by Lyn Cote
“Now Annie says Troy was trying to do it again, trying to keep her—” she searched for the word Annie had used “—his ‘house-frau.”’
“Maybe he did.” Jack stretched his upper body, visibly working out the kinks from sitting so long.
She watched the latent power in his movements and wished for the thousandth time that those arms would claim her.
“I don’t know what to believe.”
“Hey, is this LIT?” a man’s voice called from behind Gracie.
She turned. “Yes, may I—”
The neatly dressed man in his mid-thirties brushed past her. “Are you Jack Lassater?”
Jack rose, staring.
Gracie had never been pushed aside like this before. “Pardon me, but Mr. Lassater is busy—”
“Someone who still works at Hope tipped me off. Called me to say you’d been checking up on me—”
“Who are you?” Gracie asked, sliding past the man and allying herself with Jack.
“I’m Dick Witte. I worked for Hope in the finance department until early this year. One of my friends said you were tracking me on the Web—”
“I’m checking out a lot of people,” Jack said. “There’s no law against it.”
“That doesn’t mean I have to like it or put up with it. If your intrusion continues, I’ll see a lawyer. In fact, several people told me I already have grounds to sue. Dr. Collins didn’t let me go according to RIF guidelines, and I can still make trouble.”
“Do what you have to do,” Jack replied, with no show of emotion. “And I’ll do what I have to.”
“Fine. But I came here to let you know I’m not going to serve as Hope’s scapegoat.” The man stomped out.
Jack gave Gracie a quizzical look. “I’ve just scratched the surface.”
Gracie grimaced. And who knows what would pop up next—?
“Hey, it’s me!” Tom burst in on them.
Gracie turned her head and silently groaned. Now they’ll want my answer.
“So have you two thrashed it out?” Tom smiled. “What’s your decision?”
She’d known Tom wouldn’t beat around the bush.
“I accept your deal.” Jack said, cool and decisive. “I’ll buy you out with stock and the office setup. Except for my computer.”
Feeling as though she’d just swallowed a rock, Gracie tried to read Jack’s expression but couldn’t.
“Great. I’ll have my lawyer draw up—”
“Your lawyer is my lawyer and I’ll have the agreement drawn up. Just write down what you want,” Jack said without any obvious rancor.
Gracie stared at them. How had he come to this decision? Just yesterday he’d acted as if he felt betrayed.
“Okay,” Tom agreed. “I’ll let you have custody of our lawyer and find new legal counsel for myself.”
Then Tom turned his attention to her. “Gracie, I have a few names of businesses that approached us in the month before my vacation, wanting to hire LIT. You can start by following up on them.” Tom walked over to his desk, which was uncharacteristically uncluttered.
That alone should have tipped her off that Tom was leaving, Gracie thought morosely.
God, why didn’t You warn me?
Tom returned, offering her a few index cards. “Here—”
Gracie looked to Jack. He’d retreated again. When he was with the twins or talking about them, he opened up. She looked to Tom. Why had he suggested she take his position? Was it just a convenient cover for his leaving so abruptly?
Then she recalled her conversation with Troy. Troy couldn’t or wouldn’t let go of things as they were. Things change. She reached for the cards.
“Thanks, Tom.” Her voice sounded confident, but her pulse suddenly zoomed to calorie-burn level.
Jack let out a sigh that sounded relieved.
She couldn’t look at him. Feeling as I do, I know I should leave, but I can’t.
“Now, Gracie,” Tom said in a conspiratorial tone, “be sure Jack draws up a contract with you, too. You’re not just a paltry wage-earner at LIT anymore. You’re the sales staff.”
“No, I…” Gracie looked around as though seeking guidance.
“He’s right.” Jack smiled at her.
Her pulse pounded at her temples. Jack’s smile lifted her spirits, her hope. They took to the sky on fluttery butterfly wings.
“Though why he thinks I need to be reminded of that, I don’t know,” Jack concluded.
“Oh, yes, we do, don’t we?” Tom teased. “Gracie and I know how your mind loses important details.”
Gracie didn’t trust her voice so she remained silent. Jack had never given her a smile like that before—so personal, so full of understanding.
“Okay, my good man, get your lawyer on this.” Tom beamed at them. “My new partner is arriving at the beginning of next week. So you need to vacate within ten days.”
“Ten days!” Jack yelped.
Tom gave them a wave as he exited.
Gracie felt like running after him. Don’t go! I changed my mind. I can’t do this.
Jack grimaced and then turned his attention back on her. Directly on her.
She stared back at him.
“You need to hire your replacement,” Jack said abruptly.
“Me?”
“Yes, I’m too busy with the Hope project to take time to do that. And you don’t have to be in a big hurry to drum us up another client. First of all, we’ll need clerical staff and a new place to work. That’s what you should concentrate on.”
“Is that all?” Gracie asked, resting her hands on her hips.
“Yeah.” He turned back to the computer. “Call our lawyer, too. And tell him to expect to be writing up new contracts with Tom and one with you.”
“Jack, just because I’ve agreed to try my hand at sales,” she cautioned, “doesn’t mean that I’m going to handle everything.”
“I’m right in the middle of designing a new encryption for Hope and then I’m going forward with the design of a whole new security protocol for them. I’ve also been following up all their leads and keeping a finger on Dr. Collins.” He tapped away, picking up speed. “I can’t be bothered with anything else right now. You can do what’s necessary. You’ve never failed me before.”
Warmed by his unlooked-for praise, Gracie acknowledged defeat and rose.
“Oh.” Jack’s voice sounded funny. “We should do something to celebrate your moving up to marketing and sales. Make reservations for us for dinner tonight. Somewhere with thick steaks. I’m going to be hungry.”
The three of them—Jack, Tom and Gracie—had often gone out casually after work or to celebrate a new contract on the spur of the moment. But reservations? Jack had never told her to do that before.
“That’s not necessary.”
“Yes, it is. Don’t you think I know how big a favor you’re doing me?” Then he officially tuned out.
She recognized the symptoms, his intent expression, his hands moving over the keyboard.
Jack was taking her to dinner, just her. A warm glow spread through her, lifting the corners of her mouth into what she thought must be a goofy smile.
Gracie tapped on Jack’s door. The blue sky outside was darkening into lavender twilight.
Jack didn’t look up.
“Jack, it’s time to quit.”
He looked up then. “What time is it?”
“Nearly eight. We have reservations at Sharkey’s in a half hour.” Gracie folded her hands and waited to see what he would say.
“Reservations?”
“You told me to make reservations for—”
“For a thick steak dinner to celebrate your promotion,” he finished. “I didn’t forget and I’m starved.”
He closed the files and shut down his computer. “Let’s go.”
The phone rang on Gracie’s desk. She went to it. “LIT, Gracie Petrov speaking.”
“Gracie, it’s Cliff Lassater. I need to talk to Jack—stat.”
Chapter Seven
“Here comes your father,” Gracie murmured, looking over her shoulder.
Sitting across from her in a booth at Sharkey’s, Jack observed his father approaching. Ignoring the waiter following him, Cliff was walking fast and frowning.
When they’d arrived at Sharkey’s, Gracie had slipped off her blazer and unbuttoned the top button of her sleeveless blouse. In the low light of the restaurant, the thin string of pearls glowed against her pale neck.
Arriving, Cliff slid in beside Gracie and turned down the menu offered by a waiter, waving the man away. “Our payroll has been corrupted.”
Jack whispered a curse. He also resented his father’s disrupting his meal with Gracie. Couldn’t they even have a moment of celebration without his dad bursting in?
“What have you accomplished so far?” Cliff demanded. “How did this happen?”
Jack stared at his dad. “Get real. I’ve only been on the job a few days. Your system’s security was Stone Age. For the past few years, you’ve been a sitting duck and didn’t even know it. Why didn’t anyone think to keep up with new security?”
Cliff grimaced. “You’re saying this is our own fault?”
Jack nodded, his gaze not leaving his dad’s face.
“Perhaps…you’ve been complacent,” Gracie suggested in a subdued tone. “You didn’t think anyone would have a motive to interrupt your system.”
Both men turned to her.
That was just like Gracie. She was too kind. Her delicate hand rested on the table. Jack stretched out his next to hers. Be careful not to touch her.
Cliff rewarded Gracie’s tact with a half smile. “I guess we’re not computer types. Most of us are too involved in our practices and patients…. Just keeping up with the innovations in our own fields keeps us buried.”
The waiter arrived at the table and served Gracie and Jack their steaks sizzling on metal plates. The delicious aroma of charcoal-broiled beef made Jack’s empty stomach rumble.
“You need to hire a full-time computer person—” Jack picked up his knife and fork “—who would be responsible for your programs and security. I’ve started designing a new encryption code for Hope. But it will take me some time to finish it and then I’ll have to update all your passwords. What exactly did the hacker do to your payroll?”
“Wildly inflated checks.” His dad waved toward Gracie’s plate, encouraging her to go ahead and begin eating. “We had to stop payment on them—that will cost a pretty penny—and hire an outside firm to issue a whole new payroll. Our employees are up in arms about the delay.”
Jack sliced his first bite of rare steak and bit into it. “Couldn’t this have waited till tomorrow morning? I can’t do anything about what’s happening to your outdated, compromised system.”
“Those who have their checks direct-deposited and for whom we’ve delayed the deposits,” his dad continued, ignoring his question, “also had automatic withdrawals which will come back as delinquent with insufficient-funds charges.” Cliff rubbed his hand over his forehead. “It’s been a nightmare. Our employees and the custodial and other unions are screaming for somebody’s blood.”
“They’ll calm down,” Gracie said in a soothing tone. “When the new checks arrive and you agree to pay for all delinquent charges for returned checks, et cetera.”
Cliff looked sideways at her. “I suppose that’s what we’ll have to do.” Then he glanced across at Jack. “When will the new encryption be ready to go?”
“Soon.” Jack cut another bite of the succulent Iowa corn-fed beef Sharkey’s was noted for. “I do encryption all the time. That’s not the problem.”
“Then, what is the problem?” Cliff barked.
Jack made eye contact with his father. “I told you before. The problem is who is doing this and why. Your Board has started on a list of possible suspects, people with grudges against Hope. I’m keeping tabs on the very unhappy Dr. Collins—just in case—and today, Dick Witte burst into my office and threatened a lawsuit because I was checking him out. Finding the culprit is really the key here.”
Cliff frowned. “Is that necessary? I mean, if you put the new security in place, won’t that stop whoever it is?”
“For a while.” Jack watched Gracie adding butter and sour cream to her baked potato. She was always so precise about everything she did. Like the golden butter melting on her plate, he felt himself soften toward her.
“But I also told you, no program is invincible,” he continued. “I can tighten your security. But I can’t guarantee that it can never again be breached, even with regular updates. If someone is out to get you and is really clever, he will break in eventually.”
“That is not what I wanted to hear.” Cliff rose.
“I warned you at the pool party of my limitations.” I didn’t want to take on your project. I only did it to help Mom, to make it your money that would pay for her addition. And now she doesn’t want my money.
“I have to go home and call the Board. We’ll have to get a meeting together and continue working on that suspect list.” Cliff started to walk away and then stopped to address Gracie. “Good night. Sorry to have disturbed your dinner.” He left as he had come—quickly and gloomily.
“Were you able to find out anything about the hacker?” Gracie asked Jack.
“He’s smart, almost brilliant. But what really worries me is that no matter what my father just said, the Board still hasn’t taken finding the hacker seriously. They are treating it like a natural disaster. They just wanted me to clean up the mess so they could get back to business as usual.”
Gracie gazed at him. Jack studied her eyes. They were more round than oval and they looked luminous in the candlelight.
“You mean that you think the hacker will strike again?” She finally cut into her steak.
“‘Strike’ is a flamboyant word. But yes, this isn’t over. Not until we catch him or her.”
Nearly a week later, Gracie’s nerve endings zinged with tension. Jack stood beside her, stolid and silent. I can’t believe I thought this would be a good place for us to move LIT.
Mama Kalanovski unlocked the door to the vacant storefront next to the Polska Café. “This ain’t a classy address,” Mama said over her shoulder to Jack.
“Gracie already explained that to me,” Jack said, looking at ease in tan chinos and a clay-colored knit shirt, one that matched the red in his hair.
“I could have looked downtown,” Gracie mentioned, but was ignored. Jack doesn’t belong here. The contrast between Jack and the working-class setting was striking. I don’t even have Tom there to run interference between us. I play with fire every day I show up for work.
“And it’s been vacant for over a year,” Mama continued.
“Gracie said it would need some work.” Jack looked up and down the street.
“Yeah, a good cleaning wouldn’t hurt.” Mama chuckled.
Gracie cringed. Jack’s father had thought he was slumming when they’d merely lunched next door. Jack must have agreed because he thought it was a good joke on his father.
Gracie almost wished he wouldn’t be so polite for her sake. He should just have said no.
“Okay,” Mama said. “I just don’t want you to be insulted. This ain’t Michigan Avenue.” She opened the door and waved them inside.
Touching her shoulder, Jack let Gracie precede him.
“When you’re done, lock up and bring me the key.” Entrusting it to Gracie, she left them.
With a feeling of fatalism, Grace switched on the high fluorescent lights. She and Jack had stirred up dust when they’d entered. It danced in the light, swirling like her nerves.
“I know it doesn’t look like much,” she mumbled.
Jack scanned the bare room. His expression told her little.
He’ll hate it. She glanced at shelves from the previous owner, partially dismantled, some lying on the floor and the rest propped against the far wall. She contrasted this with the sleek
office they’d just vacated.
“This probably wasn’t what you were visualizing as new office space for us,” she said in a halfhearted tone, feeling very much that she’d dropped the ball. “But it’s really reasonable, and Mama said she and her husband would pay for paint and all, if we wanted to update it ourselves.”
Jack nodded, turning in a slow circle as he inspected the large open room.
Why didn’t he react? It was spooky. Just tell me you hate it, Jack, and we’ll leave.
“What’s in the back?” Jack walked toward the rear entrance, but kept glancing at her.
“A little kitchen, kind of a break area or a stock area.” Why did he keep looking at her? She followed him, hope trembling to life.
He waited for her to catch up. “What was this before?”
“A hardware store.” She kept pace with him now. “But the owner passed away and the Kalanovskis bought it from the heirs because they wanted to control what kind of business moved in beside them.”
Jack inclined his ear as though hanging on her every word.
Gracie watched Jack assessing the space. “A man who wanted to put in an adult entertainment store here had approached the heirs.”
His gaze unnerved her, but she went on. “The Kalanovskis thought that kind of store would ruin our solid family neighborhood.”
“I see.” Jack flipped on the light switch in the back room and gazed around, his expression still unreadable. But he remained close at her side.
“If we rented from the Kalanovskis, it would be trouble-free.” She felt herself beginning to babble. Jack’s obvious deference to her judgment and his close attention was unnerving. “They’re honest people. Our neighborhood has low crime. Everyone watches out for each other….”
He nodded, but stared at her, not the empty store. Did she have a smudge on her nose or something? What was going on? She couldn’t stand the tension anymore.
“So what do you think?”
“Well, the rent is more than reasonable.”
She took a deep, calming breath. “I thought while we’re making a change like this, it would be best to keep our expenses low. But we would have to put in some sweat equity. My dad said he’d help us whip it into shape this weekend.”
