Chapter 51 The Hidden Ghost
Jess POV
I watched from the shadows of the upper hallway while Grayson marched toward the garage, and I could tell by the way he was slamming his boots against the floor that he was barely holding his wolf back from a total rampage.
The news of the bakery fire had spread through the clubhouse like a leak in a gas line, but while everyone else was busy worrying about Aria’s feelings or the next move by the Iron Fangs, I saw it as the perfect opportunity to finally finish what I had started weeks ago.
I waited until the hallway was completely clear and the guards were distracted by the shift change near the main entrance, then I slipped into the small guest room where Aria and her grandmother had been staying since they arrived.
The room smelled like lavender and that cheap floral perfume the old woman always wore, which made my skin crawl because it felt too domestic for a place that was supposed to be a fortress for warriors.
I didn't have much time before someone noticed I was missing from the common area, so I moved quickly toward the small desk in the corner where Aria kept her old, battered laptop that she used for checking her shift schedules and her bank accounts.
It was a piece of junk with a cracked hinge and a screen that was covered in fingerprints, but it was exactly what I needed to make sure she never felt comfortable in this house again.
I pulled a small black thumb drive from my pocket and felt a rush of adrenaline hit my chest, because the files on this drive were enough to make Grayson doubt his own shadow if he ever saw them.
I had spent the last three nights working with a contact from the Syndicate who was more than happy to help me frame the human girl, and together we had created a trail of fake emails and encrypted bank transfers that made it look like Aria had been selling pack secrets to the Iron Fangs for months.
I plugged the drive into the side of the laptop and watched the little blue light flicker as the data began to transfer, and I couldn't help but grin to myself as I thought about the look on Grayson’s face when he realized his little "healer" was actually the one who had tipped off the bikers about the clubhouse’s weak points.
"Just a little gift for when the dust settles, Aria," I whispered to the empty room, while I watched the progress bar on the screen crawl toward a hundred percent.
I heard a floorboard creak in the hallway and I froze, my hand hovering over the keyboard while I listened for the sound of someone approaching the door. It was just one of the younger wolves, a kid named Leo who was probably headed to the kitchen for a late-night snack, but the sound was enough to remind me that I was playing a very dangerous game.
I waited until his footsteps faded away toward the stairs, and then I finished the upload and carefully wiped the drive's history so there would be no trace of my interaction with the operating system.
I was just about to pull the drive out when the door swung open, and I felt my heart skip a beat as Martha walked in with a stack of fresh towels and a worried expression on her face.
She stopped when she saw me standing by the desk, and she narrowed her eyes as she took in my hunched posture and the way I was trying to hide the laptop with my body.
"What are you doing in here, Jess? This isn't your room and I don't think Aria invited you in here to mess with her things," Martha said, her voice sounding sharp and suspicious as she stepped further into the room and set the towels down on the bed.
"I was just looking for a pen, Martha, because Grayson told me to update the inventory logs for the ammunition and I couldn't find one in the main office," I lied, and I made sure to keep my tone casual even though I felt like I was about to sweat through my shirt. I surreptitiously pocketed the thumb drive and stepped away from the desk, trying to look like I was just bored and frustrated with my chores.
"I thought Aria might have one since she’s always writing down those herb recipes for Nana, but I guess I’ll just go check the kitchen instead if it’s such a big deal."
"You know the rules about privacy in this house, especially now that everyone is on edge because of the fire," Martha replied, but she didn't seem to have noticed the laptop screen before it went into sleep mode. She walked over to the window and pulled the curtains shut, then she looked at me with a tired sigh that made me realize she was too exhausted to actually push the issue.
"Just get out of here and go help Jax with the garage door, because he’s been complaining that the sensors are acting up again and we can't afford a malfunction tonight."
"Sure thing, Martha, I didn't mean to cause any trouble," I said, and I hurried past her into the hallway while I felt the weight of the drive in my pocket like a winning lottery ticket.
I walked down the stairs and felt a sense of power that I hadn't felt since before Grayson took over the pack, because I was finally the one holding all the cards in this game.
Everyone was so focused on the physical war with the Iron Fangs that they were completely blind to the rot that I was planting inside their own walls, and I knew that once Grayson found those files, he would be too blinded by rage to even ask if they were real.
He would see the evidence of betrayal and he would cast Aria out, or maybe even worse, and then I would be right there to step back into my place as his most trusted advisor while he mourned the loss of another woman he couldn't protect.
I reached the garage and saw Grayson and Aria talking near the bikes, and for a second I felt a flicker of annoyance as I saw the way he was looking at her, but then I remembered the ghost I had just left on her hard drive and the annoyance turned into a cold, satisfied hum in my blood. I walked over to the workbench and started pretending to organize the tools, and as I watched them from the corner of my eye, I knew that the fire at the bakery was only the beginning of the destruction that was coming for Aria.