Chapter 9 #2
She returned with her laptop in hand, setting it on the desk before she plopped into the purple chair, pulling her legs up before she wheeled closer to the desk. “Okay…I’m ready.”
“I sent the list to you,” he said as his fingers tapped his keyboard in search of more information.
“Okay, well, I need access to your employee files so I can dig a little deeper.”
“Mm,” he said with a shrug, his eyes never leaving the screen, “yep. You should be able to get to them.”
She clicked her tongue. “Are you serious? Are you really not going to just log me in?”
“Come on, Avs. Are you really going to be that lazy?”
“Seriously?” she said, the tone of her voice a little frightening.
He twisted to eye her. “I mean, if you can’t do it, I can help you.”
The glare she shot him spoke volumes. “I can do it. I just…thought expediency was a priority.”
“I thought you’d enjoy the challenge. Unless you’ve forgotten everything I taught you.”
She turned back to her computer, setting her fingers on the keyboard.
He smiled at her form as she clacked on the keys, a quiet satisfaction growing in him at seeing her comfortably settled in the space he’d designed with her in mind. The pink sweatsuit complimented the royal purple chair perfectly.
She flicked a blonde lock of hair over her shoulder as she arrived at the login page for the company’s records. She narrowed her eyes at the two white boxes beaming from her screen.
He arched his eyebrow, waiting to see her next move. Would she go straight for a hack into the system or do something more subtle?
To his surprise, she tapped in the username box and entered AStone.
After another few taps on the keyboard, she received an error message. She tried twice more before she leaned back in her chair, a finger rubbing her lips.
Two more attempts, and he’d get a notification that his account was locked. Was she really trying to brute force her way into his account?
She puckered her lips before she leaned forward again and typed in the password box. She slapped the enter key and grinned at the screen as his account loaded. “You may want to change your password, Ace. That’s awful.”
“I like that password,” he answered.
She twisted to glance at him. “AlexandAva920?”
“It’s easy to remember.”
“It’s easy to hack. Our names and the date we got married.” She shook her head in mock disappointment. “You should know better.”
“Yeah, I know, but I still like it.” He twisted back to his computer as she navigated the system to the employee records.
“When did you hire Melinda?”
“Who?” he asked as he accessed another camera.
“Your CFO.”
An amused grin broke out on his face though his eyes never left his screen as he caught sight of the black sedan making its getaway. “Oh, Miranda.”
“Whatever,” she answered.
The microaggression of using the incorrect name for his female CFO betrayed her annoyance with the woman. An annoyance born partially of jealousy, he hoped.
“Uhh, I don’t remember the date, but you should be able to find it in her employee file.”
“I did. But the date can’t be right.”
“Why?” he asked, snapshotting the picture of the car and running it through an image program in an attempt to create a clarified zoom of the license plate.
“It says she was hired in 2013.”
“So?” he wrinkled his nose as the image came up a blurred mess.
“So, why didn’t she come up on our shortlist? She was an employee during that time.”
“Uhh, I don’t know.” A curse escaped him under his breath as he tried another image with the same result.
“Ohhh, I see.”
“Hmm?” he prompted as he worked furiously to try to find the license plate.
“She wasn’t in finance. She was in another department. You pulled finance people only.”
“Mmm, well, I guess she’s still off the list because she wouldn’t have had access to those accounts to make any of these transactions until she transferred into finance.” He pounded against his keyboard again.
“Unless she figured out your password and used your account to do it.”
He stiffened, heaving a sigh at the playful comment. “She didn’t do it, Avs. Look at the people actually on the list.”
“Someone’s certain.”
“I’m pretty certain.”
“Are you dating her?”
The casual comment stopped his typing in its tracks. “What?”
He twisted to face her, wondering if she was being serious or teasing.
She shot him a glance, her features stone and demanding. “Are you dating her?”
“No, Ava. Of course not.” The ridiculous question disturbed him. Did she really think he would date that woman even if she threw herself at him?
“Well, it’s not that ridiculous, Ace. She’s…relatively attractive.”
“Relatively?” he asked.
She turned back to her keyboard. “If you like that type.”
“It’s ridiculous no matter what type she is.”
“Why?” she asked, opening another file.
“Because I…” He froze, unable to follow through with his statement. What was he supposed to say? Because I’m in love with you? He couldn’t blurt that out. Not yet. Not when less than an hour ago she’d said those words to another man.
She slid her green eyes to him again. “Because why?”
He whipped around to face his laptop again. “Uh…because it just is.”
“Why are you getting so defensive about this?”
“I’m not getting defensive.” He shrugged as he focused on his work.
“Why won’t you talk about it then?”
Was she really asking him that after her refusal to discuss her fiancé? “Oh, am I supposed to talk about it? Like you do? You won’t tell me anything about Builder Bob.”
She scoffed at him. “Are you serious? So, there is something going on between you.”
She easily sidestepped his deflection, focused on getting the information she sought. “Ava, there isn’t. I just am pointing out that you won’t talk about the Master Planner, but you want me to tell you everything that happened between Miranda and me.”
She gasped. “Something did happen. What was it? Did you ask her out? Did she say no? No, she said yes, but she ghosted you. Or did you ghost her?”
“Ava!” he shouted with a wave of his hands. “I didn’t date her. I didn’t ask her out.”
“Did she ask–”
“No,” he said before she could finish.
“Okay, fine, so nothing happened. Then why are you so certain she’s innocent?”
“Because the evidence doesn’t support her guilt. That’s it.” The frustration over the conversation coupled with the lack of progress on his task twisted his temples into knots.
“Really, that’s it?” she asked, her voice prodding with a hint of uncertainty.
Was there also a hint of jealousy coupled with the hope that he hadn’t been seeing someone else?
He swiveled his chair to face her. “That’s it. Obviously, I’ve never dated anyone because I have the perfect wife.”
She offered him an amused smile before she returned to her work. “Darn right, you do.”
He grinned at her profile before the sudden ring of his phone cut through the silence.
He dug it from his pocket and glanced at the number, not recognizing it. He swiped to accept the call and pressed it to his ear. “Alex Stone.”
“Mr. Stone, this is Officer Ryan Mitchell from the Suffolk County Sheriff’s Office. Do you have a minute to discuss the break-in attempt on your property last night? We have some information.”
His heart thudded faster against his ribs as the officer’s words hit him. Would they get a break in this case?