We were slowly finding our way back to each other.
And our daughter was our focal point. Our common ground. I was crazy about her. She fascinated me as much as her mother did. They had become my world, and I loved spending time with them.
“Are you going to pick up a test today?” I asked.
She shook her head in amusement since I’d been asking her the same thing daily. I used condoms now, but I wanted to know if she was pregnant. She told me we had to wait as it was too early until now.
“Yes, I’ll pick one up.”
I grabbed her hand, holding it to my chest. “Wait until I get home to take it, okay? Or you can take it in my office. I want to be there, either way.”
“Fine,” she mumbled.
I lifted her chin, meeting her eyes. “Together, right?”
That was our new motto.
She nodded. “Together.”
Later that day, Damien sat across from me in the back office. He was glowering as he looked at his laptop, and he answered his phone with a frown on his face. He listened for a moment, his glower getting deeper.
“When?” he snapped.
I was shocked at the furious expression on his face and the cold tone in his voice. Something was wrong. Very wrong.
“And I’m just hearing about it now? How the fuck did that happen? What did they get?” He listened for a moment.
“Well, find out and call me back. I need to know everything. Every motherfucking keystroke.”
He slammed his cell phone down.
“What’s going on?”
“There was a breach in security at the office in Montreal.”
“A breach?” I responded.
“Someone hacked in to the system. They were shut down fast, but they’re scrambling trying to figure out what info they got.”
“What sector were they in?”
“Past cases.”
Something clutched at my stomach, but I ignored it. “They can’t get names, right? Everything is encrypted.”
His fingers flew over the keyboard. “That’s what I’m trying to figure out.”
“Only that office?”
“Nothing in ours,” he assured me. “I have ours locked down tighter than Fort Knox. I warned them to tighten a couple of their protocols.”
“Good.”
He froze. “They got past the encryptions. All of them. They got into one case. One name. They hacked in to the files of one name.”
He met my eyes. “Yours.”
Then my phone rang. I hit speaker, the sound of my daughter crying and Tally’s shallow breaths filling the air. I met Damien’s gaze again, already on my feet, dread filling my chest.
“Tally,” I said calmly. “Why is the baby crying?”
A sob was my response. Everything in me froze. My body locked down, ice shooting through my veins. Damien immediately began to type, and I knew he was tracking her. I forced myself to talk.
“Tally, what’s wrong? Where are you? Are you lost?” I asked as if everything was normal. I knew I needed to keep her on the line as long as possible.
“J-Julian, help us,” she breathed out. “They-they took us…please.”
I leaned close to the speaker. “Stay calm, baby. Who took you?”
A male voice filled the air. “So, Mr. Grayson, it appears I have something of yours you might want back.”
“Who is this?”
“Someone from your past.”
“I have a lot of past. You’ll have to be more specific.”
“It doesn’t matter.”
“I think it does,” I retorted. “You take my wife and child, every detail matters.”
He laughed, the sound menacing. “Does the name Zander ring a bell?”
I met Damien’s startled gaze across the desk.
“Zander is dead. I saw it with my own eyes.”
“Call me a fan. Someone wanting to avenge him.”
“And how does taking my wife and child help you in that cause?”
“I have something you want, and you can get me what I want.”
“Which is?”
“Marcus Gallo.”
I tightened my hands into fists, wrapping them around the edge of the desk to stop myself from losing it. The only way he could have seen that information was if he was responsible for the hacking.
“What makes you think I know where he is?”
His laughter once again sent shivers down my spine. His voice was pitched low when he responded. “Oh, Commander, I think you know where everyone is.”
For a moment, I couldn’t speak. Whoever this was had obtained more than names from the security breach.
“Let me speak to my wife.”
“Julian?” she whispered, her voice thick with tears. “I’m scared.”
“I know,” I soothed, trying to keep the fear out of my tone. “It’s going to be okay, Tally. I promise.”
“Julian, I need you to stop playing chess.”
I shut my eyes, knowing what she was saying. She didn’t want me to simply move the pieces around the board this time. She needed me to come and get her. Me.
“The game is over, baby. I’ll get you. Both of you.”
I heard a small gasp as the phone was taken away, and he was back on the line. “You have thirty-six hours to contact Marcus and get him here. I’ll call with further instructions.”