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He was here last night.
I replayed the scene in my kitchen. With a gasp of understanding, I ran into the bathroom down the hall. When Phil stuck his head in a few seconds later, I was banging open the cabinets and tossing towels onto the floor.
“You’re making a mess.”
“Nobody should have to listen to your nasally voice this early in the morning,” I shot back at him.
He shrugged. “I should be getting to work. Don’t be embarrassed about your status as a furry. I know a lot of people might judge you, but I’m not one of them. You do you.”
His weird sympathy made me want to gag.I’m not a furry, damnit!
I had to empty out all the cabinets in the bathroom before I found it. Underneath the sink, taped up against the back of the marble bowl. It was the size of a credit card, but thicker, with a single antenna sticking out.
I groaned when I recognized it. A wireless repeater that was used for man-in-the-middle attacks on a network. Like a snooping neighbor sitting on your porch, opening all your UPS deliveries and then passing them inside.
I was singularly minded after that. I hurried upstairs and got dressed. Jude was stirring in bed, and not even the tapestry that was his semi-nude body could distract me from my wrath.
“You’re leaving?” he mumbled, rubbing the sleep out of one eye with a fist.
“I need to get there before you. It will look suspicious if we ride together.” I kissed him on the forehead. “Phil already left, so help yourself to coffee and cereal.”
“I don’t eat cereal,” he said, stretching. “It’s all sugar.”
“You can tell me all about it tonight.” I kissed him once more, grabbed my laptop bag, and left.
The CalTrain ride into San Francisco seemed to take forever. I tried five different passwords to get into my Facebook account, but none of them worked. I wondered how many people were looking at my profile at that moment. It was nine o’clock. People were waking up and checking their phones. I didn’t have a lot of friends on Facebook; it was mostly college acquaintances and distant relatives. But I still didn’t want them to think I was a furry.
I was practically bouncing with rage as I strode through the front doors of the Advanced Crypto Solutions office. Melinda gave me a curt smile from behind her desk.
“Amber, can I talk to you for a second?”
“Can it wait?” I said without slowing down. “I’ve got something I need to handle…”
“It’s about the relationship you and Jude are having.”
That stopped me in my tracks. “How did you know…”
“I didn’t!” she said with surprising cheerfulness. “Not with certainty. But now I do! Thanks for confirming it and making it easy.”
I sighed and turned toward her. “Listen…”
“I’m not going to judge you,” she said with the crisp, matter-of-factness of a robot. “I just want to make sure you are both being smart about this. If things blow up between you two, I do not want to see the company reputation damaged.”
“It won’t be,” I said. A moment later, I added, “Things won’t blow up between us.”
“I am sure they won’t. But in the meantime, there is some legal paperwork I will have you both sign. To protect the company, you understand.”
“Of course.” I winced. “Jude doesn’t want Owen to know, though. Neither do I.”
She nodded as if this was obvious. “My confidence will not be breached. And I will ensure Owen never discovers the document.”
“Okay. Good. Yeah.” I felt numb. Yesterday, our relationship was a secret to everyone. Now my sister and Melinda both knew. I wasn’t sure how to feel about that.
“I will have the paperwork for you later this week,” she said, returning to her desk as if nothing important had been discussed.
Owen was in his office upstairs. He was leaning on his elbows on the desk while a dull, lawyerly voice droned on from the phone. He muted the microphone with a beep and said, “I’m a little busy. You can come back later.”
His finger hovered over the button, and I growled, “You’d better keep it muted, or they’ll hear everything I’m about to say.”
