Page 36 of Nefarious
“Well, you know. I haven’t discussed it with him. I’m not exactly his first choice of confidante in matters like this. Not since we were in college.”
Val scanned the desk where Noelle tapped her fingernails. Other than a neat stack of paper and assorted pens, there weren’t many potential sources of information. No hastily scrawled notes that might hide answers. Nowhere Val might leave a recording device.
Val waited for Noelle to speak again, hesitant to interrupt the momentum of her decision-making process. At last, she looked into Val’s eyes. “I’m making more out of this than necessary. I really don’t know why it even bothers me.”
Val smiled, gentle. “Is it possible maybe you like him?” She held her breath, hoping she didn’t rock the boat too far. But sometimes it only took recognizing feelings for them to begin to grow. Even when the feelings weren’t actually there.
It was annoying to be doing Dane’s work for him, but the last time he took months to attempt to seal the deal, and in that time, he’d discovered his emotions. Val needed him in Noelle’s confidence today, and his hackneyed attempts at romance were getting him nowhere. If he could get her to trust him enough to share some intimate information, she’d have time enough after to throw a crowbar between them before things went too far. She’d done it before.
Noelle laughed. “Of course not.” But her fidgety hands told another story. Val was reasonably certain Dane could hook her yet, but it would take an effort to haul her out of the water.
“Of course not.” Val smoothed her skirt. “If you want to talk to Dane, you could just send him an email. Or stop by his office if he’s avoiding you.” She let out an exaggerated sigh. “He’s probably nursing his wounds. Or embarrassed. He’ll get over it.”
“I hope so.” Noelle stood, indicating the meeting was over. “And thanks, Val.”
Sophie,
Look. I know I’ve only been out here a week, but I feel like I’m already way more experienced in the real world than you. You want to warn me about sexual harassment in the workplace because I chose to dress for success? Don’t you realize that I can’t harass anyone? And it’s not like Dane is going to come on to me or something. A harmless crush can’t hurt anyone.
Even my dad once dated Val, so clearly it’s done.
Plus I am the most competent intern here. He didn’t choose me just because of a skirt.
I basked in his brilliance for an hour this afternoon, and I promise you it was all professional. He’s not this boogeyman everyone paints him as.
So calm down.
Selena.
Connor,
Please come see me in my office at your earliest convenience.
Dane G. Russ
Connor, one of the system admins, knocked on the door just before five. Dane waved him in. “Thanks for coming so quickly, Connor. Would you mind closing the door?”
Connor looked confused but did as he was asked. “What’s this about?”
“I was hoping you could clear something up for me.” He looked at his computer screen which currently displayed a couple of Putty sessions, black consoles that could be connected to a database or application servers. He had tailed a server log so the screen was littered with lines of garbage information. But he assumed Connor would never look too closely.
“Sure. What about?” Connor swallowed, and Dane hoped that meant he had a reason to feel nervous.
“I was going through some of the traffic logs from the past few months. You know we’re obligated to monitor potential security holes, and I like to dig through the calls coming into and out of our network. You find interesting things there.”
Connor stood still, giving away nothing to indicate if Dane’s bluff would pan out. “Yeah. I suppose so.”
“I found some calls to what seem to be porn sites. It appears to be downloaded files. I checked the computer name on the calls and, well, they led to you.”
“I don’t know why that would be. I mean, I don’t look at porn.” Connor shuffled his feet ever so slightly.
“I’m sure you don’t. But I’d hate to have to ask Morty Becker to take a closer look into this. They tend to be a little less lenient about matters like this. I just want to make sure they don’t happen again.” He hoped he looked understanding. Connor could deny his accusation—hell, it wasn’t really even an accusation. He’d be smart to walk away.
But he wasn’t smart. “I swear it was only the one time. I was at home. Drunk. And I didn’t realize I was tunneling in to the corporate network. It won’t happen again. I swear it.”
Dane hid his relief behind a wolf’s grin. He’d wounded his prey, but now he needed to go in for the kill. “Good. I’m willing to let that go. But Connor, there’s something you could do for me.”
“Oh?” If he realized he’d been trapped, he didn’t show it. Yet.
