Claimed (For Her 3)

“I’m sorry,” I whisper.

I hear Miles pick up his phone and start talking. “Justice, I need you to get my wife back here. When she gets in, my floor is on lockdown.”

He’s quiet for a second, and Jordan moves toward me. All that tension that had finally left his body is back. Maybe worse than ever. His fists are clenched at his side.

“Then I need you to meet Paige and Jordan in security. Seems my assistant has been getting threats and I might have an idea who’s behind it. Or at least Jordan can start tracking the emails.”

“I’m sorry,” I whisper again, stepping closer to Jordan and closing the rest of the distance between us.

He cups my face, and some of the anger slips away. “I know I’m pissed. Real fucking pissed. And don’t get me wrong, about twenty percent of it is your doing, but the real anger is due to someone threatening you. A fucking dead bird, Jay.” His voice is hoarse and pained. He’s the only one who calls me “little bird.”

“I’m going to fix this,” he tells me, and I nod, knowing he will.

“Okay, I want to go over some things I’ve learned with Jordan. All the programs are down in security. Let’s go ahead and get started on what we can find,” Miles says.

“Yeah, let’s do this.”

We leave Miles’s office, but Miles stops at my desk. “You stay here and keep reading over these files. See what you can catch,” Miles says.

“I want her with me,” Jordan fires back.

“Justice and Mallory are on their way up. I’m locking down the floor. She’ll be safer here than moving around the building.”

I can see Jordan wants to fight him on it.

“I’ll be fine.” I try to reassure him.

“You keep your little ass in that chair, Jay,” he growls, and I sit down exactly where he tells me. He shakes his head at me, and Miles steps back, clearly giving us some space.

Jordan leans down, caging me in. “I love you more than anything. Stay here where I can see you.”

I nod. “I love you, too.”

He lays a hard kiss on me before storming off, with Miles following him.

“Well, crap,” I mumble to myself. I turn, picking up the folder and flipping it open. I don’t make it two lines and my cell is going off. I see it’s my sister and clear the call, but it rings again. I don’t have time for this, but I know she’ll just keep calling. Sighing, I answer, thinking maybe it will be a welcome distraction for a moment.

“What’s up?” I say, still looking down at the folder and only half reading it.

“If you want your sister to live, you’ll pick up that folder and walk out of the building.”

“Who is this?” Panic hits me as the distorted voice echoes on the other end. It sounds like something out of a movie.

“Time’s ticking, little bird. You better get off the floor before Justice and Mallory get there and the place goes into lockdown. Or you’ll never see your sister again.” I hear my sister scream my name in the background.

“All we want are the folders. Close it and pick them up.” My hands shake as I do it. “Now use the special little card your boyfriend gave you and get to your apartment.” I grab my purse and walk toward the elevator. “Don’t use this phone again or I’ll know.”

Then the line goes dead.

I slide my card into the elevator, and the doors slide closed. My fingers twitch to hit the floor for security, but I don’t know if whoever called me is watching. If I say something, he might hurt my sister. I just have to give him the folders. I can do that. When the doors slide open, I look up at the camera.

“I love you,” I say before stepping off.

Chapter Twenty-Two

Jordan

“I don’t understand why she didn’t say anything to you before now,” Miles says over my shoulder.

“I’m sure she didn’t want me to worry,” I respond, tapping my fingers. I’m waiting on the software I ran on Jay’s computer to load and sorting through the mirror program I have that shows me all of her emails.

“You were able to get all this information just now?”

I look at Miles and then shake my head. “No. I copied her computer a long time ago.” I shrug because I’m not the least bit sorry.

“Damn. I wish I had known this sooner. Remind me to talk to you about doing this for me later.”

I smile, knowing a fool in love when I see one. Mostly because I see one every morning in the mirror. Tossing that thought to the side, I click on the Bluebird folder on my desktop and search the name Lannister.

“I’ve got all the correspondence saved on this file you were telling me about. I should be able to cross-check the data and see if anything matches. It’s all too similar for it to be a coincidence,” I say as I wait for the program to run.