by Lexy Timms
“It’s not,” he said.
After they’d had their brief talk about their relationship, the rest of the work week had gone by without too much incident. Her lawyer was still working on clearing her name, while Heather had compiled a list of Dover’s hacking experts who had previously worked for their rival, VLA. She hated having to consider her co-workers as suspects, but she needed a lead. There was no telling how long the board would be willing to keep her on with this cloud of suspicion over her.
As much as she hated to admit it to herself, without Simon’s protection Dover’s board would have probably fired her by now. She might have repeatedly refused his help, but his power was so expansive that even when she didn’t want his help Simon still ended up helping her in subtle ways.
“You really think the electricians who worked on your apartment would be willing to give us some information?” she asked.
“It’s taken forever for them to agree to talk to me,” he said. “My lawyer and I questioned my building’s super, and I don’t think he had anything to do with the photos or the hacking of my home computer system. At first the electricians refused to talk to me about the day they worked on my apartment, but my lawyers have managed to put enough pressure on them. They’re scared enough to talk.”
“I’m surprised they’re so willing to talk now,” she said as she closed the oven door, and then turned it off to let the residual heat bake this last batch of cookies.
“Well, they can either talk to us or they can wait for the police to swoop down and ruin their reputation later on,” he said. “It took them a while to see the light, but I don’t think they want their company to get a reputation for hacking and criminal behavior.”
“And you want me to be there while you talk to them?” She frowned. “Why are you still trying to help me?”
“The truth is, Dover is running its own investigation into this whether you like it or not,” he said. “As the CEO I’m privy to this information, and it would crazy for me not to share information with you. I know you don’t want my help, but I was already going to talk to the electricians since I’m the CEO and they broke into my home system.”
She could see his point. If Dover was going to run an investigation to protect itself, it made sense for the company to share its findings with her and the police. Just like it would make sense for her to share her findings with Linda, Dover, and her own lawyer.
“I guess that makes sense,” she said cautiously.
“I know I didn’t trust you in the past, but I trust you now,” he said. “The police are obviously doing their own digging while Dover is also investigating. Your investigation means we’ve got at least three investigations going at the same time. The way I see it, having multiple investigations at once can be both a hindrance and a help. We could end up stepping on each other’s toes, or we could share information others might have missed. Don’t think of this as me interfering. Try to think of it as information-sharing.”
“Is this your way of getting an excuse to see me over the weekend?” she asked.
“Well, I guess you caught me red-handed,” he replied, sounding a little sheepish.
That made her laugh.
“I could pick you up if you want,” he offered.
“Don’t worry about that,” she said. “I don’t mind driving and I’ll be at your place in no time.”
Her parents were over, so she could spare some time to work on her investigation. They had agreed to take things slow, but that didn’t stop her heart from racing. There were already butterflies in her stomach at the prospect of spending the afternoon with Simon.
Chapter 14
When he opened his front door he found Heather standing outside, holding a basket.
“Glad you made it.” He stared at the hamper, suddenly curious. “What’s that?”
She held up the basket and smiled. “Fresh baked chocolate chip cookies.”
He returned her smile. “They smell amazing.” Simon remembered the cupcakes he’d eaten at her place the last time she had him over. It had been one of their rare domestic moments, and he remembered how at home he felt. Now it was his turn to make her feel at home.
Taking the basket from her, he leaned forward to plant a gentle kiss on her forehead. He wasn’t sure how to take things since he was going to respect her wishes to take things slow.
Her cheeks colored, and she wrapped her arms around him, holding on to him tightly.
He might not know exactly how to take things slow, but he was starting to realize that it was probably best to play things by ear and let her lead. “The electricians and their manager are up on the roof,” he said against her ear. “The lawyers are already up there with them.”
She pulled away from him. “Have they said anything?”
Simon shook his head and motioned for her to wait outside. “Not yet. We were waiting for you to arrive.”
He stepped back inside to put the basket on the kitchen counter, then led her to the elevator.
Moments later they stepped out on to the building’s roof, a spectacular panoramic view of the city surrounding them.
Her face lit up. “It’s beautiful up here.”
The look on her face stirred something in him. During all their time together since she had started working for Dover, he had been holding back. Trying to find a balance between pursing her and staying professional. He knew they were taking things slow, but he made a mental note to bring her back up here for a romantic dinner. She deserved to be spoiled. “We can come back up here as often as you like,” he said.
She smiled, but when her eyes landed on the gathering on the other end of the roof her smile vanished. “Are those the electricians?”
He nodded. “Yes. Along with them is their company lawyer and their manager. The woman with the short hair is Miranda, one of Dover’s lawyers.”
“That’s a lot of people.” She bit her lip.
“Dover’s lawyer is there to protect both of us.” He squeezed her shoulder gently, desperate to reassure her. “I know it looks intimidating, but you’re not the one on trial here. This is a fact-finding mission, nothing more.”
“Thank you for believing in me,” she said softly.
He met her gaze and held it. “And thank you for giving me a second chance after I didn’t believe you the first time.”
She gave him a faint smile, and he vowed to do whatever it took to make sure she was comfortable today. Her name had been dragged through the mud; this was her chance to defend herself and get to the truth. When he had called her earlier he hadn’t been sure she’d accept his offer to come to his place, but when she had accepted he knew he had to do whatever it took to put her at ease. Heather was going out on a limb accepting his help like this, and he wasn’t about to let that opportunity go to waste. Today was the day they would finally start getting answers.
Simon placed his hand on her back and guided her over to the electricians and lawyers, who were sitting down staring at each other in stone-faced silence. After the introductions were made, he pulled out a chair for her and sat beside her.
“Shall we begin?” Miranda Holder, one of Dover’s lawyers, asked.
“Yes,” Simon replied. “Let’s get everything out on the table.”
“First, I’d like to remind everyone that this is an informal gathering,” Miranda said. “This isn’t a deposition or a hearing, so you’re not compelled to say anything.”
The electrical manager nodded, his baseball cap so low on his head that Simon couldn’t see his eyes. “I’ll be answering the questions.”
“Fine,” Miranda said. “We’d like to know if you were compelled by anyone to take photos of Mr. Diesel’s servers and hack into his computer system.”
The manager frowned. “Compelled? You mean like threatened?”
“Not necessarily threatened,” Miranda replied. “We want to know if you were bribed or asked as well.”
The manager leaned towards his company lawyer, exchanged some
hushed words, and nodded grimly. “Yeah, well, we had an appointment scheduled to upgrade the building,” the manager said. “We were all ready to go, but we got a call from someone at Dover, Inc.”
Simon frowned. “But this upgrade was supposed to have been done in a personal capacity. Your company had done work with Dover previously, but the work you were doing on my building had nothing to do with Dover.”
The manager sniffed. “Yeah, well, that’s what we told the guy from Dover, but he said since Dover was taking care of the payment what Dover said was what we had to do.”
Heather laced her fingers together, her anxiety evident. “Do you know who this guy was?”
“He said he was one of the executives,” the manager replied. “We never asked for a name because we’d done business with Dover before, so we figured this was on the up and up. Anyway, the guy asked us to take some photos and email them to him.”
“What was the email address?” Simon asked.
Miranda shook her head. “We already asked for any contact details and the email was one of the ones that vanishes after a period of time. It looked like a legit address from the company, but upon closer inspection it was cleared to see it’s fraudulent. Sadly, it wasn’t a permanent email address.”
“You’re kidding.” Simon shook his head.
“We lost it, yeah, but we were able to track the IP address.”
“Let me guess, the IP address was located in Dover headquarters,” Simon muttered.
“Exactly. That’s how we know that the story about the executive is probably the truth,” Miranda said.
“So, what about the hack?” Simon asked. “Something like that took a lot of skill.”
The manager crossed his arms. “We didn’t hack into anything. My guys don’t have that kind of know-how. The senior executive told us to call him the minute we took your servers off the grid while we were doing the electrical upgrade.”
“That’s when he hacked into the system. They took advantage of the servers being down for a certain period of time, which would have made the security vulnerable,” Simon said as sudden realization hit. His stomach knotted up as the scope of the betrayal dawned on him. There was no way Heather could have pulled off something like that. It was the kind of thing very few people on earth had the skills to do, and most of those skilled people had worked at Dover for years.
“With the security system down, that meant that if someone had the capability and the skills they could get a hold of your ideas in a matter of minutes,” Miranda said.
Simon cursed under his breath, his fists clenching. This was worse than Xander’s insider trading. Someone had deliberately torn down his security system to steal his ideas one by one. Ideas he had worked on for years. Some for well over a decade. The algorithms and codes he had been tinkering with since he was a child were the most important to him. Not because they’d necessarily yield a lot of money like his later ideas, but because they reminded him of where he had started. Besides, he often shared many of his ideas with the world for free. He had never kept things to himself if he thought they could make the world better. All the hacker needed to do was wait a few more months or years and his ideas would have been released to the public. The hacker’s level of selfishness and greed astounded him.
“Why didn’t come forward with this information sooner?” Heather’s voice held a subtle accusation in it. Her hazel eyes zeroed in on the manager, her unwavering gaze making him squirm in his seat.
“We had to protect ourselves,” the manager replied. “If we didn’t do our own internal investigation to get all the facts, Dover might have sued us. We couldn’t survive a lawsuit from a corporation like Dover.”
“But you’re talking now,” Heather countered, clearly unwilling to let this line of inquiry go. To Simon, it was clear that she was still upset about the position the electricians had put her in. If they had come forward sooner, she wouldn’t have had to go through doubts and suspicions. She wouldn’t have had to deal with gossiping coworkers and an ex-husband hell-bent on using her private life against her to take her child away forever.
The guilt was almost impossible to bear. Simon had put her through hell with his accusations. When he had refused to listen to her when she had defended herself, he had been no better than her ex-husband. Heather needed people she could rely on, and even though she had forgiven him it didn’t change the fact that he had let her down.
“We’re talking because the cops were starting to give us a hard time,” the manager said. “If we have to choose between dealing with Dover and dealing with the cops, we’d rather deal with Dover.”
“Wise choice,” Miranda said coldly.
“Is Dover planning a lawsuit against us?” the manager asked.
“I’m not at liberty to say yet. We haven’t completed our investigation into this, so Dover hasn’t made any decisions one way or the other just yet.” A faint smile touched Miranda’s lips. “If you have nothing more to add, I think we can conclude our meeting.”
“Very well.” The manager frowned but got to his feet. “You can always reach us through our lawyer.”
“Oh, believe me, we will.” Miranda stood up and everybody followed her lead. Several minutes later Simon led his guests out, while Heather lingered in his living room. He found her sitting on one of the plush sofas, her long legs tucked underneath her.
Simon smiled at the sight of her looking so comfortable and at home in his apartment. This was what he wanted. For Heather to spend more time with him outside of Dover. That way they could take their time getting to know each other.
More than anything, he wanted to learn more about her. Find out everything he had missed in their years apart.
“I think the meeting went well,” she said. “I just can’t believe that the hacker might be someone important at Dover.”
He took a seat beside her and wrapped his arm around her shoulders. Right now, he didn’t want to focus on Dover. But if she was still trying to process what they had just learned, he’d be here for her. “That’s what the hacker told the electricians,” he pointed out. “For all we know, it could have been some low-level employee posing as an executive to have easier access to the building.”
Her mouth fell open. “I never thought of that. Crap! This means the hacker could be anyone who works at Dover.”
“It’s someone who knows how to break into a damn good security system,” he said. “Which narrows down the suspects. But not by much.”
“For all we know, it could be more than one person,” she said.
They had considered that before but had never homed in on what the implications of that meant. If they were dealing with more than one spy at Dover, then they were dealing with far more than a disgruntled employee. Multiple players meant a conspiracy. That unsettled him. Made him paranoid, which wasn’t something he was used to grappling with. “It’s hard to imagine Dover having so many disloyal employees.”
“Think about it,” she said. “First, your former assistant gave away Dover’s secrets. Then came the hacking. We’ve already established that it couldn’t have been a coincidence, so someone is probably orchestrating all this.”
“It’s an angle Dover’s lawyers are working on, but...” His eyes narrowed, and his entire body tensed.
Heather placed her hand on his thigh, her touch already calming the outrage that was boiling within him. “I know how hard it must be to imagine something like that.”
“Not one, but multiple Dover employees plotting to bring the company down.” He rubbed his temples, fighting the stress that the tension of the day had brought. “It really is hard to take it all in. Honestly, things were easier when I thought the electricians were the culprits, but it looks like they got duped into this scheme.”
“A lot of people got duped,” she said gently.
His gaze met hers, and when her eyes softened remorse slammed through him. He had been duped. Duped into believing the worst about her.
Reaching for
the hand on his thigh, he squeezed it gently. “I got duped. I’m sorry, Heather.”
“You don’t have to keep apologizing,” she said. “Everything is forgiven now.”
Having her forgiveness was so much more than he deserved. He brought her hand to his lips and gently kissed it.
“Oh, Simon.” Her voice was breathless, but she held his gaze as he released her hand. “Do you want me to stay?”
He leaned forward and pressed his mouth against hers. Her soft lips parted slightly, and she sighed against his kiss. When he pulled back, he answered her question with one of his own. “What do you think?”
“Touch me,” she breathed. Her hand found his again and she pulled it up under the hem of her shirt, the skin beneath soft to the touch. Simon let his hand caress her smooth stomach and her breath hitched audibly as he dragged his palm upward.
When he cupped her breast, she let out a soft cry, throwing her head back while he thumbed her nipple through the thin, cotton fabric of her bra.
She had begged him to touch her and, knowing that she wanted to take things slow, Simon understood just how far he could take things. Focusing on her pleasure was all that mattered. After all the obstacles she’d faced, he was going to take her of her needs. Show her how special she was to him.
His hands drifted down to the waistband of her shorts. “Can I take these off?”
A low moan escaped her throat and she leaned forward to look him directly in the eye. “Yes. You can.”
His fingers hooked into the waistband and slid her shorts down, tossing them to the floor. She was wearing pink panties, and as he let his fingers run along the slickness between her thighs he could already feel her arousal through the flimsy fabric.
Heather didn’t wait for him to ask permission to take her panties off. Yanking them down she let the pink fabric land on the floor, exposing her bare flesh to him.
He groaned at the sight of her glistening flesh. The desire to touch her was overwhelming.
