I watched out the windows of CJ’s Range Rover as he drove us to his apartment. I’d called Adam, alerting both he and Kelsey that we’d be arriving by ten in the morning. We’d yet to disclose our hiding place. Maybe it was because there was part of me who wanted to return, to eat turkey sandwiches and yogurt, to avoid real life and embrace the silver lining.
My phone vibrated. I looked down at the message and turned to CJ. “They’re in your apartment.”
“That’s a little disheartening. So much for locks.”
“Since Adam told us he was going to do it, I hope you’re not thinking of pressing charges for breaking and entering.”
CJ reached over and splayed his fingers on my thigh. I was wearing the same skirt and blouse from yesterday. While I’d never gotten the chance to wear CJ’s t-shirts, he was. His suit from yesterday was replaced with nylon shorts and an orange t-shirt with the name of a restaurant on the front.
“No charges,” he said with a grin. “I’d rather they’re certain the apartment is secure.”
“What if they’re being watched?”
CJ’s grip of my skirt-covered thigh tightened. “Yesterday, Colton asked me why anyone would believe that you contacted me when you have an entire security team. He asked if I had superpowers he didn’t know about.”
Laying my hand over his, I mused, “You do.”
“I do?”
“The superpower of making me feel safe and allowing me to forget about the mountain of troubles in my life, even if only for a night. I slept better last night than I have since returning from Cancún.”
“I’d like to combine my superpowers with Adam, Kelsey, and others in your security.” He grinned. “For the record, I’m not working in a paid capacity, so no need to worry about your hard line.”
Sighing, I let my gaze drift back onto the streets of Austin. “I’ve been thinking about your proposal.”
“And…” he encouraged.
“If I make it out of this…I’m game for the idea of you working with Venus, not for Venus.”
“You will—make it out.”
“If I don’t,” I went on, “please stay with Architech. Jeremy can take Architech to the masses, but he’ll need you there at his side.”
“You told me about this Butler guy. Do any other adversaries come to mind?”
I shook my head. “I’ve been racking my brain. No one else comes to mind except my ex-brother-in-law. “
“Madison’s ex-husband? Didn’t you say he’s in prison?”
“He is. I would assume that gives him connections, but to be honest, he doesn’t have the means to pay. The man in New York had been promised five thousand dollars.”
“You said you helped to dissolve the company Infidelity. Could someone from there be seeking revenge?”
“It was long ago. Water under the bridge.” I turned to CJ. “I appreciate your trying to help.”
“No, this isn’t done. My years of experience watching Law and Order are kicking in. I say we sit down and go through the last few years of business history.”
“My team…”
“Fresh eyes.”
My temples pounded as I considered his offer.
“We’re here,” CJ said, pulling into a large apartment complex. “It’s nothing exciting. The house on Lake Travis is much nicer.”
I sent a text to Adam, saying we were close and then looked at the buildings, all similar in appearance. “What floor do you live on?”
“Second floor.”
As CJ parked the Range Rover in an empty space, the door to the building ahead of us opened, and Adam came out. He was at my door before CJ could turn off the vehicle. That meant that the door was still locked when Adam tried the handle. I turned back to CJ.
“We’ll keep you safe,” he said.
“I-I hate being dependent.”
“You’re not, Lena. You’re the boss, the person in control. That doesn’t mean you don’t need them. They care about you and need you too. It goes both ways.”
Inhaling, I nodded. “You don’t need me. I’m the worst thing for you.”
“You’re right. I don’t need you. I want you.” He reached for my hand. “The want is strong enough to become a need. For you.” He emphasized the word. “Your laugh, your smile, your everything.”
“I’m sorry I got you involved in this.”
“I’m not.”
With a nod, I reached for the door handle, unlocking the door. Instantly, Adam had me at his side, ushering me into the building. I turned back in time to see someone stop CJ near his vehicle.
“Wait,” I said.
“This way,” Adam said, taking me down a hallway and through another door.
As Adam opened the door, I realized we weren’t going to CJ’s apartment but out to a waiting SUV. My feet stopped as I reached out to the doorjamb. “What the hell are you doing?”
“Our jobs,” Adam said. “I don’t trust Mr. Thompson.”
“I do.”
Adam’s light-blue eyes narrowed. “Ms. Montgomery, get in the car, and let us tell you what we’ve learned.”
My thoughts went back to the man I saw with CJ. “Who is with CJ?”
“Mathew. We called in a few more members of the team.”
Why didn’t I recognize him?
“Is he…? What is Mathew doing with CJ?”
The driver’s side of the black SUV opened, and Kelsey appeared. “Please, Lena. Listen to us.”
“Where are you taking me?”
“We have somewhere safe,” Kelsey said.
“Is CJ okay?” I asked with one more look over my shoulder.
Adam replied as we started moving toward the SUV. “If he’s innocent, he will be.”
Before entering the back seat where Adam was holding the door, I said, “He is innocent.”
“Please,” he said, nodding toward the interior.
Once we were all inside the SUV and Kelsey began driving, I sent CJ a text message.
“I’m not sure what is happening. I’m with Adam and Kelsey. Are you okay?”
When I finished, I looked up toward the front seat and spoke. “Start talking.”
“Ma’am, could I have your phone?” Adam asked, extending his hand over the seat.
My grip tightened. “No. I want to hear why you don’t trust CJ.”
“Has CJ had access to your phone?”
“Yes.”
“I need to be sure he didn’t plant—”
“Why don’t you trust him?” I asked again, interrupting and still holding tight to my phone.
Adam’s jaw clenched and his nostrils flared. “In Cancún, we knew that CJ was Chandler Thompson. That was a strange coincidence, but with no more information about him, he seemed harmless.”
“A distraction,” Kelsey said, meeting my gaze in the rearview mirror.
“And your opinion has changed?” I asked.
Adam lifted a plastic bag from the floorboard. As the contents came into view, I tried to make sense of what I saw. “What is it?”
“It’s the same stationery that the note with the chocolate candies was written on.”
I took it from his hand and looked down, twisting the plastic bag in my hands. “It’s white stationery. That’s hardly a smoking gun.”
“How many thirty-one-year-old men do you know who own stationery?” Kelsey asked.
I owned stationery. I knew a few people who owned stationery. No one used it often, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t available. “I don’t know many thirty-one-year-old men.”
Adam handed me his phone. “With the speed at which things went down yesterday, there was no time for Chandler to hide what we found in his apartment. We’d assume he didn’t intend for us to look.”
My pulse kicked up a notch as I looked down at the phone. “What am I seeing?”
“He has a folder hidden on his computer filled with information about you.”
“What kind of information?”
“There are your daily schedules going back to two months before Cancún,” Kelsey said.
“How would he get that?”
“Our people are checking, but we believe he tapped into Montgomery Holdings Security’s cloud.”
“You’ve told me it’s secure.”
“It is. We thought it was,” Adam said. “Mr. Thompson is very adept when it comes to computers and technology. It isn’t a leap to believe he could hack into our system.”
My mind swirled with dates and places. “Two months before Cancún?”
“It coincides with your first interest in Architech.”
“But the break-in was before that.”
Kelsey and Adam nodded. Finally, Kelsey answered, “We’re still working on that.”
“We’ll know more after Mathew questions Mr. Thompson.”
The private airport came into view. “Wait, are we leaving Austin?”
“Yes, ma’am,” Adam replied.
“Did you send for another Montgomery plane? I don’t want to rent a plane,” I added, unsure what to believe.
“Mr. Sherman sent a plane.”
“Van? What does he know?”
“You’ll need to talk to Mr. Wilde about that.”