“The one of you and Edward,” Sophie said evenly.
Honeysuckle’s gasp was audible. “How did you get that?”
Sophie’s heart fell. Clearly her sister knew exactly what she was talking about. The news didn’t sit well. “Email, from a dummy address. Did you send it? I know you just warned me to stay away from him—”
“Sophie! It’s not me.”
“What?” Something akin to relief wanted to surge through her, but the footage had been clear enough to erase reasonable doubt.
“Look more closely.”
“I’d rather not.”
“Fine, then trust me. It’s not me. I don’t know who the woman is, but Adam thinks it was a setup. She looks too much like me for that to be a coincidence. I mean, that’s the exact dress I wore to the coronation ball.”
“You think Edward would set you up?”
“Watch your back, Soph.”
Her heart sank. “You do think it.”
Honeysuckle sighed. “It really looks like it.”
Damn.
Sophie bade her sister farewell, then stared at the phone long after the call disconnected. She was glad the woman with Edward wasn’t Honeysuckle, but he’d definitely been with someone. It was none of her business, but that didn’t make it easier to see. Still, that wasn’t the biggest problem: someone knew she’d gotten up close and personal with Edward, which meant one of two things. Either someone had access to Steel Hawk’s intra-office security feed, or the camera in his office was not only still in operation, but in all likelihood, it had a live feed.
What else did that someone know?
Chapter Eight
Edward sensed Sophie’s presence the moment she stepped off the elevator. He looked up in time to see her walking straight toward his office.
Straight for him.
A stupidly electric feeling—one he tried hard to ignore—slid through his chest. But she didn’t look happy, and she wouldn’t meet his eyes. She brushed wordlessly past him in favor of the ceiling tiles leaning against the back wall.
“Good…morning.” What was wrong with her?
Her attention on the tiles, she didn’t respond.
“Afternoon?” he tried. “It’s the second one,” he said of the panels.
She flipped back the first tile and examined the second. Then she used her cell phone to take a picture of the camera before pulling it out of the tile and dropping it in a small plastic bag that looked like a sandwich baggie, which she then put in her purse. “I’m pretty sure there was a live feed on this, but it probably doesn’t have a range over five hundred feet, which almost certainly narrows it down to someone in the building. The bad news is the feed can go to any computer, tablet, or smartphone.”
“So we have nothing?” The disappointment was sharp.
“We have a stronger reason to suspect it’s an inside job, though we never had a reason to doubt that to begin with.”
“Why won’t you look at me?”
She did then, and he almost wished she hadn’t. For the first time, her eyes weren’t sparkling. They were flat.
He tried to smile. Attempted a joke. “No afterglow?”
She frowned. “Look, Edward. That got out of hand. It was unprofessional of me, and I’m sorry. Furthermore, I’m not looking to be a notch on your bedpost, so how about you go back to your frowny face and we’ll just forget yesterday ever happened?”
Damn. “I didn’t mean—”
“Please. Drop it.”
He did. But he didn’t like it.
And he liked even less how that made him feel. Still, he gave Sophie her space. He even gave her his office, but he didn’t go far. He set up shop in the boardroom, where he thought a little too much about chocolate-covered donuts and coffee and too little about the work he wasn’t getting done. He thought about going through more of the security footage but doubted he’d see anything on the screen. He wondered if she’d had lunch, then wondered why he cared. Finally, after the umpteenth time his laptop went to sleep on him, he got up and went to see her.
“I’m going to run across the street to the café. Can I bring you anything?”
She looked at him wearily but managed a smile. “I’m fine, thanks.”
“Okay.” He tapped his palm against the door frame, stalling, but her attention was already back on his computer and she didn’t even look up. He couldn’t think of anything to say that didn’t sound pathetic, so he left.
When he arrived at the café, the first thing Edward noticed was the dark-haired woman in her usual spot. She seemed oddly familiar, perhaps from a certain angle favoring Adam’s assistant, Honeysuckle, but he’d be surprised if they were related. Had they been, he was sure they would have been introduced. He’d hoped to engage the stranger in conversation when he’d dropped that stack of blank paper at her feet, but she hadn’t even looked at him, much less uttered a word. He’d walked away with more questions than answers.
He’d developed, of late, a terrible habit of that.
He caught the eye of the café’s owner. “Hey, Shirley.”
The elderly woman waved him away in mock annoyance. “Don’t you try wooing me, Edward. I told you, I’m taken.”
Her standard greeting. The woman was eighty going on thirty if she was a day, and she loved giving Edward a hard time. Her second favorite line was to remind him he didn’t smile enough.
Maybe he didn’t.
He leaned close and spoke in a low voice. “What do you know about her?” he asked, tipping his head in the direction of the dark-haired woman.
“She’s here every day. Took a few days off a couple of weeks ago, but then she was right back. All I ever see her do on that computer is play cards.”
“Does she meet anyone?”
“A few of the regulars have gotten to where they say hello, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen her spend more than a couple of minutes talking to anyone. ’Course I’m not here all the time, but you know I don’t miss much.”
He laughed. “That you don’t.”
Shirley touched her palm to his cheek. “You don’t smile enough. You know that?”
“I’m learning, Shirley. I’m learning.”
He left her near the back of the store and ordered a cup of coffee. When he caught sight of the chocolate-covered donuts, the corner of his mouth tingled where Sophie’s fingertips had touched.
Schmuck.
But he genuinely liked her, and not just for that gorgeous, responsive body. She was smart, and she didn’t hesitate to throw daggers. As he paid for his order, he couldn’t help wondering if that was what he liked about her. People tended to do what he said or they didn’t, but few had anything to say to him. Even fewer engaged him. If someone had asked him three days ago to describe the perfect woman, he might not have mentioned light green eyes and mile-long legs, but now he could think of little else.
He walked out into the late-day sunshine, enjoying the shot of fresh air. Light glinted off the warehouse-style windows of Steel Hawk’s façade. His attention migrated to the third floor. Reflections against the glass kept him from seeing inside, but he couldn’t help looking for her. He wondered how long she’d be around, realizing at the same time that the price of proving his innocence would be her exit from his life.
She’d acted oddly that morning. Maybe she’d already checked out. He wasn’t her client, but they were working together all the same, and that unwritten rule about getting romantically involved with coworkers must exist for a reason. It had certainly never been a problem for him, but here he was a few hours after the fact, and he was already dealing with an aftermath that could only be described as awkward.
He walked to the corner and crossed the street, then headed back toward headquarters. When he glanced back toward the café, he found the dark-haired woman staring intently at him. He was once again hit by the feeling he knew her, but before he could study her face—or what little he could see at the distance—she ducked her head behind her computer.
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Maybe she was just shy, but he couldn’t get around thinking there was something more. Why would she sit in a café all day with her computer? She wasn’t there for the free Wi-Fi—at least not much of it if she was playing solitaire all day. But even if she was up to something, that didn’t mean it had anything to do with him. Only…someone was screwing with him, and her appearance was more of a coincidence than he cared to buy.
Sophie’s revelation of the camera over his desk had burned like hell, but he felt better knowing his safe was more than likely uncompromised. Or was it? He’d have to ask Sophie to take her little gadget down there to make sure the space was as undiscovered as he believed. It seemed improbable anyone could have gotten down there, but he’d seen the so-called impossible play before his eyes more than once in the recent past.
On a whim, he bypassed the front entrance of Steel Hawk and headed into the alley. The two Steel Hawk buildings were separate structures, the only visible connection a short vestibule in the dividing space between the two buildings. Four extra-wide metal walk-through doors—two for each building—opened to the side alley between Steel Hawk and the neighbors. Of the two doors, one from each set led to the ground floor, while the second led to the respective basements. Anyone who didn’t know better would have no clue there were basements under the buildings.
He walked the alley, stopping to examine the door closures. The first two appeared fine. The third—the door to the annex basement—shone like new. New? That wasn’t possible. Upon closer inspection, he realized it was just clean—exceptionally so. Then he realized why. The handle and surrounding metal had been deeply scoured. A sloppy tampering job? It was possible. But the average punk wouldn’t stop to polish the metal to hide the fresh scratches.
This had been deliberately masked.
He glanced toward the nearest security camera, which was disguised as a vent cover. Hidden cameras were one of the worst-kept secrets of the security business, but dumb crooks were a dime a dozen. Had someone targeted Steel Hawk, or was this a random encounter? He took a couple of pictures with his cell phone of the damage to the door, then checked the fourth door—the one that led to the main floor of the second building—and found no signs of tampering.
The knot of unease in his chest expanded.
He shoved one hand in his pocket and tipped back his cup with the other, draining his coffee. He started back to the main entrance, but he’d only managed a couple of strides before he stopped and went back to the door that had drawn all of his attention. He touched the handle…and it released.
The damned door was unlocked.
He pulled it open to the sound of utter silence.
Son of a bitch.
There should be alarms going off in every direction, but the building sat as serenely as ever. The alarms in Edward’s head were another story. Steel Hawk’s security system was complex and multifaceted. The only way someone could have tampered with the alarm without triggering yet another one was if it had been an inside job. Someone with access…and permission.
Edward pulled out his phone and dialed Adam.
“We’ve got a problem,” he said when his boss answered.
“Another one?” Adam didn’t sound shocked. Just…tired.
“Brand spanking new.”
Adam sighed. “Do I want to know?”
Edward glanced around to make sure he was still alone in the alley. “The door to the annex basement was tampered with—and successfully, I might add. It’s unlocked.”
“Unlocked, as in open?” Adam’s outrage left Edward glad to be on separate continents.
“Unlocked as in unlocked. I don’t know how long it’s been that way—only that when I tried the lock, the door opened. The alarms didn’t go off.”
“I need to get on a plane.”
“I’m capable of locking the door,” Edward said dryly.
“This isn’t funny.”
“And my last brush with humor was when?”
“Dammit, Edward.” Adam paused, probably to put all his concentration into wearing a hole in the carpet over which he was no doubt pacing laps. “What about the investigator?”
“I don’t think she did it.”
“That’s not what I meant,” he said through clenched teeth.
“I’ll fill her in,” Edward replied. “But I thought you should know this first. The implications aren’t good. With the backup you have in place, the only person who could have erased all the layers of protection without being detected would be—”
“One of my programmers.” The bout of profanity that followed would have made a sailor piss his pants.
“You might want to fill in Max. I’ll do something about this lock, and I’ll deal with Ms. Garza.”
“I’m glad to hear you’re…getting along.”
The tone of his voice set Edward on edge. “I’ll let you know if anything else comes up. Stay off the plane. You have enough to deal with over there.”
Adam grunted. “Thanks for the reminder.”
Edward disconnected the call, wondering from where Adam got his opinion of Edward’s relationship with Sophie. Had Sophie told him, or had the footage found its way to the other side of the globe? Neither option seemed likely. Adam was still mired in damage control after the fiasco with the royal jewels and the explosions, so it was hardly the right time to settle down with the most recent edition of Steel Hawk After Dark. But that didn’t mean Adam hadn’t found out and handed Sophie her ass, just the thought of which stabbed Edward with guilt. Sophie was pretty forthcoming, or so he had thought, but what did he really know? Only that she’d done a one-eighty she hadn’t bothered to explain, and that said enough.
Feeling somewhat off-balance, Edward opened the door, locked it, and shut it firmly, for whatever good that would do. He’d have to go into the basement to lock the bolt. As he walked back to Steel Hawk’s main entrance, he struggled to fit pieces together in his mind, but nothing wanted to fit. The camera over his desk had almost come as a relief, but knowing the duplicity had come from the inside left him feeling helpless and a little out of control. He had a new appreciation for what Adam must have felt when the diamond was found in Edward’s room. Betrayal never sat well, but when it came from someone close, it had to be devastating.
Inside Steel Hawk’s lobby, he nodded to the receptionist, who graced him with a winning smile. But it didn’t touch Sophie’s. He’d missed seeing it this morning—the warm, genuine version that seemed reserved only for him. The memory haunted him on the elevator ride down to the basement.
The lab was empty, as it had been since Adam left for Europe. Edward never had liked being in Adam’s space—he’d always felt as if he was invading his privacy—but the feeling had gotten worse after things had starting going wrong for Steel Hawk. For him. Because Adam knew Adam was innocent, which left Edward looking guilty as hell. The reprieve didn’t make him feel much better. He’d gone from one version of being under attack to the other, but at least this time he had allies.
Maybe.
When the elevator rested on the basement floor, Edward let himself out and through the scanner, then wound his way through the basement lab to the supply closet. What he saw there gave him pause. The door wasn’t shut all the way. The cleaning crew shouldn’t have been in there—they wouldn’t revisit the basement until immediately before Adam’s return, and he doubted anyone would have noticed the door. The seams blended flawlessly into the wainscoting, making it difficult to see even when you knew where to look. But doors didn’t just open on their own.
Someone had definitely been down there.
Checking the data log wouldn’t tell him who. Only he and Sophie had clearance to go into the basement. Had she come down here alone? And if so, why?
Troubled now, he eased open the closet door and slipped through, shutting it fully behind him. He hadn’t turned on the overhead light, knowing it would cut through the basement like a knife. Fortunately, he knew the layout well, but for extra insuran
ce, he waited a few moments for his eyes to adjust before he opened the second door leading into the basement and went in, closing the door carefully behind him.
He stood silently. Waiting.
Nothing.
He’d taken a few steps toward the door on the far side of the cavernous space when he heard a noise—one a little too big and solid to be a rat. A second later, he caught motion to his far left. He took a silent step backward, blending his form against a stack of boxes, and watched the shadow move across the room.
Sophie.
He’d spent so much time admiring her that he’d know her anywhere. What business did she have in the basement? Adam had given her carte blanche access, but that didn’t mean she had a good reason for being down here.
Across the room—nowhere near Sophie—something metal scraped against the concrete floor. For the briefest of moments, the entire basement was seized by silence. Sophie stilled, the slightest tilt of her head the only hint of movement. Then she took off at a sprint, dodging the sporadic junk on the floor with apparent ease.
It took Edward a moment to realize Sophie was running after someone—someone who ran for the stairs to the exit that Edward found unlocked earlier. As soon it registered, Edward took off after Sophie, launching himself over the strewn items scattered over the basement floor and praying he’d land on his feet. She didn’t break stride when the pounding of his footfalls found the space, so either she knew he was there or didn’t care who was after her.
The intruder hit the metal staircase with a bang that echoed like a shot and repeated with each step. The size and bulk of the shape suggested a man, but the details were lost in the dark. Sophie launched herself up the stairs, gaining rapidly on the intruder who now fought the door Edward had locked from the outside.
Dammit. The basement was too large, and there were too many things to dodge. There was no way he’d get to her before she got to the other guy. He was on the stairs when the intruder let out a yelp. Halfway up them when Sophie cried out. Almost to the top when he was thrown back by the force of her body against his.
Dangerous Illusions (Steel Hawk Book 3) Page 9
