Since he had met her, he hadn’t wanted any other woman. He’d had the opportunity, just not the desire. He only wanted Allison. He knew exactly when she had gotten to him, too. She had been staring at him while she timidly confessed stealing all that money from hackers, and there was something in her eyes that had captivated him. She was vulnerable, yes, but also gutsy. There was no denying her courage. Even more important, underneath the audacity was a kind heart and a sense of fairness. He’d never met anyone like her.
He just wanted to be with her. No, that wasn’t exactly true. He needed to be with her. The truth he had been afraid to admit couldn’t be avoided anymore. Damn if he hadn’t fallen in love with the woman.
TWENTY-TWO
He did it again. Allison was just drifting off to sleep when Liam leaned over her, kissed her on her forehead, and left. He didn’t even say, “See you later,” this time.
She should have been angry or at the very least frustrated, but she wasn’t. She was beginning to take it all in stride, which, all things considered, was extremely odd. And since she hadn’t told Jordan or anyone else that she was in love with Liam, she couldn’t complain about his bizarre behavior.
Will inadvertently took her mind off Liam by scaring the bejesus out of her. She took the morning off and didn’t even get dressed until eleven. She had a blistering headache and needed to buy some ibuprofen. The pharmacy was just three blocks away, two if she cut through an alley, and since it was a beautiful day, she decided to walk. The rule was that she could drive to and from work or anywhere else, for that matter, but she wasn’t supposed to walk anywhere alone. She assumed the reason was that Bale had not calmed down, yet when she put the question to Phillips, he didn’t confirm or deny. He simply told her she could walk anywhere she wanted as long as she had people with her. She had complied with his wishes up to now. Today she figured a quick trip to the pharmacy wasn’t a big deal, especially if no one found out.
She had just reached the alley between two buildings when she noticed a man hurrying toward her. His head was down and he was wearing a baseball cap low on his forehead. Even before he reached her, she knew it was Will.
He grabbed her arm. “It’s me, Will. Don’t be afraid. I need to talk to you.”
She tugged her arm free. “Have you been out here waiting for me?”
“No, I was on my way to your garage. I was going to wait until you came down. Then I saw you on the sidewalk and I . . . Let’s go in the alley and talk.”
She declined and told him they would talk right where they were standing. He looked around. The street was all but deserted.
“My attorney told me you got me probation, that you made some kind of deal with the prosecutor? Is that true?”
She was furious. No one was supposed to know about her part in his release. “How did your attorney find out?”
“I don’t know. Is it true?” he repeated. “Did you do that for me?”
No reason to deny it now. “Yes.”
He sounded desperate when he asked, “Can you get me out of this?” He grabbed her arm again and pleaded. “You have to get me out of this.”
Allison inhaled sharply. Not because Will had hold of her arm, but because she glanced over his shoulder and saw Liam walking toward them. He wasn’t wearing a suit jacket, and his hand was on the butt of his gun. He looked as though he wanted to kill someone. Where in God’s name had he come from this time? The street had been empty just seconds ago, and all of a sudden there he was. If she looked away, she half expected him to vanish again.
In a rush, she whispered, “Will, do you have any weapons on you? Like a gun or a knife?”
“No. Why would I?”
She put her hand up as a signal for Liam to stay back, which he completely ignored. When he was just a couple of feet behind Will, he stopped. He was so close she was surprised Will couldn’t feel Liam’s breath on the back of his neck.
“Will, listen to me,” she said. “You have to surrender right now. Surrender to me,” she blurted, and even after she said it, she knew it didn’t make any sense. “Okay? If you turn yourself in, maybe that will count in court and you won’t have to face a longer sentence. Please. Do the right thing, and I’ll help you.”
Will wasn’t listening to reason. “Maybe I could get to Canada and hide there,” he said. “No one would ever—”
She stopped him. “You can’t hide forever. I don’t want to see you in prison for the rest of your life or, worse, gunned down.”
“You’re so naive, Allison,” he scoffed. “To you the world is rosy, and people like me can get a fair shake. You think all I have to do is walk up to some cop and surrender and everything will be okay.”
“You have to surrender, Will.”
Antagonistic now, he said, “What happens if I don’t?”
“Then the FBI agent behind you is going to slam you up against the building, handcuff you, and take you in. Please. I don’t want you to get hurt.”
Will’s head snapped around. Liam was standing there with his hand on his gun. Like a caged animal, Will turned in all directions, trying to find an escape.
“Don’t even think about running,” Liam warned.
Will’s shoulders slouched. Realizing there wasn’t any way out, he gave a long, defeated sigh, as though all the fight that was in him was being expelled at that very moment. His voice sullen now, he said, “I surrender.”
Liam quickly patted him down to make certain there weren’t any weapons on him while he called the police to come pick him up. Within seconds they heard the sirens approaching from a few blocks away.
Will turned to Allison and started to beg. “Allison, please, you have to—”
Liam wouldn’t let him continue. “Stop right there. Do you have any idea how much your cousin has done for you? The lengths she has gone to?”
When Will turned once again in her direction, Liam snapped, “Keep your arms folded in front of you and look only at me.” Will complied immediately, and Liam continued. “Now you’re going to do your part. It’s time you take responsibility.”
Allison watched silently as Liam continued to give Will a piece of his mind, letting him know how furious he was for the way Will had treated her. By the time the police car pulled up and two officers got out, Will was cowering and seemed about to cry. She knew she shouldn’t interfere, but she couldn’t stop herself. She called to the officers, “Will surrendered to Special Agent Scott, and you can see he’s cooperating.”
Liam gave her a look that suggested she not say another word. He didn’t contradict her, though, and she took that as a win.
“Will you go with me?” Will asked her. He was practically shaking with fear now.
Liam didn’t give her time to answer. “No,” he said emphatically. Turning to the policemen, he showed his identification and ordered, “Cuff him. Then read him his rights and get him in the car.”
“Yes, sir,” both officers said at the same time.
As they led Will away, one of them turned back and asked, “Anything else we can do?”
Liam nodded. “Keep him in holding awhile. I might have some questions for him.”
Will looked terrified at the prospect of being interrogated by Liam, and as the officers put him in the back of the squad car, he once again looked back at Allison with pleading eyes.
She watched the car drive away before she turned to Liam. He was frowning, which didn’t surprise her. She tried to deflect his anger before he started lecturing her.
“Thank you,” she said.
“Thank you for what?”
“Not putting handcuffs on him.”
“Allison, I don’t have any handcuffs with me, and that is why I didn’t put them on him.”
“You could have just said, ‘You’re welcome.’” Before he could give her an argument, she asked, “What are you doing here? And how did
you know Will would be here?”
“I didn’t. That’s my car parked across the street. I was on my way to pick you up when I noticed you walking. Understand me, Allison. You are not going to help Will.” He took her arm and headed to his car. She was all but running to keep up with him.
“Why are you in such a hurry?”
“There’s a problem at work, and Phillips hopes you can solve it. I offered to pick you up and drive you out there. He’ll have someone bring you home.”
“When isn’t there a problem?”
“You don’t sound too upset about it.”
She smiled. “I’m not. I like problems. That’s why I hang out with you.”
He caught himself before he smiled back. “We’re going to talk about Will. I want you to promise me—and I mean it, damn it—you will not help him.”
“I feel sorry for him,” she admitted.
“Tell you what. Let’s drive over to the hospital. The man Will almost beat to death is still in the ICU. You can take a good look at him and then tell me you feel sorry for Will.”
“I understand, and you’re right. I can’t help him anymore. He’s got to be accountable.”
“Oh,” he said, surprised that she was conceding so easily. “Okay, then.”
“Are you disappointed you can’t scold me anymore?” she asked as sweetly as she could.
“I never scold people.” He paused to think about it and admitted, “Okay, maybe you, but no one else.”
When they reached the cyber unit, Liam walked her into the building and stopped at the front desk to say good-bye.
“Where are you off to now?” she asked.
“Berlin.”
A bomb had gone off in a shopping center in Berlin the day before. Several Americans had been killed in the blast. It was all over the news. Was that why he was going? Knowing his answer would be evasive, she didn’t ask. She handed the guard her purse and headed to the stairs. When she glanced back over her shoulder, Liam was standing in the same spot, watching her walk away.
“Be safe,” she said.
—
Two agents from the unit drove her home. Allison assumed she wouldn’t be seeing Liam for some time if, in fact, he did fly to Berlin. Then again, he could drop out of the sky and land in front of her at any second. She wouldn’t have put it past him. With Liam anything was possible.
Will made the news for having surrendered to the authorities. He couldn’t hurt anyone now, and as much as she hated to admit it, he did deserve to be behind bars. She didn’t think he would ever get rid of his temper, though. She said a prayer for him and stopped worrying.
Except for the daily scream call from Aunt Jane, Allison could finally relax, which she planned to do just as soon as she figured out how. She went back to working out twice a week, sometimes more often, not because she wanted to stay in shape but because it made her feel better. She had dinner with Jordan and Noah a couple of times. Jordan couldn’t stop talking about Brett’s presentation, and each time she brought it up, she laughed about the pompous egotism it took for Brett to think he could get away with such a scheme.
Besides her workouts, Allison also played racquetball with Dan and his girlfriend, Margo, a few times. She thought she was getting better. Neither Dan nor Margo agreed, though Margo was more diplomatic. Dan just laughed and shook his head. Over beers late one night he told Allison the latest gossip about Brett. Rumor had it that everyone in Silicon Valley and beyond had heard what he’d done. Even though he was holding on to his story about the computer program being his and blaming Allison for the underhanded “trick” she had played to destroy him and all his hard work, no one believed him. Still, he wasn’t going away quietly. Somehow he had gotten it into his head that he had enough of the program in his possession, and he could find a buyer. With each attempt that crashed and burned, he became more and more incensed. He’d gotten hold of her phone number and called several times just to let her know how much he hated her. If he had planned to scare her, he failed. Brett was a blowhard and so inconsequential she didn’t mention his drunken calls to anyone but Jordan.
Two full weeks passed and not a word from Liam. No surprise there. She was trying to accept the possibility that she might never see him again. It wasn’t as if he had deceived her. He’d been real up front about their relationship. Sex and only sex. No tender words of love. She didn’t want to cry over him or sink to self-pity. No, she was more in the mood to give him a good smack. It wasn’t a very ladylike thing to do, and she would never give in to the urge, but she certainly was tempted.
It was time to get the upper hand in this nonrelationship. She was determined that, if she saw Liam again, she would tell him she didn’t want him in her life. No more mind-blowing sex and then taking off. She’d better tell him over the phone, she decided, because she knew the minute she saw him her best intentions would go flying out the window and she’d want to tear his clothes off and attack him.
It didn’t matter that she loved him or that he might feel something more than just affection for the woman he occasionally had sex with. He might even love her a little, but that didn’t matter, either, because he would never do anything about it. His job came above all else. She saw how it was draining him. No one could keep up the frantic pace without paying a price. The stress alone would kill an ordinary man, and contrary to what he might believe, he wasn’t superhuman.
Not so long ago she would have believed that spending time coding was all she ever wanted or needed. Not any longer, though. She wanted it all. She wanted marriage and eventually babies to love and cherish. She accepted there wasn’t any future with Liam. Now all she had to do was find the courage to move on without him.
TWENTY-THREE
The doorbell rang in Emerson, and Aunt Jane opened it to find a young man standing there with a large envelope in his hand.
“Jane Trent?” he asked.
“Yes,” she answered cautiously.
He handed the envelope to her. “Have a nice day,” he said as he turned and headed back to his car.
Uncle Russell walked into the front hall. “What is that?” he asked, ripping the envelope out of her hands. He tore the envelope open, pulled out a letter, and read silently.
“Well?” she barked.
“Those ungrateful . . .” Beads of perspiration formed on his forehead. “It says here we have thirty days to account for the money we spent on the girls or give it back.”
Jane slumped into a nearby chair. “They found out.”
TWENTY-FOUR
Work helped Allison take her mind off her personal problems. On one of her more challenging days, she had a particularly difficult puzzle to solve, and she enjoyed every frustrating minute of it. Once she finally found the source she was looking for, she sent it on to Phillips with her report and sat back to enjoy her accomplishment. There was such satisfaction and contentment to be had after a hard day’s work. As astonishing as it was to admit, she really loved this job. She had even softened in her attitude toward Phillips.
She finished work at five thirty, then went to a yoga class, and didn’t leave the gym until eight. Traffic was a mess as usual. She parked in her spot in the garage and was walking to the elevator with her backpack slung over her shoulder when she noticed the camera that faced the entrance was broken. It was hanging by a couple of wires. She made a mental note to tell the super and went on upstairs.
Stamos was waiting outside her door with a policeman. The doorman was fretting while the policeman was filling out a report.
“What’s going on?” she asked.
Stamos rushed to explain. “Someone broke into your apartment.”
Officer Jay Watts asked Allison to walk through each room and let him know what, if anything, was missing.
Allison was shocked when she entered the apartment. The living room had been ransacked, and the desk drawers had been
dumped on the floor. Drawers in the bedroom were also open and the contents spilled on the floor.
“If you have any valuables, you might want to check and see if they’re here,” Officer Watts said.
The only thing of value that Allison could think of was her laptop and the program she had been working on. Her computer was still in the bag she was carrying, so it was safe. She rushed to her closet to check the cubby where she hid her backup drive. It was exactly where she’d left it. Her clothes and shoes didn’t appear to have been disturbed.
“I told Officer Watts it was those people who did this,” Stamos told her when she returned to the living room. “Your aunt and uncle. I knew they were trouble the second I saw how they treated their Chrysler. They were here causing another fit downstairs. I had to let them in the lobby because the woman was banging on the glass, and I was worried she was going to break it. I had to help 3A with her packages, but I made sure those relatives of yours had left the premises before I got on the elevator. I’m betting they came back in with another tenant and went on up. I’m sure it was them who did this,” he insisted to the officer.