Chapter 9

I didn't mean to snap at Illeana or get extremely serious with her, but she needs to understand what's at stake here. There's a good chance her father is going to fire the company, and honestly, that's fine. I couldn’t care less about that, even if we could use the clients he could bring to us. My only care is for Illeana. She doesn't understand the danger she's in. I agreed to keep it from her, but now she needs to know. Those news articles only show half the story. She doesn't know anything about the threatening notes that were received before and even after those pictures were posted.

If her father has an issue with me allowing her to keep her life as normal as possible, then fine, I'll accept that. I did my job, and she was safe while at school. The club was a one-off. I agree she needs to not be on campus for a little bit, but going all the way home? I feel that may be too much. One of the texts Knox sent while we were driving said they had gotten more threats about Illeana and he would fill me in when we got here. Depending on what those threats say, will determine how I respond to her father when we arrive later.

"I need to meet with Knox and Trevor, my partners here at the firm. I'm going to leave you with the women, and you can talk and hang out with them, okay?" I ask, hoping she doesn't fight me on this. I know I spooked her with how serious I am while I parked the car. I didn't mean to, but it needed to happen, just like this meeting does.

"Is the meeting about me? If it is, I want to be involved," she retorts with a huff. Already, I can tell she's digging in her metaphorical heels, ready for a fight.

"It is, but you don't need to be there. It's mostly stuff on our end with the company, and we will be covering more topics than just you. If there is something you need to be aware of, then I will make sure that you know. Now, get yourself out of that seat, and let's get inside. The sooner we finish up here, the sooner we can make it to your father's." I don't give her a chance to argue, instead putting the car in park and getting out. Thankfully, she follows my lead and gets out as well, so I can lock the SUV behind us. Silently, we enter the office. I don't bother with having her sign in or get a visitor badge. Sky, Valentina, and Emma know to keep her with them the whole time, so no one will give her any issues.

"So, who are these women you are leaving me with? Will I like them? Will they like me?" she asks as we wind our way through the office.

"They will probably love you," I answer, making one of the final turns to the little relaxation room we created, or, well, the women created after demanding we needed to have one. They are the only ones who use it. I'm almost positive I only step foot in here when I'm trying to find them. "Here we are," I state, opening the black wooden door.

"She's here!" I hear Emma call out excitedly as I open the door. The second I texted the girls about them sitting with Illeana, she was the first to agree, getting excited about everything they could do and talk about. I had to warn her to behave, or I'd tell her man. I don't need Illeana getting any sort of ideas from them. All the women in this room are strong-headed and like to face their problems themselves. I know Illeana is the same if the way she faced me down the first day in the dean's office is anything to go by, but this time she can't face this problem alone and win. No, she needs me, us, to protect her.

"Oh my god! You are even more gorgeous than in your pictures!" Emma squeals, pushing me aside to reach for Illeana. "Come join us. We have so many questions and want to know everything about you."

"Emma!" I scold, trying to get her attention. She completely ignores me and continues to pull Illeana further into the room. "When I come back to get her, she better be in one piece. I don't want a single hair out of place. I mean it!"

Emma just waves her hand at me, and Valentina completely ignores me. Sky is the only one to pay me any sort of attention. "We make no promises, Steel. Go do your thing and leave us girls to chat. We don't need any guys here. Illeana is safe with us."

"She better be, Sky. Don't upset her," I demand, giving one last look in Illeana's direction before turning to leave the room. I'm not sure when I started becoming more serious, but Illeana brings that side out of me in some ways. I don't want to fuck this up and she gets hurt.

Knowing that she is going to be safe with the girls, I leave her there and head toward Knox's office. We have a lot of ground to cover before I go to meet with Senator Granger. I know he wants to fire our company, but he always realizes that we are the only chance he has at keeping his family safe. Now, we need to prove it and have some sort of lead for him to show we are doing the job he hired us for. Men like him expect action immediately. They don't understand that things take time. We can't just be like this. This is the guilty party after five minutes.

"Knock, knock," I call out, not bothering to actually knock as I open the door to Knox's office. "Were we waiting on me?" I smile as I move to take the open armchair across from Knox's desk. Trevor is sitting in the matching one beside me as Knox is buried in a pile of paperwork on the other side of his desk.

"You're late," Knox grunts, lifting his head to stare at me. "Is she here?"

"I know, little miss princess wanted to try to sleep some of her hangover away this morning. She was delivered safely to the other women, who I left with strict orders to keep her in one piece and not upset her. She should be good." At least I hope she will be.

"Good," he retorts, before throwing a folder at me. Thankfully, nothing falls out as I catch it, flipping it open to look at. "What's this?"

"That is what we have so far. Basically nothing. Care to explain what happened and how we got into this mess?" Knox questions sternly.

"How much time do you have?" I joke, trying to lighten the mood. I can tell it’s useless as he continues to stare me down, waiting on my actual answer. Well, okay then. "Classes have been going fine, but I know Illeana has been hating having me follow her around basically everywhere she goes. Last weekend she hid in her room, but this weekend her best friend, Morgan, convinced her to go out and party. I tried to argue against it, but it was clear Illeana's mind was made up and I could either get on board or be left behind," I start to explain before Trevor cuts me off.

"How could you not handle her? She's a twenty-one-year-old young woman. You're thirty-two, a Marine, and are in better shape than most people I know. How could you not control her and keep her in her dorm room?" He seems utterly surprised that I couldn't stop her.

"Wait until you meet her, and then you try to control her. She has fought me during every step in this process. I'm lucky she hasn't run off on me yet. So if she wants to go out and dance and enjoy herself for a night, then I'm going to let her so I can stay on her good side. She was in my sights all night. Those pictures that were taken, I have no idea who took them, but they had to have been from someone close to her. There are only a couple of shots from further away. If I remember the layout correctly, those far-away shots are from an area that you can't access as a guest of the establishment. Staff only, so we should probably look through the staff and see if that gives us any leads." I hate that I hadn't thought of this until just now. It was hard to make up, but maybe it was a glass wall in the direction of the angle of those pictures. It's the only thing I can think of that would make sense. I still don't remember seeing a single person who had their phone out while on the dance floor but it's possible I missed it when I was watching Illeana.

"The staff? Are you sure?" Knox questions, before he types on his computer. Knowing him, he is already digging online to find the list of staff for the establishment. Sky may be our computer genius, but Knox has almost just as many skills as her. The two of them could make a killer team in hacking if they ever wanted to test their skills.

"Positive. But I still can't figure out who on the floor was close enough to take some of those other pictures. I don't remember seeing anyone with their phone out in their vicinity. Not even Illeana's best friend Morgan, who was with her all night." Ever since those pictures dropped it has been driving me insane. I wish I had more answers to give everyone. If I knew who I saw, then we could question them and find out why they leaked the photos. Whoever took them had to have known who Illeana was. It wasn't just someone posting pictures online from a fun night out. No, this was deliberate.

"Where were you when she was dancing? Whoever took those pictures was good at keeping you out of almost all of them. I think the one that does show you was on purpose due to the expression on your face. This could be problematic, Steel. We need to figure out who keeps threatening her," Knox sighs, pinching the bridge of his nose.

I know he has been busy trying to keep up with so many cases of ours, but I think there's more to it. I told him I had this case handled despite not wanting it in the first place, and now it blew up on me two weeks in. I hate letting my friends down. "Sorry, Knox. I really was doing my best. If I had seen a phone, I would have handled it then and there. I didn't see a single one. Whoever took them was sneaky. Even the ones that didn't get leaked to the press were well done. I think we should question Morgan, her best friend. I know we did a background check on her already but maybe we missed something?"

"It's possible something was missed, but there wasn't anything that looked too concerning about her. While we do that, we need to figure out what to do with Illeana. Her identity is out there now and everyone at school is going to know who she is. If we let her go back, then she is going to need a whole team on her at all times and not just you. Do you think she will accept that?" Knox inquires, as he starts jotting down a to-do list.

"Fat chance. I think hell will freeze over before she’ll accept having a whole team. Illeana loves her independence. She is good at checking her surroundings and making sure if someone bothers her, she avoids them. But this is a whole different ball game. She doesn't have the resources to handle this alone. I hate to say it, and I know she won't be happy about it, but going back to school is a bad idea." I really do hate saying it. I know how hard Illeana works every day to maintain her GPA and graduate on time with two degrees. What I'm suggesting puts her at risk of being a semester behind, which isn't fair to her at all, but I'd rather she be behind than injured or, worse, kidnapped. Which is exactly what some of these threatening notes have suggested.

"Well, if she isn't going to accept a security team, then what ideas do you have?" Knox questions, looking between Trevor and me. That right there is the question. I'm not sure what is the best solution to this problem, if there even is one.

"Can she do classes online?" Trevor inquires, turning to look at me.

"The Dean said that she can do classes online for a week. Maybe under the circumstances, we can get that extended, but I'm not sure for how long. All we can do is ask. Why? What are you thinking?" I'm curious and need to know what his plan is before I go about asking the Dean to change the rules for Illeana.

"What about if we take her somewhere off the grid? Somewhere that only we know about. Then, she would be safe and out of the public eye. Whoever keeps threatening her won't be able to reach her and should turn their focus onto someone else, hopefully." Trevor's suggestion is a good one; I'll give him that. Getting Illeana out of the public eye and somewhere that we only know about would protect her.

"But where can we keep her so that no one would know where to find her? We can't do the office here; that's too public, and I don't want her at any of our houses. That would put more people at risk," Knox begins, contemplating out loud. "Winter is here, which makes this even harder. I could ask Shadow if the Chaos Brotherhood could watch her, but we've already brought them in to help us once before. I'm not sure if we should bring them in on this, especially considering this is about Senator Granger. If the press got word that a motorcycle club was helping to protect his daughter, that would ruin his image."

"What about the cabin that I took Emma to?" Trevor suggests quickly like it's the most obvious thing in the world. "It's secluded and in the mountains. Sure, you'll get snowed in up there, but it's a small town. No one would question who Illeana is if you're with her. Everyone in that town knows who we are and what we do. They will help keep her safe. The roads will also be hard to pass, so you'd have warning if someone was coming your way."

"Are you suggesting I take her there? You really want me to be stuck with her for who knows how long until this situation is handled?" I sigh, not liking this idea at all. "I already had her while she was at school, and now look at the mess we're in. She hates me and is going to fight me the whole way if I suggest this to her."

"Then don't suggest this to her. Suggest it as a solution to her father tonight. Make it sound like this is the only and best option to keep her safe. If it comes from him, then she will blame her father, and it will help keep the peace for yourself. We don't have any other options, Steel. This is the best one," Knox explains. I can tell he has already made up his mind and that I don't stand a chance trying to change it.

"What the hell am I supposed to do stuck with Illeana in a cabin for who knows how long? She's a princess and isn't going to be any sort of fun," I groan, already knowing that this is going to happen no matter what I say.

"I'm sure you can come up with an idea. Just keep her entertained and tell her she can't let anyone know where she is. It's not that hard. I mean, you're a big kid at heart anyway. Just play games," Trevor laughs as he rises from his chair. "We done here? I'd like to get my woman home and have some time with her before we need to pick up Alexis from school."

"Yeah, I think we're done here. Make sure to give Steel the keys to the cabin. I'll call ahead to the town and let the mayor know you'll be driving through and to be extra cautious of visitors while you're there." Knox rises from his seat as well and walks around the desk, coming to a stop in front of me. "You'll be fine with Illeana, Steel. Don't overthink things. I'll call Senator Granger as well and let him know our plans so he doesn't give you too much hell."

"Thanks, Knox," I answer, rising from my seat. "Guess I should go get the Princess from the women and get back on the road. I'm sure the Senator isn't going to like that we stopped here first instead of going directly there." Turning around, I head out of the office, following Trevor down the hall. Time to get on the road and get this next conversation over with. Senator Granger is a hard man to speak to, and I know this conversation won't be any different.