The Mogul And The Muscle

“They’d need a big set of brass balls for that. Not to mention a hefty bank account.”

“Which doesn’t really narrow it down,” I said. “Anyone with a reason to go after Cameron has the funds to pull this off.”

“True.” He checked his watch. “I need to get to my meeting with the lovely Ms. Whitbury. Maybe a little reputation-fixing will take her mind off everything else.”

I shook my head. This was such a clusterfuck. “Please tell me there’s not more bad news on your end.”

“Nothing new yet, but we’re planning for the worst when it gets out that someone broke in to Spencer headquarters and ransacked the CEO’s office.”

“Thanks for helping her with this,” I said.

“Of course,” Derek said. “Just doing my job.”

“Aren’t we all.”

Derek disappeared inside for his meeting with Cameron, so I went out front to make a few phone calls.

I knew a guy over in Little Havana who always had his ear to the ground. If someone had been asking around for a team who could break into a highly secured building and plant a bug, he might know about it.

Unfortunately, he didn’t.

I made a few more calls. Some friendlier than others. But they either didn’t know, or weren’t going to tell me without additional motivation. There was only so much I could do over the phone.

What I needed was access to both Aldrich and Noelle’s phone records. From there I could trace if either of them had been in contact with anyone connected to one of the crime syndicates. But I couldn’t do that legally. I had a guy who might be able to swing it for me, but it would probably take him a couple of days.

I swiped through my contacts to find his number, but Emily pulled up in her golf cart.

“I just got back from the lab,” she said, jumping down. She was dressed in a lavender blouse and slacks. “Is Cam okay?”

“She’s handling everything like a badass.” I slipped my phone in my pocket. “Derek’s meeting with her now.”

“Good. I swear to god, I hope you find the asshole who’s doing this to her so we can crush them.”

“We will.” My voice was flat, but she had no idea how much rage simmered inside. Crushing them was only the beginning of what I wanted to do to whoever was behind this.

“Was there really a bug planted in her office?”

“Yeah, a sophisticated one.”

She folded her arms across her chest. “Corporate espionage?”

“Could be. Her IT people are looking for breaches, anything that might indicate stolen information. But I don’t know. My gut tells me this is personal.”

“Cam said her COO is a suspect. It makes sense. Or Aldrich?”

I nodded.

“Before the sex tape thing, I never would have thought Aldrich would do something like this. I didn’t think he was good for Cam, and I was glad when she left him, but I didn’t think he was the type to go psycho ex-boyfriend. But now?” She shrugged.

My brow furrowed. Had she just said sex tape? Had I heard that correctly? “You never would have thought Aldrich would do this before what?”

“Before the sex tape,” she said.

I raised my eyebrows.

“Oh my god, Cam didn’t tell you?”

I shook my head slowly.

“Oh no. I assumed you knew.”

My heart beat too fast and my eye twitched. “What sex tape?”

“Maybe Cam should—”

“Emily. Please.”

She took a breath. “Aldrich had a video of them. He assured her he’d deleted it, but she found out from a mutual friend that he’d shared it with some of his buddies.”

“When? How long has she known?”

“It was around the time that guy tried to attack her in the parking garage.”

I ground my teeth together and glanced away. Why the fuck hadn’t she told me?

“Look, Jude, I know her. Doing something like that is very out of character for her. She really regretted it.”

I didn’t say anything. Just nodded. I was too busy trying to process this new piece of information. See where it fit. How it changed things.

But mostly I was fucking furious that she hadn’t told me.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to make things worse,” she said. “I just figured—”