Devious Intentions (Carson Cove Scandals 3)

We took another break while Taylor called her husband, who was the CEO of Benson Enterprises. She relayed the information, and he told her that it was enough for someone to take a closer look, but an investigation like that wouldn’t be done in a few days, especially if there was years of data to comb through. There would also be some questions about how we got our hands on the information—which could go badly for Bolt. We weren’t back at square one by any means, but we needed to keep digging.

“Must be nice to have a CEO on speed dial.” I smiled and took a sip of my coffee.

“Yes, because I’m always trying to figure out how to bring down other companies.” She leaned forward and laughed.

“I’ve got something else.” Bolt held up his hand. “There’s a lot of talk here about a wedding.”

“I think we’ve covered that.” Anna leaned over and nudged him. “Do you need more coffee?”

“No, this is much older. I mean, seventeen is way too young to get married, but she wouldn’t have even been a teenager when they were talking about this.” He tapped a few keys. “And De Luca is mentioning his daughter…”

“Daughter?” I raised my eyebrows in surprise.

“Here… Edgar doesn’t think it’s a good idea—he doesn’t get along with…” Bolt pointed at his screen. “They’re talking about Damien.”

“Damien? He never mentioned anything like that.” I blinked in confusion.

“That appears to be the end of the discussion.” Bolt moved his finger across his touchpad several times. “Oh, wait—it gets brought up again. Franco De Luca felt like an alliance between their families was in order so that they could expand their operations to Carson Cove…”

“This was in the works for a long time.” Anna leaned back against the couch. “Obviously, it never happened…”

“Until now—with Jenny.” I sighed and shook my head.

“Yeah.” Bolt nodded. “It looks like they went back and forth for a while, and then started arguing about something, but it’s too vague for me to tell what they’re talking about.”

“I think we need to take another look at the present-day stuff.” I sipped my coffee and rubbed my eyes.

“I think you’re right.” Bolt sighed. “They started talking about how important it was, but Edgar didn’t want to go through with it…”

“I’m going to start back on the stuff from the last couple of years.” I leaned forward and started typing.

“I need more coffee.” Taylor leaned forward and started to stand.

“I’m dying…” Anna lowered her head and closed her eyes for a second. “We have school tomorrow too.”

“Should we just call it a night?” I looked around the room.

“Hold on.” Bolt held up his hand. “Something changed. It looks like Edgar finally caved—they’re talking about something they have to do beforehand.”

“Bolt, we gotta get some sleep.” Anna sighed. “I love Jenny to death, but we’ve been at this for hours.”

“Damn it!” Bolt shook his head. “Another dead end because they’re smart enough not to say what the hell they’re talking about—it says do it, okay, and then it’s done.”

“Let’s pick this up tomorrow, okay?” I looked around the room.

“I think you’re right.” Bolt sighed. “The next email says they should just talk on the phone about whatever it was—I guess it was a big deal.”

“Was there nothing in the Sinn Technology press releases around that time?” Taylor walked back into the room and sat down.

“No.” Anna tapped her paper. “Nothing at all around that date.”

“What about the news?” Taylor took a sip of her coffee. “Maybe we could check for stories about the De Luca family around that time?”

“That’s a good idea.” I nodded.

“I’ll pull up the big news stories…” Bolt looked at Anna. “This is it; I promise. I’m done after this.”

“I would help if I could, but my eyes are burning so bad I can’t look at the screen.” Anna looked up at the ceiling and blinked a few times.