Wire (Pierce Securities Book 2) (12 page)

Without another word, he turned and stalked out the door, ignoring shocked looks from their entire table.

In her office the next afternoon, Paige found work difficult. All morning, she’d replayed the night before with Evan, and that kiss. She had no idea what she’d been thinking, except seeing Terry’s hands all over him made her crazy. And when he’d reciprocated, she’d just about crawled out of her skin. She remembered her words about sleeping with her employees as an excuse, and scoffed. She’d never done it, but didn’t have a rule about it. That was something she’d never said out loud and allowed her team members to think it was a hard and fast rule of hers. But the truth was, she’d never technically ‘hired’ Evan Rocco through PSL. He was here to do a job, planted undercover to discover the identity of The Crimson Lady. She needed to act like an adult and help him.

She needed to get to the bottom of this Crimson Lady business, but it hurt to know Evan would be sleeping around for information. And she couldn’t really count the number of reasons why that bothered her. Paige hadn’t slept with anyone since that magical night she’d spent with Evan. Even knowing it was probably just a casual hook-up for him, and he’d probably gone about his playboy ways, didn’t make it any less special for her. She just didn’t want to dwell on the fact she was probably just another conquest for him. Despite his words in her office the other day. How could she trust a playboy?

But last night kept flashing through her mind. Not in any consequential order, just random images: his hands on her body, Evan’s mouth on Terry’s ear, his back as he walked away from her. And the jealousy she couldn’t get a handle on surged through her body each time she saw him.

He wasn’t in the office today, and she was thankful she didn’t have to see him. She’d checked around, not noticing any other team members missing, so she was confident he hadn’t called up Terry to come over for a fuck. But that didn’t mean he hadn’t gone to a different bar to pick up someone else to take home.

Paige shook her head. Evan wouldn’t do that. Would he? He might. She didn’t really know him at all. That might be just the type of guy he was. But if she sat here imagining it, she’d make herself nuts. Never mind that’s where her mind had been all morning, and now it was one o’clock and she still couldn’t stop thinking about him. She had Crimson Lady code up on her computer, staring at it blankly, unable to wrap her mind around the events of last night.

Evan Rocco was a serious mistake.

A soft knock announced a visitor, and before she could speak, her office door opened and Neil’s smiling face came around the doorframe.

“Hey there, Paige. Have you eaten?” He held up bags of take-out, and her stomach rumbled in appreciation.

Grateful for the distraction from the distraction that was keeping her from working, she beamed at him. “Not yet. What did you bring?”

“Burritos. That okay?”

“Of course!” She cleared her desk of papers and her laptop to make room for the enormous packages Neil was unwrapping.

They sat and ate, Paige wondering why she couldn’t like Neil as more than friends. Really, he was the only friend she had outside of work. It was just so hard to have a social life when she was working so hard. And The Crimson Lady had taken priority these last few months. Neil had sort of forced his friendship on her, and she welcomed it. At the moment, it was a reprieve from Evan.

She studied him, watching his fastidious neatness—the way he licked the tips of his fingers daintily before wiping them and his mouth on the napkin between each bite he took. He was a nice looking guy, if a little faux. His blond hair was too evenly colored to be natural, and it didn’t quite match his skin tone. She could tell he worked out, but his trim figure was always clad in long sleeves, as if he were hiding something. She wondered if he was scarred or something. She’d never asked.

“You want to go biking in the morning? I just discovered some trails at Barton Springs that look like they’d be fun.”

They’d been biking together before, another time when he’d worn long sleeves. She shrugged. “I’ve been really sporadic with my biking lately.” Pointing to her laptop, she continued, “Busy with work stuff. I’ve got to get this Lady off my system.”

“She’s really got you, hasn’t she?” A gleam came to Neil’s eyes, and she wasn’t sure where it came from, but when he stood and walked around behind her, she realized it was the opportunity to touch her that got him so excited.

He started rubbing her shoulders, slow and hard, just like she liked it, and she moaned her encouragement. Honestly, Neil was a nice guy, attentive, and reminded her a lot of Dale in some ways. Why wasn’t she attracted to him? Maybe it was because he reminded her of her old friend, and she’d definitely discovered she had never really been attracted to Dale.

“You’re tied up in knots…” he muttered, but she couldn’t see his face, as her eyes were closed in total rapture. His fingers kneaded the muscles of her shoulders like a pro.

“That feels good.” She tried to relax as he massaged her muscles, but her laptop was staring at her from the corner of her desk as if it was accusing her of not focusing on the task at hand. She had to stop thinking about boys and get busy.

With a sigh, she sat up straighter, using nonverbal cues to get Neil to stop rubbing her. He did, but left his hands in place, not moving.

“I’ve got to get back to work. Thanks for lunch. I’ll repay you as soon as all this is over. When I have time, I’ll take you to Flemings to make up for all the lunches you’ve brought me in the last few weeks. Deal?” She tried to flash him a smile, but he hadn’t moved from behind her. He was still clutching her shoulders.

“Deal. I’m going to hold you to that, Paige,” he whispered in her ear. He finally released her after a brief squeeze and walked around to the other side of the desk.

Paige watched him leave, wondering, yet again, why she didn’t feel that spark with Neil. It was obvious he wanted more than friendship from her, but he’d been nice enough not to push her. He knew how busy she was with work and all the Crimson Lady madness. He was giving her the time and space she needed to get her life sorted before she delved into something with him. That should have meant something, right?

So why didn’t her stomach flutter and her core clench when she thought about Neil like it did with Evan?

Evan called in sick that morning after a night of tossing and turning. Images of Paige kept running through his mind, interspersed with Peggy standing behind her with a knife, ready to stab her in the back, Terry trying to kiss him, or Neil feeding Paige stuff off tiny swords. His brain was revolting against the idea of sleep, so he grabbed both his personal and PSL laptop and went into the Pierce Securities offices.

In the front office, he found Miriam, huffing and puffing while sorting the massive stacks of papers on her desk.

“Good to see you back, lady,” he greeted her. He hadn’t been in the office much, but her presence had definitely been missed.

“Good to be back, Evan. How’s the job going?” She sounded genuinely glad to be back, as if she’d been out for something like teeth-pulling.

He sighed. “Not great. How was your break?” he prodded.

She shrugged. “Just needed some time. That’s all.” She was hedging.

“It’s not anything with the ex again, is it? You know all you have to do is say the word and I can rock his world, don’t you? I can make his retirement disappear, fuck with his work history, you name it, I can make it happen.” He smirked at her and put on a gangster’s voice, “You want I should break his knee-caps?”

Miriam giggled and swatted his chest. “Go on and hide in your office. It’s not Vince. I’m fine.”

Reluctantly, Evan left her, knowing in his gut it was something major. Miriam had been a driving force behind the success of their company. Her upbeat attitude and mothering ways kept himself, Ryan, and the Pierce brothers going when times were tough. And they’d been tough, for sure. It wasn’t until after the last case, Ryan’s protection detail, that they’d started getting business. Granted, that was mostly because they’d done a shitty job at catching bad guys and Krista resorted to the media’s involvement. But it had catapulted them to a level of fame, and jobs had been rolling in ever since.

Miriam’s ex-husband, Vince, had done a number on her, though. And none of them really knew what it was. Only that she’d come into work on more than one occasion with swollen eyes from sleepless nights and too many tears, especially when they’d first started out. They were all very protective of her, but she hadn’t let them do anything for her, with the possible exception of Quinten. With his law degree, she’d allowed him to draw up divorce papers for her, which he wouldn’t talk about. Everyone in the office knew he was a fucking vault. Anything told to him in confidence would stay there.

In the office, Evan laid down his laptops and sank into his chair, trying to focus on something besides Paige. His current obsession with Neil drew his attention and he decided to focus on him. Koen was probably just a boyfriend, nothing else, but Paige had said they were strictly platonic, and Evan didn’t see things that way. Koen definitely wanted in her panties. Plus, significant others were nearly always the primary suspect.

His office at Pierce Securities was cluttered but tidy. Evan had several computer towers, because this was where he did the bulk of his coding and hacking, and each tower had different performance focuses. Several monitors crowded his workbench and a spaghetti mish mash of wires connected everything. He had printers, scanners, modems, as well as a ‘graveyard’ of old equipment that he scalped for parts. While the other offices in the suite had comfortable chairs, a large desk, and steam releasers, like dart boards and such, Evan’s office was full of computer equipment and peripherals. This was how he blew off steam. If he needed something physical, he’d go to the gym.

Headphones on, electronica dance music playing, he focused on Neil Koen, and his findings moved the boyfriend up to number one on the list of suspects, knocking Patton out of first place.

He was just typing everything up in a spread sheet for Simon when the boss knocked on the door frame.

“You’re here early. Not going to work today?”

Evan pulled off his headphones and ran a hand through his thick, dark hair. “Nope. I wanted to get something done that wasn’t PSL related. Everyone’s constantly interrupting me to do Operations Manager stuff. I called in sick.” Turning his laptop toward Simon, he pointed to the screen. “Look at this.”

“I don’t see anything,” Simon responded, a frown marring his features.

“Exactly. There’s nothing there. Neil Koen just invented himself six weeks ago. Before that, there’s nothing.” Evan banged his palm on the desk to emphasize his point.

“But he went to high school, college, stuff like that.” Simon pointed to the screen. “He works at this law firm.”

“Yeah, but if you’ll notice, all that was input into a system six weeks ago, post-dated.” He pointed, “This law firm has him in their system as a long-term employee, but if you restore their system to six weeks ago, he wasn’t there. And the DMV records are the same way. I bet if we went back to 1998, he wouldn’t be in high school at Dobie High, either.”

“So he’s created his identity?” Simon crossed his arms. He was an old school cop, most of what Evan did was above his head, but he was smart, and trying to grasp the implications of what Evan had found.

“Pretty thoroughly, too. He knows Paige is a computer genius and would probably do a background check on him at some point.”

“So why didn’t she notice what you did?” Scratching his chin, Simon leaned forward, as if all of the clues were on the monitor just waiting to be put together. If they were, Evan would have found them.

“For some reason, she trusts him. She sees the good in people, makes her blind.” Evan was still on the fence as to whether that was a good attribute or bad.

“Or she’s in on it, somehow…” Simon found a chair and sat down while Evan ignored his comment. It was something he was trying desperately to ignore. He didn’t want her to be in on anything. “What else do you have?”

“There’s a lady there who doesn’t quite fit the profile of someone trying to bring down a multi-million dollar company, but she’s acting awfully suspicious. Last night, she kept trying to get Paige to let her go get her drinks and almost cried when she wouldn’t let her. She used to work for Paige, but Patton lured her away with something, and then she came back to work for her during the toss-up, but she’s got something on Paige, I just haven’t figured it out yet.”