Page 68 of An Unending Claim
Each of the five boroughs of New York City was run by a different Alpha, and for the most part, they kept to their territory and didn’t cause problems.
“Did their deaths weaken the packs?” I wondered. “Because, with the DNA and fertility connection, I find it hard to believe he just happened to be lucky enough for that to fall into place on its own.”
My dad looked at Nathan when he answered. “I don’t think it’s the packs that he was attempting to cripple. Two of the victims were from nearby areas, but killed in the city, like the others. In addition to fitting into Bane’s mold, they all worked for companies who use KBO for their security.”
“You can’t throw a stone around here without hitting a place or person protected by KBO,” I muttered. “What good did those deaths do?” I looked at Nathan as well. “Have you been losing clients or picked up chatter about the reliability of KBO?”
He shook his head, then ran a hand over his beard. “That’s why he chose The Spot?”
My dad gestured to Nathan. “As best I can figure, it was another small step to discrediting you, Nathan. He’s been trying to interfere with your work in order to persuade people that your company is no longer trustworthy.”
“The leak in the KBO IT system,” I breathed.
Tanner swore, reminding me that Nathan and I weren’t the only ones in the room. The Silver Lake enforcers and Nate’s parents looked equal parts horrified and furious. Pretty much the same as me.
Nathan continued to work through the problems while the rest of us recovered from our stupor. “If word of the leak had surfaced, and similar leaks were discovered in the IT system of businesses where the victims worked, it’s possible some people might begin to consider the idea that we’re losing our touch. But it would be a long game because it would take a fuck of a lot more than that, over an extended period of time, for anyone to seriously question us.”
All of the shit going on within the Councils came to my mind. “Unless they also began to see you as an unfit leader.”
My dad nodded and ran a hand through his hair. “If he can convince people that you aren’t capable of heading the Councils, it could potentially give him the leverage to challenge you for the seats, and as Alpha of Silver Lake.”
Nathan would normally have been rubbing my back or playing with my hair when I was freaked out like this. Instead, he stood and gently set me back in the chair before walking over to pace behind the couch.
I hadn’t realized until that moment how much I’d come to rely on Nathan’s soft, soothing touches. I felt cold and bereft without them. Which only made me angrier because I’d never needed anyone else to navigate my life and help me keep control. This just proved to me that I’d been right all along. Relationships were nothing but anchors that held you down until you drowned. My panther pushed again, clearly pissed at Nathan and wanting to be away from him.Not yet.
“We need to know who their hacker is,” Nathan observed. He’d crossed his arms and the fingers of one hand were tapping on the opposite biceps.
“It couldn’t have been Dexter,” Tanner insisted as he rubbed the back of his neck before stretching it from side to side. “He doesn’t have the skill. The hole he created in our system was an accident.” Then he turned to look behind him at Nathan. “Henry?”
“No.”
“It wasn’t an accident,” I clarified, drawing Nathan’s cold stare.
“Explain.”
I nearly flinched at his icy tone. He hadn’t spoken to me like that for quite some time. “Dexter’s attempt at a shortcut wasn’t his own code, remember? Lisa found the messages between him and an anonymous user in a chat room. Dexter was asking about a process he wanted to create in the system and the user told him he could help. Then he fed Dexter the code that created the vulnerability on your server.” I frowned and twisted my ring on my thumb. “Your patch kept them from accessing all of the information in one big data dump, but until I sealed it completely, they’d been siphoning information in small doses in order to avoid detection.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?” Nathan’s question sent a gust of cold sweeping through my system. I expected him to be angry and explode, but he remained calm, staring at me with eyes that looked more black than silver and seemed bottomless.
“About the bits of information they managed to get? It was in the report I wrote for you. I left it on your desk.”
Nathan raised an eyebrow and I thought for a second that he might accuse me of lying, but instead, he shifted his gaze to Tanner. “That’s where I found it, but there was no reason for me to think it had been tampered with. There’s been no evidence of a break-in at KBO. How could someone have replaced the report on my desk?”
I was relieved that he hadn’t questioned my honesty, which I took as a sign that he wasn’t acting like this because he was angry with me. In fact… he was looking at Tanner the exact same way.
Okay, this is likeTwilight Zoneshit.
“You gave me the report too, right?” Tanner asked me and I nodded. “I thought so. I skimmed it, but I don’t remember any mention of the faulty patch in my copy either.”
Nathan rubbed a hand over his beard, quiet for a few moments. Finally, he growled, “How did they know where to look on the KBO server for information they used to disengage my home security system?”
At Nathan’s question, Tanner’s expression darkened, then he looked at me. I knew what he was thinking and I couldn’t come up with any other solution. But I couldn’t believe it…I shook me head. “It can’t be.”
“It has to be,” Nathan replied.
“Fuck!” Tanner jumped up and vaulted over the back of the couch. He ran to the door, threw it open, and leapt off the steps, landing on four hairy paws before he took off at breakneck speed.
“Do you need to go?” I asked Nathan, expecting him to follow his Beta, but he shook his head.