Beth’s face froze. “He told you about that?”
“Just a little,” she half lied.
“Mom wanted a lid kept on that.”
Chloe felt a burst of irritation. “Well, I’m hardly likely to run screaming it from the rooftops,” she said stiffly, even as she began to wonder what the reporter who’d written the safety investigation exposé could do with that information.
But did she dare feed that to him? It was exactly the kind of information he was looking for. Chloe’s hands bunched into fists on the table. She started as one of Beth’s hands settled on hers.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to offend. It’s just that we’re finding it hard to trust anyone right now. What with the safety issues leading to the fire and the hurt caused to our staff and now the DEA being brought in. Someone has betrayed us horribly.”
Chloe withdrew her hand from beneath Beth’s. “I understand. It’s a difficult time for you.”
“I’d still enjoy having your company today, if you can forgive me for what I said just now?”
It was clear Beth was trying desperately to make amends. Chloe forced herself to relax and painted a smile on her face.
“Sure, no offense taken.”
But she was offended. This family took so much for granted and circled the wagons instantly when under threat. But she was on the inside of that circle now. She’
d waited all her life for this opportunity, and she was exactly where she needed to be to make a difference to her mom’s future. But could she go through with it? Could she deliberately hurt the man who was fast coming to mean a lot more to her than simply a means to an end?
* * *
“Well, can you see anything?” Sutton asked as he looked over Miles’s shoulder.
Miles pushed back from the computer and huffed out a sigh of irritation.
“I’m not quite sure what you expect of me, Sutton, but trust me, it takes a whole lot more time and focus—uninterrupted focus—to look for what I believe you suspect has happened.”
“So, nothing?”
Miles closed his eyes and counted to three before opening them again. “I didn’t say that. It would seem that someone has tampered with the safety logs at the jet factory.”
Sebastian uttered a string of curses while his twin merely paled.
“So it was deliberate,” Sutton said grimly. “The accident was no accident at all.” He swore. “I can’t believe someone in our employ would put other people’s lives at risk like that. No wonder we’re being charged with criminal negligence. This should never have happened.”
“What can we do to make sure it doesn’t happen again,” Sebastian asked.
“Well, we can put some short-term security measures in place, but frankly the entire Wingate IT system needs a major upgrade. Steel Security can do that for you, but it is going to take time and if the DEA—”
“Let’s cross that bridge when we get to it. Organize what you can for us for now, and we’ll take the next step as it comes.” Sebastian rubbed a hand across his face. “Man, this sucks, doesn’t it? Tell me, if we’d done the IT upgrade like you’d told us to, could this have happened?”
Miles frowned. “No system is 100 percent hack proof but, to be honest, what you have had running here is child’s play.”
“So we’ve been negligent on this as well?” Sutton pressed.
“I wouldn’t say negligent. Your staff signs a code of conduct with their contracts, don’t they? Whoever did this was in breach of their agreement with WinJet as their employer. If criminal charges need to be laid, it’s against whoever did this. And, I suspect, more than one person. The digital footprints are all over the place.” Miles rocked back in his chair and looked at his brothers before delivering his final judgment. “To me it looks like a deliberate attack.”
“I don’t like the sound of that,” Sebastian said carefully. “How long do you think this has been going on? After all, we know Dad made some enemies. Is it possible it stems further back, to when he was still alive?”
Miles shook his head. “This looks a lot more recent than that.”
Sutton growled. “So this is on us. We’ve got to find out who is behind this, but before we can do that we have to do right by the men who were injured. Forget the lawyers and trying to beat them down, it’s our obligation to settle with the least fuss. We need to take responsibility and then make sure nothing like this can ever happen again.”
Sebastian was nodding. “I agree. Mom’s in her office. Let’s tell her our decision. I know Uncle Keith was advising that we fight the claim and imply it was staff negligence that caused the fire, but the deeper we look into all of this, the less I like it. We tell the lawyers we’ll take the hit and admit liability. After all, it happened on our watch.”