The Hacker Who Saved Christmas. It had a nice ring to it—even if she never would be able to tell anyone what she’d done.
She did the calculations in her head. She’d emailed the information packets days ago. One to the district attorney of the county where the woman Emmett had exploited lived. One to the woman’s son who’d discovered the theft but couldn’t find the hidden money. One to Emmett’s parole officer including his location—which was not where the state parole board specified he should be.
One packet had even gone to a contact with the connections to put it in the hands of the proper department at the FBI. They might be interested in all the naughty business Emmett had conducted over state lines. Things could move slowly in law enforcement but she was confident the Navy SEAL who owed her at least one favor, a guy who had close contacts high up in the government, could get things moving.
In any case at least one of the many packages should get results shortly. Maybe even before the cookies were decorated. That was the reason for her good mood, which Linc had questioned, when he wasn’t staring at her like she’d gone crazy.
Poor guy. He looked very stressed. They all did. The men of the family were trying to hide it for Darcy’s sake and Poppy was always quick with a fake smile—probably a benefit of her Hamptons society training. But Eva knew they all bore the weight of that damn will and Emmett’s presence just down the mountain in town.
Little did Emmett know that he had indeed reached the bitter end. Not just by coming here but more, from not leaving again once he’d gotten his jump drive. He should have scooped up his crypto booty and ran.
She might have just let him go and been grateful if he had. But he hadn’t.
He stuck around. And he showed no signs of leaving. Of course she had to take action.
No one was taking this family down. Certainly not the snake.
She was smiling to herself while putting a black hat on her gingerbread man—a nod to her profession that no one else would get—when Linc glanced at his cell phone and groaned.
“What?” she asked.
“Emmett.” He didn’t elaborate but still every eye in the room was on him after that announcement.
Her eyes narrowed. “What now?”
God, she wished her SEAL contact, Zane Alexander, would hurry up and send in the feds to wrangle that snake and take him away from here.
“He wants to borrow my truck,” Linc enlightened them.
That silenced the room of all sound from the adults. There wasn’t even the scrape of a spoon against an icing bowl now. Just the softly playing Christmas carols streaming in from the next room and the sound of Darcy crunching as she beheaded yet another gingerbread man.
Eva and Poppy knew how the Wilder men felt about their trucks.
There were four king cab pick-ups outside—one for each brother plus one for their dad. All new. All matching. Same color. Same Wilder Brothers lettering on the door. She wasn’t sure how they told them apart, aside from looking at the license plate numbers. They were always clean. Perfect. Not even a scratch.
And Emmett thought he was going to borrow Linc’s?
Linc finally realized everyone was watching him, but in particular, his brothers and father, who looked appalled at the very suggestion. “I’m not gonna give it to him.”
The men let out a collective sigh.
“What’s he want it for?” Ethan asked. "He doesn't even have a license."
"As if that is gonna stop him?" Eva snorted. "Because he's so law abiding and all."
“I don’t know and I’m not asking. I’m going to ignore that text and pretend I didn’t see it,” Linc declared as he flipped his cell face down on the counter.
Ethan wasn’t letting go that easily. “He doesn’t need a car. He can walk to get food and liquor and pussy—uh. Never mind.”
Poppy lifted a blonde brow and Ethan pressed his lips together, thoroughly reprimanded for his slip of the tongue in front of his girlfriend and his niece—who was too busy trying to steal another cookie since all the adults were otherwise distracted.
Darcy froze with her hand midway to the plate as she saw Eva’s gaze on her. When Eva smiled Darcy grinned back, grabbed her cookie and slunk away, Bingley at her heels. That was probably the wrong thing to do, but they had bigger things on the table at the moment than Darcy’s sugar consumption.
“Maybe he wants to leave town.” Eva’s suggestion was met with a few skeptical glances, but they didn’t have the benefit of her knowledge.
Linc’s eyes flew wide. “With my truck? Oh, hell no. I’ll gladly buy him a bus ticket.”
“What makes you think he has no money to pay for his own ticket?” she asked, again knowing otherwise.
“Besides the fact he stole Linc’s belt?” Ethan asked.
“And he never took out his wallet since he’s been here. Not once while we were at the bar or Rosie’s together. Or to offer to pay for all my beer he drank.” Linc pouted.
“Oh, you poor guy. I’ll buy you some beer,” Eva matched his pout in mock sympathy.
Linc scowled. “The money’s not the point. It’s the principle.”
A steady buzzing drew Eva’s attention off Linc and to Wyatt, who was now frowning at his cell.
“Is that mother fu—uh.” Ethan caught himself and regrouped. “Is Emmett asking to borrow your truck now?”
“I don’t recognize the number,” Wyatt said, before he tapped the screen to answer. “Wyatt Wilder.”
Eva watched, wondering who the call was from since most everyone they knew was there already. Although, it could be about the hotel. Wyatt did have a job managing the place, which she tended to forget because she mostly saw him chasing Darcy or waiting on Olivia nowadays.
Now the cookies were decorated, these texts and calls might be all the excitement they’d have left for the evening. She reached for her glass and took a sip of eggnog.
She could use a refill, but she could wait until she found out what had Wyatt frowning even more deeply and then taking his phone and his call to the next room.
“What’s that about?” she asked.
“Got me.” Poppy shrugged. “But I’m going to bring a plate of cookies up to Livvie. I feel bad she’s up there alone. You coming?” Poppy turned to Eva.
“I’ll be up in a minute. Gotta get a refill first.” Eva held up her now empty glass.
“Ooo, bring Livvie one?”
“Without the bourbon, I’m guessing.” Eva smirked.
Poppy’s brows shot high. “You mean you’ve been drinking this whole time?”
“You mean you haven’t?” Eva shot back. “What happened to you, party girl?
Poppy scowled at that and said, “Get me one too, please. With the bourbon.”
“You got it.” Eva gave up on waiting for Wyatt and was about to go make the drinks when he came back into the room.
The man always had a look about him that was super serious. Like undertaker kind of serious. But now he looked even more so.
“What’s up, son?” William asked, no doubt noticing the expression on his son’s face as well.
Wyatt’s mouth dropped open then closed again before he said, “That was the FBI. They’re looking for Emmett.”