Ryder looked on with pride as he continued speaking, “At the moment, Alex is intercepting an email from inside the FBI.”
“And I’ve just got that email,” she said, keeping her attention on her monitor, her fingers moving fast over her keyboard. “It’s an email from FBI security indicating Lewis must read and accept the new security policies,” she explained, then gestured next to her. “Jeff’
s recreating the webpage now to look identical to this one. I’m changing the URL to point to a custom page on their server so that when Lewis clicks the link to accept the new policies, it’s going to download a virus that will create a backdoor that gives me access to his computer.”
“Fucking brilliant,” Rowan said, unable to stop himself.
“She is a force,” Ryder agreed.
Alex flicked her hair over her shoulder. “Keep it coming, boys!”
Rowan chuckled, fighting against sliding his fingers over the soft strands of her hair, pulling her in close and kissing her until she felt every bit of his pride. “You think you’ll find something on his work computer?”
“I know I will,” she said, all playfulness gone from her voice. “He used his work computer to go onto the dating app SiR to begin with. There is no greater security he will have than his work computer. I suspect that’s why he hunts his new victims from there.”
It made sense. No one would suspect Lewis as being the Casanova Sadist.
Silence filtered into the room while Alex and Jeff worked as a team, and Rowan watched the code being written, until suddenly Alex stopped typing. She rose, placed both hands against her desk and stared down at her monitor.
Jeff leaned back, sending his chair squeaking beneath him. “And now we wait for him to be stupid enough to let us in.”
“Will he be that stupid?” Rowan asked.
Alex finally turned to him and nodded, dark circles under her eyes. “Unless he looks into the URL, we’re good, but no one ever looks into the URL unless you’re people like us.” She gestured at Jeff. “It’s not something he’ll expect.”
“Why is that exactly?”
Jeff scoffed. “Because the FBI doesn’t know anyone can hack into their databases like this. It’s simply never been done.”
Rowan’s gaze fell to Alex, and she went very still. Mickey Finch’s teachings, no doubt. There was a time in Rowan’s life when he would have used whatever means and methods to find out everything she knew and what she could do on behalf of the CIA. He had already known Alex was good, but he had no idea she was this good or who’d she been mentored by. His duty to the CIA meant he should tell his superiors of her talents, but something stopped him.
Alex.
She was already bound to help her government whenever they pleased. For free. She was always at the beck and call of either the FBI or CIA, and she didn’t deserve that. No one did. She’d obviously hidden a lot of what she could do, knowing they’d exploit her. And they would, they’d already proven that.
The thought infuriated Rowan. He wanted her set free.
Minutes went by. Long minutes, while Rowan leaned against the desk off to the side of Alex, crossing his arms. Ryder stayed calm and studied his phone. Jeff’s leg was bouncing while he continued to work on his computer. Alex tapped her fingers against the desk, slow steady beats…until suddenly she went very still.
Rowan asked quickly, “Did he take the bait?”
“He did.” Her fingers began flying over the keyboard, and she bounced in her chair a little. “I’m in.”
Jeff stayed in his seat but leaned over a little to watch her work. His eyes were bright and alert, obviously impressed by her. So was Rowan.
Hours went by. One hour. Then two. Rowan tried to stay still, not disrupt her. Ryder stayed the same level of calm, looking at his phone, responding to texts or whatever the hell he was doing. But soon, Rowan got them all more coffees and food and then just became lost in her. At this beautiful, smart, sexy-as-hell woman who was on her way to catching a serial killer. Rowan realized everyone took from her. Her shitty mother. Her own government. She’d found a home in Ryder, a safety net where he believed in her.
Rowan wanted to be that for her now. More so, he wanted to be her home.
“Oh, shit,” Alex gasped. “You are not going to believe this.” She hit a bunch of keys, then the monitors all flashed black before a video feed popped up. Rowan moved closer, feeling Ryder do the same. He stared at the video for a good few seconds before processing what he was looking at. Five rooms. Four of them bedrooms. The other room was a dungeon with wooden crosses, benches, whips, chains—there was not a blank space on the wall that was not full of items that Lewis used for his twisted sadistic games.
Rowan turned around to Alex, his blood cold. “How did you find this?”
Her face had drained of all color. “It’s the feed that must have been also at the storage unit,” she explained. “I’ll give it to Lewis, he hid the feed well, deep in top secret files, but it was the only incoming feed on his computer that wasn’t directly linked to the FBI.”
Amazed by her, he managed, “And you got into that?”
She shrugged.