Page 150 of His Son's Brid
I know what I need.
I leave the office.
She's at the desk in the corner of my room, not her suite; she barely uses her suite anymore. Laptop open, a cup of tea gone cold at her elbow, dark hair pinned up with one curl escaping down the side of her neck. She doesn't hear me come in.
I stand in the doorway and watch her for a moment. The way her pen moves when she makes notes. The tilt of her head when something doesn't compute.
"Have you eaten?" I ask as I walk in.
She jumps. "Oh my goodness! Don't do that."
"I’m sorry. You know I walk quietly." I say with a very unapologetic grin.
"Still creepy." She swivels, and her eyes look me over. "How was the meeting?"
"He came with nothing and tried to hide it." I cross to the desk and glance at her screen. Numbers. Account structures. A web she's been building all day. "Sent him home."
"Gently?"
"Gently enough," I grunt.
She gives me the look that means she knows exactly what that phrase costs in my vocabulary. "And the investigation?"
"Nowhere yet." I sit on the edge of the bed facing her. "I just know the mole's probably been in place longer than six months."
She goes still. Thinks. "How much longer?"
"Can’t say."
"Hmmm." She pulls up a tab. "I found something else this afternoon. Three small transfers, under ten thousand each. Different amounts, not part of the monthly pattern. But they all happen within forty-eight hours of a major security event."
I look at the dates. Cross-reference in my head.
The Volkov attack. The warehouse fire. The club.
"Bonus payments," I say.
"Performance payments." She looks at me. "Whoever the mole is, they're not just leaking. They're getting rewarded for results."
The cold thing in my chest hardens into something specific. Not fear. Fury.
"Close it," I say.
She closes the laptop without arguing. Stands, moves to where I'm sitting, and puts her hands on either side of my face. Tilts it up to look at her.
"You need sleep," she whispers m. "Viktor is working. The footage is being reviewed. Everything that can be done tonight is being done."
"The mole is still in this building."
"I know. And we'll find them." Her thumbs trace my jaw once. "But not by staring at spreadsheets until three in the morning."
I reach up and cover her hands with mine. Hold them there and just breathe.
There it is. The thing I came up here looking for.
Peace.Contentment.
Outside, the estate is quiet. My men are on their rounds. The investigation is moving even as we sit here doing nothing.
