He nodded slowly and then stepped back. "I'll take that as a yes, Agent Kincade."
When I was a step further away from him, I could breathe a little bit better, and I could think. "I’ll have you know, Mr. Hale, I will not be going anywhere with you. I don't date men I’m investigating. I don't date men who are clearly trouble. I don't date men who are on a power trip."
"I'm not on a power trip. You can't be on a power trip when you have it already."
I had no choice but to run. I called it self-preservation. It wasn't until I was outside running down the stairs, sucking in deep gulps of air, that I realized I’d dropped my shawl again. I considered going back for it, but hell no. The further away from East Hale I could get, the better.
Even better, if I could prove what he and the London Lords were up to, I would never have to worry about him again. Men like him were dangerous. Men like him were to be avoided at all cost.
5 East
"Let's set a few ground rules.” I greeted the tiny-statured dynamo with the dark curling hair who had just crossed the threshold into my penthouse. “You poke around my system; I'll poke around your system. You touch something you shouldn't touch, and I'm going to mess with your database. If you make commentary about my code, we're done here."
Standing just inside the door, Telly Brinx made a show of scanning the room then grinned up at me, her wild dark hair flowing about her shoulders like a fountain. "Nice penthouse. I guess the hotel thing pays off."
Telly Brinx had the distinction of running Brinx Technologies, being best friend to Ben’s fiancée, Livy, being a sometimes-excellent hacker and my all-the-time nemesis.
Normally, I would solve our little Theroux problem by myself, draw it out. Take my time to prolong the pleasure. But the man had upped the ante, so he needed to be dealt with swiftly. Ariel Winston was also an option to help, and as she was pseudo family I could ask, but we’d been playing phone tag since she was in Australia with her footballer prince of a husband. So unfortunately, it was Telly or no one.
I scowled, unwilling to buy into her distraction. "Did you hear me?"
Telly waved her hand in a dismissive gesture. "Oh relax, I'm here to play nice."
When we had been dealing with the Van Linsted situation a few months ago, she'd come in handy. And for something like this, to find the unfindable, I knew I was going to need more hands and more processing power.
She perused the living room, going over to the bank of computers I had against the wall. "Ooh, these are sexy." But she really cooed when she pointed at my NETLA processing center. "Jesus Christ. This is one of the fastest processing cores in the world."
"I know," I muttered smugly.
"This thing costs a fortune. You realize whole corporations don't even have one of these, right?"
I shrugged. "I know."
She turned around. "So just like that? Daddy Warbucks that you are, you can just buy one of these?"
I shrugged. "Well, yeah. If you’re nice I’ll even let you touch it."
She laughed. "I like that you just so nonchalantly say that. Of course, you can buy one. Fine, Mr. Billionaire, what do you need?"
"Well, you're not going to believe this, but I need to find a fucking needle in a haystack."
"Okay, what are you trying to find?"
"Who."
Telly frowned and crossed her arms. "What's going on? When Livy said you needed my help, she didn’t say why. So I need to know what you need my help with exactly. I can't find a needle if I don't even know if it's silver, black, or gold. You need to be specific."
I had trust issues. I knew that. But Telly had been instrumental in our plot and plan a few months ago. And I needed her now. Because while I could look, two brains were better than one. And I wanted to be certain. "All right, well, for starters, the boys and I got a video message."
"Right. Okay, Liv showed it to me this morning. Can I see your phone? I want to make sure I’ve seen the whole thing."
I took out my phone and played the video for her. For the duration, she stood there and watched it. When it was done, she nodded slowly and then proceeded to laugh. "Oh my God. What, is this a thing with you billionaires? Always with the crazy hijinks?"
"Can you help or not?"
"Ugh, gosh, don't get your knickers in a twist. I got you. So, you want to find out about this Francois Theroux?"
"Yes. Who he is and everything you can find out about him. I’ll be working on how to clear the footage he has of us, uh, behaving badly."
She grinned. "Is that what we’re calling it? Okay, but I don't need my hacking skills to tell you about Theroux." She scooped up some of the crudité I’d laid out and popped it in her mouth. “Hell, I’ll be back home with the fiancée in no time.”
I indicated the couch, and she plopped down on it, sending her inky dark hair bouncing over her shoulders. "I can tell you everything about Theroux. Well, not everything, because obviously, I don't know who he actually is, but I was obsessed with heists as a teenager."
I lifted my brows. "Heists?"
“Yeah. Trust me, I know this stuff. You think you and the lads are gangsters, but you’ve got nothing on this bloke.” Settling in, she picked up a throw pillow and held it against her chest as she
