Ruthless Temptation (2 page)

Madison
studied his face. He would do it. He would make the call and then she was done.
Why hadn’t she thought this through? What the hell had she hoped to accomplish?
The conversation she’d overheard had convinced her something fishy was going
on, but when she’d tried to get more information out of Ralph, he’d brushed her
off. Why hadn’t she pushed to know more?

Because you’re only his
administrative assistant, that’s why. You don’t have a business need to know.

She
didn’t want to lose her job, but she might now anyway, especially after
Viggo
heard why she was here. “If I tell you, will you keep
it between you and me?”

“
That depends on what I hear.”

“
I need this job.”

“
Then why are you here telling lies?”

“
I didn’t lie. Everyone assumed I was an investigator
and I didn’t correct them.”

“Omissions
are also lies.
”

She
sighed. He was right, of course. She’d fucked up big time.

“
What’s your answer? I don’t have all day.”

Madison
glanced down at her shoes. They were her last decent pair of heels. The job
paid enough to live on, but barely. She had no savings and a boatload of debt
from school. An MBA in marketing wasn’t much use if her one and only
professional reference included being fired from HCS within a month.

She
met his gaze. “All right. I’ll tell you.”

Chapter
Two

Viggo
was both amused and intrigued by
this stunning woman. He knew Ralph had hired a new administrative assistant,
and he’d been told she was a looker, but
Viggo
hadn’t
been prepared for her to waltz in here and pretend to be an investigator.

He
disliked Ralph Campbell enough to keep his mouth shut about this incident,
unless of course whatever she told him jeopardized their plans. Then he’d have
no choice, no matter how alluring her big, dark eyes were, or how nicely her
ash blonde hair fell over her shoulders.

She
finally took her seat again, looking much less confident than when she’d walked
in here. She clutched the small bag in her lap as if holding onto it would give
her support. He couldn’t feel sorry for her. Not yet. Not before he heard her
story.

He
took the seat next to her again and scooted the chair closer. He wanted to
drink in her scent while she talked, and he wanted to watch her face carefully.
“I’m listening.”

“
I’m Ralph’s administrative assistant. I have an MBA in
marketing and can’t find a job in the field.”

He’d
heard that from recent grads for years. “It’s tough out there right now for
anyone in fields like IT, marketing, or advertising. The market is saturated.”

She
gave him a sarcastic look. “So I’ve been told.”

He
decided to ignore the look on her face and the tone in her voice. She was
clearly embarrassed, but he still didn’t know why she was here. “Why did you
pretend to be someone you aren’t?”

“
I heard Ralph talking about all of you. The
Weathermen. He said you and Blaine Parker had people rounding up the hackers of
The Madeline Project, and others involved on the periphery. You intend to hold
them in a warehouse in Central that HCS once used. He talked about private
security from each of you, and how it was all being hushed up at headquarters.”

Which
raised the question of how Ralph found out. Apparently they had a leak at
headquarters in Central.
Perfect
.
“Anything else?”

She
averted her gaze for a second. Whether that was because she was thinking, or
about to tell a lie,
Viggo
couldn’t discern. “It sounded
like whoever he was talking to didn’t work there any longer. I mean at HCS.”

Oh, really?
“What led you to that conclusion?”

“
Because he said more than once, ‘If you were still
there you’d have heard this’ every time he gave the person more information.”

That
was bad news. That was
very
bad news.
“Do you know the name of the person he was talking to?”

“
No, but I did hear him mention Dave Perry by name to
this person. I looked up that name and confirmed he’s no longer with HCS.”

Viggo’s
heart raced, but he forced his
expression to remain neutral. “Did you get the sense that Ralph was speaking to
a man or to a woman?”

“
I can’t say. His tone was gossipy, but then it usually
is, if you know what I mean.”

Viggo
knew exactly what she meant, but
he wasn’t ready to tell her what he thought of Ralph yet. “Why were you
listening to this conversation?”

She
rolled her eyes. “It’s kind of hard not to. He has a loud voice.”

Viggo
wanted to laugh but held it in
check. She had her boss pegged perfectly. “Why would you come here to tell me
this? Don’t you feel any loyalty to the people who sign your paycheck?”

She
averted her gaze again. Was the reason behind that guilt, or something else?

“
Let me rephrase the question. What did you hope to
accomplish by coming here today to confront me about what you’d heard?”

She
blew out a puff of air that fluttered her bangs. The gesture was so endearing
that
Viggo’s
dick twitched. His gaze roamed over her
lush body, clad in a very stylish dark gray suit and matching heels. Something
bright and colorful would look better on her. He’d love to see her in red or
maybe royal blue.

“
My eyes are up here.”

Viggo
had to laugh this time. He
had
been checking out her boobs. He
wouldn’t deny it. “Yes, they are. And they’re very nice eyes, too, if I may say
so.”

Her
expression grew wary, but that didn’t faze him. She was a beautiful woman and
he appreciated that fact. He wouldn’t apologize for being who he was.

“
You’re such a pig.”

“
Why? Because I think you’re attractive?”

“
Because we’re supposed to be having a serious
discussion.”

“
No,
you’re
having a serious discussion. I’m still trying to decide why you’re here and
whether I should let your boss know.”

“
I had the grim part right,” she muttered.

“
Excuse me?”

Her
face colored. “Nothing.”

“
Oh come on. That was such a bizarre comment you have
to tell me.”

She
shook her head, clearly embarrassed now. “It’s just something I do. I like
anagrams.”

“
And grim is an anagram for what, exactly?”

“
Not only grim.”

“
What then?”

“
You’ll think I’m an idiot.”

His
heart gave a strange lurch at the pain in her voice. Pretty girl, obviously
intelligent enough to have earned an MBA and been hired at HCS, which meant
there was no dirt in her background. Had she thought she’d uncovered a juicy
secret about him and the other Weathermen, and that’s why she was here? She had
guts. No doubt about it. To get past Dorothy in the lobby without an
appointment she must have put on a convincing face. Why did she sound so
insecure now?

“
No, I won’t. Please tell me.”

“
The complete anagram was via grim gong.”

He
thought for a second, then grinned again. “My name.
Viggo
Ingram. You made an anagram from my name. Why?”

She
shrugged. “It’s just something I do.”

“
But when did you do it?”

“
When I saw the huge plaque on your door.”

“
You mean you did it in your head?”

“
Yes.”

“
How long did it take you?”

“
I don’t know. It just … popped in there. I see the
letters in my mind.”

“
Add my middle name and tell me what you come up with.
It’s Dennis. D-E-N-N-I-S.”

She
glanced down at her lap and he counted. No less than seven seconds later she
lifted her gaze to his, smiling. “I came up with several, but I’m not sure
you’ll like any of them.”

“
Tell them to me anyway.”

“
All right, but don’t hold these against me.”

He’d
like to hold something against her, but it wasn’t words. “Agreed.”

“
Governing as dim gin, governing in mid gas, um … and
governing a dim sign. Also misgiving on red nag, and misgiving no danger. But I
like this one the best. Aggrieving on minds.”

“
Is that how you see me? Aggrieving?”

She
didn’t answer right away, as if she were weighing her words.

“
It’s all right. I’d like to know.”

“
More like arrogant, but that didn’t fit.”

“
No, I suppose not.”
Viggo
wasn’t easily impressed, and this went well beyond that. He was astonished.
“How do you do it?”

“
I don’t know. Honestly. The words just come to me.”

“
Tell me why you’re here, Madison.”

He
swore he felt her shiver slightly. He knew what effect that tone of voice
usually had on women. He wasn’t being fair, but he really wanted to know now
because he was probably going to ask her out. Assuming she wasn’t trouble for
any of them. No amount of charm was worth that. They’d each had enough trouble
the past couple of months to last five lifetimes.

“I
thought I could blow the lid off a scandal.
”

“
That’s not a good enough reason.”

She
sighed. “You’re right. It’s not. It would also be a really sleazy thing to do.”
She eyed him warily, like she wasn’t sure if she should continue.

“
Did you hope to do that because of who we are, or is
there another reason?”

She
glanced at the floor for a second before meeting his gaze again, and he didn’t
like the fear in her eyes. “Something is going on at HCS. Something isn’t
right. That’s not the only conversation I heard Ralph have on the phone where
it made me wonder why he was spilling what sounded like carefully guarded
secrets.”

Viggo
said nothing, but his mind raced
with the realization that Ralph was more of a threat to them than this young
woman was.

“
Were the other conversations you overheard along the
same lines as the one that led you here this morning?”

“
Yes, but it’s not only that I thought there was a
scandal surrounding all of you. I can’t help wondering whether Ralph is
involved, as well as key people at HCS.”

“
Then why not simply go over his head and address your
concerns with his supervisor?”

“
Because I didn’t know who he was talking to. HCS is a
government agency, and I’m just an AA who has been there for a month.”

Viggo
understood her dilemma, but that
didn’t excuse her behavior. He leaned forward. “Madison, you still haven’t
convinced me your intentions were honorable.”

“
There was an article in the
Central Free Press
a few months ago that suggested all of you know
the names and locations of the hackers, but are keeping them secret from HCS.”

That
fucking article would haunt them until the planet exploded, or they all
suffocated down here.

“
Then when I heard Ralph saying those things, I thought
all of you and certain people who work at HCS were conspiring together. I
thought there was a secret plot, and that I’d landed in the middle of it. I
don’t want to work for an agency whose public mission is to do one thing, but
in reality, they scheme and lie and make secret deals behind each other’s
backs.”

Viggo
couldn’t help but smile. “Welcome
to government work.” He leaned back again. “Let me see if I have this right. By
coming here and confronting me, you thought you could get the truth and do what
with it? Save the day?”

She
looked really embarrassed now, but that couldn’t be helped. “Yes and no. I
wanted the truth for my own peace of mind, but at the same time, if I uncovered
something really big … I don’t know. I’m in over my head. It was a reckless
thing to do.”

Her
entire body slumped a bit, and his heart gave another lurch at the gesture. She
was now totally defeated. “I’m glad to hear you finally say that. It
was
reckless, not to mention potentially
dangerous. So what about now? Do you still believe the Weathermen are in bed
with rogue members of HCS?”

“
I don’t know. You haven’t really told me anything.”

Touché
. “You know I can’t.” And she had
no right to ask, but he didn’t think it was necessary to add that now.

“
I know.”

“
Let’s pretend for the sake of argument that what you
overheard is true and I actually told you something that confirmed your
suspicions. What would you have done with the information? Whom would you have
gone to?”

She
gave him a cautious look. “That would have depended on what you told me.”

“
What if it was something that got Ralph fired?”

She
frowned. “It was never my intention to get him fired.”

“
Why not? Doesn’t he deserve to be? I’ve already
confirmed that HCS knows what we’re doing, and they know about the warehouse.
With me so far?”

“
There’s no need to take that tone. I’m not a child.”

He
ignored her comment. “You’ve told me Ralph was talking to someone who didn’t
work for HCS, correct?”

“
I don’t honestly know.”

“
Okay. Let’s assume he was.”

“
All right.”

“
Now tell me what would happen if his boss found out?”