I exhaled, a huge wave of relief washing over me. I knew I'd done the right thing by hiring the most expensive—and best—data encryption company in the country. It had turned out to be money well spent.
“Yeah, the perp was obviously an expert. According to the guys in tech, he hacked pretty deep into the system, but still couldn't get past the final security features protecting the highly sensitive data. So, I guess he just got pissed and decided to destroy the computers instead.”
“That doesn't matter, computers can be replaced, and we've got backup of all of our data. Was anything else stolen?”
“Nothing that we can tell, sir. It appears they were only after data.”
I nodded. “Any leads in the investigation?”
“Nothing concrete yet,” Alan responded.
“I have an idea who's behind this. Unfortunately, I have no way to prove it unless you can bring me something.”
“Let me guess. Brendan Savage?”
As soon as I heard the name, a shudder of disgust and anger rippled through me. Brendan Savage was my fiercest competitor. Over the course of the last decade his firm, Savage Inc., had come perilously close to toppling mine from the leading spot.
If he was behind this break in, as I suspected, this wouldn't have been the first time he'd tried to get ahead of me using less than legal means. He wanted that top spot more than anything and was prepared to do whatever it would take to get there—legal or not.
Savage was charming, suave, sophisticated, and narcissistic. He also lacked even a shred of conscience. In other words, he was the perfect psychopath, granted (as far as I knew, anyway) his psychopathy hadn't extended as far as actually murdering anyone. Yet.
Despite having the best investigators on the case, I suspected it would be a futile exercise to try to pin it on him. He was far too intelligent and cunning to leave a trail connecting this crime to himself or his company. Still, I knew he was behind it. Call it a gut feeling.
“What would you have us do now?” Alan asked.
“There isn't much we can do. We just have to let the PI do his job and see if he comes up with anything. Meanwhile, I think it's time for a security upgrade.”
“I was thinking so, too, sir.”
“Use whatever funds you need, Alan. Make this place impenetrable. I don't want this happening again.”
“Understood, sir.”
“Excellent. Now, I'll have to make sure all of our employees know that they've got an unexpected day off on Monday. And then, I'll have to order a whole new set of computers and arrange for those to be brought in and set up on Monday.”
“It's gonna cost a packet, huh?”
I sighed. “Yeah. But it's going to cost way more in terms of lost productivity. Still, there's nothing else we can do, really.”
“All right, sir. I'll go meet up with the PI, and we'll report back to you if we discover anything.”
“Thanks, Alan,” I replied. “I appreciate all your hard work.”
“No problem, sir.”
I watched as he hurried off and, despite the severity of the current situation, I couldn't help but think of Lilah. I checked my phone, hoping for some message from her. The night we'd spent together had been incredible. I couldn't remember the last time I'd been so passionate, so intense, so in tune with anyone. She'd awoken something within me—something glorious, joyous, and full of life and energy.
I calculated the time difference in my head. It would be late in the day in Paris, surely she would have been up and about. I wondered why she hadn’t messaged me. Was she still concerned that romantic feelings between her and I would get in the way of our working relationship? That she wouldn’t be able to get the most out of her career if she got involved with me?
They were valid concerns considering that she was a very driven, ambitious woman, who was focused on her career. But still, what was happening between us didn't feel like a fling, not to me at least. It felt . . . real.
With everything that had just happened, I had enough on my plate. The last thing I needed was to play cat and mouse. So, I typed out a message to her.
Hi, Lilah. I trust you got the note I left in the hotel room. I'm sure you must be cruising arou
nd Paris by now, taking in all the sights and sounds and tastes . . . everything awesome about that wonderful city.
I don't know if you've booked your ticket back yet, but no need to be in a hurry. There's been a situation at the office and all the computers are out. It's going to take at least a day to get new ones installed and ready for Tuesday morning.