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But Slade’s money was on Preston

“Already done, sir,” said Scott “It’s weird I isolated this virus It’s nasty, but I can fix it in a couple of hours”

“Excellent” The sooner Scott fixed the problem, the sooner Slade could ship the corporate men back to Dallas Until then, he had to watch these three like hawks Once they left Alaska, Slade could breathe a sigh of relief, let Burke and Cole do what they did best, and focus on Hannah

“We’ll have things up and running in no time,” Scott assured

“Go uy scurried off to work Ben and Lyle took the hint and followed Soon, the trio looked deeply entrenched in their computers

Slade nudged Preston into an adjacent room “Let’s talk, Preston”

“Lyle and Scott are very good at their jobs They’ll fix thefrom that native idiot’s lax adherence to policy”

God, Preston just didn’t knohen to shut up “Glad to hear it But that’s not what I want to talk about I’eratulations I had no idea you were seeing anyone

What is the lucky young lady’s name?”

“I believe you know her Hannah Craig”

Preston’s s Gavin’s secretary?” Slade took a step in and lowered his voice “I am Would you like to explain why you molested my fiancée?”

Preston sed once and then again “I didn’t ”

“It doesn’t sound like nothing toher new, unlisted phone nuainst you while calling her ‘baby’”

He had the good sense to look sheepish “She’s a cute thing I guess…I nals”

“I can assure you, if you were reading Hannah’s signals, she wasn’t giving you any green lights”

Preston held up his hands in defeat “Since my wife and I separated recently, I haven’t beenplace I didn’t hurt her And she broke my toe”

“I will break way et back to Dallas, we’re going to have a long discussion about your employment with this company”

“Goddairl was dating the boss’s brother”

“So that ame?”

“I thought shewith all three of you I figured that if she orking her way through the executives, why couldn’t I have a turn?” Before the last as out of Preston’s ed executive’s ruddy face with a satisfying thud Preston hit the ground and i A thick line of blood dripped from his nose

Slade crouched down and got in the man’s face He was pleased with the fear in the other man’s eyes “You’re fired I want you on the first plane back to Dallas Your secretary can clean out your office If I catch you on Black Oak property again, I will have you arrested If I see you near our fiancée again, I will have you killed No one will ever find your body Is that understood?”

Preston hobbled back with a nod, and Slade had to wonder if this coould climb a tree to take pictures of a woman It didn’t seem like his speed, but Slade wasn’t about to underestimate anyone’s desire for Hannah He knew firsthand how it burned, how itdidn’t add up perfectly, Slade still didn’t want the bastard anywhere near his woman

He heard footsteps behind hier brother stared at Preston, himpered and tried to cover his face

“Punching hiood?” Dex nodded with malice at the other man

Slade s”

“Perfect I’ll let the receptionist know to book hie and to make sure his ass travels in coach” Dex started to walk away, then stopped short “Oh, and I caet you We have a conference call with the Lenox brothers in five h the door, then knelt to help his former boss to his feet Lyle pulled Preston up, and the rolled-back cuffs of his shirt sleeves slipped up, revealing wiry arms covered in scratch marks Slade suppressed a smile The quiet ones always had the freaky sex lives He wondered ould have scratched the hell out of a twerp like him

Slade turned toward the door, but before he could leave, Scott, the blond tech who had supposedly identified the problem, stopped him “Sir Can I talk to you privately?” Slade hesitated then opened the door to a small conference room “What is it?” If Scott said a word to him about Hannah, Slade swore he’d lay the prick out flat, too

“It’s about the bug, sir Like I said, it’s a nasty virus, but fairly common Mr Ward thinks it’s Internet security issues from the porn, but it’s not It looks like so directly on to the system Someone who had access to our softanted this system to fail and at a very precise time”

Slade felt his body go cold Then he paused Believe Scott or not? Too early to tell He needed more information “When was it uploaded?”

“I don’t have a fir crashed the system around eleven am

yesterday”

Right around the time the corporate jet took off with Hannah, himself, and his brothers, on their way to Alaska Lyle had seen Dex carry Hannah out the door Since the guy was still hovering protectively around his foruess that Lyle was Preston’s bitch

He would have told Mr Harvard that Hannah had been whisked away Ironic how perfectly tih to write the code to crash a system