Hardwired For Ecstasy (4 page)

“The
bastard shoved me up against a wall. His damn dick was still hanging out of his
pants, but he grabbed me around the throat and pushed his body into mine. He
told me if I ever did anything to try to hurt him or Bonnie, he’d make sure I
never got another job anywhere, in any city.”

Atticus
clenched his fists at his side.

“I
left that day. I went back to my desk, shaking and trying very hard not to cry.
My bitch of a coworker tried to apologize, but I ignored her. I typed an email,
resigning. Then I left. I went home, slept for two days, ate everything in
sight, and ignored the calls and text messages from him. I even changed my
phone number so he couldn’t bother me again. I started looking for another job,
and here I am.”

“Did
you ever speak to Bonnie directly?”

“Never.
The calls and messages after I resigned were all from Leland. He emailed me a
bunch of times, too, but I eventually blocked his email address and never read
the emails.”

Which
meant the emails were likely gone so he’d never be able to read them, either.
It didn’t matter. Atticus was convinced Emma had no knowledge of who Bonnie
really was, or what she’d tried to do to the Weathermen several months ago. It
was simply an unfortunate coincidence that Emma had been the woman Bonnie’s
husband had strung along for so long.

“Have
you heard from either of them since you moved here?”

“No.
I have no reason to think I will hear from them, unless you tell Leland I told
you all this. I gave him my word I wouldn’t take it public if he let me leave
my job and Central without trying to stop me or hurt me in any way. That was
the last conversation we had.”

“Did
that happen the same day you walked in on him and his wife?”

“No.
Three days afterward. I had to return to the station to fill out some official
paperwork for my resignation. We spoke in his office, but he couldn’t push me
around or yell that day. There were too many people there, listening and
watching.”

“And
that was the last time you spoke with him?”

“Yes.”

“Who
was it calling your phone before you had the argument with him?”

“I
don’t know. I never found out.”

Which
meant it could have been Leland or Bonnie. But why would Leland have done that?
More than likely it had been Bonnie. She might have found the number and called
it, trying to figure out why her husband had it. What if Bonnie found out Emma
was working here? She wouldn’t want any of the Weathermen knowing what her
husband had done.

“Did
Bonnie’s reaction when you stormed into the office give you any reason to
suspect she had already found out about you?”

She
looked really uncomfortable now. Atticus took a chance and touched her arm
lightly. “Emma, I know I’ve already put you through a lot insisting you tell me
this story, but I need to know. Do you have reason to believe Bonnie already
knew about you and Leland?”

“Yes.
One of the things she asked him was, and I quote, ‘Is this the tramp you took
to the Cherrywood Hotel last weekend?’ I have no idea how she found out we were
there, unless of course he’s not too smart about keeping his financial records
private.”

“Or
if he let her find that one on purpose. You said the two of you went to hotels
and restaurants all the time. How did you get caught that one time, but all the
others you never did? And right after you had an argument with him about your relationship?
You questioned whether the rumors were true, and you told him about the
hang-ups, right?”

She
nodded.

“He
realized he was about to get caught, so instead of being a real man and coming
clean with his wife and with you, he makes sure Bonnie finds out this time he
took you to a hotel. Then he brings her to work at a time he knows you’re
there, but it’s a skeleton crew so he can get it all out in the open, but in a
way that lets him threaten you into silence.”

She
looked dumbfounded for a second or two, then shook her head slowly again. “It
all makes sense. He wanted me to find out. But that means Bonnie knows about
me.” She gave him a long, searching look.

He
needed to end this conversation before she asked more questions about Bonnie,
so he rose, hoping she’d take the hint. After a few seconds, during which she
eyed him closely, she finally stood.

“Why
are you so worried about Bonnie?”

He’d
opened this can of worms. It was his fault. “I can’t tell you that.”

“Am
I fired?”

“No.
Of course not.”

“Will
you tell me why all this matters so much one day?”

“I’m
not sure I can.”

He
watched several emotions cross her face, and wouldn’t have been surprised if
she’d pushed some more, but then he watched resignation fill her eyes. “All
right. I’d better return to work then.”

Atticus
watched her leave the office, fighting with every ounce of willpower not to run
after her and tell her everything. He’d just put her through hell all over
again, and in the end, he had no more than a sliver of suspicion that Bonnie or
Leland might know she was here now.

What
a waste. No doubt Emma’s view of him had gone from boss to tyrant. No doubt
about it. He’d blown any chance of dating her before the end of her first day
on the job.
Way to go, Yates
.

Chapter
Five

Emma
collapsed into her desk chair, still shaking. At least she’d stopped crying.
She tried to think of a more humiliating and embarrassing time in her life, but
there weren’t many that came this close.

How
could a day begin with such hope and promise then end like this? She thought
she’d left Leland and his wife behind. She’d been dead wrong. And what the hell
was so damn important about either of them that Atticus had insisted she tell
him that story? Leland was a police captain, not a hacker. And his wife … well,
Emma had no clue what his wife did. She’d never asked. She hadn’t cared to
know. But clearly Atticus was worried about Bonnie.

Who
the hell was she really working for? The Weathermen were known as men who went
through women like water. Well, three of them still were known that way,
including Atticus. But they were also known as the men trying to save the
planet. They supported multiple charities and funded the Storm Troopers.

Up
until the past few months, the teams they each had searching for hackers had
been kept a secret. They still were to a certain degree, but information about
them had leaked out onto specific message boards and sites where weather
control freaks and conspiracy theorists liked to hang out. The men themselves
never addressed these rumors in public. They played things close to the vest.

That
image didn’t gel with the man who had just grilled her for close to an hour
about the most painful experience of her life to date, after assuring her he
would fire her if she didn’t tell him everything. Why would Leland or his wife
be involved with something that had one of the Weathermen spooked?

Emma
knew she wouldn’t get anymore work done this afternoon. She didn’t dare search
for background information on Leland or Bonnie using her work machine. She emailed
Atticus and asked if she could leave early, using the excuse she needed to buy
appropriate work clothes, now that she knew the dress code.

He
wrote back almost immediately and told her she was a salaried employee and he
trusted her to keep track of her own hours each week. She interpreted that to
mean she was free to leave, so she did.

She’d
been lucky enough to snag an apartment less than ten minutes from the office,
so once she was inside it, she opened her personal laptop and accessed the
databases she hoped she still could get into. She’d set up accounts at each one
for her own private use years ago, but hadn’t tried to use them since leaving
Central. To her delight, her usernames and passwords still worked. She was in.

Four
hours later, after consuming an entire large pizza and a bottle of wine, Emma
had discovered that Bonnie Clough worked in middle management at Homeland Cyber
Security, and according to one obscure article, she’d had a past run-in with
all the Weathermen, not merely Atticus.

Emma
wished she’d also found a legit news story that corroborated the article, but
it was a start. Buried on the last page of
The
Whole Truth
, a rag mag whose stories were known to be more lie than truth,
the story claimed that in June, Barclay Hampton, CEO of Hampton Data Recovery
Services, had a secret affair with Bonnie Clough. It had ended when she refused
to allow him and the other Weathermen to interrogate the hackers.

According
to the article, there were ten hackers, and HCS had
them
all locked up inside their secret prison in Central. Emma knew there was no
secret prison in Central, and she knew that HCS didn’t have any of the hackers.
Unless Atticus had lied to her, which she didn’t believe he had.

At
the time he’d updated her on their progress toward finding the hackers, he
hadn’t yet found out about her and Leland. That conversation had occurred
before he’d gone snooping and found the performance reviews, so she believed
what he had said. They had already found four and were looking for the fifth.

The Whole Truth
was known for embellishing any
tiny scrap of information they were able to dig up. She recalled a story about
Kane Bannerman, who ran Bannerman Investments, about six years ago. The
magazine had printed a retraction and an apology from the reporter, Julianne
Wallis. She’d made up ridiculous lies about Kane for that original story, and
now Julianne was engaged to Kane.

Emma
believed that somewhere in this nonsense about Bonnie and the Weathermen was a
kernel of truth. But which part was true? She had personally seen the holding
cells at HCS and knew they were for short-term use only. They didn’t actually
jail people inside their facilities. That’s what the local and federal prisons
were for. They had interrogation rooms, but those were more like conference
rooms where they interviewed people, not like the interrogation rooms inside a
police station.

She
knew the part about ten hackers instead of the five was exaggerated. The fact
that HCS was holding them wasn’t true either. But Bonnie did work there. That
much was a given now that Emma had found information on her background. So why
was Bonnie
specifically linked to the Weathermen in this
story? She obviously had a connection to them somehow, and it had to do with
the hackers, or Atticus wouldn’t be so concerned about her.

Emma’s
research had also uncovered Leland’s and Bonnie’s marriage license, issued over
twenty years ago, but no evidence of a divorce decree. At least she knew she
hadn’t incorrectly assumed anything about Leland. He had lied to her about
everything
. He had played her and played
her well.

After
finding the story in
The Whole Truth
,
Emma had concentrated on Bonnie’s work with HCS. She found out that Bonnie had
worked for HCS since before everyone moved underground. She currently supervised
a team of investigators and apparently was one of several contacts Barclay had
inside the organization. But she didn’t find anything supporting the allegation
that she and Barclay had a secret affair. Quite the opposite.

Bonnie
and another contact of Barclay’s, Dave Perry, spoke out publicly once, but only
once, against what the Weathermen wanted to do with the hackers once they were
found. That information was practically useless because it wasn’t corroborated
by anything else she could find, and she found it on a message board, posted by
someone claiming to be Bonnie. None of the Weathermen responded to it.

So,
she was right back where she had started, four hours earlier. Why was Atticus
so worried about Bonnie? Was it only because she and Dave had posted on a
message board, protesting against what the Weathermen wanted to do with the
hackers once they were found? Or did it go deeper than that?

The
posting when taken alone seemed a silly reason for Atticus’s over-the-top
reaction. Something else had obviously happened. The fact that it had never
gone public, except in some reporter’s imagination, didn’t mean it hadn’t
occurred. There was a reason he’d grilled her about any encounters she might
have had with Bonnie.

“This is too important to my
company.”

But
why? What did that actually mean? He was far more interested in Bonnie than in
Leland, which strongly suggested there
had
been a run-in of some kind. Had he thought she had something to do with it?
That she’d been part of it, or that Bonnie or Leland had said something to her
about it? Why else would he have threatened to fire her?

Holy shit.
Emma rose and paced her apartment.
That had to be it. He thought she’d come to work for him on purpose. His entire
demeanor had changed after he dragged the story out of her. His apology had
been sincere. He hadn’t known any of that had happened. He hadn’t found out
about her and Leland. That wasn’t what had made him send that email.

He’d
found the performance reports and realized Leland had been stupid enough to
start signing hers for the past three years. But he had already known that
Leland and Bonnie were still married, and he had assumed she had something to
do with whatever had happened between him, the other Weathermen, and Bonnie
earlier this year at HCS.

She
had a right to know what had happened. She was part of this now, whether she
wanted to be or not. Bonnie knew about her. She had probably been the one
calling her and then hanging up. Leland wouldn’t have done that. If Bonnie
found out she was here, in CentralEast, and working for one of the Weathermen…

She
wanted no part of whatever beef Leland’s wife had with the Weathermen, but now
she was knee deep in it anyway. She hadn’t signed on for this shit.

She
glanced at her phone. It was late, but too bad. She wouldn’t sleep unless she
knew the truth. But if she called him he might not answer the phone. Then she’d
be up all night, worrying.
Fuck that shit
.

The
only way to resolve this was to talk to him, face to face. If she lost her job,
because of it, so be it. At least she’d know she hadn’t simply rolled over and
allowed people to lie about her. Leland had hurt her more than any person in
her life had done, and his wife sounded like an asshole, too. They deserved
each other. She wasn’t going to allow those two to go on hurting her.

The
hell with what she’d promised Leland. She’d already broken her promise anyway.
Might as well see this thing through to the end.

****

The
building where Atticus lived had a doorman, but when she told him she worked
for Atticus, he waved her inside as if he did it all the time. The security
guard inside the lobby, however, wasn’t quite so obliging. She had to present
ID, and then he called up to the apartment. Emma waited, straining to hear the
voice on the other end of the phone. What if Atticus told the guard not to let
her up? What if he had someone up there?
Fuck.
She hadn’t thought this through very well.

Finally
the call ended, and the guard pointed toward an elevator set apart from the
rest. “Go on up.”

“Thank
you.”

She
was more nervous now than she’d been when she thought he wasn’t going to let
her into his apartment. Why hadn’t she simply called him? He greeted her with a
wary smile, dressed in jeans and a polo shirt, and he was barefoot.
Damn
. Why did he have to be so fucking
sexy?

“Are
you okay, Emma? You look agitated.”

“I
have some questions.”

“Come
on in. I’ve been working and could use a break.”

He
was working this late at home? Did the man ever sleep?

“Would
you like anything to eat or drink?”

“No.
Thank you.”

He
led her through the most lavish apartment she’d ever seen. It rivaled every
hotel suite Leland had taken her to. Emma mentally shook away those memories.
She had to stay strong and focused.

He
had an office inside the apartment, and it was just as austere as the one at
his building. It also smelled like him, and she was having trouble remembering
the speech she’d practiced on the way over. Between the way he looked so normal
in casual clothes, to the enticing scent inside this room and that damn five
o’clock shadow on his handsome face, she found herself wondering what might
have happened if she hadn’t told him she was seeing someone.

Then
it suddenly occurred to her that she’d never told him she’d lied about that.

He
gestured toward a leather sofa in the office. “Have a seat.”

Emma
sat down, and he sat way too close to her, but this time she didn’t mind. “I
have a confession.” He regarded her with interest and a bit of caution. She
could only imagine what he guessed was the reason for this late night visit. “I’m
not seeing anyone. I told you that because … well, you can probably guess why.”

“Yes,
I can. Thank you for clarifying it. Is that what you came here to tell me?”

“No.”

He
watched her for a few moments, his expression guarded, and she wondered whether
she was losing her mind. What the hell was she doing here?

“As
long as we’re revealing things, I forgot to tell you something in my office
earlier. I don’t think you’re fat at all.”

“What?”

“You
mentioned high school and the torture you experienced. You’re not fat, and I
happen to like intelligent women. You were hired because of your brains, and I
wanted you to know I appreciate you for them.” His eyes filled with wicked
humor. “And I appreciate your body as well.”

Hot damn
. Talk about throwing her off base.
“Um, thank you.”

Why am I here? Oh yeah. Bonnie.

Emma
dug in her bag and pulled out the pages from the Internet she’d printed,
thrusting them at him. “I found these after I went home. I still have access to
some of the databases I used at work.”

He
took them from her, read them over, nodding several times. Then he handed them
back and settled against the sofa, crossing one ankle over the opposite knee.
“What do you want to know, Emma?”

“I
want to know if you thought I was sent here to work by Bonnie or someone else.
I want to know what really happened with Bonnie at HCS, and why you made me
tell you that story.”