“Because you probably won’t,” I tell him, and get straight to the point. “Earlier I asked Alex to send a signal disrupting one of the bugs so that it would appear broken. I knew whoever planted it was still using the information to sell to the tabloids, so I knew they’d go in and fix it.”
Darius asks, “Did they?”
I nod. “It’s McKenna.”
Gabe’s eyes slowly begin to narrow. “
Not my Kenna.”
“Sadly, yes, that McKenna,” I say gently, because I sympathize with what he must be feeling. He cares for McKenna, the bartender at his pub, and has for some time now, and everyone at this table knows that.
“You have video of her doing this?” Micah asks.
I shake my head. “No, but she used her security code to get into the locked room where Gabe keeps his servers. She entered the code an hour ago, two minutes later the security feed went down. She entered the code again, the feed went back up.”
Gabe’s eyes are directly on me and focused. “Please explain to me how you knew in the first place that someone at my pub was behind this? What changed? You thought this was about the senator and had nothing to do with us.”
I run a hand over my tired eyes and start to explain. “I went to talk to the governor earlier and had some leverage on him that got him talking. He told me that he paid an employee at your pub to obtain certain information about the senator, hoping I’d leak information.”
Micah instantly picks up where my thoughts took me, too. “But he didn’t mention the tabloids to her?”
“He had no idea what I was talking about when I mentioned the magazine,” I tell the group.
“And you believe him?” Micah asks.
I give a firm nod. “I do.”
“While I trust your judgment,” says Darius, fiddling with the button of his cuff, “there’s some logic missing here. If she were already being paid good money to place the bugs in Gabe’s pub, why would she go even further and sell stories to the tabloids for more money?”
“That’s what I don’t know,” I explain. “Does she seem like someone after a lot of money?” I ask Gabe.
“No,” he says, glaring down at the table.
I gently offer, “I can have my team dig deeper and see what they can come up with.”
Everyone looks to Gabe, as that’s his choice now.
“Dig as far as you can possibly dig…and then dig even deeper.” He lifts his head, his eyes dark, betrayal in their depths. “Then she’ll answer for why she burned me.”
Epilogue
Ryder
“Good grief,” Hadley says, tucking her arm into mine, moving a little closer to me on the wooden pew at Darius and Taylor’s wedding. “Do you all know how many people stare at you?”
I settle into my seat and smile at her. “I only know when you stare at me.”
She rolls her eyes but slides her fingers into mine and takes my hand. “Sweet and all, but seriously…when we were outside, you guys were like the main event.”
Before we were ushered inside the church, Darius had been outside greeting his guests, along with Micah, his best man, and Gabe as well. I hadn’t noticed anyone looking at me but the beauty sitting next to me.
Hadley glances around the church, then leans in and says quietly, “I mean, honestly, even the men were looking at you all. It’s like I wasn’t even there, and this dress shows cleavage.”
I dip my chin, examining her incredible cleavage before looking at her again and arching a brow. “Am I supposed to be upset that other men don’t look at your cleavage?”
She laughs, lightly smacking my arm. “You know what I mean. Do you all have any idea of the power you have over people?”
I lift her hand to my lips and kiss her palm softly. “Yes, we do know, and it’s come with a lot of trouble, too, as you well know.”