Knots (Club Imperial Book 4) by Katherine Rhodes Read Free Book Online Page B

Don't you EVER touch my phone again.
    He shoved the phone in his pocket. Well, that was a very effective way to kill his libido—risk his licensure. He couldn't believe she had swiped his phone and paged through it and changed the display names. What else had she done in the phone?
    He pushed out of the stall and into the lounge just as the door opened to the room to admit someone. For just a moment he was terrified it might be Cece, but when he looked, he let out a breath of relief. It was Everett Milhouse. He nodded at him and Everett nodded back, but Killian hurried out, way too pissed that Diane had tampered with this phone. He paged through it, trying to see what else she had done and had a horrifying thought:
    What if she had put a tracker or a keylogger on it?
    Jesus shit, what if she had?
    He leaned against the wall. Oh, God. He'd been good with deleting the messages, but who knew how many times Diane had grabbed the phone and looked at it or played with it. If the tracker had been on there for more than a month, she would know exactly where...
    Shit, shit. He tried to remain as calm as possible, but moved back to the desk he had been using as fast as he could. He shut down the computer and packed everything up, and ran back to Cece's office. He knocked and put a hand on the knob. He was going to shove in, but that was what had started the whole mess. He knocked again and this time he heard call.
    “Come in.”
    He opened the door and Cece was seated at her desk. She saw him and instantly went bright red. “Killian--”
    “I need to go.” His words were quick, and he cut her off—rude, but there was no time to explain. “Can you lock this stuff up for me?”
    “Uh, sure.” She opened the cabinet. “Killian, I wanted to--”
    “It's fine. Don't worry about it.” He dropped the binders and files into the drawer. “I have to get going. This is really critical. Will you be here on Friday afternoon?”
    “Yes...” Her voice was quiet and curious.
    “Thank you.” With a nod, he was out the door before she could ask another question. He was in the car less than five minutes later and shut the phone off. Killian couldn't take the chance that Diane had a tracker on it. He drove across the city, over the Monongahela, past Mt. Washington, and another ten miles out beyond that.
    The treelined drive he turned down disappeared into thicker woods, then came to a large circular drive. Killian pulled as close to the main house as he could, and shut the car off. He marched up the porch stairs and had to push back all the memories of the first time he had approached this door. He knocked: two sharp, pause, one sharp, pause, and three short quick raps.
    It was only a moment before the door swung open and Killian was surprised. Darien himself had answered the door.
    “Killian.” Darien was all business all the time.
    “Darien.” He nodded sharply. “We may have a problem. May I come in?”
    Darien stepped out of the door. Killian walked in and Darien motioned him to the den.
    “You're not here until next week. So this must be serious.”
    Killian held up the phone. “I think I've been compromised.” He took a deep breath. “I think the house might be compromised.”
    Darien's eyes flared--and at one time, that would have scared the shit out of Killian. Now, he faced Darien as an equal. “What do you mean.” There was no question. He demanded an explanation.
    “I'll go in order of how this happened. Starting with Diane texting me a picture of her breasts.”
    Darian leaned against the desk. “And you've told her not to do that.”
    “Repeatedly, of course,” Killian confirmed. “And then I realized that her name in my phone had changed. She had been in the phone to change her label to Diane-pookie.”
    “Ah,” he said. “HIPAA.”
    Killian paced a little in front of the couch. “I don't know how long it's been there. as I desperately try to not communicate with her. She must’ve swiped the phone at some