Page 21 of Beautifully Broken Control

“All right. Now, get to work. I don’t pay you to chit-chat.” She turned on her heel and glided towards her office.

I let out a breath. One problem solved. Hopefully, the rest would stay at bay, and I would be left to my blank-canvas life.

8

Cain

My phone buzzedin my pocket as I eased my feet into the icy-cold lake water. Pulling out my cell, I grimaced at the screen. Not even seventy-two hours of peace. “Hello, Rachel.”

“Cain.” Her voice was a hushed whisper, and there was an urgency to the single word she spoke.

“What’s wrong?” God, I didn’t want to fly back to Portland already.

There was the sound of a door shutting before Rachel continued speaking. “I think someone was nosing around your office.”

My spine stiffened. “What makes you say that?”

“I’ve been placing non-urgent files that need your attention in there. I figured you could handle them whenever you returned, or I’d bring them out to you. Anyway, when I went to add another file to the stack this afternoon, they were all out of order.”

“Are you sure?”

Rachel scoffed. “Cain, please.”

Of course, she was sure. Rachel was one of the most organized people I had ever met. There was always a method to her madness. “Start locking my office.” I should’ve made that arrangement as soon as I’d known I’d be gone for an extended period of time.

Rachel was silent for a moment. “Maybe you should think about coming back.”

I looked out at the lake around me and flexed my feet in the soothing water. It was the first bit of peace I’d felt in years. “I won’t be returning anytime soon.”

“You like it there.” Rachel’s voice gentled. She’d always taken her job as my assistant to the extreme, seeing it as her responsibility to look out for me.

“I do. But you’re right that we need to take precautions.” My office was on a floor that housed only a handful of others, and everyone with access had the highest security clearance. “Did you ask Jake if he went in there, looking for something?” He never asked permission and always messed up whatever system Rachel had going.

She let out a huff. “I did. He swears he wasn’t in there. But there’s something else.” I said nothing, letting the silence encourage Rachel to continue. “Pete said someone tried to hack our systems yesterday.”

My grip on the phone tightened. That wasn’t anything new. Corporate espionage and trying to sneak in through back doors was just the name of the game when you were at the top. There were whispers in the community that I was working on a new program, one that would revolutionize security systems at every level. If my competitors got their hands on that before we made it to market, it could be a death blow to everything I’d built with Halo.

Rachel pressed on in that same hushed tone. “He’s been working on it all morning. He said whoever it was knew what they were doing. They almost got in.”

My jaw made that familiar clicking noise as my teeth ground together. This was not good. We hadn’t had a close call like this…ever. Why the hell hadn’t he notified me immediately? “Have him call me,now. And I’ll check out the system from here.” I pushed to my feet, losing the calming presence the water had brought. “And I want you to keep your eyes and ears open. Call me if you notice anyone acting suspicious.”

“Of course, Cain. Let me know if I can do anything else.”

“Thank you. I’m glad I can always count on you to look out for me and Halo.” I hit end on the call and muttered a curse. There was always someone out to get you. It was a reminder I didn’t need.

* * *

The sun shoneover the lake as I took a pull of the ice-cold soda water. “You guys bring the perfect housewarming gifts.” I twisted my head to the side, popping my neck and trying to release some of the stress of the day.

Tuck chuckled. “Had to make sure you were stocked with your essentials of choice.”

Walker popped the cap off his beer. “Thank God you at least have a fridge.”

I looked over my shoulder at the house behind us. The very empty house. “I sent my designer photos last night. She said she’d have the furniture here by the end of the week.”

Tuck spun a cap between his fingers. “What’re you going to do in the meantime?”

“I picked up an air mattress and a few other essentials at the hardware store.” I looked at my friends. “Does that store carry everything? I swear one aisle had power tools, and the next bedding.”

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