Page 55 of A Knight’s Revenge: The Complete Series
She smirked. “Sorry I interrupted your blowjob negotiations.”
I couldn’t help myself, returning her smirk with an innocent grin. “Want to continue them?”
She rolled her eyes before shoving me back toward my desk. “Down, boy. I just came by to get the notes from Chem since I missed class yesterday.”
I winked at her, very pleased with the pink that was blooming in her cheeks at the moment, before I took my seat. I pulled up my notes on my laptop as she took the seat in front of my desk that Annie had vacated.
“You know,” I said as I watched her reclining lazily while she absently fidgeted with her cherry blossom necklace and scrolled on her phone, “the last time we were here like this, you stole from me.”
She looked up, quirking an eyebrow. “That’s true. I’m not here for nefarious purposes now, if that’s what you’re implying. I really do need the Chem notes, because apparently Mari spent the whole class messaging with her girlfriend.”
“I just wonder,” I continued, closing my laptop after sending the notes to her email, “what might’ve happened then if you’d have just asked me for what you needed.”
She barked out a disbelieving laugh. “Sure, Noah. You would’ve just forked over Hargraves Tower’s highest-clearance security codes to Joanna Miller, scholarship student from the Southside and massive pain in your ass.”
“No. But I might have given them to my best friend, Jolie Knight.”
She blew out a breath, those gorgeous eyes meeting mine and shining with defiance—but also what looked like regret. “You know why I did what I did, Noah. No need to keep beating that horse.”
“I don’t think the horse is actually dead yet, though, do you?”
She studied me like she was taking my mettle. I held her stare with the confidence of someone with nothing to hide.
Come on, sweetheart. Give me something.
She nodded like she’d made a decision before she reached toward the floor next to her chair where her backpack sat. She pulled something small from an inside pocket, then she handed it to me.
I turned the small silver flash drive over in my hand .
“This is your dad’s KnightKey500,” I whispered, shocked. “Where did you get this?”
“It was in James Spencer’s safe,” she replied.
“Oh. Shit.”
“Yeah.”
Bennett had no idea what James kept in his safe. This was huge.
I popped open my laptop again and plugged the drive into one of its ports, then I turned the screen to the side so that we could both see it.
A simple black dialogue box popped up, demanding the encryption key before it would reveal what was on the drive.
I looked at her. “I’m guessing you don’t have the key?”
She shook her head. “No, and I’ve learned from Anders that James Spencer doesn’t have it either. But that he wanted it. Very badly.”
I met her eyes again, an understanding passing between us.
Whatever was on this drive probably held at least some of the clues as to why the Knights had been killed.
“Well, the key will be long,” I explained. “A hundred-plus characters. It’s probably on its own separate device, not just like, scribbled down on a scrap of paper somewhere. I’m sure they’ve combed through the Knight servers and come up with nothing?”
I would have my team do the same thing, just in case.
“Yeah, and I have no idea where else to look,” she admitted, her sudden defeated posture so unlike the strong, unflappable woman my best friend had become.
I hated it.
“Thank you for telling me, sweetheart,” I said with a warm smile. “I’m sure you have… help with this, but now I can help you too. I have my own team.”
“You do?” she asked, giving me a skeptical look. “A team that answers only to you and not to your dad?”
This was where I was going to divulge a secret of mine, since she’d just done the same for me.
“I’ve cultivated some loyalties,” I said. “I don’t have an independently funded operation, but over the years, I’ve made alliances and earned the trust of some of the best minds in Hargraves. They work for me , not the Family, though it doesn’t look that way on paper. ”
She grinned. “Of course you have that. The right kind of people have a sense for who really deserves their loyalty and respect.”
Those sincere words made my chest swell with pride. “So, anything I can do to help you get answers about your parents, I’ll do. Do you trust me when I say that?”
She studied me again, back to being the stone-cold Valkyrie who both scared the shit out of me and turned me on so much, I ached. “I do trust you, Noah. Do you trust me when I say that anything I do that may negatively affect Hargraves has nothing to do with how I feel about you?”
I could only nod. I was Hargraves, as much as my dad was, but I understood what she was saying.
My dad was complicit in the murder of her parents. She wasn’t going to let it stand, no matter what it was her father had supposedly done to deserve it. My legacy would be an unfortunate casualty if she succeeded.
She stood up, throwing her backpack over her shoulder. “Thanks for the notes. And for… the help.” She turned to leave.
“Jojo,” I said quietly.
She paused, looking back at me over her shoulder.
“Promise me you’re being careful. I won’t lose you again.”
Her face softened. It was there, clear as day—the affection I craved.
“I am, Noah. See you later.”
She clicked the door shut behind her, and I sat there in the quiet of my office for several long minutes, staring at the lock screen of her dad’s flash drive, willing it to give me answers for her.
My phone buzzed.
“Sir.” It was my team lead, Silver. “We’ve noticed some… interesting activity by the management of Hargraves Technologies.”
Only the biggest, most profitable company we owned—containing all of the Knight properties we’d assumed after their death.
“What do you mean?”
“The board members and the CEO have called a secret meeting. Without your father. They’re doing their best to be extremely clandestine and moving quickly, like they’ve been spooked.”
Jolie.
“I see.”
“So, we can raise the alarm, warn your father, start trying to get ahead of this, or…. ”
Her unspoken words let me know that the team saw a viable option here other than the “right” one.
“Hold for now. Continue to monitor and keep me updated on how things progress. In fact,” I went on, knowing I was about to really put my team’s loyalty to the test, “I would like for us to ensure that my father and the rest of Hargraves do not find out what’s going on here until I make the call.”
“Yes, sir.” I could hear the smile in her voice.
She hung up, and I made peace with my decision.
If Jolie wanted her legacy back, I wasn’t going to stand in her way.