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“I always get what I want.”
“Why is me working for you so important?” she asked.
“I don’t know if it is or not. I only know what I want.”
She rubbed at her temple. There was no more time to talk as he pulled up outside of a very expensive looking restaurant. This one had press outside and clearly was a hotspot for celebrities. Noah was a celebrity. Most newspaper outlets regarded him as an eligible bachelor.
“Why have you brought me here?”
“The food is delicious.”
“Noah, I shouldn’t be here. Not with you.”
“Stop worrying. Come on.”
Before she could protest, he was out of the car and already walking around to her side. Cameras snapped his picture, and he smiled so easily.
“It’s okay, Skye. Just act like this is the most natural thing in the world.” If this was shown on the news, people at work would know she went on a date with him. She didn’t know if she could handle people thinking that.
Worry about all that tomorrow.
The instant Noah took her hand, all of her concerns melted away. Standing by his side, close to him, touching, shoulder to shoulder, she stared out at the camera and felt completely out of place.
“Just smile. They don’t care who you are,” Noah said.
She forced a smile to her lips, hoping she didn’t look like some kind of murderer. Noah didn’t linger in the crowds. Within a matter of seconds, they were out of the never-ending questions, and inside the restaurant. The maître d’ knew him instantly, and took him to a table. He nodded at many people they passed. She recognized some faces, not all of them.
Noah moved the maître d’ aside to hold out her chair, and she had no choice but to accept it as he did so. She waited for Noah to be seated and them alone before leaning a little forward to talk.
“You didn’t have to bring me here,” she said.
“I come here all the time to celebrate, and we’ve got something to celebrate.”
“How have we?” She couldn’t think of a single reason why they should be celebrating anything. Even if she was to do the math inside her head, it wasn’t even the day they escaped.
“I found Arthur’s problem. It really was quite clever if I do say so myself.”
“What do you mean you found out Arthur’s problem?” she asked.
“So, as we both know he was one of the most brilliant minds in software. His company, in the early days, was known for winning awards and being one of the best programmers.”
“Yes, I know all that.”
“Then all of a sudden, funds started to disappear. His designs began to appear before he’d even done enough testing, and I found out that within his company was a spy.”
She listened as Noah told her about the employee, one of Arthur’s most trusted assets within the company, who was in fact taking his ideas, and selling them to the competitors. “The design that would come on the market wasn’t Arthur’s original idea, but it would make him nervous, and so, he wouldn’t continue on with the idea. He couldn’t find out who was the person stealing his ideas, and he certainly didn’t feel in a position to approach other companies to ask them where they were getting them from.”
“Who was the person?” she asked.
Noah smiled. “His nephew.”
“What?” She’d met Arthur’s nephew Henry a handful of times. He seemed nice enough, or at least to her he’d always been nice.
“Yep. I know. Arthur’s own family used him to make money of his own. Stealing ideas, selling them as if they mean nothing.”
“How did you find out about this?” she asked. “Does Arthur know?”
“Arthur is aware, and his nephew is now out of a job. I’ve also gone ahead and blacklisted his name as well. He’ll struggle to find work, and I’ll even make it my personal mission for him to struggle to find anything in this industry. Men like me, we don’t like rats like Henry who steal ideas like that. It’s how they ruin lives but also how the destroy the future as well. I’ve no time for thieves.”
