She hadn’t planned on spending her day performing computer CPR, but she suspected this evidence was important, and she needed to make another copy of the photos that she’d keep close—just in case. With grim determination, she double-checked that she’d captured everything she needed on her hard drive before she proceeded to wipe her system clean and reformat the drive. Once all that was done, she could finally reinstall the operating system but it was going to take her all freaking day.

  Scott came by about thirty minutes later with a sandwich in hand. They talked about inconsequential things as though Scott knew she couldn’t discuss Gabriel. He kept it light. She dealt with a myriad of issues, the day flying by.

  Hours passed before she looked up and realized it was time to meet her mystery contact. A little thrill of excitement zipped through her. Finally, something she could do. She’d felt so helpless the last few days, as if events were happening to her rather than her making them happen. The chance to be active was a relief.

  She ejected the SD card. Backing up these pictures would have to wait until she could get her laptop running again. She wasn’t about to take the chance with this evidence, so she tucked the disc and her laptop into her safe, then withdrew her gun. She’d felt naked without it these last few days, but she hadn’t felt right carrying a firearm to a meeting with her new boss or the police precinct, so she’d left it behind. Now, she checked the clip and tucked it in her purse. The parking garage should be safe, but she wasn’t an idiot. If she couldn’t bring anyone with her, she must have some sort of backup.

  Finally ready to get some answers, Everly called down to the security office and got one of the guards on the line. He would watch over her from the cameras and send a sentry in if she got in trouble.

  Now she had someone to watch her back. Everly could watch her own front.

  It was time to figure out who her informant was and what the hell he knew.

  • • •

  So you’re telling me Mad was murdered over money?” Dax shook his head. “I always thought he’d fall off the roof while trying to sneak out of a married lady’s house. Or be shot by some jealous husband.”

  Gabe looked at the receipts Dax had brought with him. It had taken his friend a few hours to gather the evidence they needed, discuss the situation with Connor, and cross town. He wished Everly would have made time to eat lunch with him, but she’d claimed she had too much to do. He’d spent a few hours organizing the receipts and Valerie’s HR file. Tavia had been right . . . and wrong. The purchase orders and receipts in the file looked damning but weren’t solid enough to convict Valerie if Mad had decided to threaten her with prosecution. But he may have found an ace up his sleeve. He had so much to wrap his head around but he’d been glad when Dax showed up.

  “I don’t know if I would say it was entirely over money, but money was definitely involved. He apparently fucked Valerie at some point, before he dated Sara. I suspect he discovered that she was skimming money from the budget Crawford donated to the foundation’s galas. I found more information this afternoon. He’d gathered a pretty solid case against her. His secretary gave me a backup of his computer. According to her, he handed it to her in a sealed envelope the evening he died, just before he left the office.”

  “Like he knew he was going to die?” Dax frowned.

  “Hilary said he often did that before he went out of town because he’d lost or dropped more than one laptop during his travels. He refused to use the same backup system as everyone in the building because he didn’t want anyone having access to his sensitive files. So he’d often backup to a thumb drive and seal it up in an envelope. When I asked Hilary where I should start figuring out how Mad ran this place and what plans he might have had, she handed me this thumb drive.”

  Dax shook his head. “So you can piece together his case against Valerie?”

  “Yeah. I found a whole folder about her. He’d compared the last three foundation fundraisers. Valerie handled all the ordering and catering for the last two. Between the year before Valerie stepped into this role and last year’s gala, the expenses went up nearly a hundred and fifty percent.”

  Dax whistled. “Didn’t she think that would attract attention? Unless she’s stupid, she had to know it would.”

  Gabe nodded, pondering Dax’s words. He was right; Valerie hadn’t been at all subtle. Everly had claimed the woman wasn’t smart. She’d managed to steal money, but not quietly. She had, however, shown enough creative accounting to make tracking her difficult. And that took brains. Still, if she’d been the one to blow up Mad’s plane, that would require more than passing intelligence. If she didn’t have much, wouldn’t there be some lingering clue? A smoking gun somewhere?

  “I don’t know. Mad knew more than I first thought. I found some additional files, but he had them password protected. I need Connor to break in.”

  He’d tried all the obvious passwords. He knew Connor could hack in, however. Since he wasn’t sure what he would find, he didn’t want Everly involved.

  “Pressing charges against an employee for theft could give that foundation some bad press.”

  “I don’t care.” He’d considered it and decided it was worth the bad publicity to make sure that woman went to jail. If he was right, then she’d killed his best friend.

  And he really hadn’t liked the way she looked at Everly. He knew a jealous woman when he saw one. Some women would merely be catty, but others—like Val—would go the extra mile. “The money was taken from Crawford Industries, not the foundation. It was an abuse of the company’s largesse, and as long as I come out with a firm statement of support for the foundation, it should be fine.”

  Gabe didn’t worry about that. But what the hell was he going to do to keep Everly close to his side if the imminent danger passed? He could buy a couple of weeks at most because of the press. If he couldn’t change her mind by then . . . He cursed under his breath. He needed more time because he did not intend to become friendly strangers with her. He didn’t intend to be someone she said hello to at the kid’s birthday parties or at business meetings.

  “I texted Connor. He’s already working up a dossier on Valerie. Roman has a couple of his associates compiling files on all of the workers here. And by the way, I talked to Everly’s mom this afternoon. She’s a real peach. She confirmed the information Everly gave us. I know your girl doesn’t want any more exposure than she’s already got, so I threatened her if she went to the press, just in time apparently. She was poised to make money off her daughter’s new fame.”

  “If she speaks a word, I’ll ruin her.”

  Dax chuckled a little. “I thought you’d feel that way. I spent some time with Everly’s employees. They’re really loyal to her. A couple admitted to being wary at first because she . . .”

  “Has breasts?” He could imagine what some members of the cybersecurity team had thought about reporting to a petite female.

  “Yeah. The last head of cybersecurity was an older guy, former military. Everly must have been a massive change for them. She proved herself very quickly. They now call her the queen of the geek squad. They like the hell out of her. They’re worried about her. You should be prepared for them to give you a hard time. You need to face facts, Gabe. She’s happy here.”

  Damn it, he’d rather have her with him at Bond. A working relationship would help foster their personal one, but she wouldn’t switch jobs for him. He respected that, even as he found it irritating. But she hadn’t given him much choice; he was going to have to deal because she was smart and competent and deserved her own career. Sara would likely back Everly up on this, so he would find himself outvoted.

  “What else did you learn?” He wasn’t worried about any skeletons in her closet.

  “She’s a hard worker. Everyone in her group likes her.”

  Because Everly was the sort of woman who exceled. Unlike him, she hadn’t had a multimillion dollar company to fall back on. No inheritance. No cushy job or trust fund waiting for her. She’d had nothing but her own grit and she’d worked her ass off to succeed.

  His heart constricted. He’d dated a lot of girls, but she might be his first real woman.

  What was he doing with her? Playing around? Protecting his temporary turf? Because nothing they shared seemed that way. It felt so damn serious.

  “She is exactly what she says she is,” Gabe said.

  Dax nodded. “Yeah. You’re an asshole.”

  “I know. I should have believed her when she said she hadn’t been another notch in Mad’s bedpost. But I can’t take it back now. And I can’t let her go.”

  Regret weighed on him. He wished he’d had more time to convince her they could be great together. He would have come to the right conclusions about her platonic relationship with Mad on his own, but now he wouldn’t have the chance.

  Dax nodded in complete agreement. “No. You can’t let her go. You need her. She makes you halfway decent to be around, man.”

  “Asshole.” But he was smiling because it was good to have his friend’s approval. Dax liked Everly. Mad had loved Everly. Yeah, that mattered, too. He wondered why Mad hadn’t trusted him with the knowledge that he had a sister.

  His intercom buzzed. With a long sigh, he picked up the receiver. He recognized that he didn’t have the same enthusiasm for Crawford business that he had for his own company. He loved building planes and helicopters. As a boy, he’d been obsessed with anything that could fly. Bond had been his birthright. Crawford Industries might make him more money, and he just didn’t care. But Everly had a passion for this place. He couldn’t coax or force her to go to Bond Aeronautics with him, no matter how much he wanted to. She belonged here.

  “This is Bond.”

  “Someone from security is here to talk to you. He says he has information about security tapes.”

  Shit. “Send him in.”

  Dax’s eyes widened. “What’s going on?”

  “Someone broke into Everly’s office since she was here last. She asked the security guys to roll the footage to try to figure out who could have done it. Apparently, they found something.” He crossed the room and opened the door.

  An older gentleman dressed in his Crawford Industries blue uniform stepped inside. He held a laptop and wore a frown as he nodded Gabe’s way. “Mr. Bond, I thought you would want to see this.”

  Gabe sent the older man a grave nod. “Did you find footage of someone entering her office?”

  “I definitely did. The door was locked, but apparently the woman had a keycard. Now, on the janitorial staff, the floor workers have cards that open almost every door, but they only clean the locked offices twice a week. This wasn’t Ms. Parker’s night, and the head janitor is a man.”

  “What woman?”

  The guard lifted the lid to the laptop and hit a key to start the video feed. The footage was black and white but showed the hallway outside Everly’s office clearly. The janitor, a short man wearing earbuds, moved in front of the lens, sweeping his vacuum across the beige industrial carpet. He danced a little while he worked.

  And then Gabe saw her. She’d tucked her hair up in a ball cap and she wore a blue janitorial jumper, though it hung off her thin frame. She started to look around, clearly nervous, but whipped her stare down, as though she knew exactly when and where the hall cameras would be aimed. But then any halfway decent burglar would know that.

  “Who is she?” Dax asked.

  He had a hunch, but it was hard to be completely certain. There were plenty of skinny, tall women working for Crawford. It was New York City, after all. The police would argue it could be any of them. Gabe leaned in, trying to discern anything definitive.

  Then she lifted her hand to Everly’s doorknob and revealed something no real janitor would wear on the job: a delicate white watch. Chanel, if he wasn’t mistaken. Sure, it could be a knockoff, but why would anyone who immersed their hands in cleaning solution routinely as part of their job description wear jewelry that wasn’t waterproof? He’d noticed that same watch earlier when she’d done her best to stare Everly down.

  Now he had some proof that Valerie was up to no good. Forcing her way into Everly’s office was a form of B&E. Gabe didn’t need more proof than this.

  “That’s Valerie from accounting and she’s fired. Let’s escort her to the lobby now. Make sure she takes nothing with her except her personal belongings. Then we’ll hand her over to the police.” They could hold her until he could scrape together the rest of the proof necessary to make embezzlement charges stick.

  “Yes, sir.” The guard nodded.

  Gabe felt better being able to get rid of the woman. Something about her screamed crazy bitch to him. He’d met enough to know. Some women talked a good game, while others would happily cut their enemies. Gabe bet that Valerie fit into the latter category, and he wanted her as far from Everly as possible. His girl might know how to defend herself, but he didn’t want her to have to. “Dax, could you come with us, in case—”

  “She goes pyscho on your ass? Yeah.” Dax was right behind him.

  Gabe took off. He didn’t give a damn if everyone stared and wondered if their new CEO had gone insane. He only cared about ensuring Everly’s safety.

  As he reached Valerie’s office, dread spread through his chest. He had no specific reason to think she’d already acted or harmed Everly—except a terrible gut feeling. With his heart chugging, Gabe threw open the woman’s office door. Empty. Gone.

  He turned to Valerie’s assistant. “Where is she?”

  The woman clearly heard the urgency in his voice. She immediately turned, flustered, and stammered. “I-I . . . well, she, um . . . Ms. Richards is gone for the afternoon.”

  Gabe had a bad feeling he knew what Valerie’s plans were.

  He turned to the security officer. “Find Valerie. Now.”

  FOURTEEN

  Everly scanned the empty level of the parking garage, then glanced nervously at her phone. Ten minutes past three. It felt as if she’d been waiting forever. Her nerves stretched tight.

  Maybe the secret e-mail and texts she’d received had been a terrible joke. Maybe whoever sent them was a prankster. Or a sick individual.

  Three levels belowground, each sound was magnified as it echoed off the concrete. Every squeal of tires or sudden slam of the brakes from above as cars navigated the structure amplified underground. The tense moments buzzed with anxious anticipation.

  So when Everly heard the echo of footsteps against the cement behind her coming down the ramp toward her, she nearly jumped out of her skin.

  She reached into her purse to reassure herself her firearm still lay inside, then stepped away from the bank of elevators that had brought her down. She searched for the source of the footsteps. Her mysterious contact obviously liked drama and wanted to keep her on edge, so he’d walked down the parking garage to reach her. Regardless, he seemed determined to make an entrance.

  If this man turned out to be a reporter, she would take out her frustrations on him and give him the tongue lashing of his life. If he was for real . . . Everly didn’t know what she’d do.

  When she caught sight of the man, she had zero doubt he was the one who’d contacted her so mysteriously. He walked toward her, his polished wingtips clicking smartly. His face was barely visible under the brim of a fedora. Despite the unseasonably warm day, he wore a trench coat with the collar upturned to better hide his face.

  Though his film noir getup made her stop just short of rolling her eyes, Everly remained on guard. Yes, he stood roughly half a foot taller, but she couldn’t take him seriously when he was dressed so Hollywood for the part.

  Though she had a hard time seeing his face, especially given the dim lights overhead, she pegged his age at roughly fifty. The guy looked surprisingly fit, so he’d probably hold his own in hand-to-hand. He could be carrying, but then so was she. Given the lack of a telltale bulge in his coat pocket, she’d draw her weapon far faster than him since he had to get through the voluminous trench to a shoulder holster.

  His gaze was steady as he closed the distance between them, but he remained mute until he stepped onto the concrete pad near the elevators, just beyond the security cameras. “Miss Parker, it’s good to see you can follow instructions.”

  So he was impressed by her ability to read? Fabulous. “Why am I here?”

  He raised a brow. “No small talk, then?”

  She didn’t have time. Gabriel would come for her before long, and she would rather not have to explain this meeting to him. “I prefer getting to the point.”

  He nodded. “I was pleased you made it out of Crawford’s brownstone alive last night.”

  “So was I. And your point is?”

  He acknowledged her impatience with a sly grin. “If you haven’t already, I believe you’ll discover the man killed at the site was hired muscle for the Russian mob, someone they used when they didn’t want close ties to a crime.”

  “We’ve already figured that out.” The man’s knowledge didn’t prove anything except that he’d read online news sites or gotten ahold of the police reports. Anyone who understood the way the Russians work would be suspicious of a criminal from Brighton Beach. “The police are looking for the second man. He got away.”

  The informant gave her a regretful frown. “They’ll have to work fast or they won’t find Mr. Hall alive.”

  “Mr. Hall?” As far as she knew, the police hadn’t identified the second assailant yet. They had captured some grainy footage of him on a CCTV as he’d fled, but they hadn’t yet put a face with a name.

  “If my information is correct, you’ll soon learn that the second man involved in the crime is Lester Hall.”

  She froze. The assailant who’d perished in the fire had called his accomplice Les. How could this man possibly know that?