Off Limits

by Jana Leigh

  She walked into her office and stored her purse under her desk so she could slip the drive out and back in without anyone noticing. Phoebe became good at it; so far, she had downloaded hundreds of documents that the bosses would be pissed about if they found out. She refused to let up though. She needed one last document to make sure she had it all to tie together.

  Looking around and smiling politely at t he other people surrounding her ; n one of them realized or cared who they worked for , she thought. I t was terrifying to think this many people would wor k for a mob boss and his sons. The rumors were floating around the office that the boss, who had been arrested already, was still calling the shots. If she had been worki ng here for any other reason than what she was , she would have quit. Her morals would never allow her to work for these type of men.

  Glancing around the office, she bent over and pushed the small drive into the USB slot. Now to finish what she started, then she was going to go and find her brothers. After researching them, she had discovered that they were honorable men . She knew they would help her. One was in the FBI, and the other was a lawyer who had blown his father’s cover and had him arrested.

  The file she was looking for was protected. She was able to crack the encryption fairly easily; it contained the bank accounts all the company’s illegal activities went to. There was also a list of people that were paid to do different jobs (she assumed that the police would want to know who these animals had killed ) . They had a list. It wasn ‘t even very inventive. The file was called the Kill List, which is where she found her brother ‘s names, as well as her mother ‘s. She had been shocked.

  While she knew that her birth mother had been killed under suspicious circumstances , but to see in black and white that they had hired some guy named Rocco to kill her , seem ed unreal. Where the heck do they come up with these names anyway?

  Phoebe looked around and then slipped the drive back into her purse in the side area she had torn out for a hiding spot. When she sat back up , she could see a large , scary man walking toward her with intent. Oh crap , she thought , and sank back into her chair and waited. She knew it was a crap shoot if someone would find out she had been copying things. When the beefy man stood in front of her desk he said, “Mr. Digrossi would like to speak to you.”

  Phoebe nodded and quickly gathered her things and took them with her. At least if they were going to search her, she would know if they found the drive in front of her. Then she could try to explain that she was taking work home. The files she had copied were encrypted on her drive as well; unless they had a smarter computer geek than her, they would never get inside it. Looking at how easy it was to get into the files herself, she knew they didn ‘t have anyone quite as smart as she was working here.

  This is when she hated that she had been so smart growing up. Her adoptive parents were very cold. She had never wanted for anything in her life, but when it came to affection, she was starved for it. They tried, but when they adopted her, they thought they couldn’t have children. When her adoptive mother found herself pregnant with their own child, they had already completed the adoption. Phoebe knew if they hadn ‘t signed the papers , they would have given her back. As it was, she was a token child ; they had to show how generous they were.

  Phoebe made the most of it though. She went to school, and when they learned how smart she was , they put her in accelerated classes , and touted how their daughter , who had come from nothing , had been allowed to flourish under their care. She couldn ‘t count the times she heard her adoptive mother say that if they had never adopted h e r , Phoebe would have turned out to be a criminal.

  When she turned eighteen and they gave her a trust fund, she had thanked them and left. Never contacted them again. She felt bad about taking the money, but she had needed it to make sure she could start a new life. So she had bought a new name and made a new life and researched her biological family.

  When she found her birth mother , Tami Shoen, she had been excited, they had met several times, and Phoebe finally thought she found someone who would love her for who she was. They talked about her birth, and she had been surprised to hear that she had been given up in order to protect her. Tami explained who her father really was, and Phoebe had been horrified when she heard all the things he had done, including trying to kill his own children .

  Her biological mother and she had really begun to connect when she had been killed. Phoebe had been devastated , and then she began to wonder. The police report said she was drunk and driving on a curvy road in the middle of the night , Phoebe knew for a fact her mother didn ‘t drink. It was one of the things they talked about . Her mother had been a party girl when she was younger, that was how she met Mr. Digrossi; he took advantage of a young woman who was trying to find her way in life. After Tami discovered she was pregnant with her, she stopped drinking altogether . She explained to Phoebe that after making such a huge mistake with her choice of men, she refused to allow impaired judgment as an excuse for her mistakes.

  Phoebe had not been a mistake, Tami assured her. But her father was. If she had it to do over again, Tami said she would have been stronger and left with her and hidden from the man. As it was, Digrossi had threatened her, and she gave up her child.

  That’s when Phoebe hatched her plan; she was going to take the Digrossi family down for taking her mother away from her. She knew they were somehow responsible, and she was going to make sure they paid. But all of her plans could be coming to a head right now as she walked behind the large , rough man who was leading her into the lion’s den.

  They entered the elevator and Phoebe began to feel the panic rising . “Where are we going?” s he asked when she saw the man push a button that went lower instead of to the top floor where the executive offices were.

  “Mr. Digrossi is in the security office,” he smirked and Phoebe became more afraid .

  They knew! She always thought they would figure out it was her; she just hoped it would be after she left. Obviously she took a little too long to get the information. She knew she should have done it all at one time, but the file she had been searching for was hidden. It took her these extra days to find it. Once she located the first ones, she had just tagged them until she found the rest. But as time wore on , she was afraid of losing what she found, so she started to copy them. With each day, she found more and more incriminating documents. She felt like she had to get them all before she left. Now she knew it was a mistake.

  They arrived at the floor where security was housed and the large man grabbed her arm and pulled her in back of him. She made a noise, and he turned and glared at her. “Don’t make this harder.”

  She shivered at the tone the man used and nodded. Walking slowly behind him, she looked around for someone who could help her, but there was no one in the hallway. When they reached the end of the corridor, she wanted to scream. But the man quickly opened the door and shoved her in the office, as if he knew she was about to do something.

  Junior Digrossi was sitting at a large desk with his hands folded across his stomach. She supposed some people may think he was handsome, but she thought he looked like a smooth-talking shyster . His black hair slicked back against his head, and his mean eyes that glittered an amber shade. He was tall and built, but she knew it was more from the workouts he got in defense training than from living right. The man was the master of indulgence . If the sites and stuff he had stored on his computer was an y indication how sick the man was, she was in trouble. He liked pain , and inflicting pain on women.

  “Ms. Stone, it’s so good of you to come and see me,” h e said smoothly.

  “Like I had a choice,” she muttered and looked at the man defiantly; she was beyond trying to act innocent. She knew that they found out what she was doing, why hide it? She had been caught and was probably going to die. So be it, at least she had sent the documents she already had stored to her unknown brother , Andre. It had been hard finding an address, but she was the best. Phoebe put it in the
mail this morning.

  Junior Digrossi laughed and she felt a shiver run up her spine. He was pure evil, she thought , and looked at him in the eye, and sadly, he was her half-brother. “So, you know why I called you in here?”

  Phoebe paused and weighed her words before answering, this was a game he played; she knew it, so she answered, “I ‘m assuming it ‘s about my job.”

  His eyes narrowed and said, “Ms. Stone it has come to my attention that you have been looking into accounts that don’t concern you, can you tell me why?”

  Phoebe put a confused look on her face; she planned this . “What accounts?”

  Junior stood up and stalked her around the desk. “The account you were in just moments before my associate showed up.”

  She once again made herself look confused and said, “I was dictating a letter for your brother.”

  “No, you weren’t,” h e said confidently.

  “Yes, I was looking at my computer log ,” s he said. Phoebe knew what it would say; she had written a program to hide what she was downloading when she signed off her computer. Junior may have seen what she was doing in real time, but when he looked back it would say she was dictating a letter to a prospective client.

  “You wanna play it that way? Fine,” h e said and walked back around his desk and turned the computer screen so they could both see what he was looking at. “It shows your last log in this morning at 8am, and then there is your lunch break.”

  She nodded and looked at him with a stony expression, so he would n ‘t think she was worried about her work. When she was hired, she had played this part, a crisp and non -social , dumpy woman. All of her clothes in her apartment looked like they came out of the nineties . She didn’t care. Once she was done, she would be able to get her hair done again, and maybe let the glasses go. Although she had come to like the glasses, they actually didn ‘t hurt her eyes like her contacts did when she stared at the computer screen.

  “Now this is what I want you to look at, why were you in this file?” Junior said without looking at the screen.

  “Because that is what I was hired for, “ s he said back to him and then waited.

  Junior glared at her and looked a t the computer and froze. “What the fuck?”

  “Sir, I really don’t like that language in my presence. When I was hired here , I told you then that I was a stickler for proper offic e behavior, ” she said briskly and then looked at him.

  Junior and his brother had both made it a point to seek out the newly hired females and attempt to h it on them. She had warned them she would not put up with harassment , especially not in the workplace. Later , she had heard Junior and another male executive talking about how they wanted to make her their ‘bitch’. Phoebe had been pissed, but s he ignored it and kept her mouth shut.

  Looking back, she knew she should have handled it differently. She should have actually said something to the assholes, but she had chosen to keep her mouth shut.

  “It was right here,” he glared at the man who stood behind her. “What the hell happened?”

  Rocco walked around the desk and picked up the phone and called someone, she assumed in the computer department. She knew that people watched what the workers were doing; they acted like ‘big brother’.

  “Can you come in here quickly; something seems to have happened to the screen Mr. Digrossi was working from.”

  Phoebe rocked back on her flat, ugly heels and waited; she knew they would n’t find anythin g, at least not while she was s till here, it would take hours for the IT guy to find her trail, if he was even that good.

  A small man came into the room without knocking and was mumbling to himself. He rounded the desk as if he didn ‘t even see Junior and pulled the keyboard to him while he looked at the screen. She watched as his finger s flew across the keyboard and felt a lump of fear begin in her stomach. Shit , he was good. She assumed since she had never seen any geeks in the building that they didn ‘t have anyone intelligent enough to actually catch her, she was wrong apparently.

  She could see the key strokes as he made them, even if he was going fast. When he hit the last key, she wanted to wince from t he scroll of notations that fil l ed the screen. The man frowned and looked at her. She wasn ‘t certain what that meant.

  He began to type again and talk to himself; Phoebe strained to listen to see if she could hear what he was saying. Junior was rolling his eyes and using his pointer finger ; he made a circular motion at the side of his head, trying to indicate the little man was crazy.

  Rocco chuckled and shifted a little closer to Phoebe. This was taking too long. “I really don’t see why I have to stand here while you try to find some nonexistent evidence about me. In fact, I ‘m offended. I thought this would work out, but obviously, it just didn’t . So if you would please take this as my v erbal termination, I am leaving,” s he said and held her head high and walked to the door.

  “Wait,” Junior called, and the grinned evilly . “I knew there was more to you than met the eye; I think maybe you need to stick around for a few more minutes .”

  Phoebe turned and glared at her half-brother, wanting to spit in his face. “I respectfully will have to decline that invit ation, ” s he said with a snarky tone, and Junior ‘s face turned red.

  “No, I really don’t think you will,” he said and then nodded to Rocco, who grabbed her arm and held her tightly. She gasped at the intrusion of personal space and looked at the small man who was still working on the computer.

  “Sir, it will take me hours to get rid of the program that overwrote what we discovered earlier. I don’t know who wrote this, but they are good. All the files we looked at earlier have been changed and tainted , ” t he mouse said.

  That was what she was thinking he looked like—a little , scared mouse. She was too, but finding her real family and putting the men in jail that killed her mother were more important to her than hiding behind her persona she had developed.

  “Looks like we need to spend a little more time together, Rocco take her to the other room. I will be in there shortly , ” Junior said and turned his back , then looked over his shoulder . “Make sure she ‘s ready to sta rt answering questions, will ya? I just had my suit pressed and don’t want it wrinkled.”

  Phoebe felt her eyes grow large, shit, she was in trouble. Rocco just grunted and nodded , then gripped her arm tighter before pulling her behind him. She tried to make her shoes catch on the floor and give her leverage to pull away, but the granny shoes just slipped. She was really going to have to complain to the maker of the shoes —they said slip resistant, but they were obviously not working. Although it could be because the three hundred pound, scary man who was pulling her, but Phoebe wasn’t thinking like that.

  She began to think of a way to get the man to let her go. “I have to go to the bathroom , ” s he blurted out.

  Rocco paused and looked at the ceiling and rolled his eyes. “Lady, I know you don’t have to go to the bathroom; you ‘re gonna try to escape. But I gotta tell ya, that ‘s not happening, and so I think maybe you should come with me and get this over with. The sooner you tell Mr. Digrossi what he wants to know , the sooner you will be able to get out of here. It ‘s up to y ou how you leave, on your own t w o legs or in a terrible fall down the back stairs that cause both of your legs to be broken.”

  She paled as she stood stunned. It made it easier for the large man to pull her down the hall further. She had no clue what to say to that. Shit, it was like out of the movies or something. No one talked like that anymore. You can’t just threaten to break someone’s legs, it was illegal.

  “Hey,” she said stubbornly. “Really? You can threaten a harmless female without blink ing an eye and think that I ‘ll be scared and cry and then tell you everything ?” s he said angrily.

  He stopped and looked at her closer and saw the tears in her eyes. She was trying to hold them back. Rocco smiled and pointed with one hand to her face. “Uh, yeah.”

  Phoebe pushed
her free hand across her eyes and wiped the tears away. “Seriously? Do you know anything about women? The tears are because I’m so pissed and frustrated that I ‘m going to have to actually kick your ass because I ‘m crying. I mean really, when I went to the self-defense class, they told me that extremely volatile situations could bring out an emotional response and I had to push by it. So this is me pushing by it , asshole.” She screamed and kicked him in the knee.

  Rocco was caught off guard and fell against the wall, bring ing her with him , unfortunately . She thought maybe she stood a chance i f she surprised him, but he had n ‘t let her arm go. She fell heavily into the wall and cried out when she felt her arm snap. Cradling her now injured arm, she fell to the floor.

  Rocco made a noise of disbelief, and then bent down and grabbed her uninjured arm and pulled her up. “Dam m it lady, now why in the hell did you try that?”

  Phoebe snorted and then looked at him with an indignant look on her face. “Really? You ‘re going to take me into a room against my will, and get me ready for god knows what, and yo u have the nerve to ask me that? Seriously, you ‘re an ass !” she screamed and tried to pull away from him again as she felt the excruciating pain of her now broken arm r u n through her body. She could feel the tears currently streaming down her face and the bully now looked uncomfortable.

  With a much gentler hand, he pulled her in back of him and led her to a room. It was empty except for a chair and a table. As she got closer , she felt the fear begin to pulse through her. On the table was a rope, a gun, tools that looked like they came from a hospital , a large syringe and several bottles of medication . She looked back up at the man horrified and said, “What the hell ! This is a busines s, and you have a torture room?” s he screamed and fell into the chair. “Isn’t this against the law or something ?”

  Rocco laughed and then walked toward her with the rope he pulled off the table. “Hands,” he said and held out the rope.