Waiting For It

by Allyson Lindt

  “Our time.”

  He nodded.

  “You ever talk to Billie before ten?” Now I had his full attention.

  “Mandatory meetings, but no, not really.”

  It couldn’t be this easy.

  Why would someone do that? I’d asked Zane.

  Because they either wanted you to know it was them...

  Or were arrogant and didn’t think they’d be caught. Not what Zane had said, but I could see it. I dialed him on the speaker phone between us.

  “This is Zane.”

  “It’s Anne. I need some information.”

  Luke was ignoring his laptop and watching me with curiosity.

  “Shoot,” Zane said.

  This wasn’t going to pan out. I’d need to go a different direction. “Who was in the office before eight—seven local time—Tuesday morning?”

  “Mike Mejia, Jon Shepherd, Greg D’Angelo.”

  Not a long list, but I didn’t expect it to be. “Dropping a list of dates in messenger. Looking for a common name among them.” I gave him ten dates that fell before we had big code breaks, including the major one that first delayed our launch, months ago.

  While Zane typed, I forced myself to breathe. I didn’t dare look at Luke. I didn’t need another layer of stress added to this.

  “Mike.” Zane spoke with certainty.

  “Thanks. I’ll keep you posted.” I hung up.

  I finally turned to Luke again when he sighed. “What are we looking at?”

  It was too obvious. Too easy. Why hadn’t we seen it before? Because we didn’t want to think one of our own would turn on us. This project meant everything to all of us.

  “Mike is behind a lot more than a leaked ending,” Luke said.

  Maybe. “It’s all circumstantial, and we’d have to do an audit on the code, to see if there’s more to it than meets the eye. But the leak... signs point to him. What next?” I’d been taking stabs in the dark to get this far. “You can’t just fire him, any more than you fired Billie.”

  “True, but I can talk to him. Do you want to be there?”

  “Do you think I should be?”

  “I think I’d like your opinion on the matter, but ultimately it’s up to how comfortable you are with the whole thing.”

  I didn’t want to look Mike—or anyone—in the eye and ask if they were involved in trying to destroy our project. But I had to know. If one of them was responsible, I had to ask him why.

  “I’ll be here.” However, I would let Luke do most of the talking. I needed to absorb. Take my cues from him. Make sure my shitty instinct didn’t speak out of turn.

  Luke called Mike in first. If we felt like he was okay, he’d be involved in our conversations with the two people on his team. My gut told me he was where we needed to start, and that made me nervous.

  “Hey.” Mike smiled when he walked in the room. He settled into a seat a few down from Luke and never looked at me. “Manager pow-wow? We gonna discuss before Ms. Fortier pulls another power play, like yesterday?”

  “Something like that.” I couldn’t hide the sarcasm in a retort I didn’t mean to say out loud.

  Mike didn’t so much as flick a glance at me. “I understand that someone without a lot of experience makes bad calls sometimes. It’s not her fault. But yesterday’s stunt is going to cost us days of sifting through the fallout. Days we don’t have.”

  Fury mingled with doubt. I hadn’t fucked up, but that didn’t stop the Shawn-voice from asking, Didn’t you?

  “No, it won’t.” Luke’s tone was hard. “Anne made the right call, and no one’s life fell into a downward spiral because they had to change their password.”

  Mike pursed his lips. “You’re the boss, which is why I’m here. What can I do for you?”

  “We’re looking at the storyline leak that happened the other morning,” Luke said.

  Thank God he was stern and cool, because my doubt was clashing hardcore with my knowledge.

  Mike nodded. “The information that came from Billie’s account.”

  “It looks like that on the surface, but we don’t think she’s the culprit. Which is why Anne made the call she did yesterday.” Luke’s expression was marble. A Greek god, carved wearing a modern wardrobe.

  Mike maintained a faint smile, but it didn’t reach his eyes. “I’ll talk to her about our security protocols and get something written up with HR. I suspected she was sharing her login information, to make her job easier.”

  He was awfully quick to cast blame in a specific direction. My irritation grew, drowning out anything else.

  Luke shook his head. “I’ll take care of that. Thank you. I’m more interested in the fact that the leak happened before she entered the building. Early enough that only three of you were here at the time.”

  The way Luke was handling this was sexy. I’d like to think I could be as direct, but I’d probably waver. Especially with the way Mike was blocking everything with misdirection.

  Mike shrugged. “I assume she logged in from the VPN.”

  “The leak came from within the building. Internal IP address, not a VPN connection.” I was tired of this. Mike had flaws, but he wasn’t stupid. There was no way he thought we were buying his story. Did he want to be caught?

  The asshole still didn’t look at me. I slammed my palm on the table, sending a sharp smack through the room and making him jump. Good. Arrogant fucker. “We need to know you’re not responsible for the leak.” My voice was harder than I expected.

  Mike finally turned toward me with a snort-laugh. “You sure do like to jump to conclusions. Why would I do that?”

  “I don’t know. Why?” I bit back. His confidence made my doubt return. Why were we doing this? He couldn’t be guilty.

  Mike narrowed his eyes. “I suspect whoever did it found out what a bullshit ending we’re about to be fed, and wanted the world to know how badly you fucked up.”

  “Chloe has known how this series will end since Game One. And it’s a good fucking ending.” Now I was getting defensive and swearing. I needed to yank my emotions back in, but I couldn’t. “It’s incredible. Just because your tiny, homophobic, incel brain—” I snapped my jaw shut, but I’d already gone too far.

  Mike’s infuriatingly subtle smile was back. “It’s bullshit, and people like you are the reason the industry—this company—are in decline. You vapid—”

  “Enough.” Luke stood.

  “Why?” Mike mimicked my earlier question. “People like her are the reason—”

  Luke stepped closer to Mike and leaned in, palms on the table, silencing him. I’d never seen Luke look so terrifying. Or so incredible. He stared down Mike, their faces inches apart, but never touched him.

  “Anne, call Zane. Tell him to lock down all the machines in the building now and completely remove Mike’s access. When you’re done, explain to everyone that they’ll be allowed back in soon, and ask them to please stay at their desks until I can talk to them. I’m going to make sure Mike has his belongings and see him to his car.”

  I wanted to say yes, sir and salute. Luke’s presence evoked that kind of reaction in me. His command of the situation was fucking sexy. “Will do.”

  “I’ll fucking sue you and this entire company for this.” Mike glared daggers at Luke as they left the room.

  I made the request with Zane when they were gone. As I headed into the main room, I heard a quiet wave of what the—? roll through the cubicles.

  “Everyone sit tight. We’ll explain soon,” I said.

  No one heard me. Even the people sitting closest to me didn’t look in my direction.

  “Excuse me.” I raised my voice.

  Heads turned toward me, but not many. The volume in the room grew, as more and more of them stood to talk, and saw Mike boxing up his things.

  “What’s going on with Mike?”

  “Are they firing all of us?”

  “This is bullshit. After all the work we’ve done?”

  The q
uestions and fear grew louder with each passing second. This needed to be under control. Why did Luke make me do this?

  Because he trusts you.

  Right.

  I climbed on the nearest desk, ignoring the creak. It held. “Hey,” I shouted.

  Two dozen people swiveled to face me at once, and embarrassment flooded my cheeks. I might be bright red, but I was going to do this.

  “No one in this room is being fired. Not today, and God willing, not at all.” This wasn’t what I was supposed to say, but if I didn’t do something, there was going to be a revolt. “Mike is no longer with the company. I know many of you consider him a friend, and this is never the way we want things to go. But Luke will explain everything in a few minutes.”

  “What happened?”

  “Why can’t we get into our computers?”

  “I have unsaved work.”

  The shouts came from multiple places in the room, making it difficult to tell who most of them were from.

  “Mike is a good guy.”

  “He was set up.”

  “You can’t fire him because you’re incompetent.”

  The last one sent ice spilling through my veins. The noise was reaching a volume that buzzed in my head and made it difficult to think.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Billie stood next to me, stuck two fingers in her mouth, and released an ear-splitting whistle. “Hey. STFU and listen to the boss.”

  Did she really just say STFU? I liked her more than before and could see exactly why Mike didn’t. He probably hated that some woman had the nerve to speak her mind. His loss. I gave her a grateful smile and turned back to the room. “Yes, Mike’s been let go. You all know Luke is a full-transparency kind of guy, and he’ll fill in the details. As far as I know, no one else needs to be concerned. We just need you to sit tight for a few minutes, until Luke is back.”

  More murmurs rolled through the room, but they were of curiosity, not anger. The group’s fear faded.

  When Luke returned, he didn’t offer much more information, but said as soon as he had clearance from Legal he’d explain more. It calmed people down, but I doubted anyone would get much programming done.

  I was emotionally numb by the time we got back to the hotel. Between a fun lunch with Luke and Chase, and the turmoil with Mike, I didn’t dare feel anything. I shrugged off Chase’s offer for dinner later, and settled into my little corner on the couch, my headphones on.

  Minutes ticked away on the clock, and I wasn’t focusing. I tried pulling up a movie, but it didn’t hold my attention. I avoided social media, because I didn’t want the reminder that things weren’t right with Sadie.

  I wanted to be talking to my friends again. When I took off my headphones, voices drifted to greet me.

  “... without Anne,” Luke said.

  “And when she’s talking to us, we’ll include her. This is about you and me.” That was Chase.

  What were they talking about?

  “We were stupid to even consider it,” Chase said.

  “I think we’ve figured that out already.”

  Chase choked off a laugh. “I mean, in addition to the obvious this was probably a bad idea. It’s killing me, to have her not talking to me.

  “Same.”

  I shouldn’t eavesdrop. I stood to join them and interrupt, but curiosity kept my feet glued to the floor.

  “What would have happened if things went the way we thought?” Chase asked. “We both try to win her heart, and she picks one of us.”

  Anger tickled my senses at the reminder that betting Anne’s heart as a prize was a real thing. I’d rather be dryly amused that they hadn’t considered the potential consequences—any of them—sooner.

  “To be honest, I never thought beyond a future with her.” Luke sighed. “She’d end up with me, so there was nothing to consider.”

  “Except you’re wrong. She’d pick me. We know each other better.”

  Nope, anger was winning out.

  “Fuck, we’re assholes.” Did Luke sound genuinely remorseful? Then again, hadn’t both of them before now, too?

  “You know, I don’t want to see you miserable almost as much as I don’t want to be miserable,” Chase said.

  That was convoluted. I stepped up to the doorway and coughed, to draw their attention. “I’m not choosing either of you.” The meaning behind the words, that I’d lose them both, clenched around my heart.

  From the way one corner of Chase’s mouth tugged up, he didn’t reach the same conclusion. “That’s my point. If you and I are together, I don’t have an issue with you and Luke being together too.”

  “I’m on board with that,” Luke said.

  I was too. Or I would be, if this one argument hadn’t had so much fallout. “Too bad this was over before it started.” I didn’t know how I kept my voice from shaking, because the statement threatened to rip me apart. I couldn’t talk to them anymore. I turned away.

  “Anne.” Luke’s tone made me pause. “Do you ever wonder if you’re doing the right thing?”

  A shiver ran through me, and I resisted the urge to hug myself as doubt poured through me.

  “This isn’t me being passive aggressive or telling you you’re wrong. You’re not.” Luke was kind. “I saw how you reacted to Mike. I felt your doubt, wondering if you were wrong. I’ve been there. I wouldn’t be begging for your forgiveness if I didn’t realize I’d fucked up. But I’m asking if you’ve got that voice in your head that belongs to someone else. The one that makes you question everything.”

  He was trying to manipulate me. To trap me into saying something I didn’t want to. “Doesn’t everyone?”

  “No. But a lot of people do.” There was an ache in Luke’s voice that I rarely heard and never for more than a breath. “I do.”

  Did I dare ask? “How?”

  “My first few weeks of college, I struggled to integrate. Mostly because I’d just come out of Afghanistan and was adjusting to things like sleeping in beds. Then I met the RA in my dorm. Gorgeous man. Sweet. Sure, we fought sometimes, but that was always my fault. He said so.”

  Luke stared past me, as if he was lost in a memory. “He was caught for dealing Adderall and blackmailing several of the people in the dorm. When he went before the disciplinary board, he convinced them it was my idea. He got us both kicked out of school.”

  I knew Luke didn’t graduate. A lot of people at the company hadn’t, because Scott valued skill in his developers more than a degree. I’d never imagined it hadn’t been Luke’s choice. I didn’t know what to say.

  Luke let out a shaky breath. “He apologized. Told me he was worried about his career. I understood, right? Besides, if I’d been more attentive to him, it never would have happened.”

  I knew this story. Not the details, but the ex-boyfriend’s accusation. “But it wasn’t your fault.” I felt stupid, saying that. Luke had obviously figured that out.

  He shrugged. “I’m lucky that I’m smart. It was enough to get me an internship at Rinslet, even without the degree. I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for Scott.”

  That wasn’t fair to Luke. “You wouldn’t be here if you weren’t intelligent and talented.”

  “That too.” Luke grinned. “It’s taken a lot of time and a bit of therapy to understand it wasn’t me; it was him who was the problem. I still hear his voice, though.”

  “I know, Sadie knows. We all saw that Shawn did the same to you.” Chase finally spoke. He turned from me to Luke. “And I’m sorry you went through that. I only know what it looks like from the outside, and that’s hard enough. I can’t imagine being in it.”

  My friends had tried to tell me then, and I’d pushed them away. Even if this wasn’t the same situation, I didn’t want to shove my friends out of my life again. “It’s different.”

  “Because you recognize that it happened? Because you got out? Because he was right, and you’re still wrong? Why?” Luke asked.

  I didn’t know how to answer his questi
ons. I wasn’t sure what was up or down anymore.

  Luke frowned. “This bet? I was wrong to make it. Chase was wrong. You’re not wrong for feeling anything you feel about it.”

  I didn’t know how to sift through my thoughts anymore. They were a jumble of chaos. “That’s sweet of you to say, but... you’re wrong.” I cut off my laugh at the twisted irony of my statement. “Good night.”

  Chapter Twenty

  “Annie.” Chase’s tone stopped me in my tracks. “Don’t spend another night on the couch. Take one of the beds. Better yet, stay and talk to us. If I have to promise I’ll never tell you again how gorgeous you are, to get you to talk to me, I will.”

  I turned, scrunching my nose in distaste. “I’m not good with that.”

  “Which part of it?” Sincerity radiated from his expression. “How about, I can still shower you with compliments, and you can go back to pretending you think it’s harmless?”

  How did I ever do that? “None of what’s happened this week gets undone. I want our friendship back, but I can’t forget.”

  “Good. Because not all of this was bad,” Luke said. “Not to me.”

  I leaned against the doorframe and jammed my hands in my pockets. “It only took the one bad thing to sour it all. But I won’t forget the good either.”

  “If you want another apology, I’ll give you one. Over and over.” Chase looked so sweet. The boy next door. The guy I would have given my heart to years ago, if this were a movie.

  I didn’t want more apologies. “I get it—you’re sorry. I can’t say it’s okay, because it wasn’t. But I do forgive you.” When the words rolled out of my mouth, they took a huge weight with them that I hadn’t know I was carrying. God, that felt good. It couldn’t be wrong if it was this much of a relief.

  “Sure you don’t want one more apology?” A hint of playfulness leaked into Chase’s question. “Me, on my knees at your feet, worshiping you?” He stood.

  Luke grabbed the back of his shirt and yanked him back to the bed. “That’s not an apology; it’s oral sex.”

  “The two are frequently the same,” Chase said.