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“How can that be?”
“Sometimes good things can be too strong. Anyway, it isn’t going well.”
“And here I am.”
“Yes. The irony is…under other circumstances, it might be fun, you and I. At some other time and place. Right now I’d be seeing you, entirely unfairly, as a consolation prize.”
“Fairness might be overrated.”
“And you are a temptress.”
She frowned. “Obviously not a very good one.”
“If you really wanted a drink, I’d be delighted to buy you one before I leave.”
She frowned. “Don’t try to be gallant. It’s not in vogue. And the drink was not what I wanted.”
“Then I’ll leave you.” She started to speak, and suddenly something dawned on him, an insight. This woman looked so much like Lissa, and was here in the hotel bar after he’d had dinner with her. He smiled at the woman. “Tell Willa you tried.”
She started to protest, then as he stood, she stood and faced him, her hands on her hips, her shoulders back. “You sure you want to pass on this?”
He nodded. The woman sat down and rested her elbows on the bar and toyed with her amber around her neck. “That must be one hell of a woman you got.”
“She is.”
CHAPTER EIGHT
Carrying her second cup of coffee, Lissa got to her desk early. She let out a sigh, then switched on her computer. She’d tossed and turned that night. Julio had seemed so delighted to hold the babies. His joy seemed real. Everything she saw in him over dinner and at her apartment fit perfectly with her memories of the man she knew in Switzerland. Joan had been put off at first, and had kept her distance.
But the boys had seemed happy to see him, gurgling with delight when he bounced them gently and lovingly in his arms.
But then he’d announced that he needed to leave.
“What about dinner?”
“Raincheck,” he’d said. Then he added, “I need to confront Willa. I need to know why she made it seem like I didn’t want to communicate with you.”
“I have my IT person checking what went on in my office,” she told him. “We’ll get to the bottom of this.”
When she saw him to the door, letting him leave without even a kiss, it left her in a strange agony.
She hoped they could find out what had happened together. But his abrupt departure left her both hungry and wondering if he was making his side of the story up. Maybe he was just one of those men who told women what they wanted to hear when they were in front of him. Maybe he couldn’t wait to leave her apartment so he could get on a plane and get as far away as he could.
She’d been unable to sleep, and when the babies woke in the night, she was the one who went to feed them, change their diapers. She felt a comfort in being able to do such basic things and see a screaming child, who could cry like the world was about to end, transform into a contented baby, sleeping peacefully. It made her feel like she had some control. Even if the baby wouldn’t settle down quickly, knowing that holding him to her breast and letting her son feel her warmth, hear her beating heart comfort him, was good.
The outside world was more complicated than that, which made it both interesting and frustrating, just like wanting her babies to get to know their father and recognizing that she wasn’t sure who he really was anymore.
Despite being exhausted, Lissa turned on her laptop and with a mug of warm milk checked her email. The outside auditor she’d hired had sent her a report. She was relieved. Whatever else Tina had done, at least she hadn’t screwed with the accounts. She’d stolen clients and dealt her business some heavy damage, but at least she hadn’t embezzled funds. Tina wasn’t that stupid.
~ ~ ~
The next day at the office, Abby walked into Lissa’s office, smiling mischievously as she plopped down on the small couch. She had a few sheets of paper in her hand, and sat there like she expected Lissa to join her in the sitting area of her office.
Lissa hadn’t been able to focus on her work, so she got up from her desk and sat down across from her new project manager and started to lean towards the coffee table, trying to see what was on the papers. “What’s up?”
Abby pulled the papers to her chest, away from Lissa’s prying eyes. “Some very, very interesting stuff.”
“Are you going to tell me?”
“This is the email from the tech guys. Did you know our servers were hit with a virus?”
Alarm shot through Lissa. “We’ve been hacked?”
She paid a lot of money for system security. Getting hacked and having vital confidential client information leaked could ruin her reputation and her business.
“Yes. Well, not exactly. Like I said, our servers were hit with a virus, but not a typical virus—a very unique one, according to this report. Let me read it to you.”
Lissa was starting to get annoyed. What the hell was Abby playing at?
“I’ve never seen a virus like this one. All it did, it appears, was search all systems for evidence of specific words, and when found, intercepted—”
“Intercepted which specific words? I’m confused.”
Abby continued, “In most cases, this involved intercepting all incoming emails and outgoing emails. Once intercepted, these files would be sent immediately to the trash.”
“What words?”
At this point, Abby smiled broadly. “Julio Torres.”
“What? Are you saying any email I sent to him would have been instantly trashed?”
“Exactly, and anything incoming from him—same result.”
“But, who, why, what the hell?” Lissa sank into her chair. She knew now for certain that he’d been telling her the truth. Why would someone bother to block his communications if he hadn’t tried to communicate with her? “But who did this?”
“They linked the initial attack file via access obtained using Tina’s password. My guess is that she probably hired a programmer to write the virus. You want me to set up a meeting with the IT guy? Maybe he can explain it better.”
A lump grew in Lissa’s stomach. She got up from the chair and walked to her bookcase. She faced her books, but she wasn’t seeing any of them. All she could see was the hurt look on Julio’s face when she accused him of cutting her off. Then she remembered the agony she felt when she’d believed it. She felt like a victim of a crime—hell, she had been. Her whole pregnancy, the birth—he’d been
left out of it because she’d thought he’d wanted no part of it. But now she knew that he’d never had a chance to make that call.
She suddenly felt very sad. Tears welled in her eyes.
“Honey,” Abby said as she came up from behind her.
Lissa was crying now, her shoulders bouncing up and down as the sobs of both anger and relief poured from her.
“What’s wrong? I thought you’d be delighted.”
“I am,” she said as the wave of crying faded. She pulled herself together. “I’m actually very relieved. Julio didn’t know about the boys. He told me that last night, and I wanted to believe him, but part of me was afraid to believe him, afraid that he might just be telling me what I wanted to hear. Now, I’m crushed with relief, but also with guilt that I hadn’t trusted him.”
“Honey, give yourself a break. I’m sure he’ll understand.” Abby patted Lissa’s back and waited as her boss moved back to her desk, sat down, and idly adjusted papers on her desk as she tried to regain her composure. Finally, Abby spoke. “What do you do now?”
Lissa shook her head, almost imperceptibly. “I’m not sure. Not sure at all.”
# # #
“When will you drop your bombshell?” Willa lay on the bed, rubbing her sore wrists. Tom hadn’t been kidding about expecting her to do whatever made him happy. The games he enjoyed took their toll, and her ass burned from the spanking he’d given her. Spanking seemed to turn him on. She wondered what other crap he had in store for her. Well, he’d come through on giving her the job title. It was official. She had given Julio notice and officially started the new job in two weeks. In the meantime, Tom was enjoying himself.
“I’ll have to let her know soon. Very soon. There’s no point in giving her a chance to give him the benefit of any of her ideas. Even a legal action can’t undo any thoughts she shares with him. I just didn’t want to give her too much warning.”
“So, your lawyers will visit her?”
“I do like the idea of breaking the news myself. I want to see her face when she learns she’s…” he held up the rope. “Not as tight as you were, but tight enough.”
