Since he couldn’t disagree, he changed the subject entirely. “For the record, I wasn’t second-guessing you. I actually thought we worked pretty well together.”
AJ frowned at the commendation. “Why does that sound so leading? It’s like you’re this close to offering me a fabulous opportunity that’s going to end with me hawking shady pyramid scheme products and drinking a lot of Kool-Aid.”
“Because you’re very jaded and don’t know how to take a compliment. How do you feel about IPOs?”
“Are you kidding?” She scoffed. “The whole reason I’m starting my own thing is because I don’t even want one boss, let alone a team of rabid shareholders pestering me about dividends and shit.”
“We should talk after I’ve got this situation under control.”
Her whole body grew wary. “Are you gonna try to convince me to work for you?”
“Not exactly. I’d like to work with you.”
AJ’s eyes widened at the prospect. “Like partners?”
He shrugged, letting the possibility hang out there. He didn’t want to spook her.
It took three more floors before her posture switched from cagey to contemplative. The second it did, Wes pounced. “We’ll talk after?”
“It’s under consideration,” she hedged, just as the elevator drew to a stop.
The doors slid open to reveal a gleaming modern lobby that offered spectacular views of Los Angeles thanks to its floor-to-ceiling windows, but neither of them spared a moment’s thought for the scenery. Heedless of the executive assistant’s protests, they strode across the white-tiled floor, directly to their destination.
The office was brimming with hostility. Whitfield was on his feet the instant they breached the door, which caused the two men who sat in the visitor chairs facing him to whirl around to see who dared intrude on their meeting.
Max’s voice was as cold and harsh as the arctic tundra. “What the fuck is he doing in my building, AJ?”
Goddammit.
Wes slanted her a glare. “Oh, good. They were definitely expecting us.”
Her shrug was unrepentant. “They were expecting me,” she said, walking straight to Kearney. Wes didn’t miss the moment of silent communication between them, the way the man dialed it back from wanting to rip Wes’s throat out to casually speculative with nothing more than her slow nod.
Jesse, on the other hand, had molten rage bubbling inside him. It glowed in his eyes.
Wes unbuttoned his suit jacket. “You guys should really see your faces. You’d think I just got released from prison for betraying you all or something.”
Slowly, purposefully, Jesse rose to his feet. With his gregarious facade ripped and torn, Wes could see the anger pulsing just below the surface. He barely recognized his partner. The man he’d considered his friend.
And for the first time, Wes realized that what was in front of him now was the truth, and it was the rest of it that had been lies.
In that moment, betrayal cut both ways.
“Give me one reason I shouldn’t hit this button, Brennan.”
Max’s voice startled him, snapped his attention back to the now.
“It will have security here in under a minute.”
Wes nodded, pointed at him. “Keep your finger on the trigger. I just wanted to talk to my buddy Jesse here in person, because it’s been hell trying to get a hold of him lately.”
“I have nothing to say to you.”
Wes’s chuckle held no mirth. “Great. Fewer interruptions. Since the charges were dropped, I’ve spent the last week poring over the evidence AJ used to put me away. Pretty damning stuff. I mean, think about it.”
He shoved his left hand in his pocket, dragging the right one contemplatively down his beard. Max settled back into his chair, wary but intrigued, too.
“First, Whitfield Industries gets hacked and thanks to some modifications I made, we catch the breach and ring the alarm. But when we get here, I’m the one who delivers the bad news to the client, and my outgoing, personable second-in-command goes to investigate the surveillance footage.”
Jesse’s skin was mottled, his anger manifesting as red splotches against his tanned skin. “It was a massive security breach. I’m a stakeholder in the company. Of course I wanted to help figure out what went wrong. Whitfield Industries is our flagship client, and I’m the one who landed the account,” he added smugly.
“Next up, the phone that I gave to Kaylee Whitfield after she broke hers starts misfiring. And when they crack it open, it turns out it was bugged—monitoring her location, logging her calls and transmitting her conversations.”
“I’m sorry. Are we all supposed to stand here while you list off all the reasons you should be back in jail?” Jesse raked an agitated hand through his blond hair.
“Hey, I get it, man. You’re the CEO of Soteria Security now. Shopping at Neiman’s to do, private medical records to hack.”
Precise. Vindictive. Intensely personal.
The attack straightened Jesse’s spine. “I don’t know what the fuck you—”
“I thought we agreed, no interruptions. I don’t want you to miss anything. Especially since I think you’re really going to like the twist ending. And I don’t want Kearney here to feel left out.”
The CEO of Cybercore stiffened up at the sound of his name, and AJ set a comforting hand on Liam’s shoulder.
“He tests out Soteria’s commercial antivirus software. Coincidentally, counterfeit versions of his latest product start flooding the market not long after you show up to install some updates, on my behest.”
Jesse slow-clapped, four loud cracks of sound in the otherwise silent office. “You’re really nailing this performance, Wes. You sure you don’t want me to get the FBI in here so they don’t miss the drama of this confession?”
“Sounds like one, right? But that’s when I realized that I’m not the only one who looks bad here. Because you’re the one who volunteered to check the surveillance footage after Max got hacked, which gave you the opportunity to make it disappear. And Kaylee’s bugged phone? That was the new business phone that you configured for me. It was never meant for her. I screwed up your plan when I gave it away. And let’s just be honest,
