Ruthless Temptation (10 page)

Chapter
Eleven

As
Viggo walked back to his apartment, he wished he’d never asked Madison to spy
on Ralph. While what she’d recorded earlier was more than they’d ever hoped to
have, it made one thing horribly clear. Dave Perry was either one of the
hackers, or so closely associated with them that he might as well be one.

All
of them had known Dave for years, but it was Brent Easton, Ace’s father, who
had known him when the two were in college together. They hadn’t yet told Brent
anything other than what he’d been able to figure out on his own, but they’d
have to tell him now. They would need his insight to piece this together.

Dave
was one of the original architects of The Madeline Project, but the credit for
having developed it hadn’t gone to him or others who had worked with him. It
had gone to Ronnie Treadway, who named it The Madeline Project after a
description of the home in the Madeline books by Ludwig Bemelmans, written in
the twentieth century. Ronnie was so obsessed with those books he’d even
designed his own home to look that way.

Viggo
wondered if Dave still resented not being given any of the credit. He’d never
overtly said so to any of the Weathermen, but Brent might be able to tell a few
stories from Dave’s younger days. Viggo knew for his part if he’d put that much
time and effort into such a ground-breaking program, he’d want partial credit
at least.

Dave
had worked at NSSL at one time, and up until he’d been fired, had been with HCS
for thirty years. He’d been vehemently opposed to the Weathermen having first
crack at the hackers, and had then written that ridiculous article under an
assumed name and tried to blame its authorship on Bonnie. When his supervisors
at HCS found out what he’d done, they’d fired them both because it was clear
Bonnie wasn’t completely innocent in the grand scheme of things.

What
still bothered Viggo and the other Weathermen was why Dave would take a chance
like that. He was the best programmer any of them knew. Had he wanted to get
caught? It would have taken a rookie mistake that Dave was unlikely to have
made to be outed that way concerning the article. So why had he done it?

If
what Ralph and Bonnie had discussed on the recording was true, Viggo could come
up with a few working theories on why Dave had gotten himself fired from HCS.
And if he truly was part of this hacking, they would never shut down the
program without his help.

Viggo
keyed into his building and then took the elevator to the penthouse. The worst
part was now he’d have to involve another outsider in this mess. Madison
wouldn’t let this go. Not after what she’d heard, and it was all his fault. He
had to accept the blame for this.

He’d
known her less than a week, and now he was forced to entrust her with secrets
that only a handful of people knew. He sure as hell hoped his instincts about
her were right, because once this cat was out of the bag, there was no putting
it back inside. If she betrayed them, he’d never live it down.

Not
only that, it would jeopardize everything they’d worked for to this point. One
of the hackers was already in the wind. They hadn’t heard anything from Sam
Preston after he’d quit Fairchild BioSystems unexpectedly. They’d been lucky to
round up the other four. Associates of his and Blaine’s were still rounding up
the other thirteen people who had been on the satellite call that Barclay had
intercepted.

The
plan was that once they were all in the warehouse, each of the Weathermen would
travel to Central and do what they could to convince them to help stop this
program. They would show them Oliver’s numbers so they knew it wasn’t a joke
that they all had less than three years to survive underground, and then hope
like hell that was enough to sway one of them. If they got one on their side,
they felt confident they’d get the rest.

But
knowing this about Dave put a whole new chink in the armor. Dave wouldn’t let
himself get caught like a common criminal by Viggo’s or Blaine’s associates. If
there was code in there preventing them from hacking back in, Dave had been the
one to put it there, and he was the only person who could show it to them.

And
if Dave was involved in this, and there was a way back in, why hadn’t he done
that already? Why had he let this go on for eight years? Had he been afraid
he’d be caught? That seemed like a flimsy reason to allow the surface to fall
into ruin.

On
top of all that, Bonnie was loose on the world. That was a hot mess waiting to
explode in their faces. They really should pick her up, too. He’d ask the
others what they thought once everyone had a chance to listen to the recording.

Madison
was in his office, clicking away on her laptop. He sat down next to her,
frowning when he realized what she’d been searching.

“
What do you hope to find that I can’t tell you?”

“
The truth.”

He
placed a finger under her chin and turned her face toward him. “I’ll tell you
the truth.”

“
All of it?”

Her
voice shook, and Viggo saw the fear in her eyes. He couldn’t blame her. They’d
been dealing with this shit for eight years, but the public didn’t know the
half of it. “Close the browser. There’s nothing about The Madeline Project
online that even comes close to the truth.”

She
did as he asked, then looked at him warily. It tugged at Viggo’s heart to see
that uncertainty in her eyes. These past few days had been the most exciting of
his life. Madison was a breath of fresh air, wrapped up in a sexy body. He
enjoyed her company, and that was unusual for him.

He’d
never minded the physical part of any relationship that had lasted longer than
one date, but he’d often quickly grown bored talking to the women he dated. Not
Madison. She fascinated him, and he had already grown used to her presence here
in the apartment.

“
Okay,” he said, focusing on the issue at hand. “Where
should I start?”

“
At the beginning.”

That
made sense, and if he was going to tell her about the program, he might as well
tell her everything. He started with their early efforts to break into the
program, then told her about the breakthrough they finally had when Rob Marin
tipped his hand.

“
If he was so involved in this, why was he working for
Ace to begin with?”

“
Three of the five hackers worked for one of us.”

“
What
?”

It
gave him a small measure of satisfaction to realize the public still didn’t
know this. He had no clue how they’d kept it so secret, but was grateful they
had.

“
Sam Preston left Fairchild BioSystems before we
secured the warehouse in Central, and we can’t find him. Dante Herrera worked
for Jensen Software and Web Development, and Mindy Tesserone worked for Hampton
Data Recovery Services.”

“
Doing what?”

“
IT. All three of them. They had access to our systems,
but none of them had access to the databases we developed from the information
our hacker teams found.”

“
That’s insane.”

“
Tell me about it.”

“
Did Sam find out? Is that why he left?”

“
We don’t know.”

“
But you have the other four now?”

“
Yes.”

“
Who are the others you mentioned? The ones who were on
a satellite call?”

“
Barclay and the people at HCS who were also searching
for clues to the hackers intercepted a transmission from one of the old weather
satellites that contained a snippet of conversation about the hackers and the
Tommy Twister virus.”

“
That’s the virus that took out the program, right?”

“
Yes. From that snippet, we eventually uncovered Rob’s
involvement on the fringes, plus the real names of the thirteen people also
involved. Once Rob’s laptop was recovered—”

She
snorted, cutting off his words. “Recovered? You mean stolen.”

“
Okay. Yes.
Stolen
.
Once we had that, we found information that led us to the names of the
hackers.”

“
And in all this information you never came across Dave
Perry’s name as being possibly involved?”

“
Never. Not until the article came out, and we then
heard he’d written it.”

“
That doesn’t sound like something a pro would do.”

“
I agree. There is something off about it.”

“
How does Bonnie fit into all this?”

“
Bonnie and Dave were two of the original contacts
Barclay had at HCS. Dave knows all of us from before we moved underground, and
he went to college with Ace’s father. Bonnie and Dave opposed our plan to have
first crack at the hackers.”

“
And that didn’t make any of you suspicious about
them?”

He
nodded. “Bonnie felt it was an HCS issue and we had no business being part of
it. She has always expressed concern that we had way more power than she felt
we deserved, but Dave’s protest surprised us. He told Grayson and Barclay in a
meeting those two had in Central several months ago that he didn’t want us
playing vigilante and scaring the public if it got out.”

“
Okay, I get that, but does it matter who finally ends
this? I mean really?”

“
You don’t know how true that statement is.” He told
her about Oliver’s numbers.

“
Are you sure?” Her voice was so small and frightened.
Viggo wanted to hold her in the worst way, but he wanted to get all of this out
first.

“
Absolutely, without a doubt. We wouldn’t have resorted
to such drastic measures otherwise.”

“
What happens now?”

“
We find Dave, we find the rest of the thirteen, and
then we try to get some answers.”

“
And if you can’t?”

He
pulled her close and held her. “If we can’t, we all die anyway. Game over.”

She
sighed, then leaned closer to him. Viggo was only a man, after all. And there
was nothing like the fear of death to make one horny as hell. His dick jumped
to attention, and he stroked her hair. It was so soft, and he loved the scent
of her shampoo. Or was that the shampoo he’d stocked in the guest suite? Either
way, he inhaled it deeply, wishing circumstances were different.

“
What can I do to help?”

“
Trust me. And keep this to yourself.”

She
didn’t answer for a few moments, and he wondered whether she’d stick around
now. If he was in her shoes, he wasn’t entirely sure he would. Finally, she
pulled out of his embrace and looked at him with so much clarity, that for a
few seconds, his world shifted.

Viggo
wasn’t used to such visceral reactions where women were concerned. He never let
himself feel too much. It was dangerous to do so. But not this time. Everything
was different with Madison. She was already under his skin, and he had no
fucking clue what to do about it. He had no frame of reference.

Was
this what the others had felt? They’d lived their lives the same way he had.
Keep it loose, carefree, and no commitments beyond the next date. But now, ten
of them were either engaged or married. Ace and Emmett were going to be fathers.
If anyone had told him two years ago that would happen, he’d have laughed his
ass off.

“
All right,” she said, pulling him back to the present.
“I’ll trust you where this is concerned, and I won’t tell this to anyone.”

There
was something unspoken in her tone. “But?”

The
corners of her mouth turned up. “I’m very transparent, aren’t I?”

“
Yes, but I like that about you.”

She
frowned. “I’m not sure I can keep working at HCS. Not after what I heard today.
I’m surprised Ralph hasn’t been caught with the phone calls he’s made lately
from his desk phone. And I’m also not sure I covered my tracks completely today
when I recorded his conversation.”

She
had a point. They had what they needed from Ralph already, and Viggo doubted he
knew anything else that could help them. The more Madison recorded his
conversations, the greater the risk she’d be found out.

“
You’re right. It’s too risky. And honestly, you
probably didn’t cover your tracks completely. Not saying they’ll find it unless
they go looking for it specifically, but it’s probably still there in some
fashion for an IT person to find. As for Ralph, these calls have only been
recently, correct?”

“
Yes.”

“
They might already be monitoring them and he’s being
watched, which means you’re at risk, too. You could quit, you know. Leave
today. Come work for me.”