Hard Love (Hacker 5)

Blake folded his arms across his chest. “You’re going to need more than that to bring me in.”

“And chances are we’ll find it. We have a search warrant for your office downtown. They’re confiscating your machines this morning.”

“What the—” Blake took a menacing step toward Evans.

Evans brought his hand under his blazer to where his firearm was holstered. I moved quickly, standing between the two men.

“Blake, please. Let’s just go talk to them and clear this up.”

I rested my hand on Blake’s chest. His heart thundered under my touch. An intense energy rolled off him.

Evans sidestepped us and moved toward the door. “Let’s do this the easy way. It’s just questions. Let’s get on with it.”

* * *

ERICA

I waited for a long time in the interrogation room, staring down at the cold brushed metal of the table. I was cold too. From my fingers down to my toes, but that wasn’t why I felt so numb. The initial panic had worn off on the drive into the city, and now a fog had settled over my thoughts, making everything slow and surreal. How could this be happening?

A sick feeling brewed in me. If the feds linked Blake to the voting fraud . . . I couldn’t even fathom it. This wasn’t a brush with the law like when he had pummeled the hell out of Max. He could be facing real time behind bars, for something he didn’t do. My head fell into my hands.

The door opened, and through it walked Detective Carmody, a man whose face I wished I didn’t know. He closed the door, shutting out the noisy office outside. He wasn’t striking, but he wasn’t a bad-looking man either. His eyes were tired.

He folded his thin frame into the chair across from me. “Erica. We meet again.”

The first time we’d spoken, he’d asked about Mark’s death. The case was closed now, but he was one of the first people to learn that I was Daniel’s illegitimate daughter—a fact I’d failed to volunteer at the time. He already knew far more about me than I wanted him to.

“You know why we’re here?”

“Blake didn’t do this.” As I said it, I was willing it to be true. I knew Blake. He wouldn’t do this to me.

Carmody responded with an almost sympathetic smile. “How can you know that?”

“I just know. He’d never do anything to hurt me, and ruining Daniel’s chances of winning would hurt me.”

“By that measure, ensuring that Daniel won the race would be doing a service to you.”

“It was obviously rigged. How does that serve anyone?”

Carmody sat back in his chair and paused. “How well do you know your husband, Erica?”

“A lot better than you do.”

He nodded, a ghost of smile on his lips. “He has a past, you know.”

“Are you saying that you’re singling him out because of something he did when he was a kid?”

He leaned in. “Has Landon ever spoken to you about accessing information illegally?”

Before I could tell him to shove it, a middle-aged man pushed open the door and strode into the room. His nearly black hair was slicked back neatly and matched a simple black suit. His skin was pale, almost translucent, in stark contrast to his suit and hair. He regarded me with an impassive look before shifting his focus to Carmody.

“I’m Dean Gove, Blake’s attorney. You were supposed to wait until I arrived to question her.”

“We were just chatting,” Carmody replied, his tone matter-of-fact. He rose. “I’m Detective Carmody.”

The two men shook hands.

Gove frowned. “You’re with the Boston police? I understood this was an FBI matter.”

“There seems to be some question as to whose jurisdiction this falls under. Clearly state laws have been broken, so for now, we’re all looking for answers.”

So much for presenting a united front. I could only hope that any rift between his department and Evans worked in our favor.

Not bothering with introductions beyond a brief nod, Gove sat down beside me and pulled out a notebook and an expensive-looking pen. “All right. Tell us why we’re here.”

Carmody kept his attention on me.

“Let’s start with Daniel Fitzgerald’s campaign. His campaign manager confirmed that you were involved intermittently over the past several months. Is that correct?”

That sick feeling swept over me again. Goddamn Daniel. “Yes, that’s true.”

“Can you elaborate on that?”

“I’ve been running my own startup, so I didn’t really have time to invest all my efforts into his campaign when he asked me to. I agreed to consult as needed with his marketing team to increase his social reach.”