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He sat for the longest tied to fall asleep His dreams were filled with visions of Hannah and her teary eyes

It seemed like an instant later when he felt his phone vibrate, and came awake There was a horrible pain in his neck He’d slept at an odd angle, but he hadn’t been able toto listen to Hannah’s cries of pleasure He wouldn’t have been able to handle her tears

The phone chirped again It was, as always, close to him, tucked into the pocket of his pants

Work was the only place where he hadn’t heinously fucked up, and he h, he pulled out the device to find a text He looked at the clock It was alht flooded the room, and Gavin wished he’d closed the curtains

He could s somewhere in the kitchen

When he pulled up the text, he didn’t recognize the nu, Mr Hot Shot You can’t bury it If you don’t let Hannah go, I’ll release all the docuirlfriend’s death and take you down

Gavin stared at the words, reading theest time, he stood and walked toward his study He didn’t need coffee He needed a lot of oing to catch up with hiet his hands on her He would never give up her future to protect his past

He loved her, and she’d never kno ly sacrificed everything for her

Chapter Eight

Slade walked into Black Oak Oil’s Alaska offices feeling like a newa bit of sugar into her coffee He’d kissed her forehead and told her he’d be back soon It had been the perfect picture of inti ways for the day

Of course, Dex had kissed her, too Maybe not totally conventional, but it worked for Slade

"Do you want to kill Ward, or do I get the honors?" Dex asked

He smiled at the threat from his hotheaded brother Slade could always count on Dex to offer up a good, old-fashioned ass kicking to anyone who deserved it "How about we figure out if he’s the one who’s been stalking Hannah before we bury hihed in disappointical" The site office was s compared to the corporate offices The place was utilitarian hite walls and concrete floors Somehow, Slade felt more at home here than he ever did at corporate He loved fieldwork and had been behind a desk far too long He preferred roughnecks and spending time on platforms He felt perfectly comfortable with the employees at River Run, but it was obvious, even from a distance, that Preston Ward III didn’t feel the sah the s It orse than nails on a chalkboard

Dex’s eyes rolled "Be sure to call e yourto get an update fro of my own"

Slade nodded He would handle Preston better than Dex, and they had both agreed it was past ti at Gavin

After Dex walked toward the roup of IT

cubicles Preston Ward stood in the ruous in his thousand dollar suit, staring down his Harvard nose at the squatty man with the mop of black hair and a face that proudly proclaie Ben Kunayak ran this place He was shorter than Preston, but given the ht seriously about just stepping back and letting Ben do their dirty work, but then he wouldn’t get the necessary infor men had joined Preston froht he recognized the thin, sad-looking, brown-haired man as Lyle Franklin, the head of the help desk Lyle stood with Preston, but the other twenty-so man, a pencil pusher dressed in a checked shirt with pale hair and fingers flying over his keyboard, sat behind his laptop Crap, Scott Kirkwood The little punk who’d tried to have an "ih, Slade let his presence be known

"Slade, thank god you’re here You need to fire this man this instant" Preston pointed at Ben "He’s rude to his superiors and obviously has no understanding of Black Oak protocol or regulations I believe the raphy"

That’s what had Preston’s panties in a twist? Slade snorted Of course These were a group of roughnecks in a city where men outnuh to co online porn

"This eers tapped against Ben’s desk in a rapid, irritating accusation "In fact, he’s all but defended the practice"

"I’ve found at least fourhistories" Lyle Franklin had a thin face and obviously believed in sunscreen "I don’t think bugs caught from porn sites are the actual reason for our shutdown, but they could certainly cause problems in the future It shouldn’t be allowed"

So now the corporate IT departe to fire all three of the off whatever access this stalker had to Hannah But that wasn’t going to o away, and Slade wanted to nail this bastard for good

"If Internet porn isn’t the problem now, let’s focus on what is" Slade turned to the IT

executive "Preston, I’ht not trust any of them with Hannah, but he knew fro code and keeping a system safe They’d do their jobs And if either of them was Hannah’s stalker, they’d want to do whatever necessary to maintain professional ties to her