“Look, I wouldn’t normally say anything, but whatever you did, you didn’t cover your tracks very well.”
“Hey, I know how to cover my tracks, okay? And I’m telling you right now, I didn’t—”
Matthew pulled his phone from his back pocket and lifted it toward the narrow crack in the front door. He stared at her with deadpan skepticism.
Cheyenne blinked quickly and read the information on the screen: her IP address, her name, her address, and a timestamp of her double-click on Colonel Thomas’ Friends of the Bull folder. Damn. He’s good, or I was hasty and stupid.
“Please don’t deny it again.” Matthew’s phone went back into his pocket, and he folded his arms, glancing nervously down the hall at the elevators. “This is embarrassing enough.”
“Maybe your uncle shouldn’t be sticking his lying nose where it doesn’t belong. You ever think of that? Same goes for you too, neighbor. You said he was an investor. Conveniently forgot the part where he sits at the top of the damn FRoE pyramid, didn’t you?”
Her neighbor’s blue eyes flicked back toward her. “What?”
“Colonel Les Thomas, Matthew. He’s not funding the FRoE, he heads it. Calling a lot of the shots, and I gotta say, he’s doing a really shitty job right now.”
“That’s not right.” He took a step back and shook his head. “My uncle retired six years ago. He’s not active in anything. Definitely not as a colonel.”
“Well, at the very least, he’s been actively lying to you.”
“No. No way. He’s retired, Cheyenne.”
“He’s really not.” She gave him a tight smile and cocked her head. “I honestly don’t care whether or not you believe me, but don’t say I didn’t warn you. You know, when you find out your uncle’s been leading a double life, and he runs out of excuses to feed you.”
Matthew turned away from her, tried to look inside the apartment again, and pointed at her. “I came here about the hacking, Cheyenne.”
“Don’t worry about it. I called off my hounds, and you won’t get another alarm. Promise.”
“Okay.” Wrinkling his nose, he gritted his teeth and turned without another word to stalk back across the hall to his apartment.
Cheyenne had her front door shut and locked again before he’d even opened his. “That was seriously weird.”
“His own uncle.” Ember folded her arms and scowled at the closed front door. “Is he really that freakin’ clueless?”
“Maybe.” The halfling looked up at her desk in the mini-loft. “Maybe not. It is kinda hard to believe the cyber-security genius, Matthew Thomas, couldn’t pull any of that information up on his own.”
“That’d leave something of a mark on his reputation.” Tilting her head, Ember settled back against the armrest of the couch and shrugged. “Then again, who thinks they have a reason to vet their own family members?”
“Yeah, fair point.” Cheyenne drummed her fingers on her thighs and scanned their apartment. “Hypothetical neighbor ignorance aside, the only thing I care about right now is that I can’t get into the colonel’s computer before our little chat tonight.”
“You don’t think you can talk circles around him until he spills his guts about the Bull’s Head without even knowing it?”
“Ha. I like how confident you are.” Cheyenne stepped across the living room and slumped into one of the black leather recliners. “I probably could do that, but I need proof this time around, Em. Hard evidence that Les Thomas is giving classified FRoE details to the O’gúl loyalists and actively funding their bullshit with the war machines.”
“Okay. Then you could sneak into his office when he’s not there and poke around in his computer physically, right?”
“I don’t think me being at the base after hours without a good reason to stick around is gonna go over very well with any of the higher-ups. Even Sir.” Cheyenne cranked the lever on the recliner and pushed the chair as far back as it would go. “But I don’t need to touch his computer.”
Ember sighed. “You’re gonna try to hack it again, aren’t you?”
“Yep. Not from Glen, though.”
“Okay, you lost me.”
Cheyenne chuckled and spread her arms. “Hey, if I’m standing in his office and reading his files with the activator, there’s no other system involved. It’s technically not hacking into anything.”
The fae’s mouth opened in realization. “You’re right. That’s more like borrowing someone else’s computer to send an email.”
“I’ll get him, Em. Might take a little longer than I wanted, but this meeting won’t be totally useless. That’s for damn sure.”
Chapter Eighty-One
At 6:54 p.m., Cheyenne parked her dinged-up Panamera in the FRoE compound’s parking lot and didn’t bother locking the thing. Instead, she pulled out her phone and texted Rhynehart as she headed for the front doors.
Got called in for a meeting about the missing lizard. Probably a good idea for you to stay away from home base for a while. Shit might get pretty weird.
She watched her phone until the text was sent, then stuck it back in her pocket and opened the first glass door into the compound. If he doesn’t know what that means right away, I can’t do anything to help him.
The second she stepped inside the front lobby with all the empty cubicles, she found Sir standing in front of the hallway on the left. He scowled at her, arms folded. “You’re late.”
“I’m on time, and you know it.” Cheyenne headed in and grinned when he nodded at the hall behind him. “So Iget to have a little sit-down with the colonel. Making me do all the heavy lifting for you, huh?”
Sir glanced quickly around and grimaced in irritation. “We’re not having this conversation here or now, halfling, so you can fuck right off into his office. First two left turns, and the elevators are at the end of the hall. He’s on the third floor.”
“A rain check, then.” She shot him a syrupy smile and walked
