Page 71 of Cold Silence
“I’ll see you later.” Claire stepped away. The moment her stalker and their thief was behind bars, she would have a long sit down with her team and explain her anxious behavior of late.
She gave the phone to Eryn who immediately tapped the screen.
Claire sat in her chair. “How long before we might know anything?”
“Minutes.” Eryn kept her attention on the phone.
The others watched her, including Claire. The time ticking slowly by. Second by second. One minute. Two. Three. Five.
“Yes.” Eryn shot up a fist. “We’ve got him. Time to call in the police.”
“You have concrete proof?” Travis asked.
She nodded. “His phone was used to retrieve the pictures and videos from the server here.”
Claire was glad to have this resolved. Extremely glad. Sure she was, but… “Why didn’t our network administrator see the outside access?”
“Your team is employing a VPN—virtual private network—usually safe and masks the network for outsiders, but Robb hacked it. He pulled the photos and videos once a week and was moving decent-sized packets of data at a time so it should’ve triggered alerts unless he hacked those too. I can figure that out, but we’ve got enough on him for an arrest and I’d like to move on to White.”
“We need to consult with the colonel in charge here before calling the police,” Gage said.
Eryn looked at him. “If you’re okay with Jackson and Coop babysitting Robb a little longer, I’ll follow that trail to Warren White, and you can talk to the colonel about both of them to save time.”
“Works for me,” Gage said.
“I work faster without an audience.” She waved over her head. “Go do something, and I’ll call the minute I have him.”
Claire stood. “We can finish the simulations.”
“Another chance to skunk Gage?” Travis pushed off the corner of the desk. “I’m all for that.”
Gage rolled his eyes. “In your dreams.”
In the hallway, Travis looked at her. “You two go ahead. I need to have a word with Robb.”
“Hands off.” Gage arched an eyebrow. “Youandmy guys. Tell them that. We don’t want the arrest to go south.”
“No worries,” Travis called back at them but kept walking.
She stared after him. “What’s that all about?”
“Robb will likely get bail, so Travis’s going to read him the riot act. Tell him to keep away from you.”
“And you think Travis might attack him?” She started down the hallway.
Gage stepped beside her. “Attack? No. Place a few meaningful punches to get his message across? Yes. But he’s not going to do that and neither are my guys.”
“But they would have if you hadn’t warned Travis?”
“Operators have each other’s backs. You hurt someone one of us cares about, you hurt all of us. And if one of us is in need we’re there. No questions asked.”
“The same way you came here for Travis,” she said.
“Yeah, like that, but I did ask a few questions first.” He laughed. “Still, whether I liked G-man’s answers or not, I would’ve been here.”
She got that part. The good part. Her dad had a similar code. But the ugly part? Threatening and maybe beating someone up for her. That was well out of her normal world. She sure couldn’t imagine her dad having done that, but she suspected he would have if called upon.
She wouldn’t condone such behavior, but she did like seeing how the guys cared for each other. Even more proof that their team was their family. Something Travis had mentioned a few times even though he had a loving birth family too. Another example of why he would never leave the team to be with her. No, if she wanted to follow these feelings for him, she would have to leave her project behind and move.
