14
Mornings at her brother’s house were chaos. Charlie suspected her unexpected appearance made things worse. But both Huxton and Tyson seemed happy as ever while Liam and Aiden cried when Charlie didn’t feed them their breakfast. Charlie folded and handed both of the cuter than life twins their pancakes. While Huxton got stuck with cleanup duty, Charlie grabbed her laptop and made sure she looked okay before she let Tyson drive her into the city.
“You can do this,” he told her as he pulled up next to the Grim INC building.
“Thank you. For everything, really,” she told him. He smiled at her and k*ssed her on her hair.
“Any time, little sister.” Charlie stepped out of the car and made her way up to the top floor. The same woman sat at the desk in front of Vidar’s office.
“He’s expecting you. Go right inside,” she told Charlie. Charlie nodded and opened the door to his office. Once again, she was struck by how much the office was an extension of him. Vidar had stood up as she opened the door and as she made her way toward his desk, he rounded it and stopped in front of her.
“Are you okay?” he asked.
“Yes, thank you. I’m okay,” she said. He studied her and nodded.
“Please sit down. Do you want coffee?” he said, showing her a visitor’s chair.
“No thank you, I’m jittery enough as it is,” she said, trying to summon a smile. He nodded again and instead of taking his seat in his chair on the other side of the desk, he sat down in the other visitor’s chair.
“You have found something,” he said. She nodded. “Take your time.” Charlie’s mind felt scattered.
“May I ask something?” she asked. A smile played on Vidar’s face.
“Of course,” he said.
“Are you involved in illegal activities?”
“Is that what your… friend… told you?” he asked. She nodded, and he hummed. “Yes. But not what he is accusing me of, well, not everything at least,” he told her. She looked at him and nodded.
“Thank you. I have known James since I was a child. He and my brother have been friends as long as I can remember,”
she started.
“Charlie, you don’t need to tell me this,” Vidar said.
“I know, but I don’t know how else to explain it,” she told him. “I had a crush on him growing up. Then a couple of weeks ago he asked me out, said my brother was okay with it. We went on a couple of dates. Then you let me know he was investigating you and it turned out he lied about my brother. It didn’t end well,” she said with a sigh.
“I’m sorry. Maybe I shouldn’t have told you,” he said.
“No, no. I rather get to know now than later. That brings me to what I found. About a year ago, I worked for the police department. My job was to track down how a suspect was siphoning information from a system. After a lot of hard work, I found the implanted software. I had never seen something like it before. It was beautiful in its complexity and simplicity. It was created to intercept information and, to put it simply, take a snapshot of it and then send it to its destination. The beautiful thing was it didn’t alter the data in the original information. It’s virtual undetectable. I found it because when it sends the information back to the one who has installed it, it creates a fluctuation in the amount of data being sent. James was my handler on the case and I shared all the information with him,” she told Vidar. He sat quietly, letting her talk, but all of his attention was on her. “I have had this feeling while I investigated the issues with your system that something felt familiar. Yesterday, everything fell into place. James had put the software into your system, trying to get information from you he would be able to use against you.” Charlie saw Vidar’s muscles tense and his jaw locked.
“You came with this to me?” he asked.
“I did.”
“Why?”
“Why I came with it to you?” she asked, feeling confused by his questions.
“Yes. James is a friend of your brother’s. You have known him for a long time, you have feelings for him and you have stated he is a good man. He is also on the right side of the law,” he stated.
“I would agree with all but the last statement. To some extent. But you hired me, you took a chance on me. What James did wasn’t just illegal, it put me in a difficult position,” she said.
“He asked you to cover for him,” Vidar told her.
“He did. What he did could jeopardise my future. My loyalty is with this company, You hired me to find what was wrong with your system. I have done so. The software has been isolated and can do no more harm to your system. This contains my report on the software, how to remove it and suggested actions to be taken before removing it. Lucas should be able to handle it from here. If he has questions, he has my number,” she said, giving Vidar an usb stick.
“You aren’t staying to the end?” he asked.
“I would think you would want me to step to the side knowing my connection to James,” she said.
“You have shown loyalty when I wouldn’t have expected it.”
“You should know I told him last night that I had found it, to give him a chance to turn himself in,” she confessed.
“You did what?” Vidar shouted, jumping out of his chair and towering over her. Charlie wondered how badly she had screwed up. “He could have come after you. Why on earth would you put yourself in danger like that?” he asked.
“That’s why I spent the night with my brother,” she said.
“Still, it was an unnecessary risk. You should know better,” he said. He seemed to collect himself and sat down in the chair again. Charlie nodded as she tried to wrap her head around the fact he seemed more upset that she had put herself in danger than she had given James a warning.
“What will you do?” she asked.
“Are you sure you want to know?” he asked as he watched her. No, she wasn’t. But she still needed to know.
“Yes,” she told him, and a smirk appeared on his face.
“There is steel in you, lilla lo. I will let Lucas have a look at it, and then I will report it to the authorities. Just because I may sometimes walk on the other side of the law doesn’t mean I can’t use it when it suits me. I will keep your name out of it. No need for you to get involved,” he told her. Charlie felt grateful for his consideration. It would be a mess even if she wasn’t in the middle of it, but at least she wouldn’t have to face James in court.
“Thank you, I appreciate it,” she said. “Do you have any other questions?” she asked.
“No. Thank you for your loyalty and help. Go home, and relax,” he told her. She nodded.
“Where do I turn in my security badge?” she asked as she got ready to leave.
“Keep it for now, in case Lucas needs your help,” he told her. She nodded and stood up, shook his hand and walked towards the door.
“You really need to tell me what ‘lilla lo‘ means,” she said, her back still turned towards him. His hand closed over hers, holding the doorknob. Charlie startled. Had he been right behind her all along? He bent down until she could feel his breath against her ear.
“It means little lynx. It suits you. Go home, Charlie, relax and try to not think too much about this. Away you go.” The words were barely louder than a breath. They did interesting things to her b*dy. His hand helped her twist the handle and his other hand landed on the small of her back and gently pushed her out of his office. On wobbly legs, Charlie made her way to the elevator, giving the woman at the desk a smile and a nod. As soon as the elevator doors closed and left her alone, she leaned against the wall and let go of a stuttering breath. What the f**k was that? Since when did her knees go weak from someone whispering words in her ear? She made it outside and took a couple of calming breaths. She saw a car she recognised and walked up to the driver’s window.
“Don’t tell me you have been here since you dropped me off?” she asked Tyson.
3/1
“Of course not, I went and bought coffee and a magazine,” he told her, showing her a to go cup and a MMA magazine. Charlie smiled. The gentle giant that was her brother–in–law had once been a successful MMA fighter himself. Charlie had watched a couple of his fights when he and Huxton started dating. But now he stayed at home with the twins and loved every moment of it.
“You do know I can walk home from here,” she informed him.
“If you were staying at your apartment, that would be true. But since you’re going to be staying with us for a couple of days, it felt better to wait for you,” he said.
“Tyson,” she objected.
“Nope, Charlie. You have two choices: you come out of your own free will or I’ll toss you in the trunk and take you home. Either way, you’ll stay with us until Hux and I are comfortable James won’t do another stupid thing. He’s been on a roll lately,” Tyson told her. He used the same voice he used on the twins when they were misbehaving. How could she not love this man?
“Fine, but I need to work tonight,” she told him as she got inside the car.
“You are calling in sick the rest of the week,” he informed her.
“Fine. But I need to go to my place and pick up some more underwear. Any objections to that?” she asked.
“No, I’m a big fan of personal hygiene,” he said with a chuckle and drove her to her apartment. After collecting some more clothing and calling Jenni to tell her she couldn’t work that evening, but starting from Monday she could go back to full time, Tyson drove them home. They stopped on the way and bought pizza for lunch for the family.