Hardwired For Ecstasy (10 page)

And
then she’d spend the rest of her life trying to forget Atticus Yates.

Chapter
Fourteen

Within
the first ten minutes of the call, Atticus realized what an ass he’d been to
Emma. They all agreed there would be no point to her having done this, but they
couldn’t agree with her that it had been Bonnie. Most of them felt that Atticus
was right and Leland was behind it.

He’d
hated having to spill Emma’s secret to the group, but he had to in order to
outline the possible suspects. Bonnie was the obvious choice because of the
run-in Grayson and Barclay had with her and Dave Perry five months earlier, but
it didn’t explain why she would put her own position in jeopardy.

When
Atticus outlined Emma’s prior relationship with Leland, and how Leland had lied
to Emma and to his wife, the suspicions that Leland being the one who had
planted the article made a lot more sense.

“Emma
must be devastated,” said Oliver.

Atticus
said she was, but he was too ashamed to tell any of them how he’d reacted at
first. “My concern is if either of them did this, how one or both found out
Emma is here, working for me.”

“Leland
is a cop,” said Ace. “And Bonnie works for HCS. It’s too easy. Either one could
have tracked her credit card receipts or found the lease she signed on her
apartment. They then simply had someone spy on Emma. An amateur could have
tracked her to this city and to your company.”

Ace
was right, of course. Atticus was having trouble concentrating and he knew why.
He’d pushed away the woman he loved, all because of a fucking article online.
Granted, this had far-reaching implications, but he’d hurt Emma and he knew
that, too. All he wanted to do right now was find her and beg her to forgive
him. “Okay. But why?
Why
did either
of them do this?”

“Bonnie
is easy,” said Dominic. “We went against her. We made a fool of her at that
meeting.”

“But
if it was her,” said Addison, “she’s fucked her entire agency and she’d know
that. She would know she’d be caught and it would make HCS look like idiots.
That’s why my money is on Leland, and Bonnie knew nothing about this.”

“Atticus,
if it was Leland,” said Damien, “how did he find out that Emma told you about
him? That she broke her word? That’s his only real motivation to do this.”

“Not
exactly,” said Viggo. “What about to get back at his wife? What if Leland has a
reason to hurt Bonnie, and found out about the meeting where she threw a hissy
fit because we got what we wanted? And what if he also knew where Emma was, and
simply used both pieces of information to concoct this story? He hurts them
both at once.”

“So
you’re suggesting this has nothing to do with the author wanting to hurt
us
?” asked Kane.

“Even
if Leland did this to hurt both Bonnie,” said Blaine, “that still doesn’t
explain why he involved Emma. I can see him finding out we know where the
hackers are but had refused to cooperate with HCS. Bonnie might have told him,
or he might have simply hacked into her email or something. He could have
leaked those facts to indirectly hurt her. But then why mention Emma, even if
he didn’t use her name? Why bring that aspect into the story at all? Because
once he does, he opens the door for someone to dig into his own past.”

“Whoever
did this wanted to hurt Emma, Bonnie, and all of us at the same time,” said
Grayson.

“How
did they find out we know where the hackers are?” asked Barclay.

“They
might not know,” said Grayson. “Not directly, at any rate. They might only
know, for example, that there was a meeting with two of us and four HCS employees,
and they inferred the rest based on what they know about Bonnie’s feelings on
the subject. Which means it might be someone who works closely with her at
HCS.”

“Might
even be Dave,” said Barclay. “Or someone else who works with them. They learn
the meeting happened, Bonnie is shooting off her mouth one day and lets
something slip, and the person goes digging.”

“They
find out about Leland and Emma by asking around at the police station,”
said
Blaine, “and they track Emma to CentralEast and then to
Yates Industries.”

“And
the rest they simply infer,” said Atticus, nodding. “That does make sense. It
makes a lot more sense than Leland finding out Emma broke her word, or Bonnie
deliberately putting her job on the line simply to get back at a woman whom
Leland cheated on her with.”

“Bonnie
doing this makes little sense,” said Emmett. “She doesn’t hurt Leland with
this, and she doesn’t hurt Emma. She only hurts us and herself. She’s too
shrewd to fuck herself.”

“But
it also doesn’t make much sense for Leland to have done it,” said Oliver. “He
has no reason to hurt us. He’d only want revenge on his wife, or Emma, or both.
What does he care about any of us?”

“Unless
he used the fact of the meeting to hurt Bonnie,” said Viggo. “But you’re right
about the motivation being wrong. If he wanted to hurt Emma, this is a
convoluted way to do it, even if he does know she’s seeing Atticus. And Bonnie
could lose her job. All that will do is make her leave him, unless of course
that’s what he wants.”

“Emma
isn’t the first person Leland cheated on Bonnie with,” said Atticus. “I did my
homework after she told me, but she doesn’t know that yet so please don’t say
anything. If Bonnie wanted to leave him because he’s a pig, she’d have done so
a long time ago. No. I think you’re all right in that neither Leland nor Bonnie
did this. But I do think someone inside HCS did. Who else would know about the
meeting, and would know how close we were to having all the hackers?”

“At
least we never told Bonnie or the others at HCS that three of the hackers work
for us,” said Ace. “That was a smart move.”

“It
also means the author might not actually know that we’ve found all the
hackers,” said Dominic. “Think about it. We only just found the last one today,
and this went to print this morning. Unless someone at Atticus’s company is a
spy who knows Emma and Leland had a fling, knows Leland was married to Bonnie
at the time, and knows about the meeting between Grayson, Barclay, and the four
contacts at HCS, saying we know the location of all the hackers is only a rumor
the author planted.”

“Good
point,” said Addison, “but why? What’s the motivation? Whoever write it wanted
to stir shit up for Bonnie, Emma, and all of us. There’s a connection we’re
missing here.”

“Who
do we know at this press?” asked Kane.

“I
don’t think any of us knows them,” said Ace. “What about Julianne? Can she find
out anything further?”

“No.
You know how that is. They won’t reveal their sources, even to another
reporter. The byline is likely an alias so that doesn’t help us.”

“How
do you know that?” asked Damien.

“I
asked her already and she said this press is known for using author aliases as
a way to protect them. They see themselves as a champion of sorts, ferreting
out corruption in big businesses.”

“Well,
there you have it,” said Atticus. “Whoever wrote this meant to target
us
. Bonnie and Emma are collateral
damage.”

“Which
brings us full circle to why,” said Emmett. “They could have planted a story
saying we know where the hackers are without involving HCS, Bonnie, or Emma.
Why do it this way? Why throw those two into the mix?”

“It
makes us look guilty,” said Addison, “by tossing in the angle of someone
working for one of us who used to work for the cops, but is now helping us with
inside information. Mix in a source at HCS, and it makes us look like we’re
doing exactly what we’ve been doing. Hacking into government sites and using
people in key locations to find these hackers.”

“But
that still means someone knows about Bonnie and Emma,” said Damien.

“All
right,” said Blaine, “but let’s get back to what Addison was saying first. I
think that makes sense. By tossing in an informant at HCS and someone who
allegedly is feeding us inside info from the police, instead of painting a
picture that makes us out to be heroes, it makes us sound like criminals who
use anyone and everything to get what we want. At the same time, it pegs us as
refusing to cooperate with a government agency.”

“What
still bothers me though,” said Oliver, “is why they specifically named the
police station where Emma worked. That’s not a generalization or speculation.
The author knows Emma worked there. There’s a reason he or she put that
information in the article.”

“And
that brings us back to Leland,” said Ace.

“Or
Bonnie,” said Emmett.

“Or
someone at HCS,” said Blaine, “who found out about Leland and Emma, and hates
Bonnie enough to hurt her by putting that little tidbit into the story.”

“Everyone
at HCS except Dave Perry hates Bonnie,” said Viggo. “So that narrows it down
considerably.”

The
group chuckled.

“How
do we find this person?” asked Atticus. “If the byline is fake and no one at
Central Free Press
will tell us who
Terry Bennett really is, how do we uncover this? And in the meantime, what do
we do when Sam Preston, Mindy Tesserone, and Dante Herrera start comparing
notes with each other, and then with Clyde Medici and Shawn Castle?”

Atticus
repeated what he’d told Emma earlier, and the others agreed that was the more
pressing concern here. If the hackers started talking to each other in detail,
they’d lose them all.

“We
issue a rebuttal,” said Ace. “We send a statement to the
Central Free Press
, saying we don’t have the locations or the names
of the hackers, and if we did, we’d be in full cooperation with HCS.”

“What
about Emma?” asked
Kane.
“What do we say about her?”

“Nothing,”
said Atticus. “We don’t address whether we have an employee working for one of
us who used to work at the Fourth District police station in Central.”

“We’ll
be asked about it,” said Viggo. “I already have emails and missed calls from reporters,
as I’m sure you each have by now as well.”

The
others agreed they did.

“We
can’t expose her,” said Damien. “If we do and they dig, they’ll find the
connection between her, Leland, and Bonnie.”

“So
how do we address it?” asked
Atticus.

“We
simply say we have no knowledge of having received any inside information from
any government agency or police force,” said Blaine, “and leave it at that.”

“It
won’t take some enterprising reporter that much time to ferret out which of our
employees used to work at that specific station,” said Kane. “Unless you want
to build a fake background for Emma tonight.”

Atticus
shook his head. “No. If we do that and it turns out this
is
Leland or Bonnie behind the story, and if they find the fake
background, then we end up looking like we were trying to hide Emma. The
suspicions planted in the story will be true in the eyes of the public, even
though they never were.”

“All
right then,” said Ace. “It’s settled. We each have our PR departments send the
same statement to the paper. If anyone asks about the employee who used to work
for the police, we all give them the same answer. I don’t know what else we can
do at this point.”

“What
do we do when the hackers bolt?” asked Blaine.

“Let’s
hope they don’t,” said Barclay. “If we act like this is bullshit, maybe they’ll
think it’s just one more story planted to try to hurt us. Happens all the
time.”

The
call finally ended three hours after it began, but Atticus was too wired to
sleep. His main focus was Emma. He felt sick to his stomach recalling how he’d
treated her. If he could take it all back he would. Losing her because of this
would kill him. He prayed she’d forgive his behavior earlier.

Chapter
Fifteen

Emma
woke at half past three in the morning and opened her laptop to send Atticus an
email, letting him know she wouldn’t be at work that day. He hadn’t called or
emailed her yet, so she assumed the Weathermen were still on their call. It had
been around midnight when she’d left the library. Either that or he was super
pissed off she was gone and hadn’t bothered trying to contact her.

She
regretted sneaking out of his apartment like that instead of facing him to
talk, so she wrote that as well. She needed some time to think about
everything, but mostly she wanted to be with him. By the time she finished the
email, she was even more confused. Did she know what the hell she wanted?

She
reread the email several times, trying to communicate what she wanted to say,
but still wasn’t happy with the wording. This was ridiculous. She should have
stayed there and talked to him in person.

Just
as she was about to delete the email, her phone rang, making her jump. It was
Atticus. She stared it, debating,
her
heart pounding.
What could she possibly say to make this right? Then again, he owed her an
apology as well.

Emma
answered the call. “I was just emailing to let you know I won’t be at work in
the morning. I don’t feel well.”

“Where
are you?”

Fresh
guilt washed over her. He sounded terrified and relieved at the same time.

“I
took most of my things and came home.”

“Emma,
this
is your home.”

“Is
it? Didn’t feel that way a few hours ago.”
So
much for feeling guilty about leaving
. What the hell was wrong with her?

“I
can’t talk about this over the phone. I need to see your face. I need to touch
you. I’m on my way over.”

Emma
stared at her phone. Had he just disconnected the call? What an arrogant ass!
The urge to leave her apartment was strong, but she didn’t want to walk around
the city in the middle of the night, alone. This wasn’t Central, where the
entire place would be lit up and people would be out.

She
washed her face and put on some clothes, not wanting to answer the door wearing
next to nothing when Atticus showed up. Sex couldn’t cure this. She was so damn
conflicted. Why hadn’t she simply stayed and slept in the other room? He’d
acted like an asshole after reading the article online, but she’d acted like an
irresponsible brat by leaving.

When
he buzzed from downstairs, she sprinted to the door and pushed the button
without asking who it was. It was hard not to fling herself into his arms when
she opened the door. He looked terrible. He badly needed a shave, and his eyes
were hollow and empty. He sighed, then stepped across the threshold. She closed
the door behind him and waited, unsure what to say.

“Emma,
I was so damn afraid when I couldn’t find you. I thought you’d left me for
good. Have you? Just tell me. I need to know.”

“No.
Of course not. But I’m pretty upset about your reaction earlier. You actually
thought I did that. That I wrote that article. Then you just pushed me away,
and made it pretty damn clear you didn’t trust me.”

He
ran a hand through his hair, then reached for her tentatively, as if unsure
whether she’d let him hold her. She stepped back and crossed her arms. “You
can’t fix this with sex.”

His
gaze darkened. “I wasn’t trying to. What you did was really shitty.”

“I
know that. What you did was shitty, too.”

They
faced off, glaring at each other. Emma only wanted this to not be true. None of
it. Not the article, not the way he’d treated her, and not the way she’d
sneaked out of his apartment. She wanted to turn back time and return to the
sofa in the library where they’d fallen asleep after giving each other oral
sex.

“What
are you thinking?” he asked, his voice softer now.

“I
was wishing we could return to the library right after I gave you the blowjob.”

His
gaze grew tender. “Oh, Emma. I am so sorry. Please forgive me. I acted like an
ass. I know you didn’t write that article, and I do trust you. I was shocked. I
needed to speak with all of them and I believe you understand why, but I was
wrong to push you away like that.”

She
let out the breath she was holding. “Thank you. Thank you for saying all that.
And yes, I do understand why you needed to speak with all of them. I’m sorry I
ran out like that. It was childish. I was so … I was afraid I’d lost you.”

He
stepped toward her, and this time she let him pull her close. It felt so damn
good to be in his arms again. He stroked her hair. “I was afraid of the same
thing. That you’d left me.”

“No.
I just needed space and time. I’m sorry I did that.”

They
held each other for long moments. Then Emma took a seat on the sofa and he sat
next to her. “What did you learn on the call?”

“Nothing
useful.”

“Seriously?”

“Yeah.”
He took her hands. “Let’s get your things and go back to my apartment.”

“Atticus,
slow down. We need to figure this out. Someone knows I’m here in CentralEast.
They know I’m working for you, and they think I fed all of you inside
information. Who else could that be except Bonnie or—”

“It’s
not Bonnie or Leland.”

“What?
How did you reach that conclusion?”

“Bonnie
wouldn’t screw herself by involving HCS in this. Too many people know she hates
us, and we aren’t crazy about her. She’d lose her job if they found out this
was her.”

“I’m
assuming the byline is fake?”

“Yes.
It likely is.”

“And
HCS can’t force them to reveal the reporter’s name.”

“No.
Not as a matter of law, at any rate. No crime has been committed, so I doubt
they can learn it by asking, but they’ll probably go through their employees’
computers with a different excuse and see if they can’t find out that way.
Bottom line is that Bonnie would know she’d eventually be caught, and while
she’s an asshole, she’s not going to jeopardize her career just to plant a
story that makes us look like criminals.”

“Then
why was I named?”

“You
weren’t. Not directly at any rate.”

“The
specific police station where I worked was. That’s not a coincidence.”

“We
agree. But if this was Leland, he wouldn’t have involved us. He doesn’t give a
shit what we’re doing. His revenge would be directed toward you or Bonnie, not
us.”

She
nodded. “That’s true. So who do you think it is?”

“We
don’t know. It could be someone else at HCS trying to screw Bonnie or us, or
both.”

“But
they’ll be caught the same as Bonnie would be. Wouldn’t they know that?”

“Probably.”

“You
really have no idea who it is, then?”

“None.
We’re each having our PR departments issue identical statements. And if anyone
finds out who you are and asks, we’re telling them we have no knowledge of any
inside information from an employee who used to work inside a police station.”

“Deny,
deny, deny.”

“What
else can we do? We don’t even know who we’re dealing with or why they wrote
this.”

“You
don’t know anyone at this press?”

“No.
Julianne is checking behind the scenes, but no one is going to reveal their
source, even to her.”

“What
should I do in the meantime?”

“Say
nothing. Pretend you never read it. If anyone asks questions, refer them to me.
I’ve sent out an email to my department heads instructing employees to refer
all questions to PR.”

She
pulled her hands from his grasp and hugged herself. “I don’t like any of this,
Atticus. It makes me very paranoid. What if Leland found out I told you about
him?”

“How
would he have found that out? You told no one but me, and I certainly didn’t
tell him.”

He
was right about that. “Okay. But then why did the author of the article mention
the police station?”

“That’s
why we think it’s someone trying to hurt Bonnie and us at the same time. The
author knows Bonnie’s husband works there.”

“I
don’t know. That sounds thin. And it still doesn’t explain why the article
mentioned an employee who used to work there and now works for one of you.
That’s pretty definitive, Atticus.”

“It
still makes more sense than Leland finding out you broke your word and writing
an article like this. Why would he mention us and claim we know the location of
the hackers to get revenge on you? We only found the last one recently. This
went to print before that happened.”

She
nodded slowly. “I hadn’t considered that. It certainly does seem to have been
planted to give all of you bad press.”

“And
to make it look like we’re using government agencies and the police for our own
purposes.”

“But
you’ve had things like that written about you before.”

“Not
like this. Not accusing us of knowing the exact locations and names of all the
hackers. This raises the negative press to a whole new level.”

“Do
you think someone is trying to force your hand?”

“Maybe.”

“And
there’s nothing you want me to do? Should I call Leland and talk to him?
Whoever wrote it certainly seems to know I work here.”

“No.
Please don’t do that. He might not even see this article and you don’t want to
give him any ammunition.”

“Can’t
one of you simply ask Bonnie if she wrote it?”

“Sure,
but she’d only deny it. And we don’t want her or anyone at HCS knowing how
rattled we are by this.”

“All
right, but I don’t like it. What happens now?”

He
moved toward her, closing the space between them, and pulled her close. Emma
closed her eyes. It would be so easy right now to give over to her needs. She’d
been an idiot to run out like that, but he was here now and she knew she hadn’t
lost him.

“We
wait. Nothing else to do right now. We wait and hope the hackers don’t read the
article, believe it’s true that we’re onto them, and then bolt.”

She
glanced up into his face. “And if they do?”

He
shrugged. “Then we’re fucked.”

“What
about those friends of yours? The electromagnetic expert and the physics
expert?”

“If
the hackers go underground again, those two men are our last hope.”

A
thought occurred to Emma. “What about someone else at the station? Could they
have written it?”

“Who
knew about you and Leland?”

Emma
rolled her eyes. “Everyone.”

“But
no one knew you were coming here, or that you’d taken a job working for me.”

She
shook her head.

“All
right. Let’s work that angle anyway, just in case. Can you get me a list of
everyone who worked there with you?”

“You
mean you don’t already have one?”

His
easy laugh sent her heart soaring. Everything would be okay now. It had to be.
“Well, yes. I probably do. I’ll check and then run that idea past the others.
It’s best if we explore every solid theory.”

“Thank
you for the vote of confidence.”

He
stifled a yawn. “I’m exhausted. I won’t be working until this afternoon myself.
We should get some sleep.”

“Sleep?
Really?”

He
brushed a hand along her face. “Emma, please come back to my place with me. You
can sleep in the other room if you want. I really am tired, but I don’t want
you alone. Not until we figure this out.”

“Are
you trying to scare me?”

“No.
I would simply feel better knowing you’re in a secure building.”

She
couldn’t argue with him on that point. She didn’t feel safe here now. “All
right. I’ll go and get my things.”

Once
they were back at his apartment, she curled up next to him in bed and he fell
asleep almost immediately. Emma tried to put everything out of her mind, but
images of Leland, angry and filled with declarations of revenge, chased her
down into dreams.