Hard Love (Hacker #5)(76)
Author: Meredith Wild

“Carmody,” he answered abruptly.

“Hi, this is Erica Landon.”

He hesitated. “What can I do for you?”

“I found Trevor. He’s in the city. I want you to bring him in.”

“Where is he?”

I swallowed and glanced down at the paper in my hands. I held it tightly, like it was a precious thing. If Trevor was really there, and if the police could apprehend him, it truly was.

“Erica, are you still there?”

“Yes. I have the address in front of me. I just need you to promise me something first.”

“What?”

So much hung in the balance. We couldn’t mess this up. If Trevor caught on and disappeared again, I might never find him again. Not until it was too late . . .

“I have to know that you’re going to do this right, Carmody. I’m scared he’s going to slip away and I’ll never find him again.”

“If he’s there, I’ll bring him in.”

I wanted to trust him. He had the authority to take Trevor down, and he was my best and possibly only chance to achieve that. The fact that he’d gone out of his way to help me find Trevor made me trust him more than anyone else, but it also made me suspicious of his motivations for doing so.

“Why did you help me?”

He was silent for a long time. “Listen, it’s nothing to get sentimental about. I’m not on anyone’s side here but the truth. The way Evans was going with this, I knew we weren’t anywhere near it. Obviously he’s on a vendetta for the agency, and I had a feeling you could get us closer.”

I closed my eyes, grateful he’d done what he had. If he hadn’t . . . I couldn’t even think about it.

“Just promise me.”

He released a noisy breath. “Erica, if Trevor is wherever you say he is, and we can find evidence that points to him being behind this whole operation, I’m not going to let him out of my sight. You have my word.”

“Okay,” I finally relented. I rattled off the address, willing my heart to slow. I heard rustling on his end of the phone followed by silence.

“Are you going today?” I asked.

“I’m getting in my car right now.”

“Thank you.”

The phone clicked, and I waited.

* * *

BLAKE

“Today is your lucky day.”

I took a seat across from my attorney, wanting to smack the optimism off his face. Nothing was lucky about my current predicament. “I highly doubt that.”

“They found Trevor.”

I stilled. “How the hell did they manage that?”

Dean shot me a slanted smile. “Another anonymous tip. Between that and the code, I think Evans’s curiosity was piqued. Regardless, Carmody was the one who got the tip and brought him in. Wasn’t easy either. I guess he tried to run. He got banged up a little when Carmody took him down.”

“Wow. I can’t believe they really have him.”

They’d managed to catch a ghost. A shadow. But I couldn’t give them all the credit, or even the lion’s share of it. Erica had to have tipped them off.

Damn, how did she do it? First the code and now this. I couldn’t imagine anyone else could have pulled it all off so quickly. Anyone who underestimated my wife was a damn fool.

My face split with wide grin.

“Needless to say, he’s not cooperating,” Dean continued. “But it doesn’t really matter, because they found a mountain of incriminating evidence on his machines. Source code galore. For the voting machines, a bunch of your sites and Erica’s. It’s all there and more. They’re still wading through it all now.”

“I guess that means I’m off the hook now.”

“For the election tampering, yes. But they don’t want to budge on the fraud charges with Parker unless you deal.”

“Deal?”

“They want your cooperation to help prosecute Cooper. They want a full statement and any supporting evidence you can provide about his activities with your business. And they may want you to testify.”

“Fuck,” I muttered. I could handle the statement and providing evidence, but I didn’t want to face that little prick in court. Something about it felt beneath me.

“We’ve come this far, Blake. You should count your lucky stars that we have, and not without risk. God knows what Erica had to do to track down that code, and Trevor. If you don’t do this . . .”

He dropped his pen and pinched the bridge of his nose. He didn’t have to say it. If I didn’t do this, I was a self-destructive, self-absorbed idiot.

“What are they offering?”