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He’s pretty precisely summed up Nick’s friends. “The Bro Coders. They love coding and misogyny. Nick met them in college. I think they’re the reason he went into tech. His actual degree is in management, but somewhere along the way he figured out he could manipulate talented people so he looked like he was one of them. He takes a lot of credit for smart people’s work.”
The table goes super quiet.
I wince. “Including me. The point is Nick let me do anything technical, and the backup system was used for everything. When he plugged his phone in to charge it, the system pulled down all the new data. Same for his laptop and tablet and smart watch. I’ve got over a year’s worth of data. When he left I offered to send it to him, but he said he didn’t need anything from Jensen Med since he was starting a new life.”
“Did he not understand?” CeCe asks. “That you were downloading the private files, too? He might have a right to privacy argument.”
I feel a smile slide over my face. “If he didn’t understand it’s only because his ass didn’t read the user agreement.”
Heath snorts. “You made him sign a user agreement?”
“Oh, she makes everyone sign one,” my mother says. “I had to sign one when she set it up at our office. My boss actually wrote it, so I assure you it’s legally binding.”
I shrug. “I was storing his data. It seemed right at the time. I guess I was covering my ass.”
Heath leans over. “You installed that system for me weeks ago. I do not recall a user agreement.”
Because I don’t need it with him. Because he’s never going to use it against me. I wrinkle my nose and brush my lips over his. “Like I said, it seemed right at the time.”
Darnell makes a vomiting sound. “Could we get back to the part where we potentially use this asshole’s own data against him? I think at my next writer group we can revisit the meaning and use of irony in fiction. In real life it’s just sweet karma.”
Harper finishes her last meatball and sets down her fork. “So we’re going to legally violate Nick’s privacy because he’s lazy. I’m ready.”
I don’t know that they understand how massive this job could be. “It’s a lot. It’s every email, text message, voice message, document, picture he’s taken for years. We can start with the time surrounding the Jensen Med sale, but it’s still a ton of stuff to sort through.”
“Not for Emma.” Heath isn’t done but he stands. “All we have to do is feed her the data, set the parameters of what we’re looking for, and see what happens. Maybe he’s perfectly clean and then maybe he’s not.”
“Maybe he does a ton of crime and takes pictures of it, and we can get him hauled off to jail.” Anika is thinking positive.
“Do you still have the data?” Lydia asks. “You didn’t dump it when you dumped him?”
CeCe’s smile is positively predatory. “She has it. She would never dump it because I taught her that information is the most important thing in the world.”
I have to hope I find something useful. Something that might prove it wasn’t all my fault that Jensen Med failed. “I can access it from my laptop. Let’s see what Emma can find.”
It’s not as easy as simply loading the data. By almost two in the morning, Heath and I had written and rewritten a dozen protocols. We have to push and pull and get things just right so the AI understands what it’s looking for and is able to make connections.
There’s so much on the drive—a near complete documentation of Nick’s life. The one I hadn’t realized he had. I thought we’d shared the same values, but it was clear we hadn’t.
I was surprised to find that he went out with the boys on several nights when he told me he was working. There was picture after picture of him and the bros partying it up around town. And they appeared to have enjoyed numerous men’s clubs.
I look through the pics and wonder if I knew this man at all. There are a couple of us, but I’m barely smiling. Had I thought I was happy? Had I decided I didn’t deserve to be happy, and I would settle for whatever I had with him?
“Now I know he didn’t think it worked on his phone.” Heath shakes his head as he looks at the screen. “He couldn’t have wanted you to see those.”
The whole time we’ve been working there is a sense of peace between us. This is the kind of job that should make me anxious. I should want to hide whatever I find from Heath to salvage my pride, but I hadn’t thought twice about letting him open those pictures. It’s not that he doesn’t irritate me at times. He does, but then he brings me coffee or kisses my forehead. The man knows how to soothe my inner beast. It’s something I’ve never felt before, and I don’t know if I trust it. This thing between us feels way too good to be true.
