Page 51 of Emeric

“What does that even mean?” Sheldon asked. I forgot he was here. Usually, he jumped in when Jordan was pissed, but he hadn’t said a word since they’d arrived.

“Cryptic shit,” Lawson replied. “I went through everything, resetting passwords again. You need a new IT person, by the way. They did okay, though it could have been much better. Next time, call me. I’m not cheaper, but I’m certainly better. Also, I don’t think they have anything on you, Jordan. Emeric only has his hotel business. That being said, why? Who? I couldn’t trace them. There was no thread for me to follow, so they know what they’re doing or they’re lucky.”

“Lovely,” Jordan growled.

I sat there, my eyes on the phone, not sure what to do or say. Why would someone want to go after me? When I first heard about the hack, I figured it was like the others I’d seen in the news. But to be personal to me? I didn’t bother anyone. I ran a hotel. I was fucking polite to the people I encountered. I didn’t think I had any enemies outside of the East Dremest Police Department, who I had to battle repeatedly when they went after Jordan and who worked for him.

“Emeric?” Jordan asked, the growl and bite gone from his voice.

My gaze met his. “I don’t know what to say. I work all the time. When I’m not here, I help you out. I haven’t even had much time to spend with Ollie and Sylvan as I would have liked, seeing them here or there. I have no idea who would do this to me.”

“We’ll figure it out.” The steadfast tone of his voice had me wondering when.

I wasn’t worried when Lana arrived and told me Jordan needed to know. It wasn’t the first time my hotel system was hacked. People were always after others, thinking they could get in and steal information. The last time it was caught quickly and handled. We didn’t know the full scope of this until now. Lawson was right; my IT person wasn’t as good as I thought they were.

“Why not go after the customer data?”

“Because they’re after you,” Sheldon supplied. “This isn’t about your customers. They want you for some reason. People don’t target others because they’re bored.”

Jordan cocked an eyebrow.

“Okay, they do, but I don’t think that’s what’s happening here.”

“Neither do I,” Lawson added. “Give me more time to dig and see what I can find. There’s no trail for me to follow, but maybe they got sloppy somewhere along the way, and I can find it. I doubt it, but it’s worth a shot. Call me when the meeting is over, Emeric. I’ll get you back into your systems. Your front desk is going to be pissed I logged them out.”

“Thank you for your help.” I stood to leave. I had to get the hotel running smoothly again and lie to my employees that there was a glitch and the passwords had been reset. They didn’t need to know what was happening. In fact, the fewer people I told, the better.

Turning, I met Sheldon’s eyes. “He’s already on his way here,” he said. “When you didn’t call him back, he figured out something was wrong and texted me, asking if I knew. I said I was with you and left it at that. I don’t lie to him.”

I groaned and ran my hand down my face. “I don’t need him or Sylvan worried. This will get worked out, and everything will be fine.”

“You’re not new, Em. Shit doesn’t just work out around us, unless by that you mean us hunting people down and fixing the problem.” He was right. I was trying to look on the bright side, even though one didn’t exist.

Jordan stopped by me, clapping a hand on my shoulder. “We’re going to help. That isn’t a suggestion. It’s a statement. You’ve helped us out of a lot of situations. It’s our turn to do it for you.”

“You paid me for that.”

“I have enough money and don’t need yours. Consider this a gift. One I’ll solve and allow you the honor of ending, or maybe Oleander will want that honor since I have a feeling he’ll be out for blood as soon as he finds out what happened. You might not have realized it yet, but none of my guards are the calm, collected type when it comes to the people they care about, not even Sheldon. We’re a bunch of possessive fuckers. Whoever dares cross us better run far and fast because if we catch them, that will be the end of them.” Thankfully, there wasn’t a camera in this room. Threats wouldn’t go over easily if the person who hacked me saw and heard the many times Jordan had been in here. Cameras were where they needed to be, and that was it.

23

OLEANDER

If Sheldon was with Jordan and Emeric, that meant there was a problem. Since Jordan asked if someone was dying or about to be killed, I didn’t think he was the one in danger. If he were, he would have told me to come to him or find Vail and stay where Vail was. This had everything to do with Emeric.

I hated leaving Sylvan. I asked if he wanted to come with me. Jordan had full trust in him. But Sylvan went into a full-blown panic attack that left him shaking and retreating into himself, while my heart tore in two.

Quickly, I texted Sheldon to make sure Sylvan wasn’t under any threat, which he wasn’t. That meant I could leave him, even though it was like a knife in my chest to do so. But something was wrong with Emeric. I couldn’t be in two places at once.

“Go,” Sylvan had said in a shaky voice, seeing how torn I was. “I’ll be okay.” He didn’t convince me he would be, but I had to trust he knew what he was talking about after dealing with anxiety for so many years. He’d be safe here, at least minus the panic attack. Shit. This was awful. I didn’t know what to do. “I said go.”

“Fuck, okay. I’ll come right back.”

“Don’t make promises you can’t keep.”

I cupped his face in my hands and kissed him. “I’m not.”

With that, I was out the door. My phone rang minutes into my drive to East Dremest.