Page 63 of Protecting his Secrets

“Woah, calm down, Malachi. He went to fetch a laptop from down the corridor,” Felix said, holding Malachi’s shoulders.

Malachi pushed away from him, leaving the room again and scanning both ways. He chose the opposite direction from where he had come and shouted for him. “Nick! Where are you?”

“Malachi, tell me what’s going on?” Felix said from beside him.

“Email. Threatened Nick. Need to check…”

Nick came out from a doorway, and a sob left Malachi’s throat, his knees giving out and slamming him to the floor. He was okay. He was alive. Arms came around him, and he clung to them, soaking in Nick’s scent, and his heart calmed. His entire body ached, and his eyes burnt with the continuous tears seeping from them. But Nick was safe.

“Malachi, sweetheart, what’s wrong?”

Malachi inhaled, clearing his throat before he looked up. Nick went to move, but Malachi clutched at him.

“Okay, we’ll stay here for a minute,” Nick soothed. “Can you tell me what happened?”

Malachi nodded. “I was checking my emails while I was waiting for you. You were…” His breath caught.

“Can I see?”

Malachi nodded but couldn’t remember where he put his phone. He looked down at himself.

“Here. You dropped it in Sec HQ,” Felix said, holding it out.

“Thanks,” he murmured. He unlocked it and handed it to Nick before closing his eyes and tightening his hold again. All this up and down emotional shit was getting old. What he wouldn’t give for a balanced, easy life from then onwards.

“Fucker. Can you trace this, Felix?” Nick said.

“I can try. Malachi, could I borrow your phone for a moment, please?”

Malachi nodded against Nick’s chest, concentrating on his heartbeat, the one thing tethering him to that moment.

“Let’s move you somewhere more comfortable than the corridor floor, yeah?” Nick said, and Malachi finally disentangled himself. Nick helped him to stand.

“I swear I’m more stable than this usually,” Malachi joked.

Nick held him. “You can be as unstable as you want with me. It won’t change my opinion of you.”

Malachi scoffed. “Give it time.”

They settled into some chairs in Sec HQ, and Malachi rubbed a hand over his face, his entire body feeling far too heavy and achy. A cup of tea was put in his hands, and Nick covered them to stop the trembling as he brought it to his mouth. The heat seeped into him, and he relaxed. Conversations were happening around him, but he couldn’t make his ears work enough to dial into them, so he stopped trying, just being content that Nick was beside him, touching him.

“—Tarrant’s laptop.”

Malachi tuned in at the last minute. “What?”

“It was sent from Tarrant’s laptop. The problem is, that laptop was in police hands the last time we checked. Either someone has managed to get their hands on it to send it, or it’s someone who knows how to hack networks.”

“This guy, or his accomplice, was able to delete that camera footage. Would this be a stretch for something he was capable of?” Brett asked.

Felix was already shaking his head. “If he could do that, he could do this. And that means they could be anywhere. Anyone.”

Malachi didn’t need to ask what that meant because the silent and stony people around him told him it was bad news. He wasn’t a technophobe, but he wasn’t brilliant at hacking. Hecould do minor things—not that he’d tell anyone that—but he had no idea how to pull something like this off. Did he know anyone who could? No one came to mind.

“Let me take you back to the room. We can get some work done while we relax.” Nick stood, but Malachi shook his head.

“Can we stay here? I feel better about being around others.”

Nick nodded. “Of course. Let me get that laptop—”

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