by Ravenna Tate
“I have a team of people on that. The other eleven Weathermen each also have a team on it. I’m a person who thinks ahead. I believe we will find a way to shut down the program. One day we will be able to live on the surface again. So in the meantime, I need to think of ways my company can stay in business and help people accomplish useful things at the same time.”
Once again, Emma hoped her disappointment didn’t show. While his plan for utilizing her skills was a challenging one, after hearing what he’d said about their progress so far, and how little time they all had, she now wanted to help them find this last hacker.
“What do you think?” he asked, uncrossing his legs. “Are you up to the challenge?” His gaze was so intense she almost started picturing him nude again. She wondered what it would be like to look into his eyes while making love, then realized he’d asked her a question she hadn’t yet answered.
“Absolutely.”
When he smiled, she hoped she’d been wrong about how much time had passed before she’d answered. He’d wonder if he hadn’t hired a fool.
Her new job had suddenly become even more interesting than she’d believed it was before meeting him. She’d be an idiot to return to Central now, knowing what she knew. Her entire life had changed, just as she’d dreamed it would. She only hoped she was up to the challenge of not only coming up with the gadget he envisioned, but managing not to fall under his spell.
Now she understood what all the fuss was about concerning these men. Atticus was hypnotic. Charisma and charm oozed from him. Keeping her wits about her would be a much bigger challenge than designing the device and its software.
Chapter Two
Atticus didn’t have to take Emma to HR himself. He had a team of administrative assistants who could do that, as well as show her to her office and help her access the systems she’d need to work. But he couldn’t take his eyes off her, so he escorted her to the elevator. He had seen her pictures online while searching her background, but she was much prettier in person.
Hair the color of rich chocolate that was the perfect length for her heart-shaped face, plus dark, expressive eyes that held intelligence as well as passion. The one thing he hadn’t found in her background check was whether or not she was seeing anyone. That he’d have to investigate on his own.
“By the way, I wear a suit everyday to the office, but the dress code here is fairly loose. Jeans are all right, but I draw the line at shorts and tank tops.”
“Really? I’m surprised to hear you say that. The receptionist downstairs looks like she walked off the pages of a fashion magazine, and whoever showed me to your office was equally well groomed.”
They stepped into the elevator, and he pushed the button for two floors down. “Anyone coming into contact with the public has higher expectations. You’ll be in an office on the same floor as mine, but I doubt you’ll see outside customers until you have a mock-up of the device.”
The door opened, and she raised her brows as she glanced toward him. “Are you saying I’ll be presenting the mock-up to people outside your company?”
“Yes, of course. I’ll be with you when you do, but it’s your design.”
They walked down the hallway, her heels making soft sounds on the carpet. He caught a whiff of shampoo and it sent images of standing under the spray of a shower with her, while he washed her hair and then worked his way down her curvy body.
Down, boy! You just met her.
“That’s so exciting. I’ve never done anything like that before. I’ve always worked behind the scenes.”
“You’re too pretty to keep behind the scenes.” The second the words were out of his mouth, he wished he could take them back. Fucking idiot! His impulsiveness had landed him in hot water more than once. You’d think he’d have learned by now.
He stopped outside the door to HR and looked into her eyes. “Forgive me. That was a horribly sexist thing to say.”
He’d expected one of two reactions. Either she’d flirt with him, or she’d be offended. Atticus glimpsed neither reaction on her face. Instead, he saw what he swore was fear, but then it was gone quickly, replaced by a neutral expression that him wondering if she’d practiced it.
What the hell?
“Yes, it was very sexist, but not unexpected.”
“What do you mean by that?”
A slight flush crept up her neck, making his dick twitch. He loved to watch a woman blush. There was something so endearing about it.
“I mean because of your reputation online.”
“Oh. That.” The bane of his existence. Even Ace and Emmett, both now married, had to deal with constant rumors about their sex lives in the tabloids.
“I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable.”
“You didn’t. I shouldn’t have said that to you. It’s your first day, after all.” Only one way to find out if there’s a possibility here… “I mean, what would you think of me if I asked you out before you even have a chance to set up your work area?”
He watched several emotions cross her face, one of which was definitely fear. Had he missed something important in her background? That wasn’t like him. He’d have to go over what he’d found on her again. This morning, before he did anything else.
She cut her gaze toward the end of the hallway, but they were alone. Was she hoping someone came along so this conversation would end, or was she checking to make sure no one could hear them?
“Are you asking me out?”
His dick twitched again. “Yes.”
She searched his face for several seconds. “Atticus, I do appreciate the offer, but I’m seeing someone.”
Shit. “Have I offended you by asking?”
“No. No, you haven’t.”
She held his gaze far too long for a woman who was actually involved in another relationship and wouldn’t consider cheating on her man. If she was the type who would, he wasn’t interested anyway. If she’d lied to him about dating someone, why had she done so? What was she hiding? And why was it a subject that she was afraid of?
As Atticus opened the door to the HR department and stood aside so Emma could enter first, he glanced down, admiring the way her very nice ass moved under her skirt. He’d missed something in her background. Either that, or she’d hidden it well. But why would a woman try to hide someone she was dating?
He could think of several reasons, none of which he wanted to find out about the woman he’d just hired to design his latest pet project, and to whom he’d told way too much about the hackers. If she turned out to be bad news… He didn’t want to go there because it made him angry. It wasn’t like him to fuck up like this.
Why had he done that? Why had he confided so much to her? She had a look of vulnerability that had reached into his soul, that’s why. But business was business, and he had to protect his at all costs. Each of them had to, especially now.
Once she’d taken care of everything in HR, he escorted her to her office and introduced her to Cindy Wolff.
“Cindy is one of the administrative assistants who works exclusively on this floor. She’ll help you get set up and ready to work. I’ll email you this morning with a tentative schedule for meetings to monitor your progress, and I’ll set up a time later this week so you can meet other key people in the organization whom you’ll be working with eventually.”
Atticus had intended on helping her get set up on his own, but his priority now was finding out what he’d missed, or what she was hiding.
“Thank you again for this opportunity. I won’t let you down.” She stuck out her hand, and he didn’t hesitate to shake it again. Touching her sent a shiver down his spine. That was usually a sure sign he’d end up having at least one date with the woman, but now he knew that wouldn’t happen with Emma.
“I’m sure you won’t. Happy to have you on board.” His response was automatic, hurried. He wanted to return to his office as soon as possible. After rattling off instructions to Cindy, Atticus left her and Emma on their own. T
ime to get to work on discovering what he’d missed about her life in Central.
****
Once Cindy was convinced Emma had everything figured out, she left the office and Emma stared at the blank walls. Cindy had explained she could decorate the office any way she liked, but Emma wasn’t picturing prints on the walls or what color she might have them painted.
Her mind had wandered back to Central, and the primary reason she’d started looking for another job. Atticus had spotted her reaction. There was no doubt about it. And she was convinced he also knew she had lied about seeing someone.
None of that would matter if she wasn’t now working for a man who had made it his life’s mission to dig beneath the surface and ferret out hackers. If he could do that, he’d certainly uncover her prior relationship with Leland Clough.
Emma rose from the beautifully carved wooden desk and walked to one of two walls of windows that met at a ninety degree angle. She had a corner office, and it was as lavish as anything she’d ever seen in Central. It was also too large for just one person to work in, but that might be because she’d spent the past seven years working in a cubicle inside a tiny room with three other people.
This city might not have buildings as tall as those in Central, but it looked like it terms of the fake sky, the fake river in the distance, and the park in the center of town that had been designed to make people think they were still on the surface.
CentralEast was built under parts of what used to be Ohio, Kentucky, West Virginia, Virginia, Tennessee, and the Carolinas. As such, the city’s architecture didn’t mimic only one distinct part of the country, as some of the other cities did. It was a mish-mosh of Midwestern, Mid-Atlantic, and southern states.
She couldn’t complain so far. She had a very nice apartment to live in, and the rent was far less expensive than what she’d paid in Central for a smaller place. She had a job where she’d finally be able to use all her skills, and her boss was major eye candy.
Emma sighed and took a seat in one of the leather armchairs. Major eye candy who had made a totally inappropriate sexual remark and then asked her out.
If Leland had never happened, she’d have gone out with Atticus in a heartbeat, even knowing what she knew about him from the tabloids. That was her specialty, after all. Or rather, it used to be her specialty. Falling for charming, charismatic men who were also commitment-phobes.
Once bitten, twice burned. But once was all it took. Especially when the bite included the kind of information about himself that Leland had kept from her.
A ping from her work machine had her rising and walking back to her desk. It was the promised email from Atticus, with a schedule of meetings for the next six months to talk about her progress. He’d set them up weekly, which meant she’d better get to work. She already had a few ideas from their conversation this morning.
She accepted all the meetings, and checked to be sure they had populated into her calendar. Cindy had shown her how to sync her work calendar to her phone, so she made sure that had worked as well, and then she accessed the design program on her machine. It was time to make a gadget.
****
Atticus asked Ivy Masterson, the administrative assistant who scheduled all his meetings, to clear his calendar for the rest of the day. Because Emma’s reaction of fear hadn’t happened until he’d told her she was too pretty to stay behind the scenes, and then again when he’d made that quip about asking her out, Atticus went back to the list he’d made of her former coworkers and supervisors at the Central Police Headquarters.
This was a woman who had an impeccable work record. She hadn’t missed more than a handful of days for illness in seven years, and had received nothing but glowing performance reviews. It was a rare thing to see these days, as were people with great work ethics. At the time he’d chalked it up to a lucky find. Now, he wasn’t so sure.
Her performance reviews had been electronically signed by the captain of the station for the past three years, which was a change from prior years when they had been signed by a sergeant at the same station.
The sergeant was still there, so it might have simply been a change in the supervision of civilian personnel, but Atticus wanted to be sure. He searched a database he had no business having access to but that he’d used countless times in the past, and pulled up the signature pages of her coworkers’ performance reviews for the past three years. They had all been signed by the sergeant.
Then he made sure Emma had not been transferred to a different department, given a promotion, or been given a different title which might explain why the police captain had begun signing her performance reviews instead of the sergeant. He found no evidence her job title or department had changed.
Had the police captain been blackmailing her, or had she become involved with him? Was she still involved with him? Was he the man she was seeing? Pretty stupid move on this captain’s part to single her out by signing her performance reviews, but nothing surprised Atticus any longer. People in lust did stupid things.
He went back to the usual sites he used for background checks and searched for information on Leland Clough from Central. He didn’t have to search far, and what he found made him so angry he had an urge to punch a wall. Instead he fired off an email to Emma, asking to see her immediately. She deserved a chance to explain this in person before he fired her ass.
Chapter Three
Emma ate lunch at her desk because she was having so much fun with all the features of the design program she didn’t want to stop. This project and her new job was already a breath of fresh air, and she had forgotten all about her earlier doubts. She also realized she hadn’t thought once about Leland in the past four hours. That alone was worth more than she could put into words.
Cindy poked her head in and asked Emma if she needed anything else. She’d been the one to grab Emma a sandwich and something to drink from the cafeteria.
“No, this is great. Thank you.”
“Just let me know.”
After Cindy left, Emma sat back and smiled. She had her own office, and a very nice person who didn’t mind bringing her lunch. The view out the windows was loads more interesting than the inside of a police station, and she could work without having to block out the noise around her with music in her ears for eight straight hours. She could get used to this.
She returned to setting up the preliminary design for the gadget until an email came through. Glancing down, she saw it was from Atticus, and would have answered it later except for the subject line.
We need to talk NOW.
Her fingers trembling, she opened it and read.
Something has come up in your background that we need to discuss right away. Please come to my office as soon as you receive this email.
Leland. He must have found out about Leland. What else could it be? There was nothing in her background to find. She’d led the most boring life in the world. Until she’d accepted a dinner invitation from Leland, that was.
So much for the police captain’s promise never to tell anyone. That fucking bastard. She’d see him dead for this. He’d ruined her life so now she’d ruin his in return. All bets were off.
Emma blinked back tears as she locked her machine, then forced her feet to move out of the office, past Cindy’s desk, and down the hall to Atticus’s office. The manicured administrative assistant, whose name was Ivy, barely gave her a glance. Great. Did everyone know already? She’d worked here what … five hours?
Atticus sat behind his desk, but he didn’t rise this time, or smile. He pointed toward a chair, and she took the seat, wondering if she spoke first whether that would help her case. He pushed a button, and she jumped a bit when a panel in the desk moved and a tablet rose out of it.
“So you can see what I found,” he said, his voice flat and dull.
She didn’t look at him. She couldn’t. Instead she stared at the little screen as it blinked to life.
“These are copies of your performance reviews for the
past three years, signed by the captain at the station where you worked. Want to tell me why he suddenly started signing them?”
Why should any of this matter to him? She looked him in the eyes. “Leland … Captain Clough told me that although technically I still reported to Alex, I mean Sergeant Alex Southman, he now signed all our reviews.”
A shadow of doubt crossed his face. Then he clicked around, and the screen changed in front of her. She frowned as she realized what she was looking at. “Where did you get these?”
“Not for you to worry about. Do you recognize the signature?”
“Yes, it’s Alex’s, but these aren’t my reviews. They’re my coworkers’. Where did you get them?”
“Look at the dates on them, please.”
That can’t be right…
“I don’t understand.” She glanced up at him again. “This makes no sense.”
“Are you telling me the captain lied to you?”
Why should that surprise her? “Yes, apparently he did.”
Triumph filled his eyes, and the maliciousness of the expression sent a nasty shiver down her spine. What the hell did he think was going on?
“Tell me why he would lie to you, Emma.”
He knows everything anyway. “If you found what I think you found, you already know that.”
“What did I find?”
“Oh, please stop this.” She could hardly hold back the tears now. To his credit, he whirled his chair around and plucked a box of tissues off the credenza. He handed them to her, but his expression was cold and hard now.
“Tell me how you know Leland Clough, and exactly what happened between you two.”
Now Emma was angry. This was really none of his damn business. “Atticus, I hardly see how my getting lied to by this asshole has any bearing on my job performance here.”
There was the doubt again, only this time it was more obvious, and it was followed by confusion. “If that was all I thought had happened, I wouldn’t be asking, because you’d be right. It has nothing to do with it.”
