“Not the details.”
“There aren’t many. I began hacking with her, working jobs together in the living room of our little efficiency apartment. We could afford better, but I think we both liked the coziness of it, the poor student aspect. And we loved working side by side, seeing which of us could find the back door fastest.”
I smiled, thinking of all those competitions. I usually won.
“We figured out she was under investigation about five months before the FBI came knocking on the door.” I looked at him, remembering the hatred I once harbored for him. GrayMan58. I should have put it together quicker; I should have known before I invited him into my bed. By then, it was too late. The hatred had already turned into something else. “She knew when she talked to the agent on the message boards. She thought it was funny that he thought he was being so clever.”
David stared at the floor as if he didn’t know I knew, but he was a smart man. He must have put it all together by now.
“When her arrest became eminent, she gave me the code of Friend or Foe and told me to go public with it. Told me it was my golden ticket. So I did. I got out and I went public and I never looked back.”
“And Arabelle?”
“She came to me after the launch of our third site, Buddy to Buddy, and asked to be cut in. She said I owed her. But I figured that most of Friend or Foe belonged to me because the two platforms we were producing were entirely my code. She had nothing to do with them. So I sent her away. Told her I’d given her what she was owed in paying for her lawyers.”
He looked up sharply, his eyes moving over my face.
“Shocked?”
He shrugged.
“She was my best friend. The only friend I had left at that point. I did it for her; I went public for her. But the money, the fame, the popularity—I’d never had that. It all went to my head and made me ruthless. Made me someone I’m not proud of now.”
“And Arabelle?”
I turned away, going to the windows to look down on those groups of people that had so fascinated me these last months.
“I didn’t hear from her again. I expected her to sue, or to try to prove in some way that the code was hers. But she never did.”
“I heard she couldn’t afford to sue.”
“She could have. I made sure she had the same assets she’d had when she went to jail. She was no better or no worse off than before.”
“Then why didn’t she sue?”
“I don’t know.”
But I did. We were friends. She counted me as her friend. And she’d always said she would not purposely cut a friend.
That was my place.
Silence fell between us for a long little bit. Tears were biting at the back of my throat, itching the back of my eyes. I’d built a multi-billion-dollar corporation, given the world’s youth a half a dozen places to find lovers, to find friends, to share every minutiae of their lives. I was the queen of social media. Yet, I turned my back on the one true friend I ever had.
“I learned four months ago that she killed herself. Took an overdose of prescription pain pills more than a year ago. She didn’t leave a note so no one knows why she did it, not even her husband.” I bit my lip. “They were only married six months.”
“Jesus!” David hissed.
“I can’t help but assume it was my fault.”
“Ricki—”
“I was selfish. I could have shared all this with her and maybe things would have turned out different from her. I don’t know how happy she truly would have been going legit, but maybe she could have lived with it. Lived the dream that she’d had so long ago. But I didn’t give her that chance.”
“You can’t know that had anything to do with what she did.”
“I’m giving it up,” I said, turning around and sinking into my office chair, not really looking at him, but staring at my hands where they rested limply in my lap. “I have more money than I’ll ever know what to do with. So I’m giving it up. I’m selling off the company a little at a time.”
“Why?”
I shrugged. “I took the employee compensation packages away because most of the buyers I’ve spoken to won’t keep them up when they take over. So I’ve found another way to give back to my loyal employees.”
“How?”
“I’ve bought up the stock they had and I’ve put it into a portfolio with other stocks, mutual funds that are doing quite well, and placed them all in a trust for all the employees who’ve been with me since the beginning. They will, with a little luck and good advice, never want for anything from the point of sale on. In fact, they’ll be majority stock holders in the corporation, much to the chagrin of the new owner when he figures it out.”
“That’s generous.”
I shrugged. “It borders on illegal, the way I’ve gone about it. But my lawyers assure me it’s just enough on the side of legal to make it okay, and no one really needs to know how or who or why.”
“Your employees won’t know you did this for them?”
“As far as they’re concerned, I’m the Ice Queen who took their compensation away. They’ll think this is just part of the new owner’s retirement package for them. And that’s the way I want it to be.”
“When does the sale go through?”
“At the end of next month.”
David shook his head. “And the security breach?”
I smiled as I looked at him. “That’s was cute, wasn’t it? Hiding that cache of information in my own code.”
“Why would you do that?”
“To lower the price. As I said, I’ve already got more money than I know what to do with. What do I need with that much more?”
“And Gray Wolf?”
I lifted my hair off of my neck one more time.
“Gray Wolf…Gray Man. It seemed like too much coincidence to me. And then I met you and realized how much you knew about me, about my code. I knew you were GrayMan58, the FBI agent who took down Arabelle.”
“Then why…?”
“Why sleep with you?” I shook my head. “I told myself I didn’t know for sure until after that night. But I did. I knew. I knew the moment you told me what you knew about me from a simple background check. But there was just something about you.”
He rolled himself closer to the front of the desk and stared at me.
“When you called yourself broken, it really bothered me. But maybe you were right. We’ve both done all kinds of stupid things out of guilt.”
I smiled even though there were tears ready to fall from my eyes.
“We are broken, David. I couldn’t even hate you for what you did to Arabelle. But the thing is, even after everything, I know we were all pawns in someone else’s game. You were just a new FBI agent trying to prove yourself, and I was a stupid kid who didn’t believe her friend when she said someone was out to get her. I thought she was being paranoid up until the moment I saw her arrest on television.”
“It does seem like they targeted her on purpose.”
I rubbed my eyes with the heel of my hands. “So, anyway, you know everything now.”
“I guess so.”
“Are you going to tell Ash? I think he already thinks pretty poorly of me.”
“No. I don’t see any reason for that.”
I just nodded.
He studied me a moment longer, then sighed as he turned himself around and said, “Don’t be late tonight. I’m making linguini and clams.”
He didn’t look back to make sure I heard. He just kept going, taking for granted that I would be at his cottage on time, that I wanted to be at his cottage on time.
And that was like a balm on a blistered sunburn.
Chapter 22
David
Clams in cream sauce must be one of the best things on earth. The only thing that’s better is the taste of the woman in my arms.
Ricki came out of the bedroom in nothing but a wispy pair of panties and a push-up bra a few minutes ago, making me for
get about the second helpings of food sitting on the plate in front of me. I put it down and held my hand out to her, welcoming her into my lap like that was where she belonged.
The more I was with her, the more I believed it definitely was where she belonged.
I loved the way she kissed; I loved the way she had of twirling her tongue, touching me in ways no one had ever done before. And I loved the way her breath sent shivers along my spine when she blew against my throat and brushed her lips against my chest. And then she wasn’t in my lap anymore and my heart was pounding with anticipation. Her lips were coming dangerously close to the top of my briefs and my cock was straining to accept her attention.
Was it really possible that that little twirl of her tongue could do two such very different things to my equilibrium?
The feel of her lips on my cock, the feel of her heated mouth wrapping around me…Christ, I was going to go out of my mind!
I buried my fingers in her hair and went along for the ride, my thoughts nothing but a jumbled mess as I encouraged her to move deeper, to take longer strokes…and then…she was back in my lap, her panties AWOL. We’d never tried to make love in my chair before, but she managed it somehow. Her ass was in my hands and her hand was wrapped around my shaft, leading it to that honey pot that always felt like heaven. And then we were rocking to a rhythm of our own making, and I was forever grateful I’d remembered to set the brakes on my wheels.
I was riding the wave, about to crest, when the foghorn alarm on my phone began to sound.
“Oh, not now,” Ricki moaned, not missing a beat in her rhythm.
I knew it wasn’t one of the operatives. None of them were in the field at the moment. Kirkland’s case had wrapped. Must be a false alarm.
I pulled her ass tighter down against me and lost control, crying out as I filled her with my release. A minute later her muscles began to quiver, her orgasm finally making an appearance as I tugged her hard against me and held her still.
It was a minute or two later that she finally climbed off of me, mumbling about mood spoilers.
“It’s probably a false alarm,” I said, as I wheeled into the bedroom and fished my phone out of the pocket of my discarded jeans. But when I looked at the screen I realized it probably wasn’t a false alarm after all.
“Get your clothes on,” I called to Ricki, as I started to tug my pants on over my ankles.
“Why?” she asked, standing in the bedroom doorway in nothing but that push-up bra.
“It’s your system alarm.”
“What?”
“I forgot I had it on there. But someone’s moving around inside your server.”
Ricki frowned, but she began to dress as I’d asked her.
It was a short walk to the main house. I turned on my system and brought up the screen that was tracking what was happening in her server. A few keystrokes, and I could see where the hacker had gotten in and what they were after.
They were after the cache of information Ricki had stolen from herself and hidden away.
“What are they doing?” Ricki asked, even though I knew she could follow the hacker’s movement as well as I could.
I pulled up the text box and texted Ash. In less than a minute, we could hear him coming down the stairs.
“What’s up?”
“Someone’s hacked into Friend or Foe’s servers, and they’re trying to steal sensitive customer information.”
Ash looked at Ricki. “Do you want us to send a team over to your offices?”
“I don’t know what good it would do,” she said. “They’re clearly doing it from a remote location.”
Exactly.
Ash looked at me. “Then what should we do?”
“Give me a minute. I can trace it back to the origin computer.”
“You can do that?” Ricki asked.
“Amazing what you can do when you have a few hacker skills of your own.”
She met my eye, then she moved up next to me and began giving me instructions, some of which I anticipated, some of which I wouldn’t have thought of on my own. It took a while, an hour or more, but we finally came up with a location.
“How can that be?” Ricki asked.
I didn’t know, but there was no doubt.
“What?” Ash asked.
“Whoever it is, they are using a computer there at the offices. On the executive floor.”
“You can tell that?”
“I can even give you the exact computer,” I said, turning to another dialogue box and hacking into the security cameras at Ricki’s office building. In seconds we had the video feed, each camera that was connected to the security guard’s computer in the lobby. All three of us leaned forward and studied the monitor.
“Here,” Ash said, tapping his finger to the screen. “This one is dark. Where is it?”
“It’s the hallway outside my office.”
Ash nodded. “I’ll call Donovan and have him go over there.”
“I’ll go. It’s my company,” Ricki said.
“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” I said.
“I didn’t ask.”
“Ricki,” I rolled toward her and snagged her wrist, “let us handle it. This is what we do.”
“But I haven’t hired you to do anything.”
“Please.”
She shook her head. “I have to deal with this myself.”
She was gone before I could say anything else.
Chapter 23
David
All I could do was watch.
Ash texted Donovan. He said we could send in a team, too, but I heard the reluctance in his voice. Ricki was right; she wasn’t our client. If something went wrong, we had no protection against liability. Not that I thought my girlfriend would sue us, but you never knew these days. I couldn’t put my brother’s company, the livelihood of his operatives, in danger.
Ricki arrived before Donovan. We watched her use her employee ID badge to enter the building and stop to talk to security guard. We couldn’t hear what they were saying, but it seemed cordial enough. Then she boarded the elevator for the executive floor.
I held my breath as I watched her stare up at the security camera in the corner of the elevator car. My eyes moved from her to the darkened camera outside her office, fear rising in my throat. I should be there with her. I should be where I could protect her, but I was stuck here in this damn chair, watching her walk into danger.
It wasn’t right.
She said something as she looked up at the camera one last time before stepping off the elevator. I didn’t make it out at first, but then I realized what it was.
I’m sorry.
Sorry for what?
Dread began to play music on my spine.
She walked with long, steady strides through the hallways, despite her short little legs, moving from one camera angle to the next. And then she disappeared as she moved into the space of the darkened camera.
“Where’s Donovan?” I hissed.
Ash didn’t answer. He knew I was worried.
There was nothing for the longest moments. Then Donovan appeared at the front doors, knocking for the security guard to let him in. There was some discussion at the door, then Donovan stepped out of sight.
“What the hell?”
“She told him not to let him in,” Ash said.
“Why would she do that?”
“Because she knows who it is. Maybe she’s even helping whoever it is?”
I shook my head. “Not possible.”
“Why not? Donovan heard that she was buying up stock from the people who worked for her since she opened her doors. Why wouldn’t she sabotage her own company? It would make that stock worthless.”
“Why would she want it to be worthless?”
“For the people who refused to sell.”
I shook my head even though what he said made sense. But I knew better.
“She’s selling the company. She put all that stock in a trust fund for her
employees to give them a guaranteed retirement fund and a say at the stock holder’s meetings.”
Ash’s eyebrows rose, but he didn’t comment.
I might not have either, if the shoe were on the other foot.
There was a flash of movement in one of the cameras on the executive floor, but then it was gone again.
Ash’s phone rang. He stepped back and began to talk in a quick, loud whisper.
“Get in that building any way possible. Ms. Dennison is in there unprotected.”
That word, unprotected, cut through me.
I should be there.
Another flash of movement, and I thought I saw a gun.
“What the hell?”
Ash moved up behind me again and saw the same thing I saw. This time it was more than just a flash. It was clearly a gun. A 9mm.
Ash called the police.
I turned and rolled my chair toward the door.
“Where are you going?” Ash called after me.
“I can’t just sit here and watch.”
Chapter 24
Ricki
Jacy.
I knew it had to be Jacy the moment I saw the dark camera outside my office. No one else knew how to disable the cameras. No one else would have access to the building. No one else would chose that computer terminal when the programmers’ office was just a few doors down the hall.
Jacy. I knew it was Jacy. I just didn’t know why.
I walked into the building and greeted Joe—the security guards always seem to be named Joe—and told him that Donovan would be following behind me.
“Don’t let him in,” I said. “He’s a little annoyed that we let him go. I don’t want him causing trouble in here.”
“Of course, Ms. Dennison.”
Then I got in the elevator and watched the numbers take me upward, aware of David watching me through the cameras. I should have told him. But what was there to say, really. I didn’t know it was Jacy for sure. And I had no idea why she would do such a thing. So there was really nothing to say.
The doors opened, and I couldn’t help but apologize to him anyway. And then I took a deep breath and went searching for my hacker.
DAVID: A Standalone Romance (Gray Wolf Security) Page 12
