Page 54 of A Billionaire Dom

Linsey

Holden Enterprises had madea mistake in 1991 when they decided to hire a security firm that stored their records online rather than an on-site or off-site server. All three had pros and cons, but by now, people in the security business should have known better.

These guys, however, still had everything right there for the taking. Granted, they had a decent firewall, but in this day and age, private servers were better. At least then, a person usually had to be physically at either the server or at a computer directly linked to the server to get in.

It didn’t take much for me to get to their archives, and I half-expected to find that they only went back a couple years. Instead, I found that Holden Enterprises’s files went all the way back to the first day the cameras had been installed at the company. I doubted anyone else’s files went back that far, but Jude had probably instructed his files be kept until he requested them to be removed. He seemed like the sort of man who had back-up plans for his back-up plans.

To the company’s credit, they did at least have things organized by year and then by month within that year. That saved me a lot of time since it meant I was able to go straight to the summer of 1993.

I started in June with the parking lot cameras. If Jude had been having an affair with Heidi, especially after hours at work, there might have been footage of him walking her to her car. It would be the most I could get, I surmised, because any physical contact while in the building would’ve happened in Jude’s office, and there hadn’t been any cameras there at the time.

I’d made it halfway through the month without any sign of an affair when someone knocked on my door. I closed my laptop and did a quick check of the table to make sure I’d put away my latest notes. Kasey had mentioned something about having a friend over for dinner, and it wouldn’t have been the first time that a guest arrived while she was still working.

It wasn’t Kasey’s friend, however. It was Davin, and he looked upset. At least as upset as he ever let himself appear to be, anyway.

“Come in.” I stepped out of the way, a little surprised when he brushed by me without a kiss. I wasn’t his girlfriend, but it also wasn’t like we were platonic friends.

“You went to see my company’s PI?”

Shit. How had he found out?

“Yes.” I wasn’t going to lie to him, but I hoped he didn’t push the subject either. That wasn’t a path either of us would enjoy taking.

“You lied to me.”

“No, I lied tohim.” As soon as I said it, I knew it’d been the absolute wrong thing to say. Somehow, I didn’t think the slight distinction would make a difference. Besides, both of us knew that the reason I’d lied to Royd Kichner was to keep my visit from getting back to Davin.

“Enough bullshit, Linsey.”

His tone was harsh, and I knew I deserved it. I’d hidden things from him, and to expect Davin to just smile and say it was okay would be unfair, to say the least. I would’ve been pissed if the situation had been reversed.

But how could I apologize when I was looking into something as serious as a missing person? It wasn’t like I was some gold digger out for money or trying to smear the family name. If anything, I was looking for reasonsnotto suspect Jude Holden.

“What is it you want? Money? Looking to blackmail us or something?”

I pushed back the anger that came with the accusation. That would be the natural assumption for someone in his position. I just would’ve liked for him to know me well enough to realize I wasn’t like that.

“I’m…” Shit. How was I supposed to tell him without giving away exactly what I was doing? The majority of it wasn’t exactly legal. I sighed. “Look, your grandfather might not be the person you think he is. I’m looking for the truth, but it doesn’t look good.”

For a moment, I thought he might explode. The expression on his face darkened, and his pale blue eyes went stormy. Then, as suddenly as the emotion had come, it vanished, and he turned to ice. Nothing showed on his face or in his eyes. The man who’d come to my rescue, who I’d enjoyed being with, now radiated hostility.

I opened my mouth to apologize, to saysomething, but that was when it hit me. “How did Royd Kichner figure out who I was and know to go to you?”

Davin didn’t say a word.

I took a step closer. “Even if he did somehow figure out who I was, which is really unlikely based on that single interaction, he should’ve gone to your grandfather. I never mentioned you at all.”

My statements were met with stony silence.

Then things clicked, and my jaw dropped. “You hired him to look into me.”

He shifted, crossing his arms as a defiant glint came into his eyes. “I did.”

Hurt anger flooded me. “You do that for all the women you fuck?”

“I should’ve done it sooner,” he said, the muscle working in his jaw. “Would’ve saved me a lot of time.”

My fingers curled into fists. “I wish you would’ve too. I could’ve been doing something productive instead of wasting my time with you.”

---