The Revenge (The Insiders Trilogy #3)(49)

Quinn: I got my new phone. You can send the virus to the old one.

Quinn: Good try, Bailey. Better luck next time. middle finger emoji

Oh. Yeah. Hadn’t thought that through, but made sense she’d figure it out.

Her old phone’s screen lit up again, and there it was. I saw the virus being uploaded. Whoever was on the other end hit the final button and the phone went dead. RIP Quinn’s old phone, because that sucker was dunzo.

I already had everything backed up on an external drive.

Matt and I would have to have a ceremony later to send off Quinn’s phone, but until then, I opened another window and pulled up my program again. This time, I clicked on the ghost program and let it go. Anything new she did on her phone would be downloaded here, and that would be sent to the same external hard drive that I had set up with her old phone’s data. Minimizing that window, I pulled up her old data and started going through it.

A hard knock came first, before the door was shoved open. “Yo!” Matt strolled in, a bag of chips in hand, and he popped a bunch in his mouth. “What’s happening, hot stuff?”

I wrinkled my nose. “Don’t quote pickup lines to your sister.”

He blinked at me, blankly .

He didn’t know.

“That quote is a pickup line from a movie.”

A slow grin on his face. He laughed, putting more chips in his mouth. “It’s like second nature to me. I don’t even think about them anymore.” He turned to the computer and nudged my shoulder. “What have you learned?”

“That she got in touch with someone who knows phones, right away. They cloned her old phone remotely and then killed it.”

His head jerked back up. “Are you saying we got nothing?” His voice went hard.

“Where’s the trust? Where’s the Team Batt faith?” I nudged his shoulder. “I got the data already downloaded, which is here.” I clicked on the window, showcasing it. “And…” I pulled up the other window and then we were watching in real time as Quinn was setting up a date.

“Whoa!” Matt leaned in toward the screen. “Who’s that?”

The number wasn’t saved, so there was no name.

hotel at 9 again?

Unknown number responded immediately.

yes.

Matt grinned at me. “Wonder who gets the room? Who’s the bitch in this relationship?”

Three minutes later:

Quinn: Called. Room 314

Unknown number: I’ll be there.

Snorting, Matt shoved up, his bag still in hand. “Guess we’re doing another stakeout.” He put his hand in the bag, then paused. “Wait. What hotel? She didn’t say. ”

I was already on that, too. “Again, where’s the love, brother? The Team Batt fai—”

“Yeah, yeah.” He was back and peering over my shoulder.

I was pulling up the call history and looking back. Matt had his phone out. He was putting the numbers in and giving me a nod, then he hit Dial and we both waited.

“Coastal Hotel, this is Amanda. How may I help you?”

Matt hung up. He pivoted around, facing me square, and his head cocked to the side. “Who owns that hotel?”

I turned back to the computer and typed it in. A simple Google search and I looked back at him. “According to this company’s name, the real CEO is Edward Nathans. Do you know him?”

He was frowning, and his hand came up. He began idly itching his cheek, thinking. Then his eyebrows surged even lower and he looked at me. “You’re not going to like it.”

I sat up, my stomach falling at the same time. “What?”

“I don’t know the name, but … I think Kash might.”

I pulled my phone out and dialed.

“Please tell me you’re not already in trouble.”

That was his greeting. Talk about—

I sighed. “Um. Maybe?”

“What’s happened?”

Matt’s eyes were bugging out, but I gave Kash the entire rundown, except, you know, about stealing the phone or hacking the phone. We didn’t need to start this call on a bad note. Okay. I vagued-up a lot of it, saying we got an alert Quinn might be at this hotel, meeting someone.

“Do you know Edward Nathans, and if you do, please tell me this isn’t going to be a problem?”

“I should ask how you got this alert, but in this instance, I’m not, though I’ll probably regret not asking. As for Nathans, I do know him, but not well enough to call him about one of his customers. What are you guys planning? ”

Matt had been eavesdropping, and he grabbed the phone from me, hitting the Speaker button. “We’ll just do a stakeout. They have a bar there. We’ll have a drink and maybe see who shows up. The guys will be around us. No one will be in danger. Just a stakeout.”

“You won’t engage?”

“Uh…”

“Matt.”

“Nope. Just a new spot we’ll try out for drinks. We’ll go incognito. Disguises. Maybe? Just hanging out. Nothing else.”

Kash’s entire voice was tight from his end. “Matt.”

“Hmm?”

“If you put yourself, the woman I love, or my guys in unnecessary danger, I will shoot you in the ass.”

Matt swallowed. “Got it.”