His Alone (For Her 2)

“See, if you go in here…” Jordan says, as he does nothing of the sort. He says one thing, while he hacks away, pulling up this guy’s driver’s license and any information he can find on him. Next I watch him pull up the guy’s emails. Most are related to his job at an architecture firm; a few emails are from some date sites. When Jordan doesn’t find anything there, he goes for they guy’s phone. God, I hope he’s never done this to me. What does Miles use him for? I push that thought away and focus on what’s happening now.

I watch as he pulls up all available information on this guy. You really forget how much of yourself you keep on your phone. He comes up blank, like I knew he would. But that wasn’t the point. The point was to learn. To remember how to do what Jordan did. And I learned a lot.

“That should do it. You know the codes and how to use them. It will cut a lot of time for you.” I look down at him and he gives me a half smile, like he’s happy he couldn’t find anything, and guilt slices through me. But I block it out. I have enough guilt to worry about, and this small thing is one I can live with. The guilt I carried for my mother I wasn’t so sure of, because I’m not really living at all.

The thought makes me look up at Captain, who’s once again got those eyes on me. Maybe he’s never taken them off me.

Sitting back in my own chair, I debate when I can get the office to myself. That’s going to be the tricky part, but I shouldn’t be watched so carefully anymore, like when I first came back to New York. I was always with Mal, whose main guard most of the time was Captain. He’s going to be the hardest to slip past. I’ll have to do it in the middle of the night, but I don’t know how closely things are monitored here.

Maybe it will be something I can delete once I have access to Jordan’s computer. But what will it matter if I get the information I need? Do I want to get fired? No. But it’s a price worth paying for what I’ll be getting.

It’s what this is all about. Miles might have fallen off his path, but I haven’t. We teamed up to take down my father, and Miles believes he’s done that, stripping him of his businesses and leaving him with nothing. But I know most of those were fronts. They were what made him look like he had legit dealings, that he rolled with the elite of New York. Sure, it would hurt, because Alexander was always about his ego, asserting his power over people to make himself feel like more of a man. He wouldn’t be happy looking like he’d failed, but he could still move on with his life. My fear is that he could keep doing the other things he’d had his hands in. Most of his illegal activities had slowed with his attempt to go legit, but I know Alexander, and he would never leave it completely. The drugs, the whores, the money, they were all too enticing. There’s no way he gave it all up. He’s rotten to the core, and he wouldn’t ever walk away from that.

I don’t know how much Miles knows, but he didn’t experience it firsthand growing up, like I did. Father Dearest hid that from Miles, treating him like his golden boy, until Miles found out how he’d really treated his mother. The only reason I even know that is because Vivien told me. God knows Miles wouldn’t have had that little heart-to-heart with me.

I’m not even sure why Vivien told me. She always tries to get close to me, which is unsettling. For some reason it always feels like a betrayal when I’m with her, even though I know Vivien wasn’t wrong I’d already failed my mother so much, so liking Vivien was like adding one more sin to the pile—a pile that was starting to crash down on me, the weight becoming unbearable at times.

“Kitten.” I look up from my computer to see Captain. He startles me from my thoughts, and I glance around the room. Everyone is gone, making me wonder how long I zoned out.

“How many times do I have to tell you to stop calling me that?” I snap, taking my anger out on him, before I grab my bag and leave the office.

Chapter Ten

Paige

* * *

MY PHONE BUZZES in my hand, and I scowl when I read the text. Glancing around, I don’t see Captain, but it’s clear he must see me.

Captain: You should stop in that diner for dinner. I hear they have good meatball subs.