Page 59 of Remote Access

“He has nothing left there now. He’s inside now meeting Helix and Shelli. They told me you were out here somewhere. I wouldn’t be surprised if Liam and Carter head this way soon, too.”

“What about Isaac? Won’t you miss him?”

“Of course I will. I can go visit.”

“But you got your job back. I saw the news footage of your chief going to jail.” He grinned.

“It turned out he was a lot dirtier than we even realized. And he was responsible for the death of a good cop who’d discovered what he’d done. The contact Isaac spoke about? He’d been investigating Rawlins for a year. He’ll be in prison for the rest of his life—which might not be long. Dirty cops aren’t too popular there.”

“You were exonerated. Your job was important to you, I know it was.”

“It was, but I don’t want it. Like Gareth, I have nothing to keep me there. Not when you’re where I want to be.”

“So romantic,” Lane said with a cheeky grin.

“Better get used to it. And Lane, what you’re doing here is right. There are years of files in there and we can work to return every single thing that asshole kept in his own collection too.”

“But what about the files Isaac and Gareth have?”

“They aren’t turning them in. Isaac has scanned them all into electronic files. Says he can work with you over the Internet on getting items back.”

Lane threw back his head, laughter spilling from his throat. “How the hell did I get lucky enough to happen upon you and your friends?”

“I’m the lucky one. Come on. Let’s go inside and see how Gareth and Helix are getting along. I have a feeling those two aren’t going to mesh.”

“Well, they better if Gareth is staying here, too, because Helix moved in yesterday.”

“Gareth plans to stay in town, which is a good thing considering you and I living here will already raise eyebrows in the locals.”

“Wait until you see the town. If I could have picked a place for Lane Becker to live, this would have been it.”

“So, speaking of Lane Becker…are you going to tell me your real name?”

“No.” He pulled back. “I’m not going to tell you my old name because that thief is gone for good. I like who I am now, and I’m Lane. It’s my mother’s middle name so it means something to me.”

“Then Lane is who you will be to me. It’s the name already tattooed on my heart anyway. I couldn’t stand being away from you.”

Lane wrapped his arms around Quincy’s neck again. “I’ve been living as Lane Becker longer than you think. In fact, I think it’s about time I told you how I got into that security system.”

“I’m all ears.”

“Four years ago, I set up the Becker identity and started working on a side business. One I could do once I got my mom and me away from Hayrick.”

“And what business is that?”

“Security systems.” Lane couldn’t stop the laughter that spilled from his throat.

Quincy tightened his arms around him. “You have got to be shitting me. So the very system I researched—”

“The one Hayrick suggested…”

“You got him to look into it. How?”

“I merely talked about one I couldn’t break, a new one I hadn’t seen before. He took the bait.”

“So, you have what? An ability to break into them?”

“I don’t have to. I worked remotely as Lane Becker for years and sold my patented system for enough to make this boy and his mother a new life. But every person who uses that system has no idea that I built a backdoor into it. You could say that all this time, I had remote access. I’d hoped to someday use that against Hayrick. It just came along a lot sooner than I planned.”

Quincy shook his head. “What am I getting into with you?”

He waggled his brows. “You know exactly what you’ll be getting into. In fact, let’s sneak in the back door. I could use a shower and have a few things I’d love you to wash. And get into.”

He jumped up and wrapped his legs around Quincy’s waist, throwing his head back with laughter when Quincy bypassed the front door.

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