“You okay? I’m sorry about her.”
She blinked. He was apologizing for Tory? “Her crazy isn’t your fault.”
“Still, I brought her into your life,” Amedeo said.
This man never ceased to amaze her. “It’s fine, Amedeo. I’m fine. I just wanted to make sure it was okay that I got started. Do I need to sign any paperwork to take on this project?”
“Uh, yeah, I guess you’ll have to. How about you get started with IT and I’ll have the papers sent down?”
“That’s fine.”
She trusted him. He wouldn’t screw her over. Too bad she didn’t think this was a real job. Carl was waiting for her when she returned to one floor down where the IT guys had offices.
“I’ve found a place you can work. Did Amedeo get you situated with paperwork?”
“He’s going to send it down here for me to sign.”
“Okay, but you can get started?”
“I can. Do you have my user ID and password?”
“You’re all set. You’ll enter the system as a user that only Amedeo and I recognize. I’ll know when you’ve been in because my staff will report to me, but they won’t know who you are.”
She nodded. She’d never had such unlimited access. It was a little unnerving. “You’ll be able to track what I’m doing?”
“Yes.”
“Where am I not allowed in case I go there accidentally?
Carl laughed. “Anything to do with finance. You can’t go write yourself a check.”
She chuckled. “That’s where I was going first.” Not that she needed to. Amedeo was offering her double her usual fee. She sobered. “Does Amedeo often use outside help?”
“No, but this is a unique case. He doesn’t hand out jobs to anyone if that’s what you’re worried about.”
“I am.”
Carl shook his head. “Amedeo is serious about his business. He wouldn’t bring you in unless he trusted you and thought you could do the job.”
She wasn’t completely reassured. “All I need now is to log in and for you to show me where you think this person has been. I can assess if any damage has been done. And I can contain him or her.”
“That sounds great.”
“Will I have offsite access?”
“No, that’s not negotiable. You’ll have to come in to get onto our system. Amedeo doesn’t even have offsite access.”
“Wow. That’s secure. I’m surprised someone got in,” she said.
Carl shrugged. “Most likely some kid who just wanted a challenge.”
“They can be the worst. Some snot sitting in his dorm room with nothing to do,” she said. “I’ve fixed a few of those.”
She logged into the system to check around. She saw the back door the hacker left, but she wasn’t ready to close it. He or she would know that they’d been found. No, she had to be stealthy and quick.
If the person was in here now, they’d see her and hopefully to the interloper, she’d look like an employee. Carl had said her login would work that way. She hoped he’d done it properly. Otherwise the hacker might leave mines for her to stumble on and blow up the system. That would be bad both for Amedeo and for her.
“Have you worked for Amedeo long?”
They sat in an office down the hall. She didn’t mind if Carl wanted to watch. She appreciated the company.
“Since he started this company.”
She nodded. “He spoke highly of you.”
“He spoke highly of you. How do you know each other?”
She didn’t want to start gossip, nor did she know how much Amedeo had said to Carl. “Uh, we ran into each other in a bar.”
Carl smirked, but let the subject drop. She’d bet that Amedeo often picked up women in bars. Usually they didn’t look like her. At least not based on what his ex-fiancé looked like. She was a tall, leggy blonde. Violet was not. Why was Amedeo so enamored of her? She wasn’t his type.
She’d have to keep remembering that. This was all temporary. They would see each other once the baby was here, but they wouldn’t be lovers anymore. She sighed at the idea. It might be months before she would have sex again. Maybe years. She’d have to get as much as she could before he was repulsed by her large belly.
It would probably happen. If Tory was Amedeo’s ideal, then Violet didn’t stand a chance. Certainly not pregnant and cranky. Her time was limited so she might as well make the best of it.
Despite not wanting to rely on Amedeo, she had no choice. She had no means of income other than freelancing. No health insurance. No place to stay other than Amedeo’s house. Why had she agreed to that?