White-Hot Hack (Kate and Ian #2)(68)

A confrontation meant an outcome.

It meant resolution.

No more looking over their shoulders or waiting for the other shoe to drop.

Because this time he would find out what they wanted.

Anything would be better than waiting and wondering if next time the intruder would somehow get past the guards and make it all the way into their home. Maybe when he wasn’t there and Kate was standing in the kitchen or taking a shower. The visual sucker punched him, and he had to take a few deep breaths to get his head on straight. The guilt weighed on him like a brick pressing down on his chest. He’d already stripped her of her autonomy in an effort to protect her. She couldn’t drive herself or go anywhere alone. He’d practically made her a prisoner in her own home, and now even that wasn’t secure.

All because of him.

“Ian?”

He spun around because he was wound tighter than a spring and her voice had startled him.

“What’s going on?” Sleepy-eyed with tousled hair, she wore only the shirt of her pajamas and it was unbuttoned all the way, exposing a sliver of each breast. He quickly crossed the room and started buttoning her up. There were just so many windows in the kitchen, and not all of them were covered by shades.

She laid her hands on his arms. “Why are you up? Why are all the lights on?”

“The guards caught someone on the property.” Saying the words out loud made their situation real, and there was no going back now that he’d uttered them. If it wasn’t already, the gravity of what they were facing would be that much clearer to Kate.

Fear clouded her expression. “Where?”

“Near the basement sliding door. It was a man. Early thirties. We think he was alone. Kyle and Rich detained him, and the police arrested him and took him away.” He dug his phone out of his front pocket and held it up to Kate. “Is this the hacker who came into the food pantry? The one who said his name was Zach Nielsen?”

She shook her head. “That’s not him. I’ve never seen that man before.”

None of her past bravado had been false. But any bravery she’d once felt crumbled away as tears filled her eyes. He put his arms around her and felt her tremble under his touch. He used to think letting Kate believe he was dead was the harshest thing he’d done to her, but involving her in this mess was worse.

“Let’s get you back to bed.” He took her hand and led her to their bedroom, tucking her underneath the covers. “I’ll be right back. I want to make sure everything’s locked down tight.”

The bedroom door closed with a soft click, and he stood in the hallway for a moment to get his bearings. His headache had dissipated slightly, but the pressure remained, making it feel as if his head were being squeezed in a vise. Silently he made the rounds of the house, checking every door, every window.

When he returned to their bedroom and slid underneath the covers, he put his arms around her and pulled her close.

“I’m scared,” she said.

“I won’t let anything happen to you.” He stroked her head until he felt her body relax.

He would have been able to sleep if he had only himself to think about. If the repercussions of his decisions only affected him. But he’d dragged the woman he loved more than anything in the world along with him.

And that was why, when the sun came up the next morning, he was still lying there thinking about it.





CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

“I want you to go home to Indiana for a while.” They were sitting at the breakfast table, both of them picking at their food. Phillip had put the task force on standby because early that morning, South Carolina Electric and Gas reported that one of their substations in North Charleston was having trouble accessing its systems, almost as if they’d been locked out of them. Between the intruder and the heightened risk of an impending blackout, Ian could think of no place he’d rather Kate be than with her family in Indiana. As soon as they dealt with the cyberattack, he would join her and they’d figure out what to do about the rest.

One problem at a time.

“Okay.” There were dark circles under her eyes.

He’d expected her to argue, to remind him again that this was her home, but the fact that she didn’t told him how scared she was, and if he had to guess, he would say the baby had changed everything. Kate was a fighter, but there was another person’s safety at stake, and the best way to protect their child was for her to remove herself from the source of the danger, even if that also meant removing herself from him. He would send her away, but how long could he expect her to stay hidden? And would Indiana be the next place they’d look?

His phone rang, and Kyle’s name showed on the display. “I’ve got that print,” he said when Ian answered the call.

“I’ll be right out.”

“Who was that?” Kate asked.

“Kyle. He knows someone who agreed to lift the fingerprints. I want to see what I can find online.”

“Won’t the police run them to see if there’s a match?”

“Yes, but they won’t be looking in the same places I’m looking.”



Kyle handed him the white card his friend had transferred the print onto with special tape.

“Thanks,” Ian said.

In his office, he scanned and uploaded the print, and when he ran it through the main database, it returned the name Ted Lawson. He used a query and response protocol and then set about writing a program specifically designed to cross-reference the IP information to the search criteria he specified, including the IP address associated with the hacking of their security system.