Chapter 16

Find out everything you can about Isabella Coldrick.

That was the assignment Wander had given Caleb, and he was on it like a fly to a pile of shit. Hmm, that was a fitting metaphor in this case because if she was Whitman’s right hand, she was dirty as fuck. He’d already found out all the basics—parents, sisters, education, résumé—but it was time to dig a little deeper. An initial Google search hadn’t revealed much, but maybe social media would be more helpful.

Both of Isabella’s sisters had a Facebook account and were sloppy with their privacy settings, which made Caleb’s job so much easier. If one made a public post and tagged someone with a friends-only profile, it would still be public and visible to all. So many people didn’t realize that, and it seemed Isabella was one of them. Caleb discovered several photos of Isabella, who went by Bella with friends, apparently.

The three had done a spa day and sported goofy smiles as they posed with neon-green face masks, looking like aliens. Roman had been right. She did genuinely care about her sisters. Everyone had a weakness, and it looked like her sisters were Isabella’s. Caleb filed that bit of information away.

Twitter didn’t reveal anything, but Isabella was active on LinkedIn. She’d kept her résumé up to date, but she also posted regularly about legal news. Nothing stood out at first glance, though. No mention of Whitman or anything related to him. She had shared an update about the Harborfront deal Roman had mentioned, with a two-sentence intro that stated she was proud to have worked on this deal and that it would be great for the city of Boston.

The post hadn’t gotten a lot of reactions, so it wasn’t much effort to track the people who had responded and check their profiles. Most of them were fellow legal professionals, and a quick look at their résumés showed some of them had been classmates of Isabella or former coworkers. Two people with the last name Coldrick had reacted. Cousins, maybe? Or uncles?

He wrote down the other names, checked a few more similar updates, and noted the names of people who had responded to those. In his experience, people were far stupider online than they realized, exposing more hints and data than they wanted to. And if they did, Caleb would find it.

Next up was Coldrick Law. Caleb created a false profile as a paralegal on various job sites and searched for reviews of Isabella’s firm. They were mixed. She’s a total bitch, one woman wrote. The kind that gives women with power a bad name.

Well, she didn’t do herself any favors there, considering everyone could see her name. Oops. Another was more forgiving, though they did mention endlessly long days, but what else is new? Indeed, law firms weren’t exactly known as relaxed nine-to-five jobs.

Wait. She had two positions open. One was for a forensic accountant. Wasn’t that interesting? What would she need one for? And the other for… Oh my god, she had posted a job for an IT specialist. Caleb sat up straight. He clicked on the job description and read it with rising excitement. She’d titled the position IT specialist, but what she was asking for was more of a cybersecurity specialist. Just when Caleb was ramping up his efforts to get into her systems, she wanted to find someone to keep hackers out.

What if he…? Whitman and Coldrick might know his name, but they wouldn’t have his picture. Caleb was a stickler for keeping his face off the Internet, and he’d even gotten a buzz cut and let his beard grow for his driver’s license picture. If he ever got pulled over, the photo still looked like him, but it would be much harder to recognize him with a casual glance now that his hair was much longer.

He’d have to create an alias, one that was solid enough to withstand a background check, but that wasn’t too hard for him. Backstopping, the FBI called it when creating a background for an undercover agent, and they’d become masters at it. Caleb had learned a lot from an agent who’d spilled some secrets on a forum—anonymously, of course.

With his hacking skills, creating a plausible background wasn’t that big a deal. The biggest challenge was a social security number, since it would have to match and show the appropriate activity. And since he had no desire to spend a life sentence in prison, hacking into the Social Security Administration wasn’t an option, though he sure would’ve relished the challenge. But he could think of ways around that.

Decision made, he all but ran down the stairs to Wander’s office and came to a full stop. Roman sat opposite his brother, looking sad and dejected. Caleb wanted nothing more than to kneel at his feet and make him feel better, but now wasn’t the time.

“Hi,” he said stupidly, then shook himself mentally. “Sir. Sirs.”

“What’s up, kid?” Wander asked, and Caleb tore his gaze away from Roman and focused on his boss.

“I came across something interesting. Something we could use to our advantage.”

“Talk to me.”

“Coldrick Law has a job opening for an IT specialist, but what they’re really looking for is a cybersecurity specialist.”

“You’re shitting me.”

“Nope, they do.” He raised his chin. “And I want to apply.”

“No!” Roman jumped up. “Absolutely not.”

“Sit your ass down, Ro,” Wander said mildly. “At least give the kid the courtesy of letting him make his case.”

Roman wasn’t happy about being corrected by his brother, that much was clear, but Caleb didn’t back down. He wasn’t here as a submissive. He’d come as a team member of Dwyer Security, and he had a job to do. “We need an in with Coldrick. You said it yourself, Roman. You know she’s involved, but she’s impossible to get to. Well, if I apply for this job and get hired, I could get into her system. None of it would be admissible in court, but at least we’d know where to look and who to investigate.”

“You’d need an alias,” Wander said slowly. “But you do have the skills to get hired.”

“Yeah, I’d have to spend some time backstopping, but I’m overqualified for the job, so they should hire me. It’s not like there are many of us available in this job market.”

“Which means you’d also need a good story as to why you’re applying. She has to know you could do better than her firm.”

Hmm, Wander was right. Caleb would have to have a good reason for preferring Coldrick Law over other, potentially more lucrative, companies. Maybe something about wanting to stay in Boston? “I could say my boyfriend got a job in Boston?”

“You’d have to sell it, but that could work.” Wander leaned back in his chair, steepling his fingers. “I’m not wild about you being on your own, though. You’d have no backup if something went wrong.”

“Exactly,” Roman said. “It’s far too dangerous, and I won’t have it.”

Caleb quirked an eyebrow. “No offense, but that’s not your call. I don’t work for you.”

“But…but…” Roman looked shocked. “I thought we…”

“You thought that because I’m a sub and you’ve been my Dom for the last few days, you could also boss me around in my job?”

Roman’s cheeks colored crimson. “I guess that’s not how it works, is it?”

Caleb wasn’t angry with him. The separation between private and work, between play and real life, was hard to navigate, even for more experienced people in the lifestyle, let alone for a newbie like Roman. “Your brother is my boss, Roman. You’re my Dom right now, but that has no bearing on this decision. When we’re in your bedroom, you can tell me what to do. In this office, you can’t. You can offer suggestions, and I will listen, but you’re not in charge here.”

“Right. Sorry, I didn’t mean to…” He vaguely gestured.

“No harm done. It can be confusing.” Caleb turned to Wander. “I understand the risks, and this is not something I offer lightly, but it’s such a fantastic opportunity to get access to her. In my opinion, that outweighs the risks.”

“I have to admit it’s tempting, especially considering what the job entails. You’d have full access to her entire system.”

“That’s the assumption, yes. I’m not sure if someone in her position would open the doors entirely to a new employee immediately, though. She may limit my access at first, and I wouldn’t blame her. In fact, if I truly did work for her, that’s what I’d tell her to do.”

“Then maybe mention that. If you get hired, I mean. Or in the job interview. That would create a sense of trust on her end,” Wander said.

“So you’re on board with this?” Caleb’s heart skipped a beat.

“No, not yet. I’m willing to entertain the idea, but I’ll need to discuss it with the whole team first. I want everyone to weigh in on this one, Ryan and Alex especially, since they’ll have the best idea of how dangerous Whitman is.”

“He hasn’t done anything violent, has he?” Caleb asked.

“Yet,” Roman said shortly. “He hasn’t done anything violent yet that we know of. He’s capable of anything, though, and he may do crazy things if cornered.”

“Roman’s right,” Wander said. “Just because he hasn’t resorted to violence yet doesn’t mean he won’t, especially if they find out who you really are.”

“So I’d better build one hell of an alias,” Caleb said. “Is it okay if I get started on that? Because Ryan and Alex won’t be back for another two days, and I don’t want to miss the deadline to apply for the job.”

Wander nodded. “You can build your backstory and apply once that’s done. But you can’t go for an interview until I’ve formally approved it. Deal?”

“Yes, Sir.”

Wander rose from his chair. “Burke just got home, and I’m in the mood to spend some quality time with my boyfriend, so I’m gonna head to our bedroom. Why don’t you two stay and talk? Sounds to me like you still have some communicating to do.”

With that, he walked out, leaving Caleb with Roman, who looked at him sheepishly. “I didn’t mean to…you know, make the decision for you.”

Caleb chuckled as he slid onto Roman’s lap. Conversations like this were so much easier sitting close together. When Roman pulled him close, he leaned against the man’s chest. “Oh, I think you absolutely meant to make the decision for me, but you got called out. And that’s okay. You’re not the first Dom who thinks he can cross that line with a sub, and you won’t be the last.”

“Jesus, you don’t pull your punches, do you? But thank you for your understanding. I’m well aware I fucked up.”

Caleb snuggled against that soft chest. “It’s all good, but I hope you now understand the difference between Caleb the sub and Caleb the cybersecurity specialist.”

“I’ll try to remember, but I may mess up a few times more before I get the hang of this.”

Caleb swallowed. That sounded an awful lot like someone who was counting on more of these situations, right? Someone who was, consciously or subconsciously, planning for a future together?

No, he couldn’t allow himself to think like that, to get his hopes up. He had to take this one day at a time. Otherwise, he’d drive himself crazy. Besides, it wasn’t like he was in love with Roman or anything. Right?

Shit. Too fast, too soon. He couldn’t.

Instead, he fell back on what came most naturally to him.

“For now, let me be your sub again,” he whispered.

He slid off Roman’s lap and sank to his knees, the plush carpet brushing against his legs like a welcome caress. The room seemed to hold its breath, and time slowed to a crawl as Caleb tilted his head up, his gaze locked on Roman’s. His submission wasn’t an act. It was etched into his very being, a core part of who he was.

He waited as silence stretched between them. The air crackled, charged with a current of anticipation that buzzed beneath his skin. He was like a live wire. All his senses homed in on Roman, hands resting on his thighs, fingers twitching with the urge to touch. This was where he belonged, at Roman’s feet, ready to serve, ready to give himself over to whatever Roman had in mind. The rest of the world, with its chaos and questions, faded until all that remained was Roman, his command, and Caleb’s eagerness to comply.

Roman swallowed. “What do you want to do for me?”

Caleb’s throat tightened. Words lodged there, thick and eager. “Anything, Sir. Everything.”

“Be specific.” Roman’s tone was a challenge wrapped in velvet, a command that demanded truth.

Caleb’s world narrowed to the man before him, his Dom. “I want to serve you, Sir. To obey you. To give you pleasure…in any form you desire.”

“Good boy.” Roman’s approval was simple, direct, and shot through Caleb like the finest whiskey—warm, intoxicating, addictive.

This was what he needed to focus on. Not on the future but on the present. Not on what might or might not be but about what was right here, right now.

On his Dom.

And on his submission.

Nothing else mattered.