regan thinks I stole information from her, that I used her to better my position.”
“That was never my intention. I had no plans to use the information I found. I just forgot that anything uploaded to the Bureau’s servers remains uploaded no matter how great your hacking skills are.” Everything I’m saying is the truth. Once the Bureau is in, you can never get them back out.
Veins bulge in Alex’s neck as spit flies out of his mouth. “You forgot? How can you fucking forget me instructing you to log out of her computer ten minutes before you did?” I could throw Grayson into the deep end with me, but I won’t. He agreed to come out of undercover work to help me nab Castro, so I won’t put him on bad terms with his brother.
After shoving a computer log printout sheet into my chest, Alex digs his cell phone out of his pocket. “If that isn’t enough proof, how about this?”
Anger envelopes him when he spins his phone around to show me an image of Regan in a skimpy white towel. I’ve seen her like that before, but it was via a live stream, not a still shot. “You were watching her.”
“No.” I immediately deny, shaking my head. “I logged out the instant she entered the room.”
“The instant she entered the room in nothing but a towel.”
A lady dashing up the courthouse stairs yelps, startled by Alex’s vicious roar. I understand why he’s upset, but if he’d give me the chance to speak, I could explain it isn’t anything like he’s thinking. His anger isn’t allowing him to see things clearly.
“What if she didn’t have a towel on? What if she were naked?” He steps closer, his chest thrusting. “I brought you onto my team because I thought you were one of us… one of the good guys.”
“I am—”
“No, you’re fuckin’ not,” he interrupts, shouting. “You’re just as rogue and corrupt as Theresa.”
You know those balls I mentioned yesterday? The ones I was struggling to juggle? They’ve fallen, and their crash is brutal. “Who are you to talk? You slept with a target while undercover.”
“Regan wasn’t a target.” Alex gets right up in my face, stealing every sense of normality I have. “She should have never been dragged into this fight. She’s an innocent—”
“Just like Izzy?” I butt in, returning his glare. “Yet here she is, at your request, being pranced in front of Isaac like a little plaything just like Theresa forced you to do with Regan. There’s only one difference… you stupidly fell in love.”
I’m given a clear reminder that Alex is a Rogers when he pops his fist into my eye. It has the last of my balls falling to the ground while doubling the inane thoughts in my head, but before any of them can transpire, Reid, Alex’s lacky, steps