I leaned against my car, trying to stop my hands from shaking.

“Andrew knows what you’re doing,” I lied.

“He knows about the leaks.”

Victoria laughed, a short, sharp sound that echoed off the ceiling.

“Andrew is currently buried under three different board investigations,” she said.

“He doesn’t know which way is up.”

She turned back toward the open door of her SUV.

“And by the time he figures it out, the patent for this stabilizer will belong to another firm.”

“You can’t just steal my research,” I said, taking a step toward her.

Marcus immediately stepped between us, blocking my path.

His shadow fell over me, completely blotting out the light from the corridor behind him.

“I didn’t steal it,” Victoria said over her shoulder.

“You simply lost it.”

She reached for the door handle of the SUV.

“Wait,” I said, my mind racing.

I needed to delay her.

I needed to buy enough time for the backup files to sync.

Before leaving the lab, I had initiated a secure transfer of the raw data to Andrew’s private server.