by Lyn Cote
With a feeling of fatalism, Annie switched on the high fluorescent lights. She and Jack had stirred up dust when they’d entered. It danced in the light, swirling like her nerves.
“I know it doesn’t look like much,” she mumbled.
Jack scanned the bare room. His expression told her little.
He’ll hate it. She glanced at shelves from the previous owner, partially dismantled, some lying on the floor and the rest propped against the far wall. She contrasted this with the sleek office they’d just vacated.
“This probably wasn’t what you were visualizing as new office space for us,” she said in a halfhearted tone, feeling very much that she’d dropped the ball. “But it’s really reasonable, and Mama said she and her husband would pay for paint and all, if we wanted to update it ourselves.”
Jack nodded, turning in a slow circle as he inspected the large open room.
Why didn’t he react? It was spooky. Just tell me you hate it, Jack, and we’ll leave.
“What’s in the back?” Jack walked toward the rear entrance, but kept glancing at her.
“A little kitchen, kind of a break area or a stock area.” Why did he keep looking at her? She followed him, hope trembling to life.
He waited for her to catch up. “What was this before?”
“A hardware store.” She kept pace with him now. “But the owner passed away and the Kalanovski’s bought it from the heirs because they wanted to control what kind of business moved in beside them.”
Jack inclined his ear as though hanging on her every word.
Annie watched Jack assessing the space. “A man who wanted to put in an adult entertainment store here had approached the heirs.”
His gaze unnerved her, but she went on. “The Kalanovski’s thought that kind of store would ruin our solid family neighborhood.”
“I see.” Jack flipped on the light switch in the back room and gazed around, his expression still unreadable. But he remained close at her side.
“If we rented from the Kalanovski’s, it would be trouble-free.” She felt herself beginning to babble. Jack’s obvious deference to her judgment and his close attention was unnerving. “They’re honest people. Our neighborhood has low crime. Everyone watches out for each other...”
He nodded, but stared at her, not the empty store. Did she have a smudge on her nose or something? What was going on? She couldn’t stand the tension anymore. “So what do you think?”
“Well, the rent is more than reasonable.”
She took a deep, calming breath. “I thought while we’re making a change like this, it would be best to keep our expenses low. But we would have to put in some sweat equity. My dad said he’d help us whip it into shape this weekend.”
Still only inches from her, he nodded.
Even under his eye, her confidence flickered brighter. “And there is a postal station not far from here where we can rent a large post office box so our customers wouldn’t have to ever know our address.”
“I’m not worried about impressing people. Hewlett and Packard started in a garage, remember?” Taking a step from her, he peered out of the high small window in the alley door.
She hovered near him. “Well, this is definitely a step up from a garage,” she said with an attempt at humor. “And I’ve already chosen a downtown restaurant where I can meet with prospective clients.”
“Well, you sound like you’ve thought of everything.”
“I tried to.” So, Jack? She took a step closer.
He turned toward her, his nose just missing hers.
She froze. The inches between them became charged, vital. Jack, why are you so different today? Annie looked into his blue eyes and leaned closer.
Responding, he slanted forward and pressed his lips to hers.
Annie closed her eyes, savoring the contact she’d dreamed of for so long, his lips on hers. Jack...
“Hi, kids!” Voices summoned them from the front. The door banged shut.
Annie and Jack stumbled apart and whirled, toward the voices. Through the doorway, she glimpsed her dad and Sandy.
“Hi, Annie. Mama K said you were here.” Mike beamed at them.
Annie felt her cheeks flaming, as though they were a flashing neon-orange sign repeating, “I Kissed Jack! Jack Kissed Me!”
“Mom, I didn’t expect to see you here,” Jack blurted out.
Annie breathed steadily in and out, willing away the guilty stain she could feel on her cheeks. Would her dad notice her blushes? Had they glimpsed Jack kissing her?
“Look, I’m off my crutches.” Sandy motioned grandly. “Mike invited me to lunch at the Polska to celebrate.”
Annie eyed Jack with uncertainty. Was he disgruntled, grumpy? What was the matter with him?
“That’s great!” Annie enthused, to cover Jack’s obvious displeasure and her discomfiture. Her lips still tingling after Jack’s kiss.
“We’ve just been to a store to pick out flooring, paint and wallpaper for my addition.” Sandy looked around the large room.
“That’s what we’ll be doing soon,” Annie hurried to say, still covering Jack’s silence. “We’re going to rent this for LIT.”
“Wonderful,” Mike said. “You’ll be right in the neighborhood.” Then he put an arm around Sandy’s shoulders.
Jack folded his arms and glared at Mike.
Oh dear. That was it. Annie hoped she was wrong about what was upsetting Jack. Personally she was happy her father had found someone as sweet as Sandy. Would she have to work on Jack? Couldn’t he see that her father was good for Sandy?
A day later, at Cliff’s invitation, Jack, with Annie at his side, stood in line at the supper buffet in a suburban country club, overlooking the groomed, brilliant-green golf course. They’d agreed to come here because, according to Cliff, many of the Hope Board would be lunching here today. Jack wanted another opportunity to observe and talk to the board members in another setting. But he found himself distracted by Annie’s proximity.
He and Annie had parted immediately after his approving her decision to rent the place next to the Polska. And right after I gave into crazy temptation and kissed her. Why did I kiss Annie? What was I thinking? I’m her boss. Sexual harassment is in the news every day. I’m lucky she didn’t quit right then.
Jack watched the casually but expensively dressed people milling around them and the ones who’d gotten in line after them. But his mind was divided between the present and what had happened the day before. The kiss. But she did kiss me back. What did that mean?
“Why are we here?” Annie whispered to him. “I keep asking and you won’t tell me.”
Her whisper made the hair on the back of his neck whisker up. He hesitated, getting control of his voice. “I want to get a better feel for the Board members.” He added silently, I suspect that someone at Hope has an enemy. Since I haven’t located the hacker, maybe I can find out who his or her target is.
So far though, except for Annie’s undiluted presence, which acted on him like a stimulant, Jack had only been bored to death. No wonder these people had to anesthetize themselves with a cocktail hour before dinner. Why did people think hitting a little ball into eighteen holes was of universal and intense interest?
“Are you sure you’re not doing some amateur sleuthing?” she whispered.
“Keep that to yourself.” Jack suddenly recalled how soft her lips had been. They’d just been alone at the new storefront and, without warning, she’d become an irresistible force to him, his North Star. Why?
“What do you expect to find out?” Annie scooped salad greens generously onto her plate.
“I don’t know. Maybe just get a second impression of Dr. Collins. And Annie, there are hackers who just like to meddle, but I can’t find any other motive. I think this is personal somehow. Call it intuition.” He shrugged.
She nodded solemnly. “Your intuition hasn’t failed us in the past.”
Neither he nor Annie had said one word about that kiss. He’
d been afraid of how she might respond if he did. I guess it did not shake her up like it did me—fortunately. He tried to feel fortunate, but failed.
The two of them reached the end of the line. “Where do you want to sit?” she asked.
Dr. Collins was seated at a table to Jack’s far right.
Jack was gazing around when another thought came. Should he apologize to her for kissing her? I just won’t let it happen again. I’ve lost Tom. I can’t afford to lose Annie.
A woman stood and flicked her hand, beckoning them.
Jack recognized her as Mrs. Dunn, the woman who’d hosted the pool party he and Annie had attended. Jack nudged Annie to head toward them. Then they would be sitting at the table beside Collins.
Dunn and his svelte wife sat at a round table in the corner of the room. “We were pleased when you accepted our invitation to come tonight,” the wife said. “Your father said you usually don’t like to mix business and pleasure.”
“Maybe this isn’t pleasure,” the husband spoke up, an edge to his voice. “Maybe he’s come to ruin our meal with questions.”
Jack lifted an eyebrow. Out of the corner of his eye, he noted Dr. Collins watching and listening.
“Cliff made it clear that you think we aren’t doing enough to assist you.” Dunn buttered his roll with a vengeance.
Jack set his plate down and pulled out a chair for Annie. Ignoring the man’s challenge, he found himself contrasting Mrs. Dunn and Annie.
He didn’t like the look of the pencil-thin surgeon’s wife—too much makeup and too much jewelry. In his opinion, Annie, with her unaffected hairstyle and sprinkle of freckles over her nose, won hands down.
“Well?” Dunn pushed for an answer.
“I’ve been getting many leads, but so far none have panned out. I suspect that someone on the Board is being targeted.” Jack finished seating Annie and then sat down, too. “Maybe you could give me a few suggestions of who that might be.”
“Is that possible?” Dunn asked. “We aren’t in the business of hurting people. We spend our days repairing broken and diseased bodies—”
“Hackers are not the most logical people.” Jack turned away from Annie, trying to ignore the subtle Annie fragrance he’d become aware of so intensely since that night in his mother’s kitchen.
“What does that mean?” Dunn fixed his gaze on Jack.
Jack glanced around, seeking his dad. Cliff was at another table, but within hearing distance. “It means that the hacker’s motive might not be obvious or even sensible.”
“I didn’t think of that.” Dunn looked as if he were giving that some thought.
* * *
Annie nibbled her salad, but Jack sensed her close attention to the exchange. He dragged his mind back to the subject at hand. “Has Hope had to let any troublesome employees go in the past year?”
Dunn pursed his lips. “Cliff asked that question right after we met you at our pool party. I can’t think of anyone we’ve let go—”
“What about that nurse who was trying to unionize the nursing staff at our Highland Hills Hospital?” Dr. Brown, tall but unprepossessing, sat down with her husband beside her.
“We didn’t fire her,” Dunn objected. “She had every right to try to organize the nursing staff and the staff had every right to vote it down.”
Jack watched Annie butter a roll, fascinated by the adroit action of her fingers. Everything about Annie looked fragile. But she wasn’t. She was strong—like his mother. “Did you put any pressure on the staff not to vote themselves into a union?” Jack asked.
“Trying to prevent unionization is illegal,” Dunn said. “We didn’t think the nurses needed to unionize, but we did nothing to stop it.”
“Is this part of your job?” Dr. Brown asked, sitting forward in her chair. ‘To try to track down the hacker?”
“Yes,” Jack replied. “LIT has been hired to fix and secure your system. But after this latest episode, I warned my father that no system is impregnable. Mitnik invaded the government’s databases before he was finally tracked down.”
“Was that the notorious hacker that was imprisoned in the nineties?” Brown asked.
“Yes.” Jack nodded. “I don’t think your hacker is in that league—thankfully. But what does someone want to gain by messing up your payroll and your insurance data?
“We need to consider motive to prevent this hacker from targeting the new security-rich system I’m designing. A skilled and determined hacker will eventually break any system he targets. So you need more than excellent security.”
No one replied.
Jack noted Dr. Collins turn quietly away from them after obviously taking in all that had been said.
“Let’s change subjects. All this business talk is spoiling my dinner.” Mrs. Dunn looked at Jack. “So, what do you think of Gloria?” Mrs. Dunn took a sip of her water.
“Gloria?” Jack looked to Annie for information. Had he met a Gloria?
Annie responded with a small shake of her head.
“Was that the nurse who wanted to unionize?” Jack asked.
“No. She’s your father’s fiancée.” The woman watched him, looking pleased, as though she had scored a point in some game she was playing.
Jack said nothing. So his father was going to try marriage again—the third time? The thought ground inside him. He felt his stomach tighten.
“We haven’t had the pleasure of meeting her yet,” Annie said, filling the gap for him.
“That’s right.” Cliff, who’d finally decided to come over from his table, sat down beside Jack. “Gloria has been away with a few family emergencies since I proposed.”
Jack managed to nod. His mother wanted him to forgive his father, but how could he? He didn’t like the way his father lived his life. And now he was probably going to make another disastrous marriage. And his mother might be moving in the same direction. How did people take commitment so lightly like his father? A wave of hopelessness swept through Jack. He didn’t want to spend his life alone, but...
“I’m hoping they’ll get to meet her when she gets home in the coming month.” Cliff looked to Jack as though daring him to say something negative.
Annie’s cell phone made a subtle buzzing sound and she took it out of her pocket. She turned to Jack as she listened.
“I can’t believe that,” she said into the small phone. Pause. “Okay. I’ll be home as soon as I can.” She slid the phone back into her pocket.
“What was it?” Jack murmured into her ear.
“Later.” Her tone was curt.
And that worried Jack. Annie was never curt even with rude people.
Chapter 8
As Jack pulled in front of her house, Annie chewed her lower lip. “Thanks for bringing me home early.” She reached for the door handle, eager to get away from him though not so eager to face her family.
“Hold it. It’s late. I’m walking you in.” He released his seat belt and it slithered into its holder.
“No.” She gripped the handle. I don’t know what we’ll find inside, Jack, and I don’t want you to see my family this way.
“You’ve been upset since you got that phone call—”
Her phone buzzed again. What now? She lifted it from her pocket “Hi.”
“Annie, I need you at home,” her dad urged. “Now.”
“I’m in front of the house. I’ll be right in.” At her father’s anxious voice, her pulse raced. She felt a little sick as she hung up. “I’ve got to go.”
“I’m coming with—”
“No, I...” Please, Jack, don’t. This is too personal.
Unfazed, he climbed out, zipped around and met her at the curb. “What is it?”
Under the bronzed sky, she shook her head, unable to put her hesitance into words. She headed for her front gate, trying to let her body language tell him to go.
But Jack kept up with her.
As she unlocked the front door and hurried inside, he doggedly followed her in
to the foyer.
Raised male voices greeted them.
Annie rushed into the first-floor flat. In the living room, Mike and Troy faced one another. Their hostile expressions—so out of character—made the hair on her nape stand up.
“I’m not standing for this!” Troy shouted.
Her dad’s hair was mussed and tension stiffened his posture. Stress showed in the way he edged forward, confronting Troy. “I called Melissa immediately after this arrived for you. She said she’d come as soon as she could. She’s on her way. Why won’t you agree to talk this over with her?”
“She’s gone too far.” Troy shook a sheaf of papers in Mike’s face. “And I don’t want to talk to her.”
“She said she’d be right over—” Mike insisted, reaching for Troy’s arm.
His front door opened. Melissa walked in.
Annie took a step forward.
“You!” Troy’s voice was accusing.
“Yes, me. Dad called and I came.” Melissa tossed a defiant glare at her husband.
Annie froze where she was, unable to believe what was happening around her. Lord, it’s worse than I thought. Help us.
Troy waved the document in Melissa’s face. “You’ve gone too far—”
“Really?” Melissa lifted her chin. “I think it was the very least I could do in the situation you put us in—”
“Me?” Troy glared. “I didn’t walk out.”
Her head cocked, Melissa folded her arms in front of her. “I was forced out. It was your way or the highway.”
Oh, Melissa. Annie turned to Jack. “We should go and let them—”
“I,” Troy yelled, “never said that—”
“Stop this!” Mike roared.
Silence.
Annie realized Jack had moved to her side. She put out a hand. He took it and she clung to him.
“This is not the kind of home where family members yell at one another.” Mike looked at Melissa and then Troy. “Now, we’re going to sit down and discuss this like a family.”
“Yes, listen to Dad,” Annie coaxed.