CHAPTER32
“Amateurs,” Andi said with a heartfelt sigh as she flipped through her notebook, the same one that whoever stole her iPad had overlooked.
The iPad had access to the files and the reports that she’d already filed and could have been accessed through Carta Hotels’ accounts, but the notebooks held everything else. If they’d only taken the time to look at the notebooks, Andi thought with a sad shake of her head as she read over the notes that she’d made for the hotels that they’d visited before tossing that notebook on top of the notebook that she’d created for Hillshire Hotels and faced the man that hadn’t said much since their lovely shower.
“I’m going to need your computer,” Andi said with a firm nod as she gestured for him to get on with it.
The heavy sigh and the way that he pinched the bridge of his nose wasn’t exactly hope-inducing and neither was the way that he said, “Miss Dawson,” on a heavy sigh as she sat there, feeling her shoulders slump in defeat and-
“They stole that too, didn’t they?” she asked with a wince because she really should have thought of that.
“Yes.”
“And your iPad?” Andi asked, sounding really hopeful as she worried her fingers together.
When he dropped his hand away so that he could glare at her, she mumbled, “Right,” as she sat there, slowly nodding her head as she thought about their options. They could stay here and wait to see what Lucas was going to do or…
“Did they steal your wallet?” Andi asked, quickly climbing off the bed as a plan started to form, one that if they were able to pull off fast enough, should buy them more time.
“No, I had that on me,” Devyn said as he watched her race over to her bag and began tearing off her clothes.
“We need to go,” Andi said, shoving her pajamas in the bag and grabbed a change of clothes.
When Devyn only stood there, watching her, she quickly explained, “It’s going to take him time to break into our devices and even longer to break into the files since they’re encrypted, which doesn’t give us a lot of time. We need to get our hands on another iPad and a laptop, log into our accounts and download those files before he gets a chance to alter them or delete them.”
“Shit! The audit files,” Devyn snapped, clearly starting to see the big picture.
If they didn’t get access to those files soon, Lucas would have a chance to do some serious damage and set them back. Since the team that Devyn hired worked off those files, they would be screwed if anything happened to them, especially since they hadn’t been allowed to make any copies due to Carta Hotels’ strict policies that Devyn had been forced to adhere to.
They needed those files.
They could always request the files from the hotels, but they didn’t have time to waste, not when Lucas was getting desperate.
* * *
“Any luck?”Devyn asked, his gaze flickering to the rear-view mirror and watched as Andi worried her bottom lip between her teeth as she stared intently down at the new iPad on her lap.
“I’m just waiting for everything to finish downloading,” Andi mumbled absently as her gaze shifted to the new laptop on the seat next to her.
Please, let this fucking work, Devyn thought, his grip tightening around the steering wheel as he thought about everything that was riding on this. He’d tried to call his team to warn them about what was about to happen only to find out that Lucas was several steps ahead of him.
He’d somehow managed to get the IT department to turn his phone off and activate the security lock on it, stopping him from accessing any information, which meant that he couldn’t get phone numbers or emails to contact the team. That’s also when they’d discovered that Ben had been helping Lucas all along.
When the little prick told him that he couldn’t help him before hanging up on him, Devyn knew that they were in deep shit. That’s when he’d moved his ass, driving to the closest mall and buying everything that they needed to stop Lucas from destroying any more evidence. As soon as they were back in the car, they were ripping boxes open, plugging in chargers, and moving their asses.
“I’m in!” Andi said as Devyn did everything that he could to beat the GPS, hoping like hell that they were able to get back before it was too late.
“Start checking the accounts,” Devyn said, slowly exhaling as he once again found himself wondering why Lucas did this and-
It didn’t fucking matter.
Right now, the only thing that mattered was making sure that the little prick didn’t take Andi down with him. He needed to call an emergency board meeting, but first, he needed proof and right now, the only thing they had was a huge fucking mess that had been sloppily aimed at Andi.
“It doesn’t look like he’s been able to access the audit files,” Andi said, damn near sighing with relief before adding, “but that’s not from a lack of trying. There’s been over a hundred attempts in the last hour alone. I’m going to change the password, make it longer, change the password for the encryptions, and make copies of the files and place them in a new account and send links to a new email.”
“How long will that take?” Devyn asked, wishing like hell that he knew what Lucas’s next move was going to be.
“Already done,” Andi said, sounding relieved only to mumble, “That can’t be good,” making his stomach drop as he looked up and met her panicked gaze in the rear-view mirror.
Before he could ask, Andi noticeably swallowed as she said, “They got the files at my apartment.”
* * *
“Why are you kidnapping me?”Andi asked, blinking at the man that hadn’t said much since Drew texted her to let her know that everything that she owned had been destroyed.
“It’s for your own good,” came the reply that she really didn’t find all that reassuring, especially since he was pulling up in front of the large fire station that she normally liked to avoid since every time she made the mistake of visiting Drew at work, she ended up being strapped to a longboard for “practice.”
“I-I don’t think this is a good idea,” Andi found herself mumbling hollowly when she spotted Drew leaning back against an ambulance, watching them with an anticipatory gleam in his eye that had her admittedly panicking, especially since he looked really pissed.
That probably had something to do with the fact that her apartment had just been broken into, the same one that he’d begged her not to move into because it wasn’t exactly in the safest area, but she’d wanted to save some money and-
Oh, God…