One Snowy Night (Heartbreaker Bay #2.5)(35)

He entered his office and he gestured for Mike to have a seat. “Your message said you have a security problem.”

“A big one,” Mike said. “I think our digital division’s got a leak.”

“What makes you think so?”

“We had two new high--tech communication products that no one else even had a bead on. We had a scheduled presentation to a very selective, confidential client—-”

“How selective?” Archer asked. “How confidential?”

Mike rolled his lips inward. “Let’s just say very.”

The US government, Archer figured, reading between the lines. “And let me guess, someone beat you to the punch.”

“Our number one competitor,” Mike said grimly. “But there’s no way in hell that they beat us. Someone gave them the intel. From the inside.”

“That’s ugly.”

“Yes. And now I need to stop the leak. You in?”

Archer nodded. “I’m in, but—-”

“I know, I know,” Mike said. “No guarantees, blah blah. I’ve heard the spiel, Hunt, but you’ve not failed me yet. Plus I’m going to pay you a whole helluva lot of money to make sure you don’t fail me this time either.”

Archer gave him a short nod. “Consider it done.”

When Mike left, Archer set some plans into motion to get that job up and running, and then he got to work going over the plan for the night’s distraction.

They’d been hired by an insurance company. Some of their clients were up in arms, claiming that they’d paid for additional services that had never been received.

It turned out that the insurance company didn’t even provide those services and had no records of receiving the premiums.

Enter Hunt Investigations. Archer had dug in and found it all came down to one freelance insurance agent who’d quietly offered select—-read: rich—-clients some opportunities to upgrade. All that had been required were additional “premiums.” The agent had then pocketed those additional premiums—-of course without upgrading the policies.

With help from Archer’s resident computer specialist, Joe, they’d located the “agent,” a guy who had multiple aliases but was currently using the name Chuck Smithson. Some further research revealed that Chuck was a loner who trusted no one. He moved around between hotels and kept a cross--body messenger bag on him at all times, which most likely held his laptop and all his secrets. And since he lived in a state of paranoia and didn’t back up anywhere that they could hack into, they needed that laptop for evidence.

During their research, they’d found that swindler Chuck had an additional habit—-he enjoyed trolling Internet hookup sites. Archer had gotten an email earlier from Elle that she was in on the job, so they’d set up a profile for bait. Chuck had taken that bait hook, line, and sinker, and was in fact expecting to meet “Candy Cunningham” tonight for a drink.

All Archer needed Elle to do was ID Chuck and then keep him busy while they took a look in the briefcase and copied his hard drive. The evidence wouldn’t be admissible in court but the insurance company didn’t want to take it that far and risk the public hearing about their humiliatingly heavy losses. They just wanted Hunt Investigations to confirm their suspicions before figuring out their next step.

Archer texted his team and waited as they began to file back in, fresh from showers, various forms of caffeine in one hand, breakfast in the other.

Max was head of the pack and since he’d been with his girlfriend, Rory, for two months now—-a record for him—-there was a definite pep to his step. He sat across the conference table from Archer with Carl, his Doberman, at his side. Carl was a huge asset to their team but at the moment all he had on his brain was the massive donut in his master’s hand.

Max shoved a huge bite of said donut into his mouth. “All set for tonight, boss,” he said to Archer. “We’ve got entrances and exits covered and Finn’s going to have all eyes on deck for us.”

Finn was the owner and bartender at O’Riley’s, the pub on the ground floor of the building where the distraction would take place. He also happened to be a close friend.

Archer didn’t usually bring work so close to his home base but he never took chances when it came to Elle.

Never.

She was a great asset when he needed a distraction because she had a way of making a man forget he had a brain. He’d been a victim of this himself, more than once. Thing was, too many times to count she’d managed to get him information that had closed a case for him, info he couldn’t have gotten without bloodshed.

She claimed to do these jobs because she loved the money. He knew that wasn’t strictly true. She did love money, in the way that only someone who’d grown up without any could. But he knew that wasn’t why she did it. Nope, she worked for him when he asked because she thought she owed him.

But the truth was, he owed her.

The rest of the guys got comfortable. Joe, who besides being his IT guy was also his right--hand man. Then there was Lucas, Trev, and Reyes. Their conference room was big, but so were they and the room seemed to shrink in their presence.

“Why do you smell like maple and bacon?” Joe asked Max.

“Because I’m eating a maple and bacon donut,” Max said.