The problem was, this ‘future’ was really his present. Leah, the girl he had loved for years, lay with a chest wound and a shattered life in a hospital bed. If she ended up with a criminal record—which seemed a given, in this situation—she would never be allowed to live in the United States. By inviting her to join the Forum with the hope of fanning an old flame, he had actually instigated the circumstance that would now keep them apart.

Why hadn’t he stopped Leah from doing this stupid break-in? Everything had gone wrong. Aiden had abandoned her—the fucking coward—and Harry Owen had shot her point-blank. Another fucking coward.

They wouldn’t get away with it.

“Is this the hotel?” Joey grabbed his arm.

Matt had almost walked past it, so caught up he had been in his own thoughts. “Yeah. This is it.”

It was a nice boutique business-class hotel. The bar was busy on a Friday night, with well-groomed patrons clustering around the tables. He and Joey sidestepped the main desk and stepped into an elevator that had opened its door as they stopped in front of it. Matt punched the button to his floor. The room was on an executive floor. Being a talented and highly paid computer consultant had its privileges.

Including a spacious suite. “We can work over here.” Matt said, as they entered the room, pointing to a dark leather sofa. “Do you want anything to drink?”

Joey shook his head. “I need to call my parents.”

“Good idea.” Matt sank onto the sofa and opened Leah’s laptop. For a fleeting second, he fought the temptation to read her text messages to Aiden—did she sign them the way she used to sign them to him?—but then pushed the thought from his mind. No good ever came from that kind of snooping.

He began skimming Leah’s laptop, only half-listening to Joey’s phone conversation.

Jesus.

Harry’s downloaded files revealed a mother lode of classified data that he could not believe had been kept on his personal laptop.

But then he could believe it. Because if it was one thing he had learned, it was that arrogance led people to do some pretty dumbass things. It was always the people who believed they were above the rules who broke them. This was especially true with cyber hacking. It was crazy how many people who held the keys to the information kingdom left the door unlocked.

And what a kingdom Harry Owen’s files proved to be.

Hundreds of classified files that had nothing to do with the data breach filled Leah’s laptop screen.

Which meant…

That Aiden must have added the code to download those files without Leah’s knowledge.

Which meant that Aiden had had an ulterior motive that had nothing to do with doxxing Harry.

And everything to do with the Dark Web.