Page 52 of Wine, Whiskey, & Lipstick 2

Has it been five minutes already?The chimes were the first warning signal that she needed to hurry up. She only had another five minutes to be inside. Getting in and out quickly was the key to not getting caught. Still, Dillyn wondered,if they had that, what else did they have?

Dillyn held her breath, hoping they did not find the connection between her and Syntax or anything else that could lead back to it. She made sure to digitally record everything for analysis later. So far, they could only glean information regarding her cover business. They had not found the accounts from her work with Syntax. The bulk of the financial information they had was about Steven. He seemed to be the target. After a quick review, Dillyn didn’t see anything that was alarming. However, that didn’t mean there wasn’t anything.

She just hadn’t found it.

Dillyn was about to start exiting the network when she saw another folder titledFertility. She swallowed hard.Get out. Get out now. She told herself.Butyou might not be able to get back in again. Look at it now.

Dillyn couldn’t help herself and opened it.

Her eyes widened. She felt sick. “How the hell did they get this?!” There were documents chronicling her and Steven’s fertility journey. They had their complete medical histories. Dillyn’s records looked familiar, but Steven’s . . . did not.

She squeezed her eyes shut and threw her head back, releasing a guttural howl.

“That bastard!” Hot tears streamed down her face. “How dare he allow me to go through three rounds of in vitro treatments only to get a vasectomy after the first one!”Why?! What the actual hell?Dillyn was so confused. If neither of them wanted to have children, why would he let her go through the process? What was his end goal?

“None of this makes any sense.” Dillyn was thrown for a loop, and her head was spinning. She had to get it together, or she would make a mistake. Dillyn had spent more time than she should have to try to make heads or tails of what she’d seen.

“Goddammit!”She swiped away angry tears, “I’ve got to get out of here.” If Dillyn stayed much longer, anyone with a basic security system could detect her.

Dillyn wasn’t sure it was possible to become more frustrated than before she got on her computer, but somehow, she had. Discovering another one, Steven’s mind-boggling betrayals and not finding any obvious clues as to why someone attacked her system took that frustration to stratospheric levels.

Don’t completely lose your shit.

Dillyn had to remain hopeful that she had gathered enough information to analyze later. Maybe she would find something she had missed.

Five rapid successive high-pitched bells sounded. Her final alarm went off. It notified her to get the hell out of the system just as she came across another file.

Against her better judgment, Dillyn clicked on it. Immediately, she wished she hadn’t, as images of her mother and father’s mugshots appeared.

Who would want those?!

Dillyn’s head was pounding. She couldn’t handle anything else but managed to catalog it before closing out of the file and exiting the system. Careful not to leave any trace that she had ever been in it.

When Dillyn was finally out, she was emotionally and physically drained. Her mind couldn’t process another thing. If being on autopilot had a human face, it would have been Dillyn’s. She genuinely felt like she was standing outside her body.

Robotically, she got up and left her workstation, crawled onto her bed, and curled up into a ball, barely blinking or even breathing.

Her life didn’t make any sense. It was rapidly falling apart, and she couldn’t think of one thing to stop it. At least nothing that wouldn’t break her very soul.

Chapter 23

Ben walked into Dillyn’s bedroom and found her lying on her side, curled up in a ball with her hands sandwiched between her thighs. She looked stressed even in her sleep, and after a closer look, Ben could see the dried, tear-stained streaks running down her face.

He wondered what caused them.

Ben swallowed hard. He felt helpless. It was a feeling he was all too familiar, and he hated it. He was careful not to wake her as he sat down on the bed. Gently, he caressed the side of her cheek. Hoping she would feel his strength, which would give her some comfort.

What am I going to do?It was the million-dollar question and one that Ben had wrestled with since Selah was abducted. A question he and his brothers were trying to solve for everyone. The problem was they had no idea exactly how to go about it safely when the forces they were dealing with were completely unknown.

Ben and Lucas were cowboys. He’d had some weapons training and experience. Some have even called him a skilled weapon’s expert, but he wasn’t a trained operative like Wyatt. Lucas had even less experience than him. It felt foreign to have to put his trust in their security team.

How the hell had he found himself in this situation in the first place? Briefly, Ben closed his eyes.You know how. You were drawn to this beautiful woman and all her vulnerabilitieslike a moth to a flame. It was cliché and as old as time. Ben was in love, but lately, he wasn’t so sure how Dillyn felt. If he were honest, Ben was starting to see Dillyn more like a beautiful bird who had clipped her wings. Was he just a rebound? A person to help her get over Steven? Those thoughts lead to a Pandora’s box of insecurities.

Did she love Steven? His death was still so fresh.What would she do once she was healed?Ben didn’t have second thoughts about her. He was sure how he felt, butmaybe they had moved too quickly. Ben wanted everything with Dillyn. He could see building a family, but did she want the same?

Lately, they just hadn’t been on the same page. At first, Ben could chalk it up to nerves and hormones, but maybe it was more.

Dillyn stirred. Her eyes slowly fluttered open. She stretched as she stared up into his eyes. Ben's heart wanted to explode when a slow smile spread across her face. He was in bad if her smile could make him feel this way.

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