Page 65 of High Reward

“Harper’s stable,” I say before anyone can ask. “Amarjit is keeping tabs on her for us, but it definitely looks like some kind of drug overdose.”

Owen doesn’t divert his attention from his screens. “How the fuck did she get drugs? We stripped that room clean.”

“That’s what we need to figure out.” I close the door behind me and lean against it. The lock clicks. “Along with everything else that’s gone to shit in the last twenty-four hours.”

Matteo pushes off the wall. “Let’s go through the timeline. My gut says Phineas wasn’t behind what happened today since we’ve had him locked in our warehouse for the past thirty-six hours, but I’m not sure about anything anymore.”

Luke tears a sheet from his legal pad and pins it to the corkboard on Owen’s wall. He’s drawn a rough timeline in his neat handwriting, dates and events connected by arrows. “Start with what we know for certain.”

Owen pulls up a new window, fingers tapping commands. “Malware first appeared on Grace’s phone approximately three months ago. Dormant until recently.”

“Grace starts receiving flowers,” I add, moving closer to Luke’s timeline. “Days before her car breaks down outside that nightclub Sabrina dragged her to.”

“You met Lili that night at work,” Matteo says. “But again, I don’t understand how that could be connected.”

Matteo’s right, Grace’s stalker seems like a separate thing from all the other trouble we’ve been having. “Grace’s tires get slashed. More flowers. Trinity gets shot helping Lili file for divorce. We can put that on a separate timeline since it didn’t involve Grace.”

Owen’s fingers pause over the keyboard. “I discovered the malware on Grace’s phone. Traced it back to Harper, brought her in for questioning.”

“Been holding her here ever since,” Luke adds. “Until tonight. That’s what? Forty-eight hours we’ve had her in our custody?”

I drag a hand through my hair. It’s still damp with sweat from the desert heat, from carrying Harper’s limp body. “Lili visits Trinity and gets kidnapped by Phineas. We rescue her, bring everyone here for safety. Question is, how did the bomber find out where we were?”

“Someone plants a bomb in Sabrina’s car,” Matteo continues. “Designed to lure Grace outside.”

Owen calls up a new screen, code scrolling past in green text. “Malware is found on Sabrina’s phone. We disarm the bomb. Grace stays safe inside.”

“And then I find Harper nearly dead from an overdose.” The words taste bitter. “While we’re all focused on external threats, someone gets to her right under our noses. With the way the vomit was dried on her face, my guess is it happened sometime before we all got here, and it’s only luck that she’s alive.”

The room went quiet except for the hum of Owen’s computers and air conditioner. The weight of the timeline settles on my shoulders. We can’t see where it ends, or even who all the players are.

Matteo breaks the silence. “Phineas is locked in our warehouse. Has been since we rescued Lili.”

“With round-the-clock surveillance,” Luke adds. “No communication in or out.”

Owen nods, pulling up security feeds from the warehouse. “He’s been secured the entire time. No contact with the outside world.”

I study the feeds showing Phineas zip-tied to a chair, head hanging forward. “So, he’s not orchestrating the bomb or Harper’s overdose.”

“Which means we’re dealing with multiple threats,” Matteo says. “Phineas wanted to destroy us, tear down everything we’ve built. Grace’s stalker situation is separate.”

Luke taps his pen against the legal pad. “Different motivation. Different methods.”

“Grace’s stalker knows her personally,” I say, thinking about the flowers, the nickname Gracie in the texts. “Someone from her past.”

“But why involve Sabrina?” Matteo asks. “What’s the connection there?”

“Grace’s roommate,” I say. “Easy access to Grace’s apartment, her routine. Perfect way to plant malware on a secondary target.”

Luke underlines something on his paper. “We have Phineas gunning for the four of us specifically. Separate from that, someone with a personal grudge against Grace. And we’re fairly sure that person is Kara Lindon.”

“Two different wars,” Matteo says. “Running parallel.”

I lean against Owen’s desk, watching the security feeds cycle through different areas of the club. Somewhere out there, Grace is trying to hold herself together while threats circle us from multiple directions. The thought makes my chest tight.

“Harper’s overdose could be connected to either,” I say. “Someone wanted to silence her before she gave us more information about the malware. Or...”

“Or what?” Owen asks.