Chapter 57

**Artemis**


Blue packs our stuff frantically and I contact the staff to ask for them to call us a car. Thankfully I told our pilot to stay in town and he can have the jet going in an hour. I can’t believe Alan and Abigail didn’t tell me what was going on, and they haven’t been answering my calls. They will have a lot of explaining to do when I get back home. After I get off the phone with the concierge I spot the welcome baskets sitting on the counter and grab them. When I walk into the bedroom Blue is coming out of the bathroom wearing a pair of jeans and a thin T-shirt that is hanging off one of her shoulders. Her short hair is half pulled back and I spot her wearing a pair of high top converse.

She is so far from the kind of woman I expected to spend my life with but I’m glad I picked her. I can only imagine the sort of torture I would have had to endure if I married a spoiled rich socialite. That would have been hell.

“Here pack these too.” I set the basket down on the bed.

She looks at it and laughs. “Seriously? I have plenty of soap back home.”

“I like these ones.” I tell her and walk out of the room.

I check my phone again for any messages from Abigail, but still nothing. Even with the notifications turned on I keep thinking I’ll miss something from her. I tried to call my father as well, but it didn’t surprise me that he didn’t answer. He’s probably doing everything he can to break my company down piece by piece, but he won’t get far. I have safeguards set up for this very thing.

Shit!

I pull my hone out again and call a new number.

“Ace?” A female voice says on the other line.

“It’s me.” I say and there is a sigh of relief.

“I was wondering when we would hear from you Mr. Rhodes.” Abagail says sounding relieved.

“Just a moment of forgetfulness. What’s going on?”

“A lot, but everything was transferred to your personal server and whipped from the company hard drives.” She reports.

“Good. Is Alan with you?”

“No sir. He’s started the second phase.”

“Good. Keep me updated. We’ve been expecting this to happen, so do as we discussed and hopefully everything goes as planned. Blue and I are leaving tonight, so meet us at the backup location.”

“Of course, sir. Be careful, your father is on the warpath.”

“You too.” I end the call and glance around to see if we have forgotten anything.

There’s a knock at the door and I walk over to open it. “Alan? What are you doing here?”

My friend pushes his way into the room and I notice he’s looking more disheveled than usual.

“How did you get here so fast?” I ask him.

“I got a ride with our special clients.” He says giving me a look.

“They know something?”

“They saw someone trying to access their servers. Someone from our company. I explained to them that your father has made a scene about taking over and probably saw the encrypted files. Of course, our program caught it before they could break in. They want us to come in for a visit.”

“I can’t right now. I need to get Blue home.”

Alan shakes his head. “No time brother. This is more than a corporate takeover. It’s much worse.”

“What do you mean?”

“Okay I’m ready! Oh, Alan. What are you doing here?” Blue asks as she walks over to us.

“I’m here to give you guys a ride.” He says trying to give her one of his easy smiles, but my wife sees more than others.

She looks at me and then Alan again. “What’s going on?”

Alan looks at me and I shrug. She’s my wife now and I don’t want to keep things from her.

“Our special client that we were working on the software for picked up someone from our company trying to reach their servers. They want us to come in, so I won’t be able to take you home first.”

“That’s okay. This is more important.” She says not looking the least bit upset.

Alan gives me an impressed look and I smirk. Yeah, my girl is a chill chick.

“So where are we meeting the agents?” She asks and my eyes snap to her.

“How?-“

She laughs. “I’m a fast learner and the code you were having me looked at had some familiar jargin that Bucky used to use. I put the pieces together and came to a possible conclusion, and by your reaction I guess I was right.”

Clever little minx.

“Shit. How did Artemis find you?” Alan asks with a whistle.

“Who says he found me?” She winks at me, and I shake my head. “Now let’s blow this joint and take back our company boys.”

She walks between us and opens the door just as a few men arrive and walk toward our bags. They don’t acknowledge us at all as they grab our bags and take off behind her.

“I like her. Good going brother.” He elbows me in the side and follows the men out.

Yeah, I like her too…more than like her…

I walk out of our suite and close the door behind me. Just as Alan said a few men are waiting for us in front of the resort office.

“Mr. Rhodes.” One breaks away from the others and walks over to meet me.

Blue moves to stand next to me catching the man’s attention.

“Sir I’m sorry but she won’t be permitted-“

“Excuse me? I am his wife. I also worked on the program that saved your asses from being hacked, so like hell I’m not permitted. He goes, I go. Got it?” She crosses her arms and stands her ground.

He stares back at her as if he could intimidate her to back down, but if she doesn’t budge.
“Your intimidation tactics won’t work on me. I’m married to him and he can’t make me bend to his will. Try again.”

I hear a chuckle come from behind the man and it’s enough to break his resolve. He sighs and nods.

“Fine, but you will have to sign an NDA and a shit ton of other forms before you can be allowed to be sworn in to this discussion.” He tells her.

“Great! Let’s get on with it then.” She walks past him and stops in front of one of the cars.

The man closest to it opens the door for her and she slides in. To my displeasure he watches her ass as well which has me storming over to him. I grab him and pull on the face that makes the men in my business shit themselves.

“You touch my wife and I will ruin you. Got it?” I say.

“Let him go Artemis.” Blue warns from inside.

I glance at her and see she’s looking past me. When I turn my head the other way I see several men holding guns in my direction.

“Let him go Mr. Rhodes.” The head guy says.

Alan is mouthing for me to do what they say, and I do. I let the guy go and he stumbles back from me. I glare at him and climb into the car with Blue. Alan joins us a moment later and closes the door.

“Shit man, what the fuck were you doing?” He asks, but I ignore him.

“He was thinking with his dick like most men do. Seriously, your brains are supposed to be in your heads.” Blue says.

Alan chuckles. “You got us there. Still I would be careful man, they are the ones that can wipe us off the face of the earth and no one would know.”

“No, they can’t. If they kill us, then the entire system we built for them with be shut down. Remember I have a back up plan for everything, so don’t get so nervous.” I tell him.

He looks at me and then it looks as if a light ball goes off in his head because he smiles. “You are a crazy fucker. I knew you were a genius but I underestimated you.”

He has no idea.

“Mind filling me in on this back up game?” Blue whispers. “And why aren’t you more worried about what’s going on at your company?”

“All of our servers are transferred and whipped if anyone other than I try to touch the backup folders. In case of a breech all the data is transferred to a personal server location that only three people know about. So, if my father tries to access any of our files he won’t find anything.” I explain.

“If that’s the case then what’s with this pony show? They look worried which can’t be good.” I smile at her.

Shit, I’m a goner. I’m falling in love with my wife.

“Someone tried to access the software we built for them.”

“How if all that information was backed onto your server?”

“Because I led them to it.”