The Boyfriend Project

by Farrah Rochon

  “Money laundering?”

  “Yes! This is what I’ve heard so far. Some employees here at Trendsetters were approached by a small group of people from Hughes Hospitality—including some of their executives—with an idea to launder money. They were inflating the number of users logging into the Wi-Fi at all of the company’s Central American properties. So, if only a thousand people logged on in a week, they manipulated the numbers so that it would look as if twice that many logged on. Then, a couple of months go by, they audit the numbers, find that they overpaid and were refunded.” She dusted her hands. “All that dirty money gets washed clean. Genius, right?”

  “Goodness,” Samiah whispered. It truly was genius.

  “They arrested both Doug and Bianca. They were manually inflating the unique logins.”

  “I saw Owen in handcuffs,” Samiah said.

  “He’s the one who set the whole damn thing up! Mike Epsen was in on it too. He was the mastermind behind all the tech work.”

  “Mike?”

  “Yes! From what I’ve heard, Mike tried to shut it down, and they sent goons after him. They’re the ones who ran into his bike.”

  Samiah covered her forehead with a shaky palm. This was way more than she could handle before coffee. “It’s like something from a movie.”

  “I just don’t understand,” Amy said, her eyes wide with confusion.

  “People do crazy things for money,” Samiah said.

  “No, I mean, I don’t understand how you don’t know about it. Word around the office is that it was your access card that was used to breach the system.”

  Her body went cold. Samiah relinquished her perch on the desk, rising slowly as she mentally fended off the escalating trepidation brought on by Amy’s pronouncement.

  “What?” she whispered in a voice so thready she barely heard it herself.

  Just then, there was an uptick in the muddled chatter that had been humming throughout the office. Samiah reached over to the keypad on her desk and turned the walls back to clear. At least a dozen of the men in the imposing windbreakers charged down the hallway, filing into the large conference room a few doors past her office. Quentin and Daniel brought up the delegation’s rear.

  Daniel stopped just past her door and looked back at her through the glass wall, his soulful brown eyes teeming with remorse.

  And just like that, she knew. He had lied to her.

  Her shoulders curled forward as an acute sense of grief struck her dead in the chest. She had no idea when or where it happened, but the guilt she’d observed on his face was unmistakable. He’d taken her access card and used it to breach Trendsetters’ security.

  He’d used her. All this time, he had been using her.

  Pain—stark, vivid, and soul-crushing—speared her chest, searing through her like a fiery lance, and the foundation of trust she’d slowly begun to rebuild all but crumbled.

  * * *

  Samiah tilted her head from side to side, stretching her neck as she read the same paragraph on her monitor for the fourth time without comprehending a damn thing. Her shoulders ached with the need to relax, but the ability to do so continued to elude her.

  Her breath caught in her throat as a silhouette appeared on the other side of her office’s frosted-glass door. There were three sharp knocks, followed by a soft “Trash collection.”

  Air whooshed from her lungs as the wave of alarm retreated.

  “Not today,” Samiah called.

  Dammit! She had to get a handle on this. She dove straight into a fit of edgy panic the moment she heard footsteps clomping down the hallway.

  She abhorred this feeling. Absolutely hated it!

  The memory of the last time she’d felt anything even remotely close to this stole over her. She could still smell the pine-scented cleaner the janitor had just used on the floor outside Principal Parker’s office as she sat in that hard plastic chair, waiting for her fifth-grade math teacher, Mrs. Shoals, to arrive. Samiah had been summoned to the principal’s office after leaving her own desk and walking over to Damarias Lewis to offer aid. The girl had asked Mrs. Shoals for help with a math problem, but the teacher continued to explain the issue in the exact same way. Samiah had grown tired of their back-and-forth and decided to take matters into her own hands.

  She’d learned two things that day: Teachers don’t like it when students show them up in class, unwittingly or otherwise. And her old grade school principal had a soft spot for those very same students.

  Actually, she’d learned a third thing that day. She discovered that she didn’t like being called to the principal’s office. And that’s exactly how she felt right now.

  Justin had given her a heads-up twenty minutes ago. He and Barrington wanted to meet with her to discuss what occurred this morning. The entire office was still stunned that a group of criminals had been working right under their noses. Longtime coworkers or not, there was a consensus that it was a good thing they were now behind bars.

  But that was all beside the point as far as Samiah was concerned. What mattered is that she’d allowed her access card to be compromised. She had to answer for that.

  Except she couldn’t answer for that. She had no idea when Daniel had taken her card. She was diligent when it came to securing it, the one who constantly reminded her fellow coworkers that their access card was more valuable than anything else they carried. How was she supposed to explain to her bosses that she’d been so careless with something so important?

  The only reasonable explanation was that Daniel had taken it after they’d slept together, either while she showered or as she lay naked and vulnerable in her own bed. She hoped she was wrong, but the nausea in her gut told her she was spot on.

  How could you?

  She wanted to scream the words in his face. She’d been hurt by men in the past, but Daniel’s betrayal surpassed anything she’d ever experienced. And that was before she considered the detriment he’d likely caused to her career.

  For a few moments after receiving Justin’s summons, Samiah had considered giving it all up. Just pack up her office and quit. Thanks to life lessons courtesy of her dear father, she had enough money in the bank to cover a year’s worth of mortgage payments and living expenses. She could walk away from this job and not worry about addressing these questions for which she had no answer.

  She thought about all the work she could get done on her app if she didn’t have to spend the majority of her waking hours here at Trendsetters, and had to stop herself from grabbing a cardboard box from the storeroom and dumping everything from her desk drawers in it.

  But what if potential investors caught wind of what happened today?

  Cold dread rushed through her veins. It felt as if she was going to lose the few bites of the granola bar she’d had for lunch.

  She was often amazed by just how small this vast tech world could seem at times. It wasn’t out of the realm of possibility to think that investors could discover her part in the breach and question her ability to keep customer information secure.

  God, the repercussions of Daniel’s betrayal reached so much further than she first imagined. The fallout from this could very well sink her dream.

  A message popped onto her screen. It was from Justin.

  Can you please come to Barrington’s office?

  The knot that had been slowly tightening in her stomach over the past few hours pulled taut. She could practically feel the deluge of adrenaline flooding her bloodstream, sense it in the uptick of her pulse beat, the sweat that instantly pebbled her hairline, the restive twitch in her muscles.

  Samiah flattened her palms on her desk, sucked in a deep breath, and slowly blew it out, reminding herself that no matter what happened in these next few minutes, she still controlled her own destiny. She’d put herself in a position to survive whatever came her way. That realization smothered her apprehension, replacing it with a calmness she wouldn’t have thought possible just five minutes ago.

  “You’re
going to be fine,” she whispered. Straightening her shoulders, she pushed her chair back, stood, and confidently strolled out of her office.

  She could feel the eyes of her coworkers on her as she passed their cubicles, their stares reminiscent of her experience a couple of months ago, after that video with Craig went viral. She’d made it through that episode with barely a scratch. Why should this be any different?

  Samiah pressed the touchpad just to the right of Barrington’s office door. Once receiving permission through the speaker, she entered the office and took the seat opposite Justin Vail’s before it was even offered. If she was to be fired today, she would damn well be comfortable while it happened.

  “Well, it’s been an interesting day,” Barrington started, running a hand through his shaggy blond hair.

  “It has,” Samiah answered. Cutting to the chase, she said, “I’m not sure I can explain the inexplicable, but if you give me the opportunity to do so, I’ll try.”

  “And what do you consider to be the inexplicable?” he asked.

  “How my access card was used to breach the system.” She hunched her shoulders. “Frankly, I don’t know how it happened. I have my card with me 99.9 percent of the time.”

  Justin held up a hand. “Daniel already explained to us how he was able to get his hands on your access card.”

  Samiah’s stomach dropped. “Would you mind sharing what he said?”

  “He said he lifted it from your purse when you weren’t looking, copied it onto a reader, then slipped it back before you even knew anything had happened,” Justin said.

  She’d suspected as much, but to have it confirmed crushed her spirit. Had he pegged her as an easy mark from the very beginning? Had that been his goal from day one?

  He’d arrived at Trendsetters just after that video went viral. Had he calculated that she would be vulnerable because of her breakup with Craig, and, thus, an easy target?

  “Daniel also assured us that you had nothing to do with it, that you had no idea he was working undercover.”

  “No, I did not,” Samiah said. She swallowed past her heartache. “No idea at all.”

  “I’m relieved to hear that,” Barrington said. “However, this was still an extremely serious breach of company security. It cannot be ignored.”

  This was it. Samiah braced herself.

  “You will be placed on probation, which comes in the form of your access to any sensitive or proprietary information being revoked for the next six months,” Justin said. “That means we will need to pull you off several teams for the time being.”

  “I understand,” Samiah said. She’d put a ridiculous amount of work into the various projects she’d been working on. It was painful to think of the teams moving forward without her.

  Samiah waited for the next shoe to drop. Except…it didn’t.

  Wait.

  “Is that it?” she asked.

  Justin nodded.

  Relief whooshed through her. Considering that she firmly believed she would be fired, this was nothing. In fact, she could use the time. She already had way too much on her plate.

  Actually, it might work in her favor…

  “I know I already turned it down, but did the security breach affect your belief in my ability to lead the new Outreach Department?” she asked.

  They spoke at once.

  “Absolutely not—”

  “No—”

  “No one is doubting your ability to do your job, or any job, for that matter,” Barrington said. “We’re not going to sit here and pretend that Trendsetters can afford to lose you, Samiah. Your value far outweighs what this may cost the company in the long run.”

  Justin ran his palms down his face. “Shit, he had to convince me to revoke your security access at all.” He pointed to Barrington. “He doesn’t understand the bind this puts us in on the Huston-Tillotson project.”

  Guilt over what this would cost her team was something she would have to process at a later time. Then again, it wouldn’t hurt to remind her team just how much she brought to the table. She’d carried so much of the burden for so very long; some of them weren’t going to survive her absence. She gave Keighleigh a week at the most before she came running to her for help.

  “I understand that you have to make an example of me, and I’m okay with that,” Samiah said. “If this is what it takes to show the rest of the company how important security is, let’s do it.”

  “And this is why it wouldn’t have mattered if you had been working with the federal government behind our backs,” Barrington said. “I’d forgive you just about anything, Samiah. Your attitude and work ethic are far too important to this company.”

  “We still have some things to work out with investigators, but after this is all taken care of and things are back to normal, I want to revisit our discussion regarding the Outreach Department,” Justin said. “You declined the position because you didn’t think you could devote time to building the new department while working on your current projects, but now that you won’t be working on those projects…” He waved his hand. “We’ll talk about all of this later. For now, unfortunately, we have to make an example of you.”

  Samiah nodded and tried her hardest not to smile. “I understand,” she said again.

  Could this really be happening? Not only was she not going to lose her job, but she was going to gain the time she needed to work on Just Friends and would still be allowed to head the Outreach Department? What she thought would be the most dire moment in her career had turned into an embarrassment of riches.

  “Is that it?” she asked.

  “That’s it,” Barrington said. “Thanks for being one of the good ones, Samiah.”

  This time she did smile.

  * * *

  The metronomic click of the external hard drive droned on within its slim black casing, the steady cadence thumping in rhythm to his own pulse. Daniel unsheathed a fourth hard drive and connected it to the final computer tower. With a few strokes of the keyboard, it joined the muted percussion of the other electronic equipment. In a matter of minutes, all the computers would be wiped clean.

  The machines they’d seized from Trendsetters sat in a secured building at the DHS field office in San Antonio, preparing to be shipped to Virginia, but the computers he’d used in this generic apartment in the Triangle would remain here for use by the next set of undercover agents tasked with locking up the Southeast region’s bad guys and saving the day.

  He’d spent much of the morning blocking out the racket from the movers as they carried in boxes and stacked them against the walls in the living room. The new tenants, two DHS agents out of Miami-Dade, would be arriving at the end of the week, which meant Daniel still had a few days before he’d have to close up shop and turn the apartment over to them.

  He didn’t need a few days. His clothes were already packed. Ninety-nine percent of his loose ends tied up. All that was left for him to do was to board a plane and fly back to his bland cubbyhole at FinCEN.

  That’s not all that’s left.

  Dread. Heavy, sickening, and profound. It rested in his gut, lodged in his throat; consumed his entire being.

  The one final thing he had left to do tormented him, but he knew he couldn’t leave Austin without talking to Samiah. The knot in his stomach tightened at the thought of facing her. He refused to take the coward’s way out. He would weather her wrath and do his best to explain why he’d taken her trust in him and smashed it with a sledgehammer.

  For now, he brooded in silence, watching the faces of his coworkers populate the computer monitor as they prepared for their weekly check-in—the last he’d have in this place he’d called home for the past two months. Despite the ever-present chill in the dark room, Daniel couldn’t bring himself to pull on his Phillies hoodie. He didn’t want to associate his favorite garment with the revulsion he’d been experiencing from the moment he’d made the call to bring in the DHS and FBI to make the arrests at Trendsetters yesterday.
>
  As his comrades back at FinCEN gathered for their video conference, the accolades began to pour in.

  “I didn’t think you had it in you, Collins, but you proved me wrong. Good job.”

  “Same here.”

  “I’m still not convinced he had it in him. I think this was just dumb luck,” Thaddeus Mitchum said with a good-natured laugh. He pointed at the computer screen. “And don’t forget to bring back my barbecue.”

  Daniel made an effort to smile, but it was half-assed at best. He should be ecstatic. Doubts that this job would come to a successful conclusion had amplified as each week passed. Being able to prove the naysayers wrong was the kind of shit he lived for. Yet he couldn’t bring himself to enjoy any of it. Whenever he tried, all he saw was that look of betrayal on Samiah’s face yesterday. How could he celebrate anything, knowing that she hated him?

  He should have gone to her the moment she’d arrived at Trendsetters, even if it was only to apologize.

  But when? When could he have gone to her? He hadn’t had a chance to eat, to take a piss, to take a damn breath yesterday. And why did he think a simple apology would make any difference if it wasn’t followed by a clear explanation of exactly what happened?

  Once they were done rounding up all the evidence needed and arresting those involved, they’d spent three hours huddled in the largest conference room at Trendsetters, discussing the details of the operation with Barrington—who, to Daniel’s utter relief, had no knowledge of the money-laundering scheme. After answering as many of the CEO’s questions as they could, they’d all headed to the local FBI field office for a joint debriefing between DHS, FBI, and the FinCEN personnel involved in the takedown. Where would he have found the time to give Samiah the explanation she deserved?

  It was futile to think that she didn’t know yet that it was her secured access card that had been used to breach Trendsetters’ security system. It was even more useless to hope that she hadn’t figured out just how her access card had been obtained, especially after she learned he wasn’t who he’d claimed to be these past few months.