“Our interests are aligned in some ways, but our goals are different. I’m looking for clues to help me with a case from fifteen years ago, while you guys are figuring out how Starlight’s board members are involved with interns.” Rowlen paused to let the girls absorb the information. The food had gone cold, and so had their appetites—not that Adelaide had one to start with. “I’ll help you wherever I can by offering protection and you guys give me whatever information you can find.”
“Right.” Scepticism swirled through tangled threads in Umaima’s eyes. “Isn’t this sort of…against your code of conduct.”
Rowlen dabbed a tissue to the corner of his lips. “My chief’s aware.”
“You know that we’re hackers, right?” Her mouth was set in a firm line. “The illegal kind.”
“Umaima,” Hasan warned. His silence spoke volumes, a testament to the weight of my secret he had harbored for years. Initially, it served as a lifeline amid the grief of losing his wife. But now, burdened by its deception, it had become an unbearable weight, pressing down on him with an almost suffocating force.
And it wasn’t like that just for him.
“I’m aware,” he smiled. “What’s next on your plan?”
He knew damn well what was next.
“We believe that Harry and the board members have been taking young female interns and violating them. We’re hoping to catch them in the act so we’re using… me for it.”
Adelaide shifted uncomfortably. Her eyes remained onthe empty plate in front of us as if the blank plate could ease the tension rising in her chest as the seconds passed.
“Okay… Then why are you two getting married?”
She’ll have my protection; in case she gets hurt.
“She doesn’t have money.”
“Umaima,” Adelaide rubbed the space between her brows.
“Well, it’s true.” Umaima exasperated. “The dumbass Harry blocked her accounts, kicked her off her chair, and now she needs power in order to get back at those idiots.”
“Wouldn’t that make her untouchable to them because he has power?”
Adelaide wouldn’t look at me. She wouldn’t eat. She was barely here, hiding somewhere in her mind like it would save her from the realities of her life.
“That makes them want her more,” I said.
“What if it doesn’t work?”
“It’ll work,” I glared hard enough but Rowlen arched a brow.
Fucking asshole.
“You have to have second options, thirds even.”
“It will work, Rowlen.” The growl that emanated from within me was subdued yet unmistakably primal, carrying an eerie semblance of something otherworldly.
“With Adelaide’s skills, they’ll catch onto your little act way before you know it.”
Umaima snorted her water out, wetting the front of Osama’s shirt. He muttered a quietgreatunder his breath but did nothing.
“Well, that’s one way to tell her.”
Umaima sheepishly wiped her mouth, continuing, “Maybe this is our sign to use someone else. Adelaide isn’t comfortable with it and isn’t doing well either. I’m sure we could hire someone, and it’ll work the same way.” That’s what we’d been doing since I became CEO five years ago.
Adelaide was the final rip. An impactful massacre of their actions.
Plus, we didn’t have time.
“I’ll help Adelaide.”
