Finally, a break.
Once we discover who User0989 is, what happens next? Will his identity clear Miki or incriminate her further?
It doesn’t matter, Prescott. Miki Cooper just wanted one night. You have to respect that.
I ignore the sinking feeling in my gut and drink another cup of coffee.
24
Miki
Leah calls me Saturday at noon. “Miki,” she says, sounding stressed. “I need help. We’re having a dinner party tonight, and my friend Maya has come down with a cold.”
That doesn’t sound like a crisis. “Why are you telling me this?”
“There are four men and three women. We’re mismatched.”
I roll my eyes. Even by Leah’s Upper East Side Ladies-Who-Lunch standards, this seems like a ridiculously trivial problem. “Such tragedy,” I say dryly. “I’m sure you’ll survive.”
“Don’t be uncooperative, Miki,” she wails. “Tell me you’ll come to my party. Please.”
“Not a hope in hell,” I reply promptly. Have dinner with Leah’s boring, stuffed-shirt friends? I love my sister. I’m hacking into Imperium because I want her to be happy, but I’m not going to put myself through an evening of torture because Leah wants evenly matched couples around her dinner table.
“I thought you’d say that, but I have a counter-argument. You can talk to Ben. Maybe you’ll be able to figure out what he’s up to.”
“So you still think he’s cheating on you?” I’m not going to lie; I was hoping that Leah’s suspicions would have faded by now. Especially after last night, I don’t feel comfortable hacking into Imperium.
“He’s hiding something from me,” she replies. I hear the brittle note in her voice, the tension and pain that she’s trying to conceal. “I don’t know what.”
“You could ask him, kiddo.”
“Right. And I’m sure he’ll tell me the truth right away. Because men who cheat on their wives are big on honesty.”
I sigh. Damn it. All I wanted to do this evening was relive my incredible night with Finn and Oliver, and maybe chat with Lancelot and Merlin. But Leah needs me. “I’m assuming I’ll have to get dressed up for this dinner?” I ask gloomily.
“Yes,” she says at once. “Wear the black cocktail dress I gave you last year. You still have it, don’t you?”
“I do,” I reply sulkily. “Fine. I’ll be there.”
“Thank you, Miki,” she says, chuckling a little at my tone. “I’m really grateful. Really.”
The dinner is as boring as I fear. As I talk to the single male investment banker sitting across from me, I begin to fear that this is a ‘Get Miki to Meet Some Eligible Bachelors’ ambush. Jonathan Sherman, a coworker of Ben’s, is easy enough on the eye, but he’s painfully boring. All he seems to be able to talk about are his car, his boat, and his career. “What do you do?” he asks me during a brief pause in the monolog.
“I’ve just started work at a data security firm called Imperium.” I look at Ben out of the corner of my eye, but if he has a guilty conscience, he doesn’t show any sign.
Jonathan’s eyebrows rise. “They’re going public soon, aren’t they? Their IPO is creating a lot of buzz. It’s going to make them a fortune.”
Stefan Campos, another investment banker, is sitting at my right. He nods at Jonathan’s comment. “They’re already spending it,” he says. “I ran into one of the management team at my realtor’s office. He was looking at a forty-million dollar penthouse on the Upper East Side.”
“Who?” I can’t see either Oliver or Finn shop around for such expensive real estate. The men are pretty wealthy and are going to be even richer, but so far, I haven’t seen any sign that they like to throw their money around. No fancy cars, no expensive yachts.
“Lawrence Kent,” Stefan replies.
That’s weird. I’ve had three meetings with the CFO this week. The last one was during lunch on Thursday, the only free slot on his schedule, and he spent ten minutes bitching about the cost of his fifteen-dollar sandwich. He certainly doesn’t act like he can afford a forty-million dollar condo.
“Your realtor’s office?” Ben asks. “Are you moving?”
Stefan shakes his head. “No, Molly and I are buying a summer home in the Hamptons.”
“I’d like to live in the Hamptons,” Leah says wistfully. “I’ve always wanted to open a bakery there.”
“You have?” I sound surprised. Leah’s always glued to the Food Network, and I know she has a girl crush on the Barefoot Contessa, but I didn’t think she was serious about her cooking aspirations. “You do know bakers wake up alarmingly early, don’t you?”
Ben looks at my sister fondly. “Leah’s usually up at the crack of dawn.” He puts his hand over hers. “And she’s an excellent cook.”
Hmm. If Ben’s cheating on my sister, he’s a really good actor. Right now, he looks like a man who’s deeply in love with his wife. Is Leah just being paranoid?
Then again, I thought I was paranoid when Aaron started spending more and more time at work. I thought that I was imagining the looks of pity the women in his office gave me when I visited.
After dinner, I corner Ben. “Nice party,” I tell him, looking around the library with wide eyes. Their apartment has two floors and is at least three thousand square feet. In Manhattan, on the Upper East Side. I can’t even imagine how much money they paid for it. “You’ve redecorated since the last time I was here.”
“Leah redecorated,” he corrects me, an edge in his voice. “I wrote checks.” He pours himself a drink from the mahogany bar and drains it. “This bar was custom-built in Italy. It cost fifty thousand dollars. The flower bill for tonight?” He gestures to the tall vases overflowing with bright orange and red orchids. “Four thousand dollars. They were flown in from Ecuador.” He looks at my sister, who’s chatting with Sharon Hodges on the other side of the room. “Still, Leah’s happy.”
I’m reminded of Friday night, of the way Oliver downed his rum and coke when Claudia walked in. I don’t know my brother-in-law very well, but something’s going on with him. “That seems like a lot of money,” I say cautiously.
“No shit.” He pours himself another drink and tilts the bottle of Scotch my way. I decline the offer, and he shrugs. “We’re on a fucking treadmill, and we can’t get off.”
“It’s none of my business, but have you tried talking to Leah?” I ask gently. My sister has always been something of a spendthrift, but even for her, this is excessive.
“It’s my job to provide for my wife,” he says flatly. “If she wants orchids from South America, she’ll get them.”
Warned by his tone, I shut up. I’m willing to bet that what Leah really wants is more of Ben’s time and attention. They seem to be trapped in a vicious cycle; my sister spends money because she’s unhappy that Ben’s never home, and Ben works harder to pay for all the things Leah buys.
Is he cheating on her? I can’t tell. But there’s no doubt: Something’s wrong with their marriage.
25
Finn
A real friend is one who walks in when the rest of the world walks out.
Walter Winchell
True to his word, Guzman sends me the data I’m looking for, a list of every single IP address that User0989 used to access his DefCon account.
Oliver and I divide up the list, and we get to work. I comb through the information, meticulously tracing each address, but every single one I try results in a dead-end. User0989 has been careful. He’s logged into his account from coffee shops, from libraries, and other public areas. All I learn is that he’s located in Manhattan, which does nothing to narrow down his identity.
“No luck?” Oliver asks, after about two hours of work. “Me neither.”
I don’t reply. I move to the next address on the list. “Hang on,” I say slowly. Something’s nagging at me. This IP address looks familiar. “You remember that monitor we installed in the small conference room a couple of weeks ago?”
“The one where the technician couldn’t get the display to connect to the Internet?”
“Yeah.” I wrack my brain, trying to remember what Janine told me. The display wouldn’t work with our firewall, so the technician had to use a workaround. “The guy couldn’t connect to our network, so he connected it to the building’s wi-fi.”
“That’s not very secure,” Oliver comments with a frown.
“Not at all. Janine was going to follow up with the company that made the unit.” I log into Imperium and confirm that I’m right. “User0989 piggybacked on that connection on Tuesday.”
Oliver’s head snaps up. “You’re saying User0989 works at Imperium.”
“Exactly.”
I pull up the conference room’s calendar. User0989 accessed the Internet at five in the afternoon on Tuesday. Who was in the room at that time?
Two minutes later, I have my answer. There were three people in that room.
Chris Wilcox, the developer that Larry poached from the Shield team.
Sachin Sharma, the head of the Shield team.
And finally, a name that sends a jolt through me. Lawrence Kent.
I turn my laptop screen toward Oliver. He reads the list and reaches the same conclusion I do. There’s only one person on this list who has the means to hire a hacker.
Why does Lawrence Kent want Miki to hack into Imperium? What is he after?
Oliver rises to his feet. “I don’t understand,” he says, pacing by the window. “What does Larry have to gain if we get breached? He’s got stock options. He has just as much to lose as we do if our IPO fails.”
“I don’t know,” I confess. “It doesn’t make sense. Larry wants to be the CEO, and I’m sure he’d love to see the two of us discredited. But if the IPO fails, he stands to lose a fortune. He’s not going to do that.”
We’re missing something. If we had User0989’s chat transcripts, we might be able to piece together Larry’s plan, but Boris Guzman was clear that he wasn’t prepared to give those up.
“Could we fire Kent?” I ask Oliver.
He shakes his head. “The board won’t go for it,” he says regretfully. “Ambrose likes Kent. The two of them golf together twice a month. Sutton will do the right thing, but only if we have conclusive proof.”
Damn it. This was the trade-off we made for the opportunity to go public. The board of directors had to have a certain amount of control over our decision making in order to satisfy the SEC. “User0989 hired Miki,” I say out loud. “If she discloses that to the board…”
Oliver voices the flaw in my plan. “Miki mentioned User0989 to Lancelot and Merlin,” he says. “Not to Oliver Prescott and Finn Sanders.”
I lapse into silence. In order to fire Kent, we’re going to have to reveal our true identities to Miki.
And if we do that, we will lose her.
Oliver opens his mouth to say something but changes his mind. His expression is conflicted.
Neither of us is prepared to give her up. Not after last night.
26
Miki
I get back home after Leah’s party, change out of my black cocktail dress and into my comfortable Hello Kitty pajamas and curl up on the couch.
My thoughts are confused and tangled, and my mind refuses to settle down, jumping from topic to topic. I turn on the TV, but nothing holds my attention. Finally, I confront the thing I’ve been avoiding thinking about.
Last night.
I force myself to admit something I’ve been denying for the last week. I should have never responded to User0989. Though the money was tempting, I should have never agreed to hack into Imperium. Even for Leah. Even to figure out what Ben was up to.
That’s the real reason why I didn’t tell Lancelot and Merlin about User0989. I was ashamed. I crossed an important ethical line when I agreed to go to that party, and I was afraid to admit what I did to Lancelot and Merlin. Even though I’ve never met the two men, their opinions have become incredibly important to me.
Last night, I slept with Oliver and Finn, bringing matters to a head.
Who are you, Miki Cooper? I ask myself. Finn Sanders and Oliver Prescott are good men. Are you the kind of person that will destroy their dreams?
I can’t do that to them.
I’ve already gone over the line. If I hack into Imperium for User0989, I won’t be able to face myself. My pride will be wounded if I borrow money from my parents or my friends, but my sense of right and wrong will remain intact. And that’s far more important.
What now?
I could quit my job. Ignoring the sinking feeling in my stomach at the thought of never seeing Finn and Oliver again, I force myself to examine the option objectively. If I quit, User0989 might still expose me, but he won’t be able to cause the IPO to fail.
Unless he hires someone else. Someone who isn’t bothered by inconvenient scruples.
I need to talk this out with someone. I flip my laptop open. Merlin isn’t online, but Lancelot is. Tell them, Miki, my conscience urges. They’re your friends. They’ll help you.
Or they’ll be disgusted by what I did.
I take a deep breath. Either way, it’s time to face the music.
Do you have a minute? I type.
There’s a long pause, and then Lancelot’s reply appears on the screen. Of course, mouse.
You remember the other day when I asked you to track down a user called User0989?
Yeah… he replies.
I didn’t tell you why I wanted to know. My fingers pause over my keyboard, then I force myself to keep typing. User0989 hired me to hack into Imperium.
Lancelot’s reply comes almost immediately. He did?
God, I feel about two feet high. He offered me a hundred thousand dollars if I was able to crack their network and retrieve their client list, I admit. I should have told you earlier.
You want our help cracking Imperium? Lancelot asks.
No! I can’t go through with it.
Too risky?
That’s not it. My cheeks heat as images from last night flash in front of me. The outline of Finn’s cock against his briefs. Oliver’s blond head bent between my legs as he ate me out. Finn flipping me on my hands and knees and thrusting his hard shaft into my pussy. Oliver’s erection nudging my lips.
Imperium has never harmed me, I type out at last. Oliver Prescott and Finn Sanders have been great to work with. If I hack them ahead of their IPO, they stand to lose a ton of money.
So you’re scared?
No. I don’t feel good about what I agreed to do, Lancelot, but I had my reasons, and it wasn’t just the money.
Why’d you do it?
My sister thinks her husband is cheating on her, I write. His information is protected by Imperium. I shouldn’t have got involved but after my own divorce—
I don’t continue. Lancelot will understand. His wife cheated on him. Before Aaron, I naively believed that people didn’t cheat very often on their partners, that my father was an exception. After all, my friends were perfectly happy with their partners, and Leah and Ben always seemed content.
Not anymore. Aaron cheated. Lancelot’s wife cheated on him, though he’s never mentioned the specifics. Yesterday, Oliver told me about Claudia. Ben might have a mistress on the side. It’s enough to make me lose my faith in love.
I can understand that, Lancelot says at last. Thank you for telling me the truth, Mouse. So what are you going to do?
Probably quit my job.
Really? He seems surprised. That’s rather drastic. Don’t you need the cash?
It doesn’t matter, Lancelot. I can’t be involved in this.
If you quit, the guy’s just going to hire someone else off the forum, Lancelot writes.
I exhale in frustration. What should I do then? Tell me. I’m out of options here. I just know I can’t hurt Oliver and Finn. They don’t deserve it.
He doesn’t reply for almost a full minute. What if you told them everything?
I wish I could com
e clean with Finn and Oliver, but even the thought of telling them the truth makes me cold all over. There’s no good scenario here. Either they’re going to think I slept with them hoping to sway them not to press charges when they found out, or they’re going to think I slept with them to try and worm information out of them.
Let me see, I write back. They’re on the brink of an IPO, and I’ve been hired to hack into their company and ruin it. If I tell them, they’ll call the cops faster than I can blink.
You’re just a tool in this, Mouse. If they’re smart, they’ll try and figure out what User0989’s end game is.
I stare at the monitor, wondering if Lancelot is right. What he’s saying makes sense. User0989 is up to something, and if I were Finn and Oliver, I’d want to know what he’s after.
But the truth is, despite sleeping with Oliver and Finn, I don’t know the two men. I don’t know what their reaction will be when they find out that I was hired to hack into their company.
I’d like to tell them everything, but I can’t take the chance.
27
Finn
There is no fool like a careless gambler who starts taking victory for granted.
Hunter S. Thompson
What a fucking tangled web we weave.
After Miki’s chat session with Oliver last night, he called me, and I’d gone over, and the two of us had stared at the screen for the longest time, unsure how to proceed.
Almost a day later, I still don’t know what to do.
I’m intensely relieved that Miki isn’t plotting to destroy us. I’m delighted that she’s told us everything. I want to tell her not to worry. We will figure out what Lawrence is up to, and we will stop him.
Ménage in Manhattan: The Complete 5-Book Ménage Romance Collection Page 95
