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don’t think you understand. My brother knows I’m the only one who can break into the admin system. He may not come to the conclusion immediately, but he’s going to be suspicious. Especially since he’s been trying to keep tabs on me since I quit.”
    “How do you know he’s been tracking you?”
    “He’s been calling Lucy to find out when she talks to me. He tried to get my phone number from her, but she respected my wish not to talk to Duke while I’m working here. I have a trace on my RCK computer in D.C. He’s been pinging it to see if I’ve been logging in remotely and bypassing his servers. And then—”
    Noah put up his hand. “I get it. He wants to know what you’re up to. There’s nothing we can do about it now without reading him in, and Stockton wants to hold off as long as possible. You said yourself you think it’s all going down on Thursday.”
    “It’s only going to end if we have the evidence against Paxton.”
    “It’s going to end when I say it ends.”
    Sean stared at Noah. They weren’t friends, but they weren’t enemies.
    Noah said, “Why do you think your buddy set you up? Maybe he really didn’t know.”
    “Evan is not my buddy,” Sean said.
    “You’re supposed to be on the same team, aren’t you? Working for Thayer?”
    Sean conceded that point. “Evan knew. He denied it, but he knew. It was a test—to see if I would reveal RCK trade secrets as well as embarrass RCK. If it gets out that one of RCK’s key security people has gone to the dark side, it will destroy everything Duke has worked for.”
    “Just Duke? What about you?”
    “Corporate security is all my brother. It’s his division.”
    “I’m sorry.” He didn’t sound sorry.
    “Duke’s not stupid, Noah. Eventually, he’s going to figure out I’m working for Colton. He’ll interfere, thinking he’s protecting me.”
    “Let’s hope it’s after we’re finished.”
    Sean had never pegged Noah as a wait-and-see guy, but even he knew they were in so deep there was no pulling out. It was more his tone that irritated Sean. After everything that happened this past month, now Noah copped his authoritarian nature?
    “What’s your problem?” Sean asked.
    “I don’t have a problem.” Noah was focused on the spreadsheet in front of him.
    Sean grabbed it, and Noah clasped his hand around Sean’s wrist.
    “Let go,” Sean said.
    “Drop it.”
    They stared at each other a moment. Sean let go of the spreadsheet, now wrinkled, and Noah let go of his hand simultaneously.
    “You haven’t liked me from the minute we met,” Sean said. “Though you never told me, I assumed it had something to do with one of my brothers, because we’d never crossed paths before.”
    “You’ve always known I’ve had issues with RCK and the gray areas you play in.”
    Sean shook his head. “This was personal.”
    Noah smiled, but his pale blue eyes turned icy. He sat back in his chair and sipped his beer. “You want to play shrink now.”
    Sean said seriously, “I want to live.” He leaned forward. “What scares me is that you are the only one in a position to protect my ass and sometimes I get the feeling you want to take me out yourself.”
    Noah didn’t blink. “The past isn’t important, Sean.”
    “Don’t lie to yourself. The past is always important. Do you think I’d be here now if it weren’t?”
    Noah said, “You’re here now to earn your get-out-of-jail-free card.”
    Noah didn’t even try to keep the contempt out of his voice.
    Sean abruptly pushed back from the table and stood. His chair fell backwards. “You really don’t know me, Special Agent Armstrong.”
    Sean left the apartment. Why had he let Noah get inside his head like that?
    He needed to talk to Lucy, but it wasn’t safe to do so. But he couldn’t go up to his too-small, too-claustrophobic apartment where he’d just think about the past. The good, the bad, and the very, very ugly.
    He left the building to clear his head but feared