Page 50 of Bodyguard By Night
I huffed out a breath. “Spoilsport.”
The farther we got down the hall, the less the cacophony of noise seemed to penetrate. There was a set of double doors with one open.
“I want to do a deeper dive, but I need you to okay a dip into the dark web.” A husky yet hyper voice drifted out of the room.
“As if you have ever asked before,” a man answered drily.
“I said deep, didn’t I?”
Were they talking about me? Surely not.
Ransom walked a little faster in front of me and went through the door first. “Roth.”
“Ransom, good to see you.”
He strode forward, his hand outstretched to the large, muscular man built like a damn wall. His inky dark hair swept back from a strong face, and his heavy dark brows knitted together over intelligent dark eyes.
Eyes that seemed to see the most minute detail of everything, including me.
The room was large and floor-to-ceiling windows showed off a busy Manhattan outside. The rest of the room was more of the same deep gray carpeting with black leather chairs and a long black table that seemed to suck up all the light.
I didn’t realize I was hovering in the doorway until the man smiled at me. “You must be Miss Doyle.”
“Willow,” I replied and crossed to him, holding out my hand as well. His grip was firm without being a bone-cruncher.
“I’m Aidan and this is Poe, our internet intelligence specialist.”
Poe nodded, the movement showing off her improbably black hair tipped with an ultraviolet hue. Her clothing was all black with the same violet peeking from slashes in the material at her arms and midsection. “I don’t do touching,” she said, dipping her hands in her pockets.
“Oh. That’s cool.” I smiled brightly, but the woman just tipped her head slightly and stared at me.
Suddenly, she shot forward. “Maybe I’ll make an exception. I really liked your brookie recipe.” She held out a hand.
Delighted, my smile relaxed into a regular one. “Thanks.” I shook hers. “Thanks for helping me with…whatever is going on.”
“When Aidan told me it was you, I jumped in.”
“Really?”
Poe nodded sharply and an array of silver hoops jingled from her ears. Tattoos climbed her neck and disappeared under the collar of her shirt. “I really like your stuff. Helps to watch your vids when I’m coming down after work.”
A flush climbed up my neck and my freckles were probably now glowing. “I’m glad.”
Aidan pulled out a chair at the head of the conference table. “Why don’t you sit down so we can have a chat?”
Ransom pulled out a chair for me, then he took the one beside me closest to Aidan.
Poe went around to the other side of the expansive table and sat at a laptop near her boss. Screens I hadn’t noticed before flicked to life behind Aidan.
Dozens of windows full of my face, black boxes with code, and two other live feeds popped up, one by one. There was too much information for me to focus on.
The code was like a different language and I immediately discounted that to focus on the two larger boxes filled with a grainy feed from a security camera.
“When Ransom came to me with your problem, I initially thought it was a simple case of cyberstalking. Maybe some bullying.”
I laced my fingers together on the table to stop the shaking. That word still brought me to places I didn’t want to go.
“Then again, you’re well versed in stalking aren’t you, Willow?”
Ransom’s head snapped toward me. “Is there something you forgot to tell me?”