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He shook his head. Attempting to slip those on and into DePalma’s vehicle now, when they didn’t know where he was, wasn’t a good idea. She narrowed her eyes at him, letting him know exactly what she thought of his caution. It made him wonder if maybe her parents had yet another reason for agreeing to send her to St. Josue. She wouldnothave been an easy teenager to raise.
She made to step forward, but then paused before he stopped her. Cocking her head to the side, she tapped her ear. Understanding her message, he, too, turned his head to listen.
“Is it all taken care of?” a man asked. Neither of them had ever heard DePalma’s voice so had no idea if it was him speaking or someone else.
“Yes, but like I told you, there’s no way of knowing if I got there in time. It didn’t look like anyone had accessed his files, but I didn’t have the time for a full forensic workup,” another man said.
Gavin’s gaze lifted to meet Violetta’s. The first man must have been DePalma, and from the sound of it, the second was a hacker he’d hired to wipe Jeremy’s electronic files. Only he was too late. Not only had the files been accessed, but Violetta had downloaded everything onto her own computer.
Leaning close, her lips brushing his ear, she spoke. “I have a cloaking program that hid my accessing of the files. If he was a good enough hacker and he looked hard enough, he’d see through it, but it sounds like it held.”
He let out a long breath. It wasn’t that Violetta was out of DePalma’s crosshairs altogether, but he would certainly feel less urgency to come after her if he thought his hacker had been successful and that she didn’t have any important information.
“All files?” DePalma asked.
“As you know, his laptop and phone were destroyed in the hit-and-run, so I couldn’t get to the hard drives. I wiped his cloud account and phone records, though. His phone records were easier than they should have been, but the security on the cloud account was tight—I barely got out before they caught me. The service provider has a protocol that will require them to tell Wheaton’s sister there was a security incident involving the firm’s account. The company will have to do their own forensics first, though. And between that and the funeral, my guess is it will be a week or so before she’s aware there was a problem.”
Suddenly the two men appeared in front of the Escalade. DePalma was walking toward the edge of the quarry and a short, skinny young man with straight black hair and glasses followed. Gavin wanted to yell to the younger man not to get any closer, but before he had too much time to think about it, Violetta darted from his side. He reached for her, but his fingers barely grazed the fabric of her sweatshirt. Silently maneuvering through the forest toward the back corner of the SUV, she slipped away.
Adrenaline spiked through his system as he divided his attention between Violetta and the two men. He wanted to throttle her. He wanted to bark at her the way he barked orders at the men and women he led. Thankfully, he was well-trained at tamping down his reactions, and he managed to stay quiet. He was also self-aware enough to know that his over-the-top response was of a more personal nature than a professional one. The truth was, if this had been his op, he would have done the exact same thing she’d done. That didn’t make it any easier to watch her go, though.
Pausing at the edge of the woods closest to the back bumper, she looked at him, relying on him to signal to her when to go. A small part of him wanted to pretend he didn’t know what she was doing, but he couldn’t bring himself to be that petty. Besides, Violetta would move ahead without his input anyway. She’d been operating on her own for twenty years and didn’t need his help to do what needed to be done. The fact that she was offering him the opportunity to step up and play a role was huge.
He glared at Violetta to express his disapproval, but she rolled her hand at him, silently telling him to get on with it. He turned his attention back to the two men, who were standing about fifteen feet in front of the SUV, catty-corner to where Violetta stood. If she stayed low, there was no way they’d see her, although if she tried to open the door to place the bug inside, the sound would get their attention.
Wiggling his fingers, he gave her the green light as he kept his eyes fixed on the men. DePalma was walking closer to the edge, but the other man had stopped moving, perhaps starting to sense something wasn’t quite right.
In no time flat, Violetta had the tracker affixed to the inside of the back bumper and was inching her way to the back door. She’d even used her sweatshirt to wipe any prints she might have left on the dime-sized device.
She glanced up at him, and he shook his head. There was no way she could open the door without alerting DePalma. She narrowed her eyes but didn’t move. His attention was so fixed on her and trying to figure out how to get her to come back into the woods that DePalma’s sudden movements caught him by surprise.
In the blink of an eye, DePalma had the younger man in his arms. The hacker screamed and fought, thrashing his legs and scratching at DePalma’s shirtsleeves. Easily twice the size of the man he held, DePalma remained unaffected by the blows raining down on him as he walked toward the quarry’s edge.
Gavin’s eyes darted to Violetta, who motioned for him to stay put. He didn’t believe she’d stand by while DePalma murdered the man, but for the life of him, he couldn’t figure out what she planned on doing. When her eyes widened in a silent command, he hesitated, then nodded. He’d stay put until she told him otherwise.
“I did everything you asked, you can’t do this!” the young man pleaded.
DePalma continued his steady trek to the side of the quarry. Gavin’s heart rate increased with every step DePalma took, then it shot through the roof when Violetta stood and stepped away from the SUV.
“You really shouldn’t do that, DePalma,” she said.
Chapter Twenty-Two
At the soundof Violetta’s voice, DePalma spun around but didn’t release the man.
“Good help is so hard to find these days, you really should put him down and let him go on his merry way,” she said, her hand in the right pocket of her sweatshirt.
DePalma grinned. “You’re the federal prosecutor, aren’t you? Wheaton’s little insider.”
In a gesture DePalma couldn’t see, she held her left hand out, palm down, staying Gavin. His muscles twitched with the need to intervene, but he clenched his hands into fists and forced himself to remain still.
“Oh shit, you’re a federal prosecutor?” It wasn’t the smartest thing the hacker could have done. Not only was it a repeat of what DePalma had said, but it reminded DePalma that he had something to take care of.
Gavin bit his cheeks to keep any noise from coming from his mouth. He knew exactly what was going to happen next, and judging by the way Violetta darted to the front of the SUV, she knew, too.
Sure enough, as if disposing of a bag of garbage, DePalma turned his back on Violetta and hurled the hacker over the edge of the quarry. The young man’s screams echoed off the granite walls, and Gavin’s heart climbed into his throat. Then training and habits kicked in and his body quieted. Yes, Violetta was involved, but this was a mission, like any other. They needed to neutralize the threat. With that reminder, he took a deep breath, forced his muscles to relax, and waited for Violetta to give him a sign or an order.
“You were next on my list,” DePalma said, walking toward her.
