Page 29 of Midnight Torment

“I’d put a hundred on Horatio to win,” Xavier said.

“Me too. Grampa is a badass.” He always had been, which was why I couldn’t face seeing him weak in the hospital.

“We need to end this, Jay.”

“I know. Give me a few days to settle Megan and we’ll come up with a plan to finish this once and for all. I’m reading through the last of the original journals now and hope to have leads on the remaining artifacts in a day or two.”

I heard muttering in the background.

“Cassandra says to tell Megan she needs her here with her. Sasha is worried too.” That was a low blow considering Sasha had mothered the two women from they arrived at their law firm together. Everyone knew that Megan craved a mother figure. Why did she get the grumpy secretary and Cassandra got the surrogate mother? Kerri seemed to disapprove of every decision Megan made.

“I’ll tell her. She’s just a bit shaken up at the moment.”

“That’s understandable considering what happened in her office. Keep in touch, Jay, and don’t try and end this alone.”

“Talk to you soon,” I replied before hanging up.

I returned to my obsession of watching Megan. What the fuck was I going to do? She’d been right, Ihadbeen contemplating putting her somewhere far from me and the shitstorm that surrounded my life. There was a new passport with an entirely new life that accompanied her alias. She would never have to even worry about working ever again. The fact that she could read me so accurately scared the shit out of me. No one ever guessed what I was thinking about.

She saw me watching her and waved with a smile on her face and I knew that I would never be able to walk away from her again. That was a sacrifice that I had only been able to make once.

Since I’d been caught spying on her, I wandered out of the house to join her and the squirrel I was no longer allowed to shoot with the water pistol in the kitchen.

“I saw another squirrel in the garden this morning,” Megan said. “The tail wasn’t as bushy as Simon’s. Maybe it’s a little girl squirrel.”

I envisaged the garden overrun by small, furry creatures with an appetite for walnuts.

Megan giggled and pointed at me. “Your face!”

I pouted and raised an eyebrow. “What about it?”

“Come on.” She slid her arm through mine and dragged me back toward the house. “We need to buy groceries and I need a new laptop.”

“What’s wrong with the one you have?” I queried.

“It keeps crashing and files have been being corrupted. I need it to do work and contact my clients.”

A shiver of fear rippled up my spine. “Sure thing. Grab your bag and we’ll head out now.”

She happily changed her shoes and collected her coat and bag. I took the moment to message the guys on our private chat.

Me:Taking Megan to get a new laptop. Her old one has been crashing and corrupting files.

Our phones were secure, but technology evolved every day, and I had a really bad feeling.

Ash:We have new laptops I ordered in last week at the office if you want to grab one.

Me:Great idea. It’ll save me the boredom of shopping.

Xavier:Can you grab me some spare memory cards if you’re heading to the office?

Every one of our messages meant something to us. I had just told the guys that Megan’s laptop had been bugged. Ash gave me a location to head to and they’d meet me there. Xavier told me to take weapons with me in case I was followed.

I slipped Megan’s laptop into a laptop case I had with faraday technology in it. If it was bugged, it would stop transmitting, and they wouldn’t be able to access it remotely.

“Ready?” I asked, my game face firmly in place. There was no way I was cluing Megan into my suspicions.

She smiled and followed me out to the garage and into my Range Rover. This house had jammer devices in it and enough security to ensure no one knew where we were, but that laptop had been in her office with her. Someone could have gained access to it there and had been playing around in her folders ever since.

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