She was standing right in front of him in the lunch line. Try as he might to tear his gaze from the arch of her delicate neck, he couldn’t. It was probably best to get the hell out of line and wait for her to be done, but he was starving. He’d been so busy he hadn’t made time to eat breakfast, and last night’s dinner had consisted of a block of cheese and not much else. Except for maybe that bottle of wine.

And on top of not eating well he’d been up late last night, trying to upgrade his cyber security system. Now more than ever, he needed to protect his work from potential hackers. His late-night work had led to restless thoughts of Heather, because he was still worried about her getting fired or arrested for hacking into his home system.

He was standing right behind her and she probably had no idea he was right there.

When she got to the counter to pick up her lunch, the purse she was holding slipped out of her hand onto the floor. Acting purely on his protective instinct, he reached for her it just as she did.

Her eyes widened when she saw him, the gold flecks in her eyes mesmerizing him.

He picked up the purse, but she took it out of his hand.

“Thank you. I’ve got it,” she said firmly. From her tone, they might as well have been complete strangers to each other. She obviously wanted nothing to do with him.

Simon merely nodded and stood up again before he got the chance to stare at her like a crazy person. The tension in his shoulders hadn’t subsided in the week since she had switched departments. He couldn’t stop thinking about her, and worse, he kept bumping into her. Most of the time he’d spot her and duck into a nearby office before she saw him. But yesterday, she had gotten into the elevator with him and he couldn’t avoid it.

Standing in the elevator had made his insides knot up at their proximity. She had been close enough to touch. To kiss. But then she had flown out of the elevator like she couldn’t wait to get the hell away from him.

Her hasty exit had been like a dull blade between his ribs. A childhood friendship had been yanked out from under him because of his own anger and fear. Fear that he had let someone get close enough to potentially make a fool of him. And he couldn’t be made a fool of.

Not after he’d proven his intelligence. His work ethic. His ability to build a technological empire out of nothing. On top of all that, his own ego couldn’t accept that yet another assistant might have outsmarted him.

Somehow a paradoxical combination of ego-driven arrogance and fear had gotten him to ruin the best thing that had ever happened to him.

Best thing...

That thought was like someone setting his heart on fire. Did Heather really mean more to him than Dover? Yes. She did. Heather was the best thing going in his life and he’d ruined it. Losing her was his own damn fault, and he had no idea how to undo the damage that he’d done. Didn’t know how to unsay the cruel things he’d said to her.

Heather grabbed her lunch tray and scurried off.

Several minutes later he grabbed a seat at an empty table by the window. He probably should have gotten his food to go, but seeing Heather made him want to stay. He didn’t dare look up to search for her. Torturing himself wasn’t going to fix this. Ignoring the agony in his heart he forced his sandwich down, barely tasting any of it. It took fifteen minutes, timed directly on his phone. Long enough to look relaxed and in control. As he reached for his tray, Heather’s small frame came into view.

She swallowed hard. “Simon. Do you have a minute?”

He stared at her for a moment too long, stunned that she had come over to him. “I have a very important meeting to get to.” Blowing her off was the last thing he wanted to do, but he was about to meet with a lawyer to figure out how to protect the ideas that had been hacked.

“Oh, sorry.” Her shoulders sagged. “Never mind.”

“Wait.” His fingers curled around her thin, delicate wrist. “I’m on my way to my car. Is five minutes enough to talk?”

“Yes.” She straightened quickly. “I think that would be long enough.”

After he set his tray aside, he walked with her towards the lobby.

“What did you want to talk about?” He wasn’t going to bother getting his hopes up. No doubt she wanted to talk business. This was not some personal issue.

“Linda told me that the electricians who upgraded your apartment were also hired to do work at VLA.”

He shrugged. “I chose those particular electricians because their specialty is working with tech. It’s not that unusual for them to have worked with VLA”

“I figured as much, but...” Her voice trailed off.

“But?” At the main entrance he used his Dover ID to get out and kept walking towards the parking lot.

“You’re the smartest person I know,” she said. “If you don’t think this is suspicious then it probably isn’t.”

“I never said that it wasn’t suspicious.” He stopped in front of his car. “I just don’t think we can jump to any conclusions based on this one connection.”

She lowered her eyes. “Well, do you remember if someone recommended the electricians to you?”

He wracked his brain, trying to remember. “It might have been my old assistant, Xander.”

“Do you think your old assistant has something to do with this?” she asked. “I mean, he got caught selling Dover secrets. Maybe he had something to do with the hack.”

“It’s possible.”

“You sound skeptical,” she said.

He leaned against his car and crossed his arms. “It’s good to be skeptical sometimes. Which is advice I should have taken before I accused you without evidence.”

“But you believe me without evidence now,” she pointed out.

“I do.”

“Why?”

Probably because, deep down, his heart could never let him truly believe the worst of her. For all his reliance on intellect and skepticism, when it came to Heather he was guided by his feelings more than anything else. His gut told him she was innocent. After she had defended herself, it was impossible for him to suspect her. It went against everything he stood for to make a decision like that based on his response to her, but nothing concerning Heather had ever been logical.

He wanted her. Probably always would. He didn’t believe in love, but he was as close to it as a man like him could get. It should have shocked him that he was putting so much trust in her, but it didn’t. Right now, it just felt... right.

When it came to Heather cold, hard facts meant nothing. The only truth that mattered was the truth in his heart. She was all that mattered. If he had to choose between his life’s work at Dover and being with Heather, he would choose Heather. Without hesitation.

“I trust you, Heather,” he said finally. “Isn’t that enough?”

“I know what you’re trying to do. It’s too little too late,” she bit out.

His heart sank, but right now he had to focus on helping her. If she was willing to come to him for help now, that meant she was either in dire straits or a tiny part of her was starting to forgive him. That wasn’t a guarantee that she would ever give him another chance, but it was the only shred of hope he could hold on to.

“I’m not trying to do anything,” he insisted.

“So you don’t think your former assistant has something to do with this?”

It grated him that she was still all business. He understood why, but he much preferred when they could speak freely. Be themselves with each other.

“I think Xander is much more concerned with getting out of trouble,” Simon said. “He’d be a special kind of reckless to keep breaking the law after he’d been caught.”

“I guess you’re right.” She sighed. “I guess I’m back at square one.”

“Not entirely,” he said. “I think knowing that the electricians who showed up at my place also did work for VLA is enough for me to start questioning them. Plus, I can pay a little more attention to Xander. We might not have anything concrete yet, but it’s a solid start. You’re doing pretty well on this investigation so far.”

“Honestly, the credit should go to Linda,” Heather said. “She’s the one who got that client list.”

He averted his gaze at the mention of Linda.

“You asked her to help me, didn’t you?” Heather asked.

He hesitated a moment. “Yes.”

“I told you to back off, Simon,” she said icily.

“And I did back off,” he said. “I’m giving you space like you wanted. But Dover has the right to conduct its own investigation into this, which is exactly what Linda is helping with.”

“You expect me to believe that?” She stared daggers at him. “It’s obvious you don’t like losing control. You can’t stand being shot down. Look, I’m grateful you put in a good word with the board, but I don’t need you.”

“You do,” he countered. Damn, she could be so frustrating sometimes. So full of... fire. “You’re so in over your head you don’t even realize it.”

Her mouth fell open. “The arrogance. I can’t believe I actually thought you might listen to what I wanted.”

“If you’re so hell-bent on refusing my help, why are you here, Heather?”

She took a step back, her eyes flashing with anger. “I knew you were going to do this. I knew you were going to rub this in my face. You just love me crawling back to you because it means you haven’t lost control.”

“I’m not trying to control you,” he said firmly. How come every time they were together it was fire or ice? He wasn’t gloating. He was trying to help. Dammit! “I don’t want you to get hurt. If you can’t prove your innocence, your career is over. You’ll end up in jail and your kid will get taken away from you.”

“You think I don’t know that? You think I don’t lie awake at night, too anxious to sleep? Too anxious to do anything but cry over what might happen to my son?” Her breathing hitched and she turned away from him. The way she always did when she didn’t want him to see her crying.

Knowing she was in so much pain made something sharp and cold twist in his stomach. “Heather, I swear I haven’t been trying to control you. I know I screwed up, but please don’t think the worst of me.”

“Thank you for your help,” she said coldly.

As she walked away from him, the flash of a police lights momentarily grabbed his attention. Right there on the other end of the parking lot was a cop car. The doors swung open and two police officers walked out and headed right towards them.

~~*~~

“WAIT,” SIMON CALLED out to her. He rushed over to her and wrapped his fingers around her arm.

“What are you doing?” she hissed.

“Don’t turn around, but there are a couple of police detectives behind us,” he said in a low voice.

“Are they here to arrest me?” she asked, desperation cracking her voice.

“I don’t know,” he replied. “I want you to get back inside and hide in your old office while I stall them.”

“If I hide it will look like I have something to hide,” she said.

“Go now,” he commanded, and nudged her towards the building.

He didn’t wait to see if she did as she told him as he sauntered up to the detectives who were making their way across the parking lot.

“Is there something I can help you with, detectives?” Simon asked when he stopped in front of them.

The tall one took off his sunglasses and held out his hand. “You’re Simon Diesel, aren’t you?”

Simon nodded.

“I’m Detective Bartlett. And this is my partner, Detective West,” the tall cop said. “We’re big fans of your work.”

“I appreciate that, gentlemen,” Simon said. “It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

Detective West reached into his coat pocket to retrieve a notebook and pen. “You’re probably wondering why we’re here, so we’ll get straight to the point, Mr. Diesel.”

“Simon is fine.”

Bartlett smiled, his grey moustache twitching. “The guys at the precinct aren’t going to believe this. First-name basis with Simon Diesel.”

Simon raised an eyebrow. “Your coworkers are tech aficionados?”

“The cyber forensics guys are,” Bartlett explained. “Anyway, we’d really like to discuss the hacking that recently came to our attention.”

Bartlett nodded. “Right. We also have some questions on the previous insider trading case you dealt with several weeks ago. Your former assistant was a person of interest in that case, if I recall correctly.”

Simon nodded. “Yes. It was a very unfortunate incident. We had to let Xander go.”

“Seems like Dover, Inc. has been dealing with a lot of unfortunate incidents lately.” West flipped open his notebook and started scribbling furiously. “The assistant who came after Xander got a lot of attention, didn’t she?”

Simon swallowed hard, uneasy at the prospect of the conversation steering towards the topic of Heather. Right now he had to stall these cops by keeping them outside the building for as long as possible. He had to buy Heather time to get out of sight before they got to her. He had no idea if they were here to arrest her, but he wasn’t taking any chances. Not with Heather.

He chose his words carefully. “She did.”

“But she wasn’t let go, was she?” West asked with a raised eyebrow. “In addition to the media frenzy around her, she was suspected of corporate espionage and hacking into Dover’s cyber system.”

“Not Dover’s system,” Simon said. “It was my personal home system.”

“That Dover paid for and designed,” West murmured.

“I designed it,” Simon said sharply.

“No need to get defensive,” West said, shaking his head. “We’re simply saying that you have a pretty special contract with Dover. You are the company. Whatever you design is also Dover’s by extension. It’s probably why they had such a hard time firing you after details of your personal life surfaced.”

Simon bristled at the accusation in the man’s tone. “My personal life? Look, if you have something to say just be upfront about it. No need to beat around the bush.”

West shrugged. “Whatever you want. You had a romantic relationship with your assistant, didn’t you?”

The way the officer said it made it sound like some cheap, illicit affair, when it wasn’t. His brief relationship with Heather had been so much more than that. Some much more than tabloid fodder and insinuations. “Yes. But that’s over now.”

“Too bad,” West said. “From the photos I’ve seen she’s quite a looker, if that whole repressed librarian thing is your type.”

Simon snarled, balling up his hands in outrage. “Detective West, I’ve answered all your questions so far, but if you ever talk about Ms. Hall like that again I’ll be forced to do something to you that lands me in jail.”

“Hey, don’t get testy, pal.” West paused. “Look, I take it back. I meant no disrespect. How about we go inside and have a nice chat?”

Simon nodded stiffly. If he refused to talk to them they’d only get more suspicious, and they were already talking to him like he was a suspect. The police had a way of twisting things and coming to convenient conclusions. He was lucky he had all the power and privilege of being wealthy, or they would probably have been a lot more aggressive with him. He needed to get in contact with his lawyer the moment he felt things were not in his control.

Heather didn’t have any wealth at all. If they got to her, they probably wouldn’t hesitate to take her into custody. Which meant he had no choice but to let them into the building to avoid suspicion and then do whatever it took to keep them the hell away from Heather.