Page 104 of In Case You Didn't Know

That’s the painful part. So do I. The only person I don’t trust is Nathan. And we’ve looked into him so many times it fucking hurts. He’s way too blasted to be this sophisticated.

And he was never a coding kind of guy. There’s no way he left a trojan horse in the system when he left. We would have found it by now.

“There are no clues to who it could be?” I ask him, hoping against hope that the answer is somewhere in the code.

Brad shakes his head. “No. There’s not even any clues to what it is. We just know it’s there, feeding information.” His jaw tightens. “If word gets around that we’ve been breached again…”

We’ll be screwed. Completely. “We need to get this shut down as soon as possible. Get answers the old-fashioned way.”

Brad nods. “I’ll start interviewing everybody. Go through every single employee with a fine-tooth comb.” I can tell how much he hates having to do this by the way he’s talking. Like he wants to be sick.

We’re a tight knit company. The thought of somebody betraying us feels as painful as if they stabbed us in the chest.

“It’s going to take more than the two of us. Who do we trust completely?” I ask. Francie’s face flashes in my mind. The way she looked last night, flushed and soft and completely mine.

I don’t want her anywhere near this mess. I don’t want to bring this poison back to her door.

“We’ll need a team of at least five to get this done as quickly as possible,” I point out.

“Marie, Ryan, and Sam,” he reels off. I nod, because they would be my picks too. But we need two more at the very minimum.

“Dan?” I suggest.

Brad shakes his head. “His father’s sick. He could be vulnerable to blackmail.”

“What kind of sick?” Another thing I didn’t know about my employees.

“Pancreatic cancer.”

I swallow hard. I really don’t know anything about my employees. Yes, I’ve been paying for everything for Shaun, but that’s the very least I could do.

He’s paying the price for whoever’s betrayed me, after all.

“Sanjay then.”

“Absolutely.” Brad nods. “And Kelly.”

“Yes, I completely agree. Call them all in for a meeting. Make it clear this is completely confidential. We’ll do it off site. Any ideas?”

“My house,” Brad says. “Your apartment has been empty. Which makes it vulnerable, too.”

I wince. He’s right, but I don’t want to hear it.

“Okay. Call them in. And get someone to sweep my place.” I’ll also do it, but the more eyes I have on it the better.

“Already on it.” Brad pulls out a burner phone from the drawer. We typically have a lot of them on hand for sensitive situations. He hands one to me. “All communications between us are on these,” he says. “But preferably face to face.”

“How do we know these haven’t been compromised?” I ask him, turning the old-fashioned Nokia around in my hand. Jesus, I haven’t used one of these since I was a kid. It’s only one step away from a pager. For a moment I wonder if it still has snake installed.

“Because I bought these ones this morning.” Brad lifts a brow. He’s one step ahead of me, which is unusual. But I’ve been a little distracted. “Enough for the whole team.”

I give him a nod, reminding myself to give the man the biggest bonus of his life when this is all over. “We maintain business as usual on all other channels,” I say. “As far as the rest of the company knows, we’re carrying merrily along, with no idea that one of them is a snake in the grass.”

“Exactly.” Brad nods.

I stand, feeling the weight of my smartphone in my pocket as I slide the Nokia in beside it. And I’m thinking of Francie again. My throat tightens as I realize she’s one of the very few people I can trust. And my biggest vulnerability.

Someone’s inside my company, playing a game I didn’t agree to.