My Brother's Keeper, page 8
The next morning, I arrived at work at the same time as Chris. He held out a Styrofoam cup to me.
“This is new.” I greeted him, a little surprised when he kissed my cheek again. “What brought this on?”
He shrugged. “I was getting some for me, and I remembered how you always came in earlier on Mondays. I had a feeling that hadn’t changed.”
I smiled as I followed him toward the elevators. “Thank you. This is very sweet of you.”
We didn’t talk on the way up, as there were too many people. Nor did we talk as he walked me to my office. He kissed my cheek quickly and then half ran to his own. I stared at my secretary (how cool was it that I had one now?) who was just as shocked as I was.
“What was that all about?” Linda was a few years older than me and had been with the firm since college.
“I haven’t a single clue. He was waiting for me downstairs with coffee when I got here.”
She tried to hide her smile by rubbing her lips. I walked into my office, moving this conversation to a more private area. She followed, carrying her tablet.
“Maybe he likes you.”
I shook my head and sat in my chair as I put my things away for the day. “No, I don’t think so. He came by on Friday to ask me to lunch because he wanted to celebrate the promotion with me. Chris was my boss before this. He is just being nice.”
She sat across the desk from me, crossing her legs. “Or he always liked you and thought now that you are equals he can finally do something about it. The celebrating thing could have just been an excuse to get you to go out with him.”
“No…” I started to argue, then remembered the odd looks he kept giving me, and how he kept kissing my cheek. “You think?”
She giggled and played with her wedding ring. “My Bruce did that. He made up an excuse about failing a class we had together and begged for my help. I found out later that he was at the top of the class. But by then, I had already been falling in love with him. He confessed it all when I approached him about it, angry that he lied to get me alone.” Linda shrugged. “That was the first time he kissed me, to shut me up.” She giggled. “I couldn’t stay mad at him after that.”
Instead of picturing Chris lying to get me alone, I saw Dillan lying to get me up to his studio. I shook it off.
“This could all just be hearsay. I’m not making any judgments until he is open about it, if that is even what this is.”
“M'kay.” She totally was on that romantic train that happy couples got on.
I sighed and rubbed my forehead. “What’s on today’s schedule?”
Thankfully, it was a busy one. Mondays always were, which was why I liked getting there early.
My first meeting was with Lawerence, one of the Senior Partners, and a long-time client, Bill White. They had been trying to convince Bill that he needed to upgrade his mobile security. He owned a biotech plant. They needed all the upgrades in my opinion, but this guy had to be spoon-fed. According to the file Linda had given me this morning, that was how they had always handled Bill.
The moment Lawerence looked at me, after many denials from Bill, I knew what he wanted. Apparently someone was gossiping on their floor. My bets were on Kurt. Big mouth.
With a small smile, not upset in the least that they were talking about me in a positive way, I pulled out my phone and hacked into Bill’s phone, which was in his front coat pocket. I pulled up all of his social media accounts, and the pictures he had on his phone, then slid it across the table for him to see.
His jaw dropped. “I took that picture just this morning. It hasn’t even been uploaded to my cloud yet.”
The picture was of his wife feeding who I assumed was their granddaughter in her high chair.
“I hacked your phone, from my cell, within less than 10 minutes. Now will you trust us to upgrade your mobile security? As well as your cloud security?” I reached over and swiped my phone, where all of his pictures on the cloud were. “I stayed out of any of your business folders, but they would be just as easy. The pictures are all I looked at.”
He cleared his throat and passed my phone back. “Yes, upgrade it all. Anything you need. I thought we were safe enough.”
“Tech progresses every year. We need to make sure your security does as well. It’s the only way to keep your business, your family, your whole life, safe.” Lawerence stated almost morosely.
The rest of the meeting went smoothly as we explained all the measures that would be taken. When I shook Bill's hand, he leaned in and whispered, “All of the pictures?”
I giggled. “Yes. Don’t worry, I quickly swiped past any, uh, personal ones. It’s nice to see that you and your wife have such a close relationship, even after all these years. Congratulations. I hope I have that one day.”
He blushed and nodded as he quickly walked out.
“Do I want to know?” Lawerence asked in amusement.
I cringed. I hadn’t swiped fast enough on the first one and the couple were definitely not in their prime anymore. Nor did he look as good as Dillan had.
“Probably not.”
He laughed and collected his things. “I heard the rumors over the years, about your skills with computers. I must say, I was a bit incredulous about it. I’m proud to say I was wrong. And I am even more thrilled that you chose our side. If you had gone the other way, I don’t know that we ever would have been able to catch you.”
It was my turn to blush as he escorted me out of the room. “Thanks. I love it here. I love helping people feel safe.”
“Then you are in the right place, Fiona.” He nodded in farewell and then left.
Linda followed me into my office, dying to know what happened. I told her and she laughed. She often said it was nice to see a young woman showing up all the men for a change. The last Junior partner she helped was a bit misogynistic. She had celebrated when he decided to branch out and start his own firm. I had a good laugh when she told me that she frequently threw a dollar coin into the wishing fountain at the mall, wishing for his business to fail and be bought out by a woman.
I didn’t see Chris again until after work when he walked me out. Katia was waiting, having been in the area showing a condo to someone. Her eyes lit up when he kissed my cheek goodbye. As soon as he was out of earshot, I pointed a finger at her.
“Don’t say it. I’ve heard enough about it from Linda.”
Katia raised her hands up in surrender. “Not gonna say a thing.” Once we loaded up and started driving, she changed her mind.
“Okay, one thing.”
I groaned and closed my eyes.
“He’s got that nerdy cute thing going for him. Totally go for it if the door opens.”
I whimpered out a pathetic crying laugh. My mind, of course, went to me opening the door as Dillan balanced me in his arms. I really needed to stop thinking about him.
Chris met me every morning with coffee that week and walked me out every evening. It got to the point that I grew used to it and started expecting him at those times. Color me surprised when he showed up in my office again at lunchtime on Friday.
“Can I cash in that rain check now?”
I laughed. “Sure. Why not. Any ideas?” I pulled out my purse and let him escort me to the elevator. Thankfully, Linda had already left for lunch.
We ended up going to a deli nearby. Not a single thing romantic about it. We talked about work mostly, but small things about our outside lives crept in toward the end. For the most part, he kept to his side of the table, giving me distance. Only occasionally touching my hand with his. And when we left, Chris put his hand on my lower back as he held the door for me.
I wanted to feel something for him, but there was nothing there. He was cute. He was smart. He was definitely more my type than Dillan was. If I hadn’t met Dillan, I was sure things would have been different with Chris. Hell, when I first started working for him I had a crush on him. Not that I had ever felt that insane attraction with him that I had with Dillan though.
Nothing else could compare.
Chapter 6
Dillan
I wasn’t entirely surprised to wake up alone. It wasn’t the first time, and usually a preference of mine. I was surprised that I was disappointed that she had left though. When I first started waking up, I entertained the idea of another round. Which obviously wasn’t going to happen now.
I stood up and stretched my sore muscles. The kind you got after a good workout. The night before, and half the morning, had proved to be the best kind of workouts. Yawning loudly, I walked toward the small kitchenette, knowing there would be bottles of water in the fridge.
I stopped when I saw the small note and envelope on the table.
With a smile I picked up the note, this was more like Fiona’s style. She wouldn’t be able to leave without saying goodbye, or not having the last word. That wasn’t in her nature. At first I laughed at her comment about the debt, but then confusion took over.
She left a gift?
I spun in a circle around the room but saw nothing out of the ordinary. Maybe I wasn’t awake enough to spot it yet. I pulled out a bottle and guzzled it down. I walked over to my dresser to put some pants on at least. There were none there.
Nothing was in that drawer.
“What the hell?” I whispered into the empty room.
I went through every drawer, but they were all the same - as bare as I was. I jogged around the room, looking for my clothes from the night before. But they weren’t there either.
I snapped my fingers, remembering that most of my clothes had been removed in the elevator. At least I think they were. My boxers should have still been in the room at least though.
Unless Keith took them as a joke when he left. He would do something like that.
The hall was empty of all clothing items. Shaking my head, I put my finger on the screen and called the elevator. But the light turned red instead of green. I tried again, same response.
Cursing, I went back to the room and searched for my phone. I couldn’t find it though. It seemed to be gone too.
I groaned and smacked my head when I remembered it was still in the back pocket of the pants I wore last night. I ran for the far corner where the stairs were, I stopped when my eyes landed on the note and money. I grabbed the money, since I didn’t know when I was going to get the elevator working again.
My eyes fell on the note for the third time, and I paused.
“Did she…” I laughed and ran for the stairs, note in hand.
The little minx must have taken my clothes. I half expected to find them sprawled through the stairs. She probably wasn’t thrilled about having to take all those stairs down this morning.
Oddly, the stairs were empty as well.
I stopped at the second floor and entered my office. Keith was sitting at the desk, probably getting ready to go over the books from the night before. The computer was still in the waking-up phase.
He laughed when he saw me. “Did you forget something?”
I snorted and headed straight for the small wardrobe I kept with extra clothes. One can never be too safe. “I’m guessing you're not the one who took all the clothes out of the studio.” I was pretty sure about that by this point, but…
He shook his head and laughed. “Did your little friend at least have clothes to wear?”
“Probably, she was gone when I woke up.” I dropped the envelope and note on the desk before pulling the pants up. “But she left these behind.”
He picked up the note and read it. “At least she left the money. What was the gift?”
“I’m thinking it was a set of the Emperor’s New Clothes.”
Keith laughed. “Possibly. Where do you think she put them?”
“No clue.” I pulled the Indecent polo over my head. “I am curious to find out. First, though, we need to get that elevator fixed.”
He raised an eyebrow at me, as he pulled the money out to count it. “What’s wrong with it? It worked fine when I arrived this morning.”
“Well, it isn’t now. Every time I tried to call it; the light turned red.”
Maybe he thought I was nuts or something, because he walked out of the office and over to the elevator. I held my breath, wondering if I was going crazy too. But he was denied access just as I was.
“I’ll call Jorge, see if he can figure it out.” Keith walked back into the office and over to the safe to put the money away.
But that wouldn’t open either. With a grunt, he pulled out his phone. I half listened to him as I logged onto the cameras with the now fully awake laptop.
I couldn’t access those either.
“Tell him to get here now. Someone has messed with all of our security.” Any amusement I felt a few minutes ago was long gone. I was sliding fast into defense mode.
We both sat anxiously in the office for Jorge to show up, just staring out the one-way mirror that allowed us to watch over the club. There wasn’t much to look at right now since we weren’t open yet. The day crew was cleaning the place while a couple security guys monitored them. Kent walked in and joined the other bartender with doing inventory. I wasn’t expecting him today, but that was fine. Inventory was always a pain.
The only people missing so far were the girls. And most of them would still be asleep. Last call on drinks was nearly an hour before last call on the girls.
Jorge came through the office door not much later, with his own laptop in hand. He was expensive, but one of the best when it came to computers. He was worth the money. He sat down at the desk and got straight to work. Demonstrating exactly why he was worth the money.
“Alright, I had to hack my way in because all of my info was wiped from the system. The good news, no one has tried to access anything at all. It looks like only the users were erased. One fingerprint was added this morning but then deleted a few minutes later. I see a record of it, but no name.”
“What did they access?” I asked him in a growl. I had an idea, but it was too unbelievable to accept. Yet, it was also the only thing that made sense.
He clicked a few keys on the keyboard then sighed, defeated. “I’m not sure. The elevator was accessed a few times this morning, and your main computer in here was logged into. All of it was around the same time. Just before noon.”
“Which is about when I came up to the office. I went to the studio first, but you were both still asleep, so I went to the club and the basement to do a few things. I came to the office just before noon.” Keith explained softly. “I never saw anyone else.”
I ran my teeth over my bottom lip and shook my head. “What did the elevator look like when you used it? Were Fiona’s clothes still in there?”
Keith thought about it for a minute. “Maybe. I know your stuff was still there. I didn’t exactly go through any of it.”
I chuckled incredulously and shook my head. He would have noticed if my entire backup wardrobe had been in there.
“You don’t think… no way.” My friend stared at me with his jaw on the floor.
“I can’t think of anyone else who was here. Jorge, fix the elevator, I need to see something.”
I waited in silence as Jorge clicked away on the keyboard, his fingers flying in all sorts of directions. I didn’t look at him again until he cursed.
“Whoever did this is a freaking genius. I can get in. I can look around. I can access the history. But I can’t do anything else. We are, in essence, locked out. Of everything.”
I wiped my hand over my mouth and pushed to stand up and walked out. Jorge’s fingers went back to flying. Keith followed me silently down the stairs.
As expected, BoBo was outside.
“Hey, boss. Nice to see you can walk straight. Your little friend was a little off balance when she left.”
Bingo. Just what I needed. “What time was that at? Tell me everything.”
A nervous look came over him as he tried to explain how he offered the ride and she refused. I wouldn’t have thought much of her need for privacy considering her opinions on security… and my thoughts stopped there.
I laughed, but it lacked all amusement.
Both men just stared at me warily. “Find me everything you can on Fiona Reynolds.” I instructed Keith as I put my hand out.
BoBo handed me the keys to my car. Thankfully, he carried an extra set, in case I lost mine or needed a ride home. Mine were in my pants pocket. Which were most likely sitting in that elevator with all my other clothes.
Jorge was still in the office, looking pale and half-dead when I walked in later that night. I forced him away from the computer, and to eat something before laying him on the couch. He was still asleep when I went home that night. But back at it on Sunday morning.
