Page 45 of Protecting his Secrets

“That’s not news, Nick. You were obsessed.Areobsessed.”

Nick grinned. “With good reason.”

Brett huffed and shook his head. “I’m happy for you. I really am.” He glanced across the room and then down at the desk. “I suppose I need—”

“You fucking asshole!” Felix shouted, pushing away from the computer and running his hands through his hair. “Fucking shithead. When I get my fucking hands on you, I’m going to—” He stopped when he faced them and inhaled. “Sorry.”

“News?” Brett asked.

“Yeah, he wiped the cameras. But not so that it’d stand out. What he’s managed to do is splice them. So he basically cut a few minutes, but it was in such small amounts, I didn’t notice.”

“Which cameras?”

“Prince of Wales’ Tower to Queen’s to York. He must’ve walked damn fast because there are barely seconds missing from some cameras.”

Brett stood. “He had to have help. There’s no way he could’ve escaped and deleted all those cameras in the time it took us to start looking for someone.”

Felix nodded. “No doubt. He’s good, but he’s not a magician.”

“What did Malachi say about any hate mail?” Brett asked, turning to Nick.

“He gets it daily and ignores it. He did mention one guy, Tarrant Milton. Said he was not a hater, as such, but loved the work he did. Which is a bonus in Malachi’s favour, but not in ours.”

“If the guy loves Malachi’s work, then he doesn’t like the royal family. It could be him,” Felix stated.

“Correct,” Brett said.

“But I thought we were assuming this was about Malachi, not the Sutcliffes,” Nick said.

“I suddenly remembered what they said about assuming.” Brett sighed. “It makes an ass of you and me.”

Nick exhaled and leaned back against the table again. “I feel exhausted all of a sudden.”

“Welcome to my world,” Brett muttered. “Go home, Nick. Start fresh tomorrow after your shift if you have the energy.”

“I’m good now. I’ll get started—”

“Go home. That’s an order. You’ve been on duty for hours, even if it’s not felt like it. Get some rest.”

“No, I’m—”

“Go. Home.”

Nick exhaled, knowing he wouldn’t get a different answer. And it wasn’t like he couldn’t do some work from home. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“And if Felix tells me you logged onto the system, I’ll stop you from organising anyone else’s party for a year.”

Nick gasped and spun around. “That’s mean!”

Brett smirked at him. “That shows how serious I am.”

Shaking his head, Nick headed for the door. “Evil leader,” he muttered.

As he left, he caught Felix’s gaze, and the man winked at him. He hoped that meant he’d keep quiet about whatever Nick got up to at home. Because he was going to research his ass off. If this was focused on Malachi, Nick needed to figure it out. He wouldn’t stop until whoever was involved was behind bars or dead—he didn’t care which. All he wanted was Malachi safe. And Nick would do whatever it took to make that happen.

And if it meant he was protecting the crown at the same time, then well done to him.

It was going to be a very long night.

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