Chapter 53

CHAPTER53

“Check everything,” Nathan said, his grip tightening around the steering wheel as he told himself that Bailey was fine and wishing like hell that he believed it. He never should have let her go, never should have fucking trusted Quinn, and he never should have-

“I am,” the stubborn pain in the ass said, drawing his attention to find her reaching for the Coke that he’d grabbed when he’d been forced to stop for gas earlier when a thought occurred to him.

“Do you react the same way that Bailey does to caffeine?” Nathan asked as his gaze flickered back to the long dirt road that they’d been navigating for the past ten minutes.

“Guess you’re about to find out,” Casey said in a teasing tone as she moved to take a sip only to end up glaring when he reached over and swiped the can out of her hand.

“It’s honestly like you want me to hurt you,” she said, not bothering to look up from the laptop that she’d helped herself to from Haven Technologies.

“And it’s honestly like you want me to spank your ass,” Nathan drawled, making a show of taking a sip of Coke simply to piss her off.

“Look,” Casey said, licking her lips as she shifted to get more comfortable, “I know that I don’t look it, but I’m actually a really violent person.”

“It’s the first thing that I noticed about you,” Nathan murmured as he enjoyed another refreshing sip.

“I’m not kidding, Nathan,” Casey murmured absently as she frowned down at the computer.

“I didn’t think you were,” Nathan said, still wondering how they could have fucked this up so badly.

“Yet, you’re ignoring the only warning that you’re going to get,” Casey said with a sad shake of her head as she continued typing away.

Nathan opened his mouth to explain just how badly he wanted to spank her ass when the small woman sitting in the back seat that he’d completely forgotten about, asked, “Umm, why am I here again?”

“Because we need help making sure that Haven Technologies’ server hasn’t been compromised,” Nathan explained even as he moved to finish off the Coke only to have the little brat pluck it out of his hand with a satisfied sigh.

“Makes sense except for the fact that we’re not supposed to be accessing Haven Technologies’ server remotely,” Jess murmured, drawing his attention to the rear-view mirror to find her looking thoughtful as she pointed to Casey. “And Pam?”

“I take my position as Bailey’s assistant very seriously,” Casey said as she finished off the Coke, reminding him that he still needed to figure out what he was going to do about her.

Bailey would never forgive him if she found out that he let her sister walk away and Casey…

Christ, he didn’t know what he was going to do about her, but one thing was clear, he couldn’t let her walk away after this. She came here looking for Bailey for a reason and he wasn’t letting her go until she told his sister everything.

“We only have enough access to see if there’s been any damage. The main files are still protected,” Nathan said, not bothering to point out that the new game was on Bailey’s personal server.

“Fair enough,” Jess murmured absently as she shifted her focus back to her laptop while Nathan’s gaze flickered back to the small woman sitting next to him.

“Anything?” Nathan asked as he found himself watching the way that Casey worried her bottom lip between her teeth and-

He really needed to fucking focus, he realized when he found himself wondering just how good her lips would feel against his skin. They didn’t have time for whatever the hell this was. It didn’t help that she was the last woman that he should be thinking about, especially right now.

“A huge mess,” Casey said with a heavy sigh as his gaze flickered back to the rear-view mirror.

“Jess?” Nathan said as he watched the woman that he was counting on to help them fix this shake her head with a heavy sigh.

“Same. Whatever she did, she left a huge mess. I’m going through everything, cleaning and checking files as I go, but so far it doesn’t look like she was able to do that much damage, but not from a lack of trying,” Jess mumbled absently while he tried wrapping his mind around everything that happened in the last twenty-four hours.

None of this made any sense.

He knew about the history with Kelly, mostly because he’d pinned Bailey to the floor and made her “hit herself” until she told him everything, but he really couldn’t see her doing any of this. She-

“Shouldn’t the gates be closed?” Casey asked, drawing his attention to the large iron gates at the end of the dirt road that had been left wide open.

“Yes, they should,” Nathan said as he struggled to bite back the fear that had been threatening to take over since he’d realized just how badly he’d fucked up by trusting the asshole to keep his sister safe.

When they reached the gates, Nathan rolled to a stop in front of the security panel, taking in the red light flashing beneath the keypad before glancing at the monitor and noted that it had what his sister would have called “Smurf screen.”

“Blue screen of death,” Casey noted as she followed his gaze.

“Do me a favor,” Nathan began as he focused on the winding road ahead.

“What’s that?” Casey asked, sounding distracted.

“Stay in the car,” Nathan said as they came around the last curve and spotted the large house ahead.

“Not a chance in hell,” Casey said, already moving to close her laptop.

Tightening his grip around the steering wheel, Nathan bit out, “I’m not fucking kidding.”

“I didn’t think you were,” Casey murmured conversationally as he pulled up behind the SUV that Jakob lent to Quinn.

“Stay in the car,” Nathan repeated as he pulled to a stop and-

“Goddamnit!”

-snapped when the little brat that was going to get her ass spanked shoved her door open and climbed out before he could stop her.

“Wow, she really loves her job,” Jess said, shaking her head in wonder as she watched Casey head towards the large house, leaving him to curse under his breath as he moved his ass.

In a matter of seconds, he was making his way up the stairs and reaching for Casey’s hand just as the front door opened. “Nathan, to what do I owe the pleasure?” Tristan drawled as his cold gaze locked on Casey.

“You didn’t answer your phone,” Nathan said, watching the way that Casey met Tristan’s gaze head-on.

“How did you get past the gate?” Tristan asked as he stepped aside.

“It’s wide open,” Nathan said as he tightened his grip around Casey’s hand when she tried to pull her hand away.

“That explains a few things,” Quinn said, drawing his attention to find the asshole that had a lot of explaining to do leaning back against the wall with his gaze locked on something across from him, drawing Nathan’s attention and-

“Please tell them that I had nothing to do with this, Nathan!”

-found himself looking at the last person that he’d expected to find here.