Page 73 of Guarding Truth

Juliette was his person. She’d always been his soulmate. They were complete opposites that made each other whole.

A ding rang from his laptop. He’d been running a program through his work server to make sure his security software was doing its job. He clicked a few windows open and blinked.

His security program had flagged some suspicious activity in the bank’s system.

A knock at the door sent him jumping a foot off his chair.

“Can we talk?” Juliette said as she entered the office.

Caleb shook his head. “I’m working on something. Can we chat later?”

She shot him a look that said she wasn’t going to leave. “You still don’t get to do this alone. If you’ve found the hackers, I want in. This time we call the authorities; we do things right. But whatever it is, I’m right by your side, whether you like it or not. Once we find Ivy, if you want to leave, I won’t stop you. But know that this time, I’m not walking away from you.”

Hands on hips, fire blazed in Juliette’s eyes. He matched her stare, and her lips quirked up in a smile at his tenacity. He loved that fire. “I shouldn’t have lashed out at you. You’ve done everything you can to protect both of us. How about neither of us walk away? We’ll find her, Jules. Together.”

She blinked, taken aback by his confession. But he didn’t give her a second to respond as his computer dinged again and he broke eye contact with Juliette. Good thing, because her eyes drew him, and he needed to get his head in the game.

“What in the world…” He gasped. “They’re trying to launch the ransomware. The hackers are in the bank’s system. Blake is shutting down the system.”

Juliette moved to stand behind him and peered over his shoulder. “Ivy finished the program?”

“Someone did. And managed to get it on one of the bank computers before the bank shut their servers down.”

He needed proof. Something tangible that pointed to his niece being alive. He poked around in the program and froze. There were some strange strings of text and numbers in the comments of the code.

One of Ivy’s breadcrumbs? Had the hackers been in such a hurry to launch the program that they’d missed this? If so, they were getting desperate and sloppy.

He closed his eyes and studied the code, rearranging each of the numbers to unravel the sequence.

He jumped up and threw his arms around Juliette. “She’s alive. Ivy is alive.”

“How? What?”

He let her go and showed her the screen.

“In the comments, she left a code. I thought back to some of the ciphers she and I used when she was younger and pieced together the wordstrap,alive,andwarehouse.”

His adrenaline flowed to the point he was dizzy. “You were right all along, Jules. The explosion was a hoax. Now we just need another miracle to bring her back home. Because Ivy is still alive.”

EIGHTEEN

SATURDAY, 1:00 A.M.

Ivy was alive.

Juliette’s first instinct was to throw her arms around Caleb’s neck and kiss him until sunrise.

Then reality set in. Caleb’s lips weren’t hers to claim. Back at the marina, he’d made it clear. Despite his confession of being all-in, Caleb’s heart would be walled off to her. Forever.

“Do you know where she is?” Juliette asked.

He stared at her with a blank expression, but she could see his thoughts reeling in a thousand directions. He finally nodded but said nothing. Of course he didn’t want Juliette to get involved, because in his mind, she was a target. And he wouldn’t risk her life.

But when would he learn that sometimes risks paid off? That with great risks came even greater rewards.

Like love.

His words of rejection had stung like a thousand bee stings, but for the sake of Ivy, she wouldn’t let Caleb do this alone.