Chapter Twelve
Despite my late bedtime, I shot out of bed like a cannon the next morning. The events of the night before had filled me with a new sense of urgency and I was raring to go as soon as I left my bed. I needed to get to work and dive headfirst into the dark and seedy world of hacking to get Cooper the answers he needed. Now that I knew the reasons behind his request, I was fully on board and eager to get to the bottom of the mystery.
I got outside before remembering that I had no ride. Cherry Bomb was still stuck across town at the office, and my clunker car had died about a week before. I now had the money to get it fixed, but hadn’t bothered yet. My phone rang as I was standing on the front stoop.
It was Cooper.
“Hello?” I answered on the second ring.
“Good morning. My driver will be there shortly. There was a pile-up on the freeway and he is running late. Come to my office when you arrive.”
“Okay.”
He hung up and I looked at my phone, wondering what mood he would be in once I arrived. His manner on the phone seemed so distant from the very intimate situation of last night. I sighed. That was Cooper, though. It was like being in a game of tug-o-war. He knew how to pull me close and then something seemed to pull me away again.
I waited on the steps of my apartment for a few more minutes and then, as promised, a town car pulled up to take me downtown to the office.
The elevator ride up to Cooper’s office reminded me that I still had no idea why he and Tessa had been skulking around after hours. I knew I’d promised Cooper that I would trust him once he told me who Angela McKinnon was, and he’d held up his end of the bargain, so I knew it wouldn’t be wise to start poking around for information about Tessa. At least, not to him. I would have to figure that out on my own.
Maybe Bryce would have an idea why they were meeting. He was still working at Spotlight and had been there long enough to have the pulse on the other employees within the company.
I made a mental note to call him up and ask him about it once things settled down.
I stepped off the elevator and made my way towards Cooper’s office, cringing as his assistant, Kimberly came into view when I rounded the corner. She’d always been such a pain in the ass towards me. Secretly, I figured it was because she wanted to keep Cooper all to herself, and saw me as a threat, but I was determined not to let her rattle me.
“Good morning, Kimberly. Mr. Brighton is expecting me,” I said, using the sweetest voice I could muster.
She gave me a pinched smile and punched a button on her phone.
I took that as my dismissal and went to sit in the small waiting area. I was there less than a minute before Cooper’s door opened and he appeared.
If possible, he looked even more delectable than I’d ever seen him before. He was wearing a dark gray suit with a navy tie against his stark white shirt. The fabric melded to him perfectly, enhancing the hard lines of his toned body. It had barely been twenty-four hours since we were down one floor, fucking like crazy in my office, and yet, I felt like it had been years since I’d had the pleasure of running my hands all along his perfect body.
I clasped my hands together and told myself to get it together as I followed him into his office.
“Thank you for sending the driver,” I said as I sat in one of the chairs across from his desk.
He unbuttoned his lower button and sat down. “Of course. Can I ask what happened to your bike’s seat? I noticed last night that it was covered in duct tape.”
I cocked an eyebrow at his question, unsure why he was asking. After everything that had happened in the last twenty-four hours, that’s what he wanted to talk about?
“It has some tears. I’m going to get it replaced as soon as I can.”
He eyed me as if he knew I was holding back. “Tears? The rest of your bike is in immaculate condition. I find it hard to believe there are tears.”
I rolled my eyes. “For fuck’s sake, Cooper, if you must know, my d-bag ex-boyfriend thought it would be funny to carve the word whore into the seat. I didn’t want to look at it, and I didn’t have the money to fix it, so that’s why it’s taped up. Happy?”
“Not even remotely. What’s this guy’s name?”
“Why?”
“Allison, just tell me his name,” Cooper repeated.
His eyes were steely and had the look I’d seen so many times before. I wasn’t going to win this argument.
“His name is Marx Harrison.”
“Good. Thank you.”
“Cooper, what are you going to do?”
“I’m going to see that Marx pays for your bike to be repaired.”
I let out a hollow laugh at the idea. There was no way in hell Marx would ever cop to even being the one who had vandalized my bike in the first place, let alone cough up the five hundred bucks to have it fixed. But, if Cooper wanted to spin his wheels, fine. It would keep him busy and out of my way for a little while.
“Is that all you needed?” I asked.
“Yes, thank you. Let me know as soon as you find anything,” he said.
I stood up and started towards the door. I heard Cooper get up and follow after me, but resisted the urge to turn back and look at him. I knew that I would never get anything done if I turned around. One thing always led to another with him and right now, I had one thing on my mind, and it wasn’t him.
For once.
I reached for the handle, but Cooper beat me to it. He was standing so close that I could feel his body heat all the way down my back. If I took even a fraction of a step backwards, I was certain that I would be fully pressed against his body. His scent enveloped me and I teetered in my heels, slightly leaning, but then stopped short. I wanted to, but I couldn’t.
I looked up and found him staring down at me. His eyes were dark and I could tell he was mulling something over. I wanted to ask what was on his mind, to get inside his head just for a minute, but I knew that if I asked, he would likely give me some bullshit answer. In the course of our relationship, Cooper had given me few glimpses into himself. And, while those moments were breathtaking and real, they were hard to come by. Most of the time, he was behind a wall that I couldn’t climb.
But, I realized that was likely because I was too busy crouching behind my own walls.
“Thank you, Allie,” Cooper said, his voice in a soothing whisper.
“For what?”
“For understanding.”
My stomach twisted at his words and the soft tone of his voice. His face was inches from mine. It would be so easy to fall back into his embrace, and let him take my mind off the ugliness of the world for just a few hours.
Before I could decide what to do, he opened the door and we were exposed again, the moment gone. I stepped into the hall and gave him a last look before hurrying past Kimberly’s desk and heading downstairs to my office.
After all, I had work to do.
Coffee in hand, I sat down behind my computer and started getting ready to dive in to the hacking. I was determined to get the answers to Cooper by the end of the day. I put all my cloaking in place and then tapped into the competition’s database. I resisted the urge to destroy the entire thing and instead worked my way through the different sections until I hit pay dirt.
All the formulas.
I copied everything to my computer as quickly as possible, knowing that I could be kicked off at any second. I’d been careful to cover my tracks, but I still felt unsure as I watched the data being copied over.
Once the last of it had been cataloged, I closed out of everything and sat back in my chair, breathless.
It was done.
I had everything Cooper would need to build a case against the company that had potentially ruined his sister’s health, and the health of countless other women who had used the products. The knowledge that I’d helped vindicate so many innocent victims was absolutely heartwarming and I couldn’t hold back a broad smile as I compressed the files and copied them to a USB drive to deliver to Cooper personally.
Before leaving my office, I heard my email dinging for attention. I pulled open the program and quickly worked my way through the inbox. Mostly the messages were inner office memos that I deleted but then I saw an automatic email notifying me that someone had responded to my post about the identity of the hacker in the hacking forum.
My heart raced as my fingers flew over the keyboard to log in. I pulled it up, silently urging the internet to work faster as I waited for the page to load. I clicked the link to my thread and gasped at the reply.
The hacking signature belonged to Clay Gregson.
AKA…Bryce’s boyfriend. Clay had been the one to hack into the Plush database.
But why?
My mind spun and then lurched as I recalled another detail. Cooper had mentioned a Clay last night, and I hadn’t stopped to ask but it seemed too coincidental to not be the same guy. What had he said? I struggled to remember. The information had been jumbled in with everything else that had occurred.
And now…this.
Suddenly, it hit me. Cooper had said that Clay was trying for the job here at Brighton Enterprises, a job in the tech department.
But, I had received the job instead. So, had he been hacking in revenge?
Or, had Clay been hired by Plush’s competitor to hack into our database and wipe it?
Maybe they knew that Cooper was on to them, or at least worried about it. But then, why not hire the hacker to cover their own tracks? Why try to erase our information?
I couldn’t figure it out, but my heart was still beating furiously in my chest and I felt sick at the sheer amount of possibilities.
I pushed back from my desk and raced to go back upstairs.
I had to talk to Cooper.
Now.