“They need you, too. Both as a male role model and for the investigation that I interrupted.” Gently, she tapped her toe against his laptop. “What did you find while I was becoming a mermaid up there?”

He shifted again, even more grateful that his laptop covered him so well. “I found the parent shell corporation.”

She beamed at him. “I knew you would.” Sliding back to sit up straighter, she pulled her feet from his grasp. “Tell me.”

Feeling brave, he patted the cushion closest to him. “Come and see.”

She studied him for a long moment, then scooted over until their hips almost touched. “Show me, then.”

He filled his head with her scent, then focused on his screen, which displayed the end of his search. “I had to dig.” Which was a gross understatement. “Whoever put this setup together did not want to be found out. I still don’t know who or where the true owner is. There are too many layers and proxies.” He glanced over at her, to find her staring at his screen. “You know what a proxy is?”

“I do. They’re servers that connect other servers, usually to keep the users’ identity hidden. My brother Greg was doing a little extracurricular work on his computer a few years back. Managed to hack into the school’s e-mail system.”

Diesel knew about this. He also knew that Greg was a much better hacker than he’d been a few years ago. Because Diesel had taught the kid himself, at Greg’s request. Greg had heard about Diesel’s hacking from his older brother, Deacon, and had approached Diesel independently. It was why Diesel had learned sign language. Not that Dani needed to know that right now. He had the feeling that she wouldn’t be too happy to know her brother had such mad skills.

Diesel knew that Greg had managed to hack into his school’s e-mail system and sent a message, supposedly from the school nurse, that a student in their classes was HIV positive. The kid in question was not, but that kid had been the one to expose Dani’s status. By spreading the word that the other boy was also positive, Greg had hoped to discredit any information the boy spread about his sister.