Corporate Fire: Corporate Romance Book 1 (18 page)

Grace thought of all the emails she'd received that she hadn't read and the texts she got while she was at the doctor. There must've been an invitation in there somewhere. “That doesn't sound so strange.”

Jill put her elbows on the table. “They called me over and asked if I'd heard from you since Friday. It was kind of weird the way they asked, like they were sussing me out. So I lied and said that I had no idea what had happened to you, and I sat down and asked what was going on. Why didn't you tell me Doug was at Breckenridge too? Did he hit on you?”

Grace slid the mocha away and put her head on the table. When she came up, she said, “I'd forgotten about Doug. He kept asking me out, but you know how he is...turning any compliment into an insult. He saw me and Royce together after I broke my leg and freaked out.”

“Well, he was there making you sound like the biggest slut in the history of the corporate world. I finally punched his arm and told him to knock it off.”

Grace squeezed Jill's hand. “Thanks. I owe you, like ten times.”

“You just have to keep me in the loop. Jeff was there too and freaking out because he kept his keycard, but it was missing now. Instead of saying he'd kept it, he told the cops Royce had it.”

“That must be why they arrested Royce.”

“It gets worse. I didn't eat with them, but when I left, I overheard Doug saying it was a good thing they'd all stuck to their plan of making you sound like the most suspicious one. He told them that you probably got Royce to set the fire for you.”

“Oh my god, this is bad. This is really bad. I told them I was with you and Royce last night. What if they start to suspect you too?”

“But I was with you guys. We were all together, so it couldn't have been Royce.”

Grace sat up. “But Royce took off on his own, remember. We can't vouch for him for like an hour. And he's the one who phoned it in, which they already know. What if they figure out that we weren’t with him when he phoned it in?”

“Why would he phone in his own crime? If they really thought it was you, they would've arrested you.”

“The detective made it sound like that was a possibility. Maybe it depends on what Royce says.”

“He's not going to say anything without a lawyer. I'd be more worried about Doug coming up with more stories to tell them.”

Doug. She remembered him being so annoyed with her at not answering the group emails, and then he sent her that weird text. “The emails! Bring me my laptop.”

Jill ran back to Grace's room and emerged with her computer. Jill sat next to her as Grace loaded her email client. She scrolled all the way down to the first email.

The emails started with the first person to be fired. Yet another reason why Grace should've seen the layoff coming because the email arrived an hour before she was fired. But she always turned off her email while she worked—apparently she was the only one.

A knock at the door made both Grace and Jill jump. “Ms. Arden, it's Detective Carlisle. Please open up.”

“Shit, I need more time.”

“Keep looking. I'll try to stall them, but I don't know how.” Jill stood up, but she made no move to answer the door.

The emails were a flurry of crap, and Grace didn't see anything that would cause a mass text about not mentioning the emails. Even the text was a stupid move because it had to be on a dozen phones. It was like her whole department had turned idiotic after they lost their jobs.

There was another knock at the door, and Jill shouted out, “Coming,” but didn't move. “Anything?” she asked.

“Not yet, oh here's one from Jeff.”

“Ms. Arden, we need to take you to the precinct for further questioning.”

Jill finally went to the door as Grace read Jeff's email, “I kept my keycard. Anyone want to go to the office this weekend and trash it?”

Detective Carlisle and Sergeant Lujan pushed past Jill. Carlisle said, “Ms. Arden, I'm afraid we need to take you in for more questioning.”

“I found it!” Grace yelled. “Jeff still has his keycard. He says so in this email.”

Detective Carlisle said, “What did you say?”

“I went skiing, so I didn't read my emails all weekend, and when I came back I didn't feel like it because I'd broken my leg. But I got several texts today from the whole programming department telling me not to mention the emails.”

Detective Carlisle and Sergeant Lujan walked over to peer at the computer screen. Jill came up behind her to read it over her shoulder.

“You have a lot of unread emails here,” said Carlisle.

“I just started reading them right before you got here.”

“Ms. Arden, we need your laptop and phone as evidence, and would you and Jill come down to make an official statement?”

Grace cringed at the thought of the police going through her computer files and phone, but it was the only way to help Royce. And he wouldn’t be in this position if it wasn’t for her. “Can you release Royce now?”

“We need to look everything over first.”

Grace nodded. Jill grabbed up both her and Grace's purses while the police confiscated Grace's computer and phone. Grace had to bite her lip to keep from shouting at them about privacy and not touching her belongings. Royce needed her help.

23| Waiting

Grace slumped on her crutches behind Detective Carlisle and Sergeant Lujan as they opened up her laptop. The fluorescent lights buzzed overhead, jangling her nerves further. Jill stood next to her with a hand on Grace's shoulder, knowing Grace was about to pop.

“What's your password?” asked Carlisle.

“Can I just type it in myself? I'll show you everything--”

“I think we'd better do this,” said Carlisle.

“I can't just give you my password,” Grace almost shouted, but Jill tightened her grip on Grace's shoulder.

“You can change it when you get your laptop back,” said Jill. “It's okay.”

“But it's private, and--”

“And you want Royce to be released. Take a deep breath.” Jill put her hand on Grace's cheek and turned her head to lock eyes with her.

Grace relaxed, realizing that Jill was a true friend, sticking by her through all of this. She took a deep breath and tried to ignore the fact that the invasion of privacy felt like a doctor cracking her chest open. She let the air out of her lungs and recited her complex password, a seemingly meaningless jumble of uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers and other characters.

“And I thought I had a tough password,” mumbled Lujan.

Carlisle entered the password, and the screen opened to her email client, where Carlisle started reading the emails sent by her former coworkers.

Grace said through gritted teeth, “Those are personal.”

“Grace--” Jill tried to pull her back.

Carlisle turned in her chair. “Ms. Arden, we're trying to help you. I'd like to point out that these emails weren't important enough to you to open when you got them a few days ago. Why should it bother you so much that we're reading something you didn't care about?”

Grace blinked her eyes several times. “I know. You're right. I'm sorry.”

Carlisle adjusted her jacket and turned back to the computer.

“Let's look in sent,” said Lujan.

“No!”

Lujan moved forward to block Grace from the computer. Carlisle said, “Jill, could you please take your friend over there and sit down with her?” indicating a line of chairs against the wall.

“Come on,” said Jill, turning Grace towards the chairs.

Grace reluctantly obeyed and sat down at a chair not too far from the desk, with Jill right next to her. Lujan divided his attention between the computers and the women, though Grace couldn’t exactly make a quick getaway with her cast and crutches. Carlisle read a bit more and said, “Whoa, you've been a busy woman for someone who hasn't been reading her emails.”

“What?” asked Grace, trying to stand up and lean over to see the screen. Jill pulled her back down with her arm across her shoulder.

“Wait,” said Lujan, pointing at something on the screen. “This one was sent five minutes ago. Does someone else have your password?”

“No, I never give that out. I'm very private.”

“Well, someone's hacked it because another one just popped up.”

Hacked. The word charged through Grace's synapses, and she remembered Doug saying, “I have my hacker's certification.”

She sat up straight and practically yelled, “It's Doug. He told me he had his hacking certification, and he got mad at me for turning him down. He's also mad because I got together with Royce. I bet he's the one sending emails out of my account.”

“And trying to frame you,” said Lujan.

“Miss Arden,” said Carlisle, “I need you and your friend to wait here awhile longer.”

“What about Royce?”

“He's already waiting.”

“We'll wait,” said Jill. Grace squirmed, but she nodded. Jill pulled her phone from her purse, turned Jewel Chase on and shoved it in front of Grace.

Grace felt like a toddler being given a toy by an exasperated mother, but she took the offering.

An hour or so later while the two friends were discussing the quirks of the game and how to make it better, a man shouted across the precinct.

“You bitch!” yelled Doug. “Do you have any idea what you've done?”

Grace and Jill turned to see a handcuffed Doug being led by a couple of cops to a different part of the building and through a door. Detective Carlisle broke off from the group to head over to them. “Thank you so much for your help. I'm afraid we have to keep your laptop and phone for now, but you're free to go.”

“Doug was framing me?”

“Yes, and we found Jeff's keycard at his apartment.”

Jill and Grace stared at each other.

Detective Carlisle said, “I'm sorry for all the stress I know we've caused you, but we shouldn't need to bother you much more after this.”

“What about Royce?”

“If you go out and wait in the lobby, he'll be joining you soon.”

Soon did not have the same meaning to Grace as it did to Carlisle. It was about an hour later when Royce finally appeared, tired but grinning.

Grace hopped up and embraced him right away. “I'm sorry I got you arrested. I was just so nervous that I kept mentioning you without thinking.”

He held her tightly and said, “It wasn't you. Jeff told them I had the key, and the security guards were covering their butts. And when they released me they said all the programmers were implying we planned it together.”

Jill laughed behind them. “Can you imagine Grace in prison? No privacy. People all up in her business. You should've seen her freaking out in the precinct.”

Grace pushed away a little but still held on to him. Finally relaxing she said, “That's nothing. They moved my chairs away from the table. I told them they had to move them back and we could talk at the table or they could sit on the floor if they wanted to stay at the coffee table.”

Royce pulled her back to him as he laughed. “You told the officers to sit on the floor?”

“Yeah before you got there.”

Jill said, “So lets get some burgers and beer and go back to Grace's. Jail break party!”

“I'll drink to that,” said Royce.

24| Night Out

Grace sat on her futon filled with apprehension. It was close to five in the afternoon, and she hadn't seen Royce all day. She'd woken to find a note on her nightstand on top of five new Sudoku puzzle books and next to a vase with a single red rose. “I have some things I need to take care of, but I'll be back soon. Whatever you do, don't worry. I haven't run away.”

Easy not to worry in the morning, but he'd been gone all day now with no sign. She could email him on her second phone, but that wouldn't really show she trusted him or was overcoming her fear of being hurt. But waiting all day was a killer.

She hadn't heard from Jill either, which wasn't a surprise since Jill worked, but it made the day lonely.

Royce had stayed the night, but between the events of the day and her pain medication, she’d fallen asleep before Jill had left. She wanted to have some time with him alone.

The buzzer sounded. Finally. She didn't even ask who it was before pressing to unlock the door downstairs. She opened her door to find Jill dressed in a black cocktail dress with her blonde hair done up in curls on the top of her head. “Big date?” asked Grace, filled with disappointment.

She started back to her futon, but Jill said, “You're not sitting on the couch all night. We're going out to dinner. Put on your best dress.”

Grace turned around with her eyebrows scrunched together. “I can't go. Royce left me a note saying he'd be back soon, but he's been gone all day. I was still asleep when he left.”

“Royce is a guy. Maybe he went back to Maryland to get some things, thinking he could call you. He probably didn't realize the police have your phone.”

“Back to Maryland? Did he tell you that? He could've woken me up. That's not soon. I can't believe he'd do that to me.”

“Guys can be stupid that way. Come on. Let's go.”

“I'm not exactly up for fancy.”

“Why not? You just broke your leg. It's not like you're in a body cast. Come on, or I'm going through your closet myself.” Jill took off to Grace's bedroom.

“Hey! Don't touch my clothes!”

“Then pick out your dress yourself.”

Grace pounded the crutches across her apartment as fast as she could. Jill was sitting on the edge of her bed with one leg crossed over the other, waiting expectantly. “We'll get a couple of men to buy us a bottle of champagne, and who knows where the night will take us now that you've let go of your rules?”