Page 15 of Jonas (Silver Team #4)

CHAPTER TWELVE

I felt a headache coming on, the kind that started behind the eyes and felt like ice picks were stabbing your brain.

Too much information was rolling around in the upstairs filing cabinet, making it hard to concentrate on any one thought or problem. At least Daryl Barns was no longer an unknown issue.

I’d met Lou Peterson a few times. The guy was a wolf in sheep’s clothing.

He played the part of nice guy, but there was an underlying smarmy asshole under there—dishonest and underhanded was how I’d pegged him the first time I’d met him.

My second encounter had solidified my opinion.

I could totally see how he’d think Anson would have an affair with a much younger woman—because that’s what he would do.

Further from that, I could see Lou being the type of man who would hire his mistress and put her up in a nice fuck pad.

Anson Sutton didn’t strike me as a cheater.

Not that I thought the man didn’t have a side scoop of jerk in him.

He was chairman of the board at Delcon; he had to have more than a little determination to get to the top.

I also knew him to be a little arrogant; again not shocking with the position he held.

Most highly motivated and successful people had those traits.

But part of Anson’s conceit came from a place of righteousness, like he’d never allow himself the moral dilemmas people of a lower station had.

That was the jerky side of him. But mostly he was a straight shooter.

Lou as the vice chair must’ve thought he’d hit the mother lode. A cheating scandal could land him in the top spot—either by blackmailing Anson to step down or by taking the evidence to the other board members and having him removed.

I didn’t know if I was relieved Daryl didn’t know who Seth was or worried we had another loose end to tie up.

And who the hell was Keith?

No Keith sat on the board.

The thoughts just kept scrolling through my head, bouncing from one idea to the next until I landed on one that nagged.

“I’m just gonna word vomit so you’ll have to keep up,” I told Jonas, not the slightest bit embarrassed by my poor choice of words.

“Okay,” he choked out, obviously trying not to laugh at my choice of words.

“Anson hired me to look into Kent’s concerns.

Those being consistencies on resumes in the IT department as well as maintenance and security.

Fifty applications were pulled. All the IT applications had two references that were the same.

A phone company in Australia that doesn’t exist. Twenty of those IT applications also had CISSP certifications?—”

“What’s CISSP?”

“Certified Information Systems Security Professional.” Before Jonas could ask a follow-up question, I went on.

“The CISSP certs were all from the same online program. The fifteen site security applications had matching references as well. And the five maintenance applications were exactly the same—schools, references, everything. The only thing that was different was the names. That’s suspicious enough.

But Kent went farther and pulled upper management resumes. You mentioned Austin Wentworth.”

“What about him?”

“I think that’s the consistency on the management resumes Kent found.

Anson didn’t give me the resumes, but I did see Kent’s handwritten notes.

The initials AW were next to three names—a director of systems development, a senior networking engineer, a senior data scientist. You never finished telling me who Austin is. ”

“Austin Wentworth went to college with Bolin Chen. They were roommates. We believe Austin helps Bolin clean his money.”

Was it money laundering or prostitution that was the oldest profession? If I remembered correctly it was prostitution but money laundering had to come in second—where there was illegal activity there was someone who had to clean the cash.

“And Austin was Bolin’s connection to Maddon Judd.”

“Yes.”

“The Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned SimpCo which is owned by Bolin Chen. Bolin is a majority shareholder in a company called Davis Foods. Davis Foods?—”

“Wait,” Jonas interrupted me. “Back up, Bolin owns shares in Davis Foods?”

“Yes. It’s buried under two other corporations but OFAC found it.

Bolin owns both the companies. Davis Foods uses Delcon to house their data.

The Treasury department approached Anson; they wanted the Davis records on Delcon servers.

Anson knew if he didn’t agree they’d get a warrant and get what they wanted so he cut a deal with them.

The treasury agent was forthcoming about their interest in Bolin beyond the sanction.

Anson was afraid there was something going on at Delcon that went beyond what he’d hired me to accomplish.

Once the OFAC was involved, Anson had the funds available to hire Z Corps, but more than that, he’d have the government backing him if the other board members found out what he was doing.

He could claim he’d been ordered not to discuss the investigation.

Which wouldn’t’ve been a total lie, since Anson and I were both told to keep quiet.

I would’ve mentioned it sooner but I figured Kira or Garrett already found the companies. ”

“Delcon was targeted specifically. There’s too much of a connection for Delcon to be a random data center the Chinese picked out of a hat. There are sixteen other data storage facilities in a ten-mile radius of Delcon. What the hell makes them so special?”

My fingertips went to my temples.

“Mind if I close my eyes for a second?”

“Rest, Dee Dee. We have a long drive.”

I did more than rest, I fell asleep and I did it so deeply, when a hand landed on my shoulder and the shaking started my first instinct was to lash out. Unfortunately, when I did my fist connected with a hard surface.

There was a grunt followed by a “Christ.” Neither of which came from me but the groan of pain did as I felt my knuckles crack. I opened my eyes only to find Jonas standing in the open passenger door of the Escalade rubbing his jaw.

“Shit. Sorry.”

“Damn, woman, you’ve got a mean left hook.”

“Sorry. I didn’t…” I started to apologize again but stopped when I noticed it was dark outside.

Not only dark but very dark, and we were parked in front of a charming old farmhouse, complete with a long porch across the front that wrapped around to the right. The lights shone from all the windows and there were a lot of them.

Nostalgia tugged low in my belly. The good kind.

Memories of growing up in a house much like this one.

Times when my father wasn’t home and my brother hadn’t turned, we’d spend hours on the porch playing with our cousins.

It wouldn’t be until I was older that the memories turned to shit.

There was never love in the house I grew up in, there was never affection or cuddling or soft touches from my parents or aunts or uncle, but there were fun times.

Until there weren’t.

“Hey. You didn’t hurt me,” Jonas said, pulling me out of my thoughts.

“Sorry.”

“Sweetheart, stop apologizing.”

Another sweetheart.

Sigh .

The front door opening snagged my attention.

Zane Lewis appearing in the threshold sent the nostalgia fleeing, and the warmth in my belly turned into a block of ice.

He didn’t look happy and from what I’d read about him, an unhappy Zane made for an unhappy life, and sometimes that life was shortened.

After meeting him in person, I’d learned that there wasn’t a report I could read about Zane Lewis that would properly convey all that was the man who owned Z Corps.

There was no way to describe his menacing presence or the way his mood filled a room.

You didn’t have to be an empath to feel his aura. The atmosphere crackled around him.

“Your boss looks less than pleased,” I noted.

Jonas didn’t bother looking over his shoulder when he responded. “That’s just his resting bitch face.”

I rolled my lips in to stop the smile. Jonas’s gaze dipped to my mouth and I saw the muscle in his cheek tic.

“Ready?”

I wasn’t sure if I was ready to face a pissed-off Zane but I sure as shit was ready to put some much needed space between Jonas and me.

A few hours later, I would learn I would get no such space.

After that, introductions were made, and there were a lot of them.

Not just Jonas’s immediate team: Theo, Easton, Smith, Cash, and Layla.

But also Layla’s husband Kevin and two of his teammates, Myles and Gabe from Blue Team.

Kira and Cooper were also there and a woman named Nebraska who was with Easton, and if the huge rock on her finger was anything to go by they were either married or engaged.

Those introductions were made in the basement—a huge space that looked more like a bunker than a cellar under a beautiful farmhouse.

There were two flat screen TVs on the wall—one had a map of DC on it, the other had a picture of two men.

Both in tuxedos, and I didn’t need to be a fashionista to know they were expensive.

But if the cut didn’t give away the price tag, the drapery, finely dressed tables, and crystal chandeliers in the background would’ve paid testimony to the fact they were wealthy.

When we were all seated around a gigantic, beat-up table that looked like it was made from reclaimed barnwood, Jonas took the lead filling in his team—something I appreciated—and by the way he was casting his gaze in my direction every few minutes, he knew I needed it.

When he was done, it was Layla who commented first. “He gave that up quick.”

“Jonas mentioned Z Corps,” I reiterated what Jonas had already explained. “After that, Daryl turned pale and the bravado disappeared. He wants no part of Zane.”

“I bet,” Layla mumbled.