“I’m glad to see you still remember.”
Her head was bowed. “Rand? Shall we talk about your case? The only reason we’re together now is to try and figure out who is sabotaging your company and stop them. I know how much your company means to you, because of your dad.”
“You’re right. We were a very tight team. When he suffered that fatal embolism two years ago, I felt like I’d lost my best friend.”
He noticed she wasn’t saying anything. Good. He had her full attention.
“One of the reasons I wanted you to work with me on this case is because you understand things no one else does.” The waitress chose that moment to bring their food. “We connected on a very basic level from the first moment you arrived at the building to find that bomb.”
She took a long sip of the cola she’d ordered, then raised her head. “I think it would better to leave the past alone. By the way, while I was sitting here, I remembered some important business I have to do downtown. Why don’t you stay where you are and finish your lunch in peace.
“Since I assume you know my address, let’s plan to meet back at my house in an hour. We’ll discuss your case there. How does that sound?”
“An hour it is.”
Rand fought to contain his excitement. He’d purposely brought up the past to satisfy a hunch that she still had feelings for him. Judging by her behavior, the past was too painful for her to get into. That was all he needed to know.
As she started to walk away with her hamburger in hand, she paused to say, “When you’ve finished your meal, have a fun ride down the canyon, but a word of warning. Every trucker in America knows Parley’s is a death trap. In case you lose your brakes, there’s a road for runaway vehicles about halfway back on your left.”
He practically fell out of the booth. “Thanks for the inside information, sweetheart.”
“Since I read about the expansion of your company in Today’s Fortune, and found out you’re worth another ten million dollars since the last time I saw you, I realize you’re the wealthiest client I’ve ever worked for. I wouldn’t want to lose you now. I need a good bonus so I can take my trip to Florida next January.”
So that’s where she’d gone.
“By the way. Lunch is on LFK. Enjoy.”
I’m going to enjoy it all right. And then I’m going to enjoy something else even more.
In fact her mouth was about all he could think about as he roared out of Park City a half hour later. Catching the culprit responsible for the mayhem on his support lines might take weeks. Anything could happen while he fought to win Annabelle’s love all over again.
If his cycle had wings, he’d be flying about now because in a little while he’d be alone with her in the house she’d grown up in.
He’d driven past it yesterday, but he’d never been inside. Before he could take the time to visit Salt Lake with her, their engagement had ended in disaster. But that was history.
Rand realized he’d been given a second chance to make things work between them. As far as he was concerned, that meant being with her day and night, for as long as it took. After a year’s deprivation, he found her more beautiful, more desirable than ever.
Being with her made him feel like a much younger man in the throes of first love where anything and everything was possible.
He would never let her go again...
Once back in the city, Annabelle stopped at the police station to finish up some paperwork. With that accomplished she headed home, willing her heart to stop hammering because Rand would be meeting her there shortly. But where he was concerned she discovered she couldn’t dictate the state of her emotions.
As she turned onto her street, she could hear the bleeping of her house siren rending the air. Rand must have beaten her home and had started poking around her property.
She grinned, wishing she could have seen the look on his face when he triggered the alarm.
The siren was set to go off if someone stepped on either her front or back porch, or approached any windows. Roman had rigged her home with a dozen different devices so she’d feel safe. It shut off after thirty seconds, just long enough for everyone to look out their windows and see what was going on.
By now the neighbors were used to it, and her friends had learned to call first before dropping in. But it always gave any delivery people, or even the Girl Scouts selling cookies a good scare. That made her feel bad, but since she lived alone, she didn’t feel she had a choice but to protect herself.
The best part though was the first time Gerard had sneaked around her house at night unannounced, and it had gone off. After he’d recovered, he’d told her she’d better take out another insurance policy. The chances of a person suing her for giving them a heart attack were much greater than if they had slipped and fallen on the ice on her property.
He had a point, but she’d been putting it off.
As she pulled into her driveway she caught sight of Rand leaning against the brick wall at the back of the house, his arms folded.
When she got off her bike, she had to gaze a long way up to see his face. He’d never fit her image of a computer wizard, the nerdy kind of character in school who was painfully thin and wore glasses.
Rand’s big strong body, good looks and black curly hair put him in a class all by himself. He was her idea of male perfection. No other man came close.
CHAPTER THREE
NOW that she had arrived, Rand was trying not to laugh, but it was hard. The siren had caught him off guard and he’d let go with a belly laugh. He couldn’t remember laughing like that since before he and Annabelle had broken up.
It felt good. Anything to do with Annabelle meant you learned to live with the unexpected. Frankly he was glad she’d had such a device installed. It would scare the delights out of anyone who shouldn’t be there.
“Shall we go inside?” The wicked look in her eye made him want to pick her up in his arms and kiss her until she cried for mercy. But of course he couldn’t do that.
“After you.”
With the flick of the remote she carried on her key chain to deactivate the siren, she marched up the stairs to her back door.
“Follow me.”
She motioned for him to walk through the kitchen to the dining room of the tiny, yet cozy home where she’d set up a computer and printer. Finally he was getting a look around her inner sanctum. It was something he’d been wanting to do for a long time.
In touching distance of her now, Rand felt huge, like he was trespassing in an immaculate dollhouse. Except no dollhouse he knew of ever had a computer in it. Especially not a Dunbarton.
Which gave him an idea for another market entirely, but he had other matters on his mind at the moment. Like the incredible way she moved that perfectly proportioned little body of hers through the tidy maze.
“Would you like coffee? A soda?”
“I won’t say no to a cola if you have one.”
Rand’s smile faded when he sat down in front of her computer and discovered it was a CyberMedia, an inferior product with a multitude of flaws.
“Are you another disgruntled Dunbarton customer?” he muttered when she placed a can of Coke in front of him and found herself a seat on the opposite side of the table. As far away from him as possible .
“Don’t get your feelings hurt, Rand. My Dunbarton is downstairs in my office. I use the dining room to play around with other brands of computers. A nearby electronics shop gives them to me when they can’t figure out how to fix them. That way I keep up to date on the hardware your competition is manufacturing. I never know. when I’m going to need the knowledge to solve a problem. But I have to admit I’ve been ready to shoot this computer for some time now.”
“Cyber’s a cheap outfit. They buy inferior materials. As soon as one circuit shorts out, the whole business shuts down.”
“I figured as much. I keep replacing parts, but something else always fails. However that’s neither here nor there. Let’s talk abou
t your case. Have you learned anything that can help us?”
Though he was on her territory now, she was all business. Rand should have been prepared for that, but somehow he wasn’t. He’d hoped for a tour of the house and a little personal conversation, but there didn’t appear to be a thin spot in her armor.
“Only that every victim thus far has said the technician was a male.”
“When did your company receive its first complaint?”
He might as well be talking to a policewoman. “A week ago, but I didn’t fly in until day before yesterday.”
“Why did you wait so long?”
Because I had to free myself from certain business obligations so I could concentrate on you, sweetheart.
“My manager didn’t inform me right away because he thought he could handle the problem himself. When it became apparent that it was beyond his control, then he called me. By the time I got my people working on it, a lot of damage had already been done and there are still no leads.”
“I might have one,” she inserted quietly, “but it could be a long shot.”
Rand’s lips twitched. “Not that I’m not impressed, but how could you have an inside track already when you only heard about my company’s problem this morning?”
Her cat’s eyes flashed amber, a sign that his remark had gotten under her skin. “Because I’ve been working on another case. There’s the vague possibility of a tie-in.”
At that unexpected revelation, his amusement vanished. The whole idea was for this operation to take enough time for him to break her. down so she would trust him again. Then they could build a new relationship, better than before. But if that razor-sharp mind of hers cracked the case too soon, it would jeopardize his plans.
“Let’s hear about it.”
She reached for the newspaper at the end of the table and handed it to him. “While you read the article about that teenager whose picture is on the front page, I’ll get something from downstairs I want you to listen to.”
By the time she came back with a tape recorder, he’d scanned the story about Bryan Ludlow, the missing Salt Lake teen. So far Rand couldn’t see a connection. In fact he couldn’t see past the curvaceous woman who epitomized femininity and made him ache to crush her in his arms. It had been too long...
She sat down once more. “What the newspaper didn’t tell you is that Trina Martin, Bryan’s girlfriend, came to me because she firmly believes he ran away from home on purpose and she wants me to find him before the police do.”
Rand sat there in stunned silence as Annabelle proceeded to enlighten him with one amazing fact after another. “...And Trina says he’s so mad at his dad, he’d love to get into serious trouble just to make his parent look awful right before the elections.
“She has this hunch that he’s gone to work for a computer company using a phony name and may be out to do real damage. I found out he owns a Dunbarton computer and subscribes to your magazines. Trina says he has dreams of one day becoming the head of a company like yours. But don’t let that go to your head, Rand.”
He almost choked on his Coke, not knowing whether to laugh or cry. No one could cut him down to size the way she could and still make it sound like a compliment. No one was more earnest or adorable than Annabelle when she was following up a lead. In this case, he had a gut feeling she was really on to something.
That’s because she’s so damn good at what she does. Hell. She already knew more about what was going on with the Ludlow boy than the police and the FBI combined.
Roman Lufka’s private detective agency had the reputation of being one of the top PI firms in the nation. He couldn’t help but feel pride that she was part of that renowned group.
A year ago he couldn’t have admitted that to himself. A year ago he’d loved her with a selfish, possessive love. In his arrogance, he’d wanted her to accept him completely, but he hadn’t been willing to let her be the person she was. Because he was a fool, he’d let her walk out of his life. But things had changed. He was here to change them.
“In light of that knowledge, I did a little snooping around your service center before I checked out some of the others in the valley. But no one matching Bryan’s description is on the payroll of any of them.”
Not only was he awed by the speed with which she worked, he was fascinated by her creativity. “Annabelle—If your client is right, then Bryan is doing what most hackers do and is working on his own.”
She nodded. “Because he knows Dunbarton’s is the best, I think he would probably target your company to make the biggest splash. After all, your face was on the cover of Today’s Fortune. It would be a real coup to break your password and invade your sacrosanct space. It would make national headlines. What better revenge against his father.”
Rand didn’t particularly like the sound of that. She was acting almost excited by the prospect.
“In my spare time I’ve made up a profile on computer geniuses like you and your ilk. You walk a fine line between the legitimate and the corrupt because you have the most competitive minds in the world. Your egos make you feel so superior, you consider yourselves beyond the laws that govern the rest of the world.”
One more thrust of her rapier-sharp tongue, and Rand would quiet her mouth in a way that would help satisfy his craving. But it would do irreparable damage to his well-laid plans. He couldn’t risk that.
Their glances met over the rim of the can he put to his lips. Her feline eyes were shot with gold. “I stand reproved,” he murmured, sounding suitably chastened.
For a brief moment a look of puzzlement broke out on her face. She was speechless. A rare phenomenon. But then the old Rand would never have admitted to faults. The old Rand didn’t have the sense he was born with.
“Around eleven last night, I started calling in on your twenty-four-hour support line to see what would happen. By three in the morning I’d managed to get through to two technicians. You need more help on the service line, Rand.”
“You’re right,” he admitted. “I’ll have a talk with my manager as soon as I can.”
Again he surprised a look of incredulity coming from her eyes.
“Anyway,” she began, sounding the tiniest bit flustered by his meekness, “around four I called in again and got this technician.” She turned on the tape recorder. “Listen.”
It only took Rand a few minutes to realize that no company could survive with a technician like that. The man who had just hung up on Annabelle had not only been rude to her, he knew his way around computers and would have wiped out everything on her hard drive with the instructions he’d given her, if she hadn’t been on to him.
“Lord, Annabelle. You’ve got that hacker on tape. You’re incredible.”
He reached across to turn off the recorder, purposely capturing her hand in the process. It trembled beneath his before she pulled it away. Rand didn’t mind. He’d felt those tremors charge his whole system.
She might be fighting him every step of the way, but her body had reacted instinctively to his touch. She was as on fire for him as he was for her. Like genes, the chemistry between two people didn’t lie.
“Don’t jump to too many conclusions,” she warned, obviously trying to break the tension between them. “That person may not be Bryan. For all we know, it could be an accomplice. For that matter, the two cases could be entirely unrelated and it’s someone else completely different.”
He shook his head. “I trust your long shot. That young man is not only going to embarrass his family. If he’s allowed to continue his sabotage tactics, he’ll turn off hundreds of Dunbarton customers before he’s through.”
“Did you hear a dog barking in the background?”
He nodded. “It could be a pet. Most workplaces don’t allow animals. With his kind of money, he has probably rented a house or an apartment to set up shop.”
Annabelle agreed with him.
“I’d like a copy of that tape for my head security man.”
“I t
hink you’d better hold off on that, Rand.”
He shot her a penetrating glance, then lost his concentration as his gaze wandered over her compulsively, drinking in every glorious asset. Her short, glossy curls glinted a rich mahogany color in the light. She was so desirable, he didn’t know if he could keep his hands off of her much longer.
“Rand?” she prodded.
He rubbed the back of his neck frustratedly. She had him so wound up, he wasn’t thinking rationally.
“Until we can prove that Bryan Ludlow is the culprit, your head security man is the top suspect on my list.”
Annabelle was right. It could be someone high up on the payroll right now, or a CEO of another computer company, or a former disgruntled Dunbarton employee.
One of her finely arched brows quirked sardonically. “Have you considered the possibility that it could be a man or woman from your personal life who hired a hacker to ruin you?”
He stared at her. “You mean like you for instance,” he mocked.
“It’s possible,” she answered without blinking. “To be honest, I’m surprised you approached me for help.”
Rand weighed his words carefully before he said, “There’s a lot you don’t know about me, Annabelle. You left Phoenix too soon.”
Annabelle averted her eyes, shocked and disturbed that his last remark could hurt so much.
He knew exactly why their engagement hadn’t lasted, why she’d left his condo without looking back. He’d never wanted an equal partner. He’d just assumed that because she was so madly in love with him, she would be content to lose her identity in him. Forget everything else.
Now he was trying to make her feel as if it were her fault things hadn’t worked out.
Don’t let him do this. Don’t let him get to you. Stick to the facts of the case.
“As true as that may be, I do know one thing... You have a foolproof security system. It would be pretty well impossible to figure out the password. I imagine that if this is Bryan’s doing, then he’s not working alone. Someone on the inside gave him the information he needed.”
Undercover Fiancee Page 4
