Page 76 of Breaking the Rules
Waverly and Chelsea chatted the whole way home while Xavier watched them in that brooding way of his.
“What’s the matter, Zave?” Chelsea asked.
“Just realizing what a long week this is going to be,” he commented dryly. They both smacked him.
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They were going to have to take Petra early. Waverly couldn’t see a way around it.
They’d gathered in one of Invictus’ conference rooms in the back away from the bustle of the office. The privacy glass was frosted to keep any unwanted eyes from prying. She looked around the table. Xavier, impeccable and urbane in a navy suit with subtle pinstripes, sat on her left at the head of the table. They talked business, but every once in a while, his gleaming oxford nudged her calf. Micah, in shirt sleeves and a frown, sat opposite him.
Kate sat next to Waverly in yoga pants and a Zoolander sweatshirt. Across from them was Chelsea in full-on work mode with her hair pinned up and wearing sexy, nerdy glasses.
As Xavier walked those gathered through what his team had discovered so far, Waverly realized this went a lot deeper than just Petra and Dante. Three of her last four assignments appeared to have no legitimate government oversight. Which meant that Brad had gone fishing in the private sector. Xavier’s research team had been able to pull enough intel together to speculate that the CEO’s phone she’d cloned in Miami had given a brokerage firm in D.C. a head’s up on a top secret merger. The early stock acquisition had earned the firm—and Brad—a huge profit.
Then there was the twenty-year-old playboy that Waverly had teased on the dance floor of a club in L.A. His whispered brags about his congressman father’s ties to the New York mafia had corresponded to the congressman suddenly announcing he wouldn’t seek re-election for a fifth time and was throwing his support behind a young and hungry female candidate. A very generous deposit had been made into Brad’s Luxembourg account from said hungry female candidate.
Chelsea—in sterling trousers, a white ruffled blouse, and red Jimmy Choos—walked them through the finer details of the money trail.
“This is just what I’ve been able to glean from the Luxembourg account,” she concluded. “There will be more, most likely in other tax havens. But I think there’s more than enough here to turn this over to the authorities and have them start to comb through this mess.”
Xavier and Micah shared a glance. Micah cleared his throat before responding. “And therein lies the problem. We’re considering the possibility that Tomasso has someone or multiple someones inside the government clearing the way for him to pick up odd jobs.”
Waverly frowned at Kate. This was news to both of them.
Xavier’s foot touched her again under the table. “Our research team occasionally gets sucked down the rabbit hole of information,” he began. “Cayman uncovered a connection between Tomasso and a member of the Special Collection Service.”
“Quick question,” Kate said, raising her pen like a reporter at a press conference. “What the hell’s the Special Collection Service?”
Xavier winked at her. “The SCS is a joint program between the CIA and the NSA. Their job is to eavesdrop in places that are complicated to eavesdrop in.”
Micah took a spin at the wheel. “It turns out that our pal Brad went to college with one of the suits at the SCS. On a basic review of Tomasso’s social media accounts, Research turned up several photos of the two of them but nothing recent. We haven’t connected the financial dots, but it’s an area of concern.”
“So what you’re saying is, we can’t dump this information on just anyone because we don’t know who else is in bed with him,” Waverly filled in.
“Yep.” Micah looked even unhappier than he had when she’d told him she was kidnapping Petra.
“What leads you to believe that someone else is involved?” Kate piped up again.
“After every deposit into his Luxembourg account, he transfers thirty percent of that fee out of the account,” Chelsea answered. “I haven’t been able to track where that percentage is going. Yet.”
Waverly took a peek at Xavier to see how he was handling his sister in full-on hacker mode. His face was impassive, but she caught a glimmer in his eye. Familial pride. She knew he was still hurt that Chelsea hadn’t trusted him with her secret, but they would get past it. And judging by how intently he was listening, he’d poach her for Invictus within the year. Waverly rubbed her toes up his shin, and those brown eyes warmed when his gaze moved to her face.
Crap. She was sunk.She was staring at the man who was putting every resource he had at her disposal to get her out of a disaster. A man who loved her enough that he was trying to track down the man he thought was her boyfriend. A man who, hurt by his sister’s deception, was still big enough that he could be proud of her skill.
She loved him. She’d never stopped loving him. And wasn’t that hard to swallow?She’d deal with it later, she decided. Just because she loved him didn’t mean she could trust him. He’d run before. He’d stuck through the hard times and then walked out of her life, leaving her to pick up the pieces of her shattered heart and hopes. And it could happen again.
“So this buddy who’s collecting on these jobs could be Frat Boy, or it could be someone else,” Kate clarified. Her comment brought Waverly back to the present and the problem at hand.
“Exactly,” Micah nodded. “And if we take this information to the wrong person at the wrong organization, we could be looking at a lot of trouble.”
“There’s one more problem to consider,” Waverly spoke up. All eyes turned to her. “I’m supposed to take Petra on Saturday. Brad said most of the staff have the day off, and she’s planning to be home until going to a restaurant opening that night. Which means he’s got someone on the inside feeding him information.”
She saw Xavier’s wheels turning.
“So we’ve got a source on the inside to worry about, and I think the deadline is important.”
Micah blew out a breath and eyed Xavier.
