Beloved Predator (Beloved Series #2)

Seven

Ari

At the sound of his phone buzzing, Patrick bolted upright in bed.  He stared at the screen for a few seconds and exhaled slowly before tossing it on the floor and laying back down.

"Sarah made it to St. Petersburg," he mumbled, as he buried his nose in my hair and wrapped his arm around my waist.

I nodded and rested my hand on his arm.  It had only been three days since Sarah left, but the smallest seed of hope had taken root.  I knew there was still a very long road ahead.  Luring him stateside and into a situation where he could be apprehended would be no easy feat, but I firmly believed Sarah would be one of the few who could do it.

We dozed for a little while longer and then got up to get ready to meet Petey at the new office.  I turned on the video chat on my phone so Nat could see the progress as we walked through.  The walls and floors were done, and the cubicle walls and office furniture had been delivered and were scheduled for installation in the coming weeks.  It was smaller than the office in Toronto, but we were all excited to move in once it was completed.

Afterward we went to lunch at a Thai place down the street.  It was nice to catch up with Petey and talk about how much he and Nat were looking forward to Amara's birth.  We'd helped paint and assemble furniture for the nursery, which looked amazing in the pictures he showed us now that it was complete.  There was still a little over a month until their due date, but it was obvious how much they both hoped the time would hurry up and pass.

"Feel like committing some cybercrimes?" I joked as we walked up the stairs when we arrived home.

He shook his head and laughed.  "I'm probably going to regret asking, but what are you up to?"

"I need to login to Jana and find out what the hell is on there that has Danvers so desperate to get it back."

"What do you think it is?"

I shrugged.  "No idea, but it must be pretty damn important for him to be willing to put me under surveillance to find it."

I'd brought the laptop from Key West back with us, which I brought out to the dining room table and powered on.  Before we began, however, I remembered my promise to do some digging for Sarah.  After posting a video and a quick message on what looked like a random user forum, I looked over to find Patrick with his eyebrows furrowed. 

"Favor for Sarah," I explained.  "Told her I'd look for something for her, and I need a friend of mine to help me."

"What did she need you to find?"

"More like someone.  Kind of hard to explain."

"Gotcha.  So how hard do you think it will be to look through the files that were grabbed?"

I shrugged.  "We'll have to see.  He's smart, but I know how he thinks.  Having said that, it's also been eleven years.  Lord only knows what new tricks he has up his sleeve.  First thing I need to do is turn the triggers off so it doesn't intercept anything else."

He nodded.  I continued to type until a large window opened that showed the system settings.  I was prompted to enter a password and a few moments later the window was live.  I scanned through the information on the page.  An alert icon displayed in red in the center of the screen.  I clicked on it and skimmed through the information on the next screen.

Patrick read through the list.  "What's all that?"

I pointed to the red star icon next to certain lines in the list.  "Someone tried to get into the system."