Chapter 93: Chapter 92: Triangulating the Enemy

The morning sun had barely cleared when Harrison called the meeting. The atmosphere inside his private office was filled with unspoken anger.

Marcus sat at the edge of his chair, his eyes bloodshot behind his glasses. He had spent the entire night staring at lines of data and street surveillance feeds, trying to fix the blind spot from the day before. On the opposite side of the room, Daniel stood by the window, his arms crossed tightly over his chest, his gaze fixed coldly on the assistant.

Julius sat quietly on the small sofa near the desk, watching the two men. He could feel the tension between them, a tension that had clearly grown worse overnight.

"I found the link," Marcus announced, breaking the silence as he tapped his fingers on his laptop. He looked up at Harrison, who was sitting behind his desk with a completely expressionless face. "I managed to hack into the traffic cameras surrounding the back alley of the lounge during the exact timeframe Julius was approached."

Harrison leaned forward. "What did you find?"

"A gray delivery van entered the alley ten minutes before Julius arrived and left through the north exit right after Julian vanished," Marcus explained, turning his laptop screen toward the boss. "The license plate is fake, but the vehicle identification number registered on the city transit system belongs to a holding company. That company is directly owned by Arthur."

Daniel let out a mocking scoff from his spot by the window. "So you managed to find a van after the threat already got away. Brilliant work, Marcus. If you had done this deep digging yesterday morning instead of playing with your basic files, Julius wouldn’t have been cornered."

Marcus’s face turned bright red, his jaw clenching tightly as he slammed his laptop screen halfway shut. "I am an assistant, Daniel, not a psychic! I track footprints. Arthur’s company used military-grade encryption to hide that vehicle’s registration. It took me nine hours to break the code!"

"Then speed up your fingers," Daniel snapped, stepping away from the window and walking right up to Marcus’s chair. "In my line of work, nine hours late means a body is already cold in the ground."

"That is enough! Both of you!"

The door to the office swung open, and Anna walked inside, her voice instantly cutting through the argument. Harrison had called her over early that morning, knowing they needed her knowledge and connections to evaluate the situation. She looked between Daniel and Marcus with a disapproving frown before taking a seat next to Julius on the sofa.

"The boss doesn’t have time to listen to your playground fights," Anna said, adjusting her bag on her lap. "We have a much bigger problem. Harrison, if what Julius described is true, this Julian isn’t just an ordinary rogue. The level of mental pressure Julius felt only comes from a true Enigma."

Harrison nodded slowly, his dark eyes fixed on the map Marcus had pulled up. "We already know that. The real question is why an Enigma is working with a broken alpha like Dean Logan and a runner like Arthur."

"They are forming an alliance," Julius spoke up, his voice steady as he looked around the room. "Logan has the local territory and the hidden club. Arthur has the remaining muscle and knowledge of the drive to ruin my family. And this Julian... he has the power to match Harrison. They are working together to find my father’s missing drive because they think it contains the keys to our entire distribution network."

"Let them think they are close to finding it," Harrison murmured, a slow, dangerous smile appearing on his lips. He looked at Marcus. "Can you create a believable duplicate of the drive’s security key?"

Marcus nodded quickly, glad to look away from Daniel. "Yes, Boss. I can inject a fake encrypted file into our old family server. To anyone tracking us, it will look like we finally recovered the location of the real drive and are trying to download the files securely."

"Good," Harrison commanded. "We will use a fake trail to bait them out. We choose the location, we set the perimeter, and we trap them the moment they try to intercept the download."

"I should be the one to hold the bait," Julius said immediately, standing up from the sofa.

Harrison’s head snapped up, his eyes narrowing instantly. "No. Absolutely not."

"Harrison, think about it logically," Julius argued, stepping closer to the desk. "Julian already approached me. He knows my name, and he knows my father owned the original files. If Marcus runs the fake download from a random server, they will know it’s a trap. But if the signature shows the download is happening through my personal tablet while I am away from the mansion, they will bite. They won’t be able to resist."

Harrison stood up from his chair, his massive frame instantly towering over the desk as his possessive aura flared up in protest. "I just got you back inside this house, Julius. I am not putting you on a silver platter for another Enigma to hunt."

"You won’t be losing me," Julius said softly, reaching out to place his hand over Harrison’s tightly clenched fist. "You will be right there in the shadows. Your entire security line will be covering me. We need to catch Arthur, and we need to know what Julian wants. This is the only way."

Harrison stared down at Julius’s hand, his chest rising and falling heavily. The internal battle between his protective instinct and his mind was tearing at him, but the determination in Julius’s eyes finally made him let out a long, reluctant breath.

"Daniel," Harrison barked, not breaking eye contact with Julius.

"Yes, Boss," Daniel responded.

"You will personally oversee the setup for this operation. If a single thing goes wrong, you pull Julius out. No exceptions."

"Understood, sir," Daniel said. 𝗳𝐫𝚎𝗲𝚠𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝘃𝚎𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝗺

Harrison waved his hand dismissively toward the door. "Marcus, go set up the fake signature. Daniel, check the armory lines. Leave us."

Marcus quickly gathered his laptop and papers, hurrying out of the office to escape the mood. Daniel followed close behind him, shutting the office door firmly as they stepped out into the quiet, dim hallway.

The moment the door clicked shut, Marcus let out a breath he had been holding, turning around too quickly to head toward the stairs. At the exact same time, Daniel stepped forward to check his security earpiece.

Because of the narrow space and their mutual distraction, they crashed right into each other.

Marcus stumbled backward, his foot catching on the edge of the hallway rug. His arms shook, his laptop slipping from his grip. Reflexively, Daniel lunged forward, his hands reaching out to catch Marcus by the waist to keep him from hitting the floor. Daniel’s momentum carried them both forward against the wall, his chest slamming flat against Marcus’s front, trapping the smaller man securely.

In the rush of the movement, Daniel’s face dipped down, his lips accidentally brushing hard against Marcus’s mouth in a sudden, clumsy collision.

Both men froze instantly.

The hallway went completely silent. Marcus’s eyes grew incredibly wide behind his glasses, his heart hammering wildly against his ribs as he felt the solid weight of Daniel’s body pinning him down. Daniel didn’t move for a long three seconds, his hands still gripping Marcus’s waist tightly, his dark eyes staring directly into the assistant’s flushed face.

Slowly, Daniel leaned in closer, his breath warm against Marcus’s cheek as he lowered his voice to a dark, quiet whisper.

"So... we are not gonna talk about that kiss, huh?"

Marcus’s entire face turned completely red, the heat rushing from his neck all the way to his ears. His throat locked up, making it impossible to form a single word. He didn’t respond. He simply shoved his hands against Daniel’s broad chest, pushing him away with all his remaining strength.

He snatched his laptop off the floor and scrambled down the hallway toward his tech room, his heart racing for a completely different reason.

Daniel stood alone in the corridor, a small, amused smile touching his lips as he watched Marcus run away.