The Billionaire's Impulsive Lover (The Sisterhood) (3 page)

After a moment, the analyst at headquarters confirmed, “Yes, but they aren’t downloading anything. If they’re still using the same terminal, they’re surfing the ‘net.”

Jeff and Mitch watched the patrons for the next fifteen minutes before the analyst said the culprit had logged off. At that time, two people left the coffee shop, Gary took one, Mitch took the other. Getting license plate numbers for both of them.

Six hours later, Mitch was still just as frustrated as he’d been the previous night but he had the added irritation of having that woman’s face and figure float through his mind constantly. Every time he tried to think of something, concentrate on a problem, her face interfered. He wasn’t amused and wished she would just get out of his head.

By seven o’clock that night, he gave up for the day. No sleep for thirty six hours was making him crazy he thought. That was probably why he was thinking about her and couldn’t focus. But his lack of control was unacceptable.

After driving home, he put himself through a grueling workout, then he and his dog went for a ten mile run through the woods and mountain roads. Duke was up for the run, enjoying it almost as much as Mitch. Both man and dog were out of breath when they arrived back at the house. Mitch put a large bowl of dog food into Duke’s bowl and pulled out from the oven the dinner his housekeeper had prepared for him. While listening to the evening news, he ate the pasta dish and worked on his computer, then took Duke out into the backyard to throw the ball around. The ritual had served both of them well for the past several years and relaxed Mitch’s mind before going to bed.

That night however, he couldn’t get the blond woman’s face or figure out of his mind.

Chapter 4

She couldn’t believe what she was seeing! Could it be possible?

Impossible!

She punched a few more keys on her keyboard and stared. The words on the keyboard didn’t make any sense at all.

The names she’d downloaded earlier this afternoon obviously had nothing to do with employees of Titus Securities. Instead, and it was obviously someone’s idea of a very poor joke, were the names of every cartoon character she could name, including Bugs Bunny and Porky Pig.

She bit the tip of her thumb, chewing absently at the tender flesh as her other hand slid across the keyboard, electronically sifting through the rest of the data. They were onto her!

Sitting back in her chair, she looked around at the bright colors she’d painted on the walls, but tonight, the colors didn’t do anything to help her. At this particular moment, she was just a bit too stunned by someone’s creativity and software ingenuity to think straight.

Tapping her pen against her upper lip gently, she considered the alternatives. She’d obviously been caught and moving forward was not the brightest idea. Hacking into this company’s database was dangerous but Gary needed her help. His employment at Titus Securities was the only clue she had to go on in order to find him.

Should she abandon the search? Wait for Gary to return and hope for the best?

Or could she come up with a way to be more subtle?

If the company wasn’t so damn big she would have had the information by now. Or if they’d simply replied to her inquiry about Gary’s employment, this would all be over. If Gary wasn’t working for Titus Securities, couldn’t they just say so? And if he was, Gary was probably doing something dangerous, which was why they couldn’t say he was working for them.

Quite a conundrum, she thought to herself as she stood and walked barefoot to her kitchen. Looking into the refrigerator, half her mind contemplated what she might have for dinner, while the other half of her brain started developing the code that might take her below the radar once again, and get in undetected. She wasn’t going to give up on a guy that made her feel so secure just because a silly programmer thought she or he could out do her. Nope, this was one guy in a million!

Claire poured herself a glass of milk, tucked a stray curl behind her ear, then went back to her computer. She could do it, she thought to herself, feeling the now familiar energizing sense of excitement and danger as she considered the possible code that would make her idea work. It would be slower, but it might just work, she thought.

With the exhilaration of doing something new, something dangerous and outside the rules, Claire let her mind take over. She wanted to do this, not only for Gary anymore, but also for herself. Her job was boring and she definitely wanted to outmaneuver the prankster who had corrupted her code last time. Cartoon characters indeed! She’d show him!

It was late at night, or more appropriately, early in the morning, when she finally finished. She still hadn’t tested her new code, but she could do that later in the morning and see if it would work on her test data. Smiling to herself, she fell into her bed, not even bothering to pull down the purple and red silk comforter.

The following night, she was comfortable with the idea that her code would work. After yet another horribly boring day at work, she was up for an adventure. Claire testing her code one more time through her office computer, ran the results against her samples and knew that she’d be able to get through. As the tingle of excitement raced through her system, she grabbed her keys and headed out. She had an idea.

It was ten o’clock in the evening and she parked far enough away that she wouldn’t be noticed. And if someone actually thought about her car parked in this particular place, there was a trail to the left she could walk down to get a closer look, and no one would question her Jeep in this wooded area. Maybe this late at night, perhaps, she chuckled to herself. But that was just more of the fun.

Taking her backpack out of the back seat, she stepped out of her car and locked it, then started down the trail. Only a short distance away, she found the perfect spot. It was a nice outcropping of rocks set back from the trees, but with a perfect view of the house. At least she hoped it was his house. The man was pretty private, but her superior investigative skills as well as her tenacity and curiosity, had served her well once more. She would know in a little while if this was the place.

What she was doing here, she had no idea. The CEO of Titus Securities most likely wouldn’t know if Gary was working at his company. With so many employees, it was doubtful that he had any information about anyone other than his executive staff, but the man had made himself into a challenge and now she was going to find out more.

About thirty minutes later, she lucked out by seeing the man come back from a run. “Hmm,” she thought, impressed that he actually worked out. That was a point in his favor, even if his IT team had blocked her out with their ridiculous counter code which had given her bogus data.

Lifting her camera, she snapped a few shots, smiling when the man’s dog pranced around the corner. Both man and dog looked equally rejuvenated by the run. Both man and dog then dove into the pool and swam laps. The dog looked to be chasing after the man, but Claire still thought it was probably lots of fun. Chasing balls was next, the man threw and the dog chased and Claire snapped pictures of all of it. She couldn’t see the man very well from this distance, but she was hoping the digital pictures could be enhanced on her computer tomorrow night.

Mitch tossed the ball one more time to Duke, then called him in with a whistle. Duke immediately came to Mitch’s side and rubbed against his leg. Something wasn’t right, Mitch thought, rubbing the dog’s ears as they walked inside. Both master and canine were well worn out but something was making his neck itch. That was a feeling he’d learned never to ignore so he as he walked into the house, he surreptitiously looked into the area close to the house. Nothing seemed out of place but he closed and locked the doors, setting the alarm for the night before heading into the kitchen for some water.

Looking out the living room windows without turning on the lights made him invisible in the darkness. It took several minutes of patience and luck but he saw a slight movement on the mountain to the right. A small figure was walking down a pathway, accidentally caught in the bright moonlight. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have seen the person. He couldn’t identify who it was, or anything else about the intruder, but he’d make sure that, if they came back again, he’d get better look.

Chapter 5

The coffee shop was too empty, she thought. She needed more people, others that would cover her usage more effectively.

Glancing at her watch, she noted that she still had plenty of time on her lunch break. Slipping back out of the shop, she went back to her car and drove about a mile south, finding another shop that was much busier. This one was unfamiliar, but probably better because it served sandwiches at lunch time instead of just coffee and pastries. More chaos, more cover, she told herself as she paid for her computer time and coffee, then sat down at the assigned terminal.

While she logged on, she looked around, checking just in case to see if someone was watching her. She knew she was being paranoid, or maybe just overly dramatic, but after the last visit to a coffee shop, she was being a bit more cautious. The tall men who had arrived about fifteen minutes before she’d left had looked suspiciously like law enforcement. The taller one was gorgeous with his penetrating grey eyes and muscular body, but since she wasn’t in the market for a boyfriend, she had dismissed him as she’d walked by.

Well, she’d tried to at least. The obnoxious man had taunted her in her dreams at night, coming to her bedroom and making love to her until she woke up crying out in frustration. That was ridiculous, she thought. She had never felt anything like that for a man. Ever! She’d been mildly attracted to some of her boyfriends, but none had driven her to distraction like in the romance novels. Or like that man had with only his glance. She’d felt his eyes on her and had looked away as she normally did when a man was too obvious. But for some reason, this time, she wasn’t able to dismiss him so easily. He hadn’t been intimidated by her non-verbal rejection which was highly unusual.

Nor did she want anyone like that. She was so tired of dating men who thought it was their right to crawl into her bed after the first date. Men were just horrible beings, she told herself, not for the first time. The fact that the tall man had invaded her dreams only made her more determined to find Gary. He was nice and considerate, always thinking of her feelings. She doubted the tall guy would even buy her flowers much less respect the fact that she wasn’t going to sleep with him.

Claire could just imagine a date with that one. Dinner at some cheesy restaurant he thought would impress her, champagne or some other alcoholic drink that was intended to loosen her inhibitions, a bunch of talk based on what he liked and where he’d traveled, what he did for a living and how important he was. Not a single question about her hopes and dreams. And then, at her door when he so “respectfully” walks her to her doorway, the embrace that only he thinks of as passionate while all she could do is back up and push against his shoulders in an effort to get his tongue out of her throat.

Ugh! Men, she thought, tapping the keys on the well used keyboard a bit more firmly than normal as she thought about the mornings after those dreams. She’d actually had to take a cold shower! How ridiculous was that? Women didn’t take cold showers, men did!

Her fingers only hesitated once, and that was right before she pressed send to start the program that would break in and download what she needed. She was irritated that her moral compass was jumping in at this point in the game. In the end, her fear for Gary overrode her internal code against breaking the law.

It took less than thirty seconds before she knew there was a problem again. Someone was onto her, she realized. How could they have known what she’d come up with this time?

She pressed a few more keys, initiating her backup program, all the while, looking around at the other patrons. With the second program running, she gave herself a sigh of relief. It was working this time, and from the looks of the information coming through, the data was accurate now.

Thankfully, she was done in less than sixty seconds after that. Not waiting around, she tapped a few more keys, which launched her cover up program, grabbed her cappuccino and flash drive and was walking out the door less than ten minutes after she’d walked in.

As she stepped behind the building to get to her car, she heard the car zooming by. Initially she told herself to just keep moving, but something inside her wouldn’t stop. Peeking around the corner, she waited, wondering if her instincts were correct.

Sure enough, the same two men who had been at the previous coffee shop were entering this one. Coincidence? She didn’t think so.

Relieved that she’d missed them, if only by a close time period, she hurried down the street, ducking through the pathway that had become overgrown with leaves and vines. Her feet were aching a bit with the high heels and the longer than normal walk, but something inside her told her not to slow down.

Her car was visible across the parking lot and she pulled her keys out, more than ready to drive away and be gone. She’d just unlocked her door with the fob remote and was about to open the door when a hand stopped the top of the door from opening.