“Whatever. You’re the man-whore.”
Landon chuckled. “Yeah, that’s right. You’re a born-again virgin.”
Although I liked to fuck regularly, I was a little more discreet than Landon. I was also very clear about my intentions—or lack thereof—before any clothes came off.
But I couldn’t remember making any such intentions clear last night. Probably because for the first time since I could remember, I wasn’t certain there was a clear boundary or end point to describe.
“Whatever. Stop obsessing over my sex life and tell me where we’re at in uncovering the leak.”
“We’re focusing on Gerald, your financial controller, and Anita. I’ve called in a favor from a mate in Cayman and I’m due to hear back in a couple of days. Hopefully we can take a look at what’s in his account. And we’re tapping his phones—home, office and mobiles—he’s not spoken to anyone who isn’t his wife or his kids.”
“And is Anita in the clear?”
“Not until I can find out why she has a spare six figures in a newly opened bank account. I’m warning you that it’s not good news that we’ve not uncovered a rational explanation quickly, but we’re working on it.”
I’d feel better once she was ruled out. There was no way it could be Anita. She was loyal and had access to everything I did. If Cannon had her, they had everything.
“You’ve got to get your head around the idea that it might be your assistant. I don’t know why you are so convinced it couldn’t be her when she’s the obvious person Cannon would target if they wanted someone on the inside of your business.”
Landon was telling me everything I didn’t want to know. Anita potentially being the leak wouldn’t just be disastrous because she had access to everything in my office. It was also because I’d never thought to doubt her. I’d never taken any precautions to keep anything sensitive from her. Professionally I’d been an open book as far as Anita was concerned. If I’d been complacent that made me culpable. And I wasn’t sure what was worse—having no faith in my own judgement of people or potentially being part of my own downfall.
“Look, you’ve not found anything yet. You never know. It could be because there is no leak.” I’d been racking my brains for another way Cannon could have found out about every deal. “Maybe there’s another way that Cannon are stealing every deal from under me.”
“Right,” Landon responded, the word coming out stretched and sarcastic.
“I mean it. Look, they’ve got nothing since I left my mobile and laptop back in London. Maybe they’d done something with some malware or something.”
“I’ve had your devices thoroughly examined. There’s nothing there, not even on your desktop in your home study.”
“How the hell did you get into—never mind. Couldn’t it be that kind of malware that disappears after a certain duration?”
“Like the Mission Impossible message, you mean?”
If I didn’t know my brother far better than I wanted to, in that moment, I would have thought I was on to something. “Fuck you.”
He chuckled. “Seriously. We need to drop in a red herring. Something juicy that will tempt anyone who’s trying to lie low.”
“Like what? I’ve asked people to get information memorandums. That should have drawn someone out.”
“Maybe you need to up the ante. Make an offer.”
“Make an offer? On what?”
“I don’t know. A company. You need to take it up a step. Whoever is selling you out isn’t biting on the crumbs we’re feeding them. We need to throw them a nice, fat, juicy steak.”
“I can’t just make an offer on anything—it would have to make sense. The numbers would have to stack up or it wouldn’t be credible. And I don’t want to withdraw an offer for no apparent reason. My word is fucking important in this business.”
“Jesus. None of this is my problem.”
“And who would I let into the loop anyway? To get Gerald in the loop the circle would have to be pretty wide.”
“At this point, it will be our quickest option.”
I fisted my hand, then spread my fingers wide as I inhaled. It felt as if this would be the final battle, but I hoped there was no losing side. I didn’t want to find the leak in my senior team. I wanted there to be another explanation. I didn’t want to have been wrong about any of them because it meant my judgement was off—that I had to question every decision I’d ever made.
“Okay. It will take me a week or so.” I’d need to find a process to jump into. Maybe I’d go back to the insurer in Mexico that Gerald had run numbers for. I didn’t want to be in Mexico, but at least it was a transaction that wasn’t being run out of the City, so if I withdrew without explanation my reputation wouldn’t suffer. I’d find a way. “I’ll keep you posted.”