Chapter 2
Two weeks. Why did Helena have to be out of the freaking country for these particular two weeks for her job?
Quinn was frantic to tell her best friend about her run-in with Knox, but Helena had been in Europe arguing an international law case in The Hague.
It wasn’t like Helena had been ignoring her.
She literally didn’t have the time until after the trial to call her back.
Helena took up cases for people who couldn’t stand up to their governments or who had been hurt by them.
Now, there had been perks in college. Hel didn’t give up everything. She had a car on campus while Quinn didn’t. She also paid for their housing, which was the only reason Quinn had been able to stay in college her third and fourth years.
Helena’s name flashed on Quinn’s phone and, not caring if it would make her late for work, she answered it. “How was your case?” Quinn asked instantly.
“Over, thank goodness. I won, but it was a long battle.”
“Of course you did,” Quinn said proudly. “You are such a queen.”
“Thank you, Quinn. But I think the better question is what the hell is going on where you’ve called me eight times and texted me even more? Are you okay? Were you in the hospital? Did you find a man to finally give you an orgasm?”
“I saw him,” Quinn said quickly before slamming her lips together as Helena burst out a million questions at once.
There was no question about who him was referring to.
There was only one him. Quinn had had the biggest crush on Knox Everett when she tutored him.
She’d finally confessed it all to Helena who had pushed Quinn to make a move on the football star.
Quinn had thought about it and had even tried.
One time he was walking her home and she went to tell him that she’d started to develop feelings for him when one of the women from the dance team slid in between them.
Literally. Knox had been annoyed, and told her to go away, but Quinn had lost her courage.
“Tell me everything!” Helena demanded. Quinn recounted the run-in at the hospital and then there was silence, which was usual for Helena.
“Hel?” Quinn asked.
“And this was two weeks ago?” Helena asked. “Have you two talked since then?”
“No. But I saw him at the gas station and hid in the bathroom.”
“Quinn! No you didn’t!”
“I know! I feel like I’m thirteen years old again. I don’t know what to say to him. Maybe he was only flirting like he used to do in college.”
She could practically hear Helena rolling her eyes.
“I told you, that man wants you. I don’t think he was ever pretending or just flirting to flirt.
He didn’t date anyone during that final semester of college.
He always looked at you with this longing that hit me right in the heart.
This is a second chance, Quinn. What are you waiting for? Take it!”
Hel did what best friends did, she pumped Quinn up until Quinn thought she could actually walk up to Knox and tell him everything.
Quinn got in the elevator at work as she asked Helena about her time at The Hague knowing their time was running out to talk.
“I don’t know how since I’m not even thirty yet, but I’m so burnt out,” Helena told her.
“You have a very demanding job. Maybe it’s time to take a vacation,” Quinn suggested.
“What’s that?” Helena asked, jokingly. Helena was so determined to make it on her own merit that she took every case offered to her, refused any vacation time, and basically worked 24/7.
She sat on a huge trust fund and didn’t care if she ever touched it.
Her parents had made a fortune on their own, and in their honor, she was determined to do the same.
She said she’d access the money one day, but not until she’d proven herself to the world and to their memory.
“I’ll take a vacation when you get married to the sexy quarterback and I’m your maid of honor. ”
“Married? Jeez, Hel. We haven’t talked in two weeks and before that we haven’t seen each other in years.”
“Then change that. You know where he works.”
Quinn looked down at her desk. The gold Q he’d given her sat right next to a picture of her and Helena.
“Maybe I’ll just do that.” There was a soft knock on her door and Juniper, her assistant, looked worriedly through the window to the side of the door.
“I have to get to work. Call me when you get stateside.”
“Two days! And by then I expect you to have seen that QB again.”
“Yes, ma’am!” Quinn saluted even if Helena couldn’t see her. She knew it would make Hel laugh. “Call me when you get back to New York.”
Quinn hung up and motioned for Juniper to come in.
Juniper was twenty-two, which really wasn’t that much younger than Quinn’s twenty-eight, but it seemed a lifetime away.
Juniper had long, wavy hair, wore a star-shaped pimple patch whenever needed, and easily matched the guys in tech with their relaxed wardrobe.
Juniper had her dark brown hair pulled back in a half ponytail with a clip, and she wore baggy jeans, a tight athletic top, and an oversized hoodie zip-up.
Quinn understood Juniper’s style. It had been Quinn’s default look in college, too.
But Sebastian Abel didn’t allow jeans or hoodies at SA Tech.
Quinn straightened her navy-blue suit jacket and brushed invisible wrinkles from the tailored pants.
“Good morning, Juniper,” Quinn greeted, but Juniper just frowned. “What is it?”
Juniper handed her a stack of papers. “More complaints about the gambling from SACC1 Lounge at the stadium. They’re all the same.
Bettors make their bet, and it gets printed correctly on the paper ticket or on the digital ticket.
Then they win and come scan the ticket to get their money but the teller’s computer reads it as the opposite bet and refuses to give the payout. ”
Quinn felt her stomach plummet. Last home game there had been six complaints. Now there were more. “How many this week?”
“Twelve,” Juniper answered.
“Dammit. Juniper, can you get Nico on the phone for me, please?” Quinn sat down hard in her chair and pulled up the backdoor to the gambling system she helped code for when she had been with SA Tech.
She had run a thorough round of diagnostics on the program last week when the first complaints had come in. Nothing showed up.
Quinn ran the diagnostics again as she waited for Nico to return her call.
It didn’t take long for her phone to ring.
Nico Saccone was a powerful man who was all business, all the time.
She wasn’t sure if he even had a sense of humor.
If he did, it was buried way deep down inside.
It didn’t matter though. He was a good boss—fair, smart, and he wanted the best, not the cheapest, product.
He listened to her when she had ideas, and while he might not implement them all, she felt seen and valued as an employee.
Something she knew not all women in this industry could say.
“Quinn, what’s the emergency?” Nico asked over the phone.
“We had more complaints, sir,” Quinn told him. “Twelve this time.” She looked down at her computer. “Diagnostics come back clear, but there has to be some coding that’s gone wrong.”
“I’m seeing Sebastian for dinner tonight. I’ll tell him about it and request that your old team be assigned to look into it if we can’t figure it out.” Nico paused and let out a sigh. “We have three more stadiums wanting to implement our lounges. We can’t be having these complaints.”
“I know, sir.” She was the one working on those deals.
She was also the one who was not excited about bringing in her old team.
Some people loved their former co-workers.
Quinn did not. Her team consisted of three men.
Neil, Archie, and Karson, who happened to be her ex.
Things were good with Karson when he was the team leader and she was below him, doing what he told her.
She was the low programmer on the hierarchical ladder solely because she wasn’t a man.
That had worked for Karson. Any other pecking order did not.
“I’ll contact them as soon as Mr. Abel signs off on it. ”
“There’s a home game this Sunday. I’ll meet you in the lounge at kickoff to make sure there’s no more incidents.”
Quinn’s heart sank. “Yes, sir.”
This was the equivalent of being put on probation, even if Nico didn’t say it.
If she couldn’t figure it out before Sunday, she would have to call Karson and tell him she needed his help.
He’d told Quinn when he’d broken up with her right before she moved to Lexington that she’d come crawling back because she was nothing without him.
And here she was, crawling back to help figure out a problem for something she did the majority of the work on.
She didn’t understand why she couldn’t figure out the bug in the program.
Quinn ran her hand over her slacks again. “Juniper,” Quinn called out from her desk, “hold all my calls unless they’re from Nico or Mr. Abel.”
“Will do,” Juniper replied before her head ducked back down behind her computer.
Quinn let out a long breath to focus herself as she pulled up her program and got to work. If the code had been changed, she’d find it. Her eyes moved to the gold Q and for a moment she thought of Knox. Unlike Karson, Knox had always believed in her. She flexed her fingers and got to work.