“You think that Leland has something to prove but it’s more like he feels responsible to everyone in his life. He can’t disappoint them by not taking on a project. I’ve tried to get him to let go of the gym issue but he won’t.”
“Because that would mean letting go of you.”
An annoying spark of hope flared to life. “Do you really think that’s the reason? He says it’s because he can’t walk away when something illegal is going on.”
Natalie gave her a look. “Were you expecting him to admit—even to himself—that it’s a personal, not a professional, commitment? You give the man too much credit this early in the game. He’s having sex with you, so trust me, that’s why he wants to stay involved.” She took a sip of her champagne. “So what is happening with the whole gym problem?”
“Leland plugged into the gym’s router last night and collected whatever data a tech genius needs to collect. He’s going to analyze it on his high-powered computer at the office.”
“And how did he get to this router?”
“I let him into Ramón’s office.” Natalie was giving her a narrow-eyed stare so she had to defend herself. “I have a key so it wasn’t a break-in or anything. We told Tiffany—she’s the night receptionist—that we were looking for Leland’s lost phone. People give Ramón stuff they find and he often sticks it in his desk drawer and forgets about it.”
Natalie drummed her fingernails on the leather seat. “I don’t like you doing things that might get you in trouble with bad people.”
“I’m not worried.” Dawn shrugged. “If anyone asks, Tiffany will spout our cover story. She swallowed it whole.” She decided not to mention the security camera in the hallway. “Besides, Leland feels the same way you do so I don’t think I’ll be involved in any more espionage.”
“You listen to him?”
“When he’s right.” Dawn smiled as she remembered their early email exchange. “Which he claims he always is.”
“If you’re smiling at that bit of arrogance, you must love the man.”
“Love?” The word startled Dawn even though Natalie was using it ironically. “No, just lust after.”
Yet there was more to how she felt about Leland than amazing sex. She liked dueling with him verbally because it made her feel smart. She liked training him because he worked hard. She liked the way he listened to her opinions as though they mattered. She even liked his protectiveness. Maybe she loved the fact that he was perceptive enough to know that she had a problem but didn’t insist on an explanation.
“Besides, he was just trying to get a rise out of me.”
“Instead you got a rise out of him.” Natalie’s delivery was deadpan.
“Natalie!” Dawn giggled. Yup, hanging out with girlfriends was a good thing.
Once they were settled around the antique refectory table in Alice and Derek’s spectacular kitchen, Alice served them eggs benedict topped with caviar before she poured them more champagne. “I’m so excited to have you help me with my gown,” she said. “I know I want it to evoke my favorite Regency romances but I also want it to have a modern edge. You’re going to figure out how to do that.” She beamed.
“Well, some stretchy yoga pants would say ‘twenty-first century,’” Dawn said. “And you’d be comfortable at the reception.”
Alice laughed. “Okay, so maybe Natalie will help more than you will. Now eat.”
The conversation devolved into ridiculous suggestions about how to give a wedding dress a contemporary feel until Natalie announced into a lull, “Dawn is sleeping with Leland.”
Alice choked on her eggs and had to grab a glass of water to wash them down.
“Jeez, Nat, could you maybe wait for a natural lead-in?” Dawn said. “Or let me tell her myself?”
“Why?” Natalie showed no remorse. “It’s significant news.”
“When? How?” Alice croaked. “Wait, is this about the gym Wi-Fi problem? Oh my God!” She fell back in her chair, laughing. “History repeats itself.”
“Just because you and Derek fell in love when you were working on that accounting fraud doesn’t mean the same thing is happening with me and Leland. It’s just sex.”
Alice took a swig of her champagne and shook her head. “Wow! I don’t think Derek knows or he would have told me.”
“It’s pretty recent . . . like Friday night,” Dawn admitted. “Which is why Nat shouldn’t make such a big deal about it.”
“I didn’t make a big deal of it,” Natalie said. “I just told Alice what was going on between you and her fiancé’s partner.”
“Has it been okay?” Alice’s voice was soft with concern. “I mean, despite being a computer nerd, Leland’s a tall, well-muscled guy from all that swimming he does. He hasn’t triggered any panic attacks?”
“He’s figured out that sometimes I get uncomfortable and he lets me shift positions when that happens.”
“So he doesn’t know?” Alice asked.
“We aren’t close like that.” With a pang, Dawn realized how true that was.
Alice reached across the table to touch the back of Dawn’s hand. “I’m so glad. It means you’re healing.”
“Or maybe the sex is just good enough to overcome all obstacles,” Natalie theorized.
Dawn laughed. “Maybe.” She sobered. “It’s so strange. I trust him without knowing him.”
“What do you mean?” Alice asked.
“Well, I know what’s in his bio on the KRG website. Schools, degrees, awards, stuff like that. I know he was an only child and hated his school uniform. And that’s about it.”
It was a strange kind of trust. She trusted him not to set off a panic attack but she didn’t trust him to want a relationship with her. She pulled herself up short. There was no relationship after a mere four days. Working so closely together on the gym’s issue just made it feel that way.
A melodious but mechanical woman’s voice interrupted them to say, “An authorized visitor is arriving on the elevator.”
“Darn!” Alice dropped her napkin on the table and stood up. “That’s the dress designer.” She pointed at Dawn. “We’ll get back to you and Leland later.”
As she hustled out of the room, Natalie looked at Dawn. “Brace yourself. There’s going to be a lot of lace and satin and tulle.”
Dawn dropped her head into her hands with a groan. “Why does Alice want me here? I know nothing about this crap.”
“Because you’re her maid of honor and her friend.”
She lifted her head. “So are you and this is more your kind of thing.”
Natalie rose from her chair with fluid grace. “She wants to share her joy with us.”
“When you put it that way . . .” Dawn pushed up from the table and squared her shoulders. “Although I’m not a hundred percent sure how debating puff sleeves versus cap sleeves shows how happy she is.”
Natalie laughed as they followed Alice’s voice to the dining room. An older woman propped up poster boards with drawings attached, while a young man draped swatches of fabric over the glossy wood table.
Alice’s face glowed with pleasure, so Dawn pasted on a smile before she marched through the door.
Two hours later, the designer and her assistant had packed up their materials and departed, leaving three exhausted friends sprawled in the dining room chairs. They’d brought more champagne from the kitchen to relax after the intense decision-making.
“That is going to be one beautiful and unique gown,” Natalie said, waving at the on-the-spot sketch the designer had presented Alice with.
“You’ll look stunning in it,” Dawn agreed.
Alice threw back the last gulp of champagne in her glass. “Only because you all chimed in when my brain started to fry.” She tilted her empty glass at Dawn. “You’re going to make sure my arms look slender and shapely in those puff sleeves.”
“I love a challenge,” Dawn said with a grin.
“Ouch!” Alice held out one of her arms to examine it. “Ar
e they that bad?”
“No, but I figure it will make you work harder,” Dawn said.
“You’re so evil,” Alice said, pouring herself more bubbly and pinning her gaze on Dawn. “Now we’re going to get back to you and Leland.”
Dawn sighed. Just when she’d thought the worst was over.
Instead of grilling her friend, Alice stared at her fizzing glass for a long moment before she said, “You mentioned that you didn’t know much about him, so I’ve been thinking about what I know that I can share with you.” She swallowed a sip of champagne. “Leland was raised by his mother—who died recently. He took it pretty hard because they were close. No father in the picture. I’m pretty sure they were never married to begin with.”
Dawn felt a pang of sorrow for Leland’s loss. She couldn’t imagine losing her own mama, who was the sun around which their family orbited, even though Dawn’s siblings were grown and scattered geographically. It would leave a black hole in her heart.
“His mother was from Puerto Rico and she worked more than one job to support them. She’s where he learned his work ethic.”
“I knew he had something to prove.” Natalie looked very pleased with herself.
“So I guess the father is where he got the preppy looks? He always seems like he’s slumming in his jeans and T-shirts,” Dawn said, trying to reconcile the seemingly aristocratic southern gentleman with his surprising history.
“Evidently. He never talks about his father, so no one knows who he was.” Alice shook her head. “Leland is so smart that he got full scholarships at every school he went to but there are always extra things a kid needs. His mom gave him whatever she could but I gather he always felt out of place. You know, he didn’t have the latest cell phone or the high-end gaming computer or the right clothes.”
“So that’s why he never wears a suit.” Dawn understood the statement Leland was making. “He’s thumbing his nose at the people who made him feel inferior when he was young, showing them that he doesn’t have to dress like them to be successful.”
“You know him better than you think,” Natalie observed.
She wasn’t so sure about that. The truth was that his origins didn’t change anything about their relationship. If anything, his past life made his present status all the more impressive. He was still a genius who’d risen to the top of his field through his own hard work. She was still a trainer at a local gym in Jersey.
She longed to know more about Leland, but asking Alice about him felt too much like stalking him on the internet. She also had the forlorn hope that Leland would come to care enough to share his story himself. So she redirected the conversation.
“Anyway, I kind of seduced him because the dark web problem at the gym is about to go away and I needed to satisfy my lust before he went back to his life in Manhattan.”
Alice looked stunned. “So he’s been to Cofferwood? And what is this about the dark web?”
“He came to Cofferwood because he had to in order to figure out what’s going on at the gym,” Dawn said. “Our cover story is that I’m training him. He signed up for the gym as Lee Wellmont, just so you don’t blow his secret identity. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that you recommended me to him as a personal trainer because you were friends with him in high school.”
“It’s amazing how many people I knew in high school that I didn’t actually know in high school,” Alice said, referring to a subterfuge from her work with Derek on the accounting fraud. “You are a miracle worker, though, Dawn. Derek and Tully worry about Leland because he virtually never leaves the office except to go up to the top floor of the office building to use the swimming pool. It’s gotten worse since his mom died. They’ve even been discussing some kind of forced vacation except they figure he’ll just work remotely.”
“Hormones have a way of shutting down the brain,” Natalie said. “Sounds like Dawn is exactly what the doctor ordered for your workaholic computer genius.”
“Hey, I’m not some kind of cure,” Dawn objected. But inside she preened because she had been able to tempt Leland away from work when no one else could. Well, she and a puzzle he wanted to solve.
“Whatever you are, Leland needs you.” Alice held up her hand for a high five. “You go, girl! I’ll bet he’s a good client. All those muscles and stamina from swimming.” She waggled her eyebrows.
“He knows how to go the distance,” Dawn said without cracking a smile.
Alice giggled before her grin faded. “Now what about this dark web thing? It sounds sinister.”
“We don’t know anything for sure yet but we should soon. Leland took data off the gym’s router last night to analyze at the office today.”
“Dawn snuck him into Ramón’s office to do it,” Natalie said, disapproval clear in her tone.
“You need to be careful.” Alice looked worried. “Bad things can happen even in little old Cofferwood. I learned that the hard way.”
“Bad things can happen anywhere and at any time,” Dawn said in a flat tone. She’d learned that walking across a picturesque college campus on a sunny fall afternoon.
Natalie gave her shoulder a comforting squeeze. “True, but you don’t need to go looking for them.”
“What exactly is a dark web?” Alice asked.
Dawn explained to the best of her ability. “So Leland is trying to figure out why someone would use the gym’s router and the customers’ cell phones as a node. It’s really weird.”
“If anyone can find the answer, it’s Leland,” Alice said.
“To ease both of your minds, he’s planning to turn the information over to the FBI as soon as he knows what’s going on,” Dawn said. Then he would have no reason to come to Cofferwood any longer. Except to see her, and how long would that last?
Now that she knew about Leland’s past, she tried to decide if it changed anything between them, but she didn’t see how. He still lived in the rarefied world that his wealth and power created around him. Alice sometimes talked about how different her life was now that she had moved in with Derek. Dawn couldn’t wrap her mind around the level of money required just to maintain the two-floor Manhattan penthouse her friend lived in with its private security and staff. Fashion designers would even make house calls on a Sunday because Derek paid them to as a convenience for Alice’s working friends. Leland’s life would be similar . . . except for the dress designer.
Then there was Leland’s crazy idea that she should come into the city to train him. She was pretty sure that had been a spur-of-the-moment request on his part. He’d looked surprised as he said it, and he hadn’t worked out all the logistics, which was not like Leland. It had probably just been his way of seeing if they would act on the attraction flaring between them. Since they had, he didn’t need that ploy anymore.
In fact, she wasn’t sure she would be able to train him in a professional way. Touching him without sexual intent had been hard enough before they’d had sex. Now she figured they’d both get so aroused after five minutes, they’d end up in a broom closet at whatever gym Leland patronized in Manhattan. No, he undoubtedly had a home gym. Her imagination took flight as she considered possible alternative uses for exercise equipment.
“Hey, Dawn! You still here?” Alice snapped her fingers in the air.
“Sorry! I was thinking about the dark web.”
“You look more like you were thinking about Leland naked,” Natalie said.
“Busted.” Dawn grinned as her cheeks flushed.
“I have an idea,” Alice said. “I’m going to arrange for you to go see Leland at his office. Maybe you can drag him away from his computer screens early.”
“I don’t think that’s such a good plan.” Dawn had no confidence in the reception she would get if she interrupted Leland at work. “He’d have a right to be pissed off.”
“It’s for his own good. Seriously, he needs to take one day a week off from work.”
Dawn thought of how drawn he had looked yesterday before she’d insisted
that he sleep a couple of hours. He was working himself into collapse. “Would you go with me?”
“Heck, no!” Alice said. “I want you to use whatever wiles it takes to tempt him and I don’t want to be there to see what those wiles are. They will have to be extreme to distract Leland from his computers.”
Dawn turned to Natalie, their older, wiser friend. “Is this a bad idea?”
Nat took a sip of champagne before saying, “The worst he can do is ask you to leave. It seems like he’s too much of a southern gentleman to behave rudely toward you even if he’s angry.”
“I’d rather know if he’s angry.” Dawn twisted her champagne flute between her fingers. Would he be? “Will there be other people there?”
Alice shrugged. “Probably a few. When a project has to be finished on time, everyone makes sure that happens. That’s why KRG’s reputation is so impressive. But Leland has his own office and his own computer room. They call it Mission Control because there are so many screens in it.”
Dawn remembered how sexy it had been to watch Leland concentrating on the code whipping across the screen, and she made her decision. “Okay, but I need to borrow a nice blouse from you. I’m not going to Leland’s office in this T-shirt.” She waved at her casual top.
“Yes!” Alice slapped the top of the table in approval. “We’ll go raid my closet.” She looked at Natalie. “This begins to look like a pattern, which means you’re next.”
“Next?” Natalie raised an eyebrow.
“There are three partners at KRG. Two of them are spoken for.” She pointed at Dawn and herself. “That leaves you and Tully.”
Natalie laughed. “I don’t think real life works that way.”
Chapter 12
Leland stared at the computer monitor. “Got you! Now what are you?” He clicked on the dark web address he’d spent the past hour carefully tracking within the torrents of traffic in the deep web node. He believed it was what they were looking for, because more traffic went there than to any other destination.
When the website came up, he rocked back in his chair as shock vibrated through him. He didn’t know what he’d expected, but it wasn’t a professional-quality photograph of a man dressed in quasi-military camouflage pointing a handgun directly at the viewer.
The Hacker Page 14