Page 27 of Heart of a Hero

“Could it be someone in your office?” Forrest asked.

“No. None of us has direct access to client systems. That would be a breach of security standards. Instead, when they need our help, we work with the client to help them. But they do the actual work. So why is this coming back and why is it spreading? It makes no sense. I need to give this more thought.” He turned toward Forrest. “But not right now.”

“That’s good. I would hope I’m a little more exciting than a work problem.”

Conrad stood and then climbed on top of him, straddling Forrest’s lap on the sofa. “Oh, believe me, you most definitely are.”

Forrest slipped his hands under Conrad’s robe and around to his back, then slid downward to cup his perfect ass. Damn, the man was sexy as hell. Forrest opened the knot on his robe, and the fabric parted. “You are so beautiful.”

“You keep saying that,” Conrad told him.

“Because it’s true.” He tugged Conrad closer, swiping his tongue over his nipple before sucking the pert bud until Conrad moaned softly. Damn, he loved that sound, and it made Forrest’s blood run hot. “You’re so responsive to me.”

“That’s because you know what feels good.”

Forrest shook his head. “No. It’s because you were made for me. I know it. I touch you, and you quiver. There’s something heady in that.” He sucked Conrad’s nipple once again, Conrad writhing above him, increasing the excitement building between them.

Conrad’s phone rang again, and he leaned against Forrest’s chest for a second. Then Conrad pulled his robe closed and climbed down to answer it. There was tension in his voice as he spoke. This time he hung up more quickly. “I think I should go get dressed. It seems like this is going to be the kind of day where I get a million phone calls.”

“Okay,” Forrest agreed and went with him to the bedroom, where he pulled on clean socks and his shoes. The mood had definitely passed, and Conrad got another call as he finished dressing.

“… that should do it,” he said and ended the call. “God. Everything seems to be going wrong today.”

“Is it the same issue?”

“No. Weird stuff, though. Mostly they’re handling their issues, but they want to make sure they’re doing it right. It doesn’t help that it’s my turn to take the calls. They should ease up in a few hours. The processing will lessen because it’s Sunday and a lot less work is done. Still, something is off, and I’m not sure what. Tomorrow I’ll need to get to the bottom of it.”

“I hope you can.” The interruptions were really annoying.

“Me too. And I’m going to need to write up call reports so I can track the issues.”

“Then go do what you need to,” Forrest told him. “I understand that you’re busy and this is important.”

“Are you sure?” Conrad asked. “I can—”

“Just go,” Forrest told him. “It’s okay.” He kissed him, and Conrad hurried to his office. Forrest turned on the television and watched an episode of Dept. Q before Conrad returned. “Is everything okay?”

“I got two more calls. I was able to help everyone, but this is out of control. The strangest thing is that all the calls are with the same part of their systems. There haven’t been any upgrades, and we don’t make any changes. So why are multiple customers, who have nothing to do with each other, all having the same types of issues? But yet, none are exactly the same?”

It seemed like a mystery to him as well. “Is it only your accounts?”

Conrad paused and then nodded. “Son of a bitch.” He hurried back into the office, and Forrest followed him.

“What are you thinking?” Forrest asked.

“The easiest way for Lester to get the upper hand over me would be to sabotage my accounts to make me look bad. These issues weren’t hard to find or fix, which means they weren’t tough to plant either. We log everything we do or recommend, and there is nothing out of the ordinary this week. But what if something was done and not logged?” he asked himself, and continued poring over the records.

“There has to be a way to check on that,” Forrest suggested, and Conrad nodded.

“There is. But I’d need the system logs.” He opened a message app and sent a note, getting a quick response. “They are going to send them over.”

“That means you’re going to need the time and quiet to review them.” Forrest understood, though it would be nice for them to have a few hours together that weren’t being interrupted. Especially since it was Sunday. But he wasn’t going to cause trouble for Conrad. “I should go on home. Lizzie will be back in a little while, and you’re going to need time to get this done.”

Conrad shook his head. “Let’s go downstairs and work on our Egyptian god for a bit. It’s going to take them a while to get the logs together and send them over. They’re going to be of some size. So I can take a look this afternoon and this evening. It isn’t like anything is going to change in a few hours.” He finished dressing and they went to the basement, where he and Conrad designed the rest of the figure, how it would be built, and what pieces they could work on now.

“I NEVER thought I’d be working on a loincloth,” Forrest said as he continued building the colorful cloth piece that would go around the figure’s waist. They had left shelves of upright bricks that he could attach the loin cloth to over the body. It allowed it to be close to the figure and yet attached at multiple points so it would be strong and not just fall off. Then, going downward, away from the body, he used single-width pieces to add a lot of detail and reduce weight. “It looks great. Once you’re done there, I think you could make the torque to go around his neck. It should be intricate, made of gold, and heavily jeweled. That piece alone is going to take hours, and it’s going to need to look and flow like fine jewelry.”

Forrest nodded. “I can do that. I have some ideas, but I don’t know if you have the bricks.” He brought up the Lego site on his phone and showed the kind of pieces he had in mind.