Total pages in book: 79
Estimated words: 77354 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 387(@200wpm)___ 309(@250wpm)___ 258(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 77354 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 387(@200wpm)___ 309(@250wpm)___ 258(@300wpm)
Worth and I get down to the basement and everyone turns to me in silence. They all know something’s going down. They just don’t know what. Thankfully, I don’t see Nadia in the faces staring at me.
Worth fixes me a large whisky and Leo starts toward the sofa. I know it’s time.
“Leo,” I say, and he turns back to me, grinning like I’m about to tell him a joke. But this isn’t going to be funny. “I need to talk to you about something.”
He cocks his head and his forehead furrows slightly. The anticipation of what I’m about to say, what I’m about to do to him, is like a rusty knife in my gut.
“It’s about Nadia,” I say. “She’s been using you to hack into my phone on Monday nights, and using my phone as a gateway into Fort Inc. We have some advanced AI capabilities that no one outside of the company knows about.” I glance around. Now these guys know too. “We suspect it’s what she’s been after.”
“Fuck,” Jack says over the murmurs of the other three.
“What?” Leo shakes his head. “What are you talking about?”
“You know I left my apartment because my team and I thought someone was stalking me. Apparently, it wasn’t my paranoia in overdrive. Turns out it was the organization Nadia works for. They made the connection between me and Ben Fort. Found my friend group and… found a way in.”
I wince as I hear how it sounds out loud. Leo was a target. A mark. A means to an end.
“I’m sorry,” I say.
“Your paranoia is out of control, Bennett,” Leo says. “Nadia’s a model, not a fucking spy or hacker or whatever the hell you’re accusing her of being.”
“I get it,” I reply, keeping my tone even. I don’t need to add fuel to the fire I’ve ignited. There will be enough damage tonight, whatever happens. “It’s hard to hear. And I didn’t believe it at first. Partly because the way she set things up, she made it look like it was you trying to get through the Fort security systems.”
“So you suspected me too?” he asks, his tone almost goading.
I shake my head. “Not for a second.”
My phone beeps. I know it’s Chul giving me an update on what’s happening at Leo’s apartment. He had a team go over there to keep an eye on things in case Nadia was there, and to be there when Leo found out. Just in case.
“Bennett, seriously. Have you heard yourself?” Leo asks. “This isn’t a Jason Bourne movie. Nadia’s not a villain.”
Worth slaps Leo on the back. “Dude, Bennett’s not lying to you.”
His support feels like a hand on my back. He knows I’m not lying.
Leo turns to Worth. “You knew about this?”
Worth holds up his hands. “Absolutely not. We’re all finding out at the same time. But Bennett doesn’t lie. You know this. I know this. We all know that about Bennett. We don’t lie to each other.”
“But it’s impossible,” Leo says. “She’s—I’ve seen her on the covers of magazines.”
I shrug. That’s not difficult to fake. No images are difficult to fake anymore.
He shakes his head. “There’s no way. I—I—I—”
We all stand in silence, processing, allowing Leo to process.
“If it makes you feel any better, this isn’t a girl and her laptop,” I say. “My people think this is likely the hand of a government.”
“You think it’s the CIA?” Fisher asks.
I shake my head. “Not the American government or any of our allies.”
“Holy fuck, Bennett. How do you get yourself into this shit?” Leo asks. My jaw slackens slightly. Does his reaction mean he’s accepted what I’m saying is true?
“I’m sorry, Leo,” I say.
“Fuck that. I’m sorry I let her… near you.”
“This wasn’t you,” I reassure him. “She’s… clever. I almost didn’t catch her.” If it hadn’t been for Efa, who knows how long it would have taken for Aarvi to tell me what she knew?
How ironic that Efa has earned a place at Fort Inc., and now that we’re not together, she can take it up.
“So the entire time we were… Jeez, she’s in my apartment. She’s alone there now. What’s she doing?” Leo asks, panic rising in his voice.
“I have a team watching your place, ready to encourage her to leave, if that’s what you want,” I explain.
“And when you say ‘encourage her to leave,’ do you mean hurl her out into the gutter?” Leo asks.
“If that’s your wish,” I say.
“It’s not just my wish. I insist on that happening. Because if I get there and she’s still there, I don’t trust myself.”
Which is exactly one of the reasons why I have a team there. Nadia’s caused enough trouble. Leo doesn’t need a criminal record as a parting gift.
“I’d like to be able to go through her things before she takes them if you don’t mind?”