Sentinel CEO’s to his top cyber developer filled my computer screen.
It was a role Kurtz had copied from—who else?—me, since most security companies didn’t develop software or hardware, but that wasn’t the issue.
The issue was what was in the email.
As expected, the traitor had run straight to Sentinel with the information I’d fed him at the poker tournament.
He worked faster than I thought; it’d only been two days.
I read and reread the last line of the email, which included the details I’d changed for each suspect to parse out who the leak was.
Now I knew.
Ice sluiced through my veins as I exited the email app and pulled up surveillance footage from the front of his building.
I waited until he got in his car before I stood, slipped on my jacket, and walked calmly to the Mirage’s garage.
Instead of my McLaren, I selected the gray sedan I used when I tailed someone. It was utterly unremarkable and blended in with every other vehicle on the road.
I’d put a tracker on all the suspects’ cars weeks ago, so it didn’t take me long to tail the traitor to an abandoned junkyard on the outskirts of the city.
Kurtz was already waiting there with a smarmy smile.
I wanted to rip out every tooth and shove them down his fucking throat, but I forced myself to breathe through my crimson haze.
Patience. I would deal with him later.
I parked in a spot that was out of their eyeshot but gave me an indirect view of them via one of the old junk cars’ rearview mirrors.
It was there that I watched Kage exit his car and greet Kurtz.
My hand tightened around the steering wheel.
Of the four suspects, Kage had been the most and least likely.
Most, because he was the one who’d been best positioned to access the high-level leaked information.
Least, because he’d been the closest thing I’d had to a brother at Harper Security since Rhys left.
Rage rolled through my blood in an icy, unforgiving wave. It begged me to release it, to destroy not only the people in the junkyard but everything they loved.
Kurtz’s company. Kage’s reputation. Their money, their families…
I forced the urge at bay. Later.
“Do you have the blueprint?” Kurtz asked.
“Not yet. It’s a brand-new device.” Kage ran a hand over his buzz cut. “I don’t have the details yet, and I can’t leak it too soon or he’ll get suspicious. He’s already on alert because of Scylla.”
“Then why the fuck did you tell him about the copy?” Kurtz’s smile collapsed into a scowl. “Now he knows he has a problem.”
“I had to get him off my ass,” Kage growled. “Keep his trust. He was getting suspicious about why it was taking me so long to figure out what happened. It’s that damn woman he’s dating.” His tone darkened further.
I hadn’t told anyone except Brock that Stella and I had broken up. It was none of their goddamned business.
“Don’t worry about him tracing the copy back to you. He’s so distracted by pussy he’s lucky the company is still running properly. He took a month off to play tour guide for her around Italy, for fuck’s sake.”
“Ah, yes. Stella. I met her. At least it’s fine pussy.” Kurtz laughed, and my rage deepened into a crimson-tinted cloud. “You know Harper. He’s so blinded by hubris he thinks he can handle anything and that no one would dare betray him. I would’ve loved to see his face when he found out about Axel.”
Kage snorted. “That fucker was getting on my nerves. Always trying to kiss ass and one-up me. Thank fuck we made him the fall guy and Harper fell for it. One less problem on my plate.”
I’d suspected Axel might not have been responsible for Magda’s theft when I discovered another leak months ago.
The confirmation elicited a rare twinge of regret, but I couldn’t change the past, so there was no use agonizing over what happened.
The best thing I could do was exact proper justice on the real traitor.
“Yes, well, that had to be done. Too bad we never figured out what was so special about that hideous painting. Went through all that trouble to get it only to have to sell it before Harper traced it back to us,” Kurtz grumbled.
“That’s one thing he never told anyone, not even me.” Kage shrugged. “If I find out, I’ll let you know.”
“You do that.” Kurtz’s smile was not unlike that of a shark grinning at prey. “In the meantime…” He retrieved a briefcase from the trunk of his car. “Your second half of the cut for the Scylla information. Cash only, as requested.”
A briefcase? Really?
I couldn’t decide what pissed me off more—Kurtz’s face, Kage’s betrayal, or the fact that they were acting like villains in a bad TV cop drama.
“You must really hate him to fuck him over like this,” Kurtz said as Kage counted the cash. “Thought you and Harper were brothers in arms till you reached out a couple of years ago.”
“We were,” Kage said coldly. He snapped the briefcase closed. “Things change. No one wants to live in another’s shadow forever.”
“Ambition. Love to see it.” Kurtz clapped him on the shoulder. Kage grimaced, but the Sentinel CEO didn’t seem to notice. “You know, when you first contacted us, I thought you were setting me up, but you’ve proven to be a useful ally. I’ve been dying to see Harper taken down a peg or two for years.” He got in his car and winked. “Nice doing business with you, as always.”
Kurtz drove off.
I would deal with him later. Now that I’d confirmed Sentinel was behind the Scylla knockoff, I knew they were also the ones who’d supplied the device to Stella’s stalker. That fact alone earned them more than a little system crash.
Kage tossed the briefcase in his trunk and walked around to the driver’s seat while I got out of my car, my footsteps silent against the soft earth.
“Whatever he paid you, it wasn’t enough.” My casual observation bounced off the twisted metal heaps surrounding us.
I stopped a few feet from where he’d parked.
To his credit, Kage only froze for two seconds before he recovered.
He straightened and faced me, his mouth relaxing into an easy smile. “Christian. What are you doing here?”
Despite his casual tone, I saw the emotions play out in his eyes.
Surprise. Panic. Fear.
“I had some free time. Decided to check in on my best employee.” My smile matched his.
His eye twitched at the word employee.
We stared at each other, the air taut with the scents of rusted iron and brewing violence.
Now that we were face to face, I allowed my emotions free reign for the first time since I saw Kurtz’s email.
Kage was my oldest employee. My right-hand man.
Once upon a time, he’d saved my life, and he was one of the few people I’d trusted.
His betrayal twisted around my insides like barbed wire and squeezed out drops of blood.
One drop for every meal we’d shared, every conversation we’d had, every problem we’d tackled together and every tough situation we’d pulled each other through.
The crimson pool filled my stomach with acid and ate away at my armor until grief and another twinge of regret over what I had to do peeked through.
I eased a breath through my lungs.
The armor rebuilt itself and trapped my floating emotions back in their cage.
Five seconds. That was the longest I allowed sentimentality to stay.
“What was it?” I broke the silence. “You wanted a higher salary? More recognition? A fucking thrill because you’re so goddamned bored?”
Kage dropped the playing dumb act.
“It’s not about the money. It’s about you.” Resentment leaked into his words. “If it weren’t for me, the company wouldn’t be where it is today. I’m the one who runs the day-to-day operations while you jet set around the world with your fucking private plane and fancy hotels. Yours is the name on the door. You’re the one everyone fawns over. You’re the CEO, and I’m a fucking employee. I’m not your partner. I’m just a soldier in your command. Every time I go somewhere, people only ask me about you. I’m sick of it.”
Oh, for fuck’s sake. I was almost disappointed the reason for his betrayal was so pedestrian. Envy and resentment were as mundane as I used to think love was.
But that was the thing about humans. Their most basic emotions were the most dangerous.
“More recognition, then,” I said mildly. “Enough that you would run to our biggest competitor and fuck over your friend and what you said you helped build. You could’ve talked to me, but you fucking didn’t. That doesn’t make you a hero, Kage. That makes you a goddamn coward.”
Kage had helped me in the company’s infancy, and he played an integral role in the company’s operations. I’d compensated him extremely well for both those things over the years.
However, Harper Security flourished not because of its operations but my contacts and the cyber arm I’d built. Kage had little interest in networking and even less knowledge of cyber development. His reasoning was flawed.
The only thing he was right about was my distraction. I would’ve caught onto him sooner had it not been for Stella.
I’d had a tiny inkling since the Deacon and Beatrix accounts, which he worked closely on, but I’d brushed it off in lieu of more important matters.
“At least Sentinel appreciates what I’m doing for them, and I got to see you brought down a notch. It’s been fun playing spy. Sabotaging you from the inside and you didn’t even know it because you were so caught up with your fucking girlfriend while I kept the company running.” Kage’s smile iced over. “You haven’t treated me like a friend in a long time, Christian. You treat me like a dumb lackey you can just order around. Like you wouldn’t be lying dead with a bullet in your head if I hadn’t saved your ass.”
The memory flickered in front of my eyes.
Colombia, ten years ago. Things got messy with an arms dealer and I’d found myself in the middle of a shootout.
I still remembered the sweltering heat, the rapid-fire gunshots peppered with shouts, and the force of Kage yanking me out of the way milliseconds before a bullet pierced the back of my head.
He’d been guarding a corrupt local businessman, and we’d shot our way out of an impossible situation.
Now here we were, a decade later, on the brink of another shootout.
My eyes were on Kage’s, but my attention was lasered in on the bulge in his waistband and the press of my gun between my hip and the small of my back.
“Personal is personal, business is business,” I said coolly. “When we’re working, you are an employee.”
Kage’s eye twitched again.
“I assume the Deacon and Beatrix accounts were also your doing.”
“I did what had to be done. Sentinel was getting antsy after Magda turned out to be a dud.” He raised an eyebrow. “Don’t suppose you’ll tell me what’s so special about that painting after all?”
“Keep it a mystery. Makes life more interesting. The question now, of course…” My voice softened. “Is what to do with you.”
I did not tolerate traitors. I didn’t care if they were friends, family, or someone who saved my life.
Once they crossed that line, they had to be dealt with.
Silence pulsed for an extra beat before Kage and I pulled our guns and fired at the same time.
Gunshots exploded, followed by the clang of metal striking metal.
I ducked behind the rusted skeleton of a car, my heart drumming, my pulse alive with adrenaline.
I could easily end him with one shot. His aim was good; mine was better.
One shot, however, was too easy for such a big betrayal.
I wanted it to hurt.
“You’re not going to kill me,” Kage called out. I saw his reflection in the windows of the car opposite me. He’d taken cover behind a truck near where’d been standing, but his gun and a sliver of his jeans peeked out from behind the old metal frame. “Not here. I know you. You’re probably thinking up ways you can torture me right now.”
I didn’t take the bait. I wasn’t going to shout across a junkyard like some B-list actor in an action movie.
My phone buzzed with a new text.
I would’ve ignored it given my current…distraction, but a warning instinct tugged at my senses.
Something’s wrong.
I flicked my eyes down at the screen for a millisecond.
Brock: 23, District Cafe
My brain automatically translated the company code into a full message given the context.
Incapacitated, need eyes on Stella ASAP. We’re at District Cafe.
Panic like I’d never known coiled my spine and spiked in my blood.
Something happened to Stella.
He didn’t say it, but I felt it. The same warning instinct that’d compelled me to check my texts in the middle of a goddamned gunfight rang the alarms so loud they nearly drowned out Kage’s voice.
“It’s not going to happen,” he continued. His voice was harsh with excitement and a tinge of regret. “Only one of us is making it out of here alive, and it’s not going to be you.”
I made my decision in an instant.
“That’s where you’re wrong.” I stepped out from behind the car frame.
Kage left his hiding place and aimed his gun at me, but I pulled the trigger before he could fire.
The gunshot echoed in the empty junkyard, followed by three others.
One to his chest, one to his head, and one to each kneecap in case he survived and foolishly decided to continue the fight.
He staggered, then toppled to the ground.
I kept my gun aimed at him as I walked over. The soft rustle of grass gave way to the crunch of gravel until I stood over him.
Eyes blank and wide open, mouth agape. Blood pooled beneath him in a growing puddle and stained the ground with dark crimson.
I didn’t have to check his pulse to know he was dead.
A decade together gone in minutes, all because he’d resented me for his choices.
I stepped over Kage’s dead body and returned to my car.
I didn’t have the time or capacity for more sentimentality. Anyone who betrayed me was dead to me, literally and figuratively.
By the time someone, if anyone, found Kage, his body would’ve been picked apart by wild animals.
Kurtz was the only person who might be a problem, but he wouldn’t say a damn thing. A dead Kage was useless to him, and he wouldn’t risk his own neck to point police in the right direction.
Since I was Kage’s employer, I would have to figure out a good story to tell the authorities and the rest of the company, but that wouldn’t take long. I’d figure out the details later.
23.
Brock’s message replayed in my head as I gunned it out of the junkyard. My panic spiked again, mixed with a healthy dose of fear.
When I hit the main road, I’d already forgotten all about Kage.
The only thing that mattered was Stella.
