David(10)
“What does that mean?”
“It just means we have access to more databases. We can go deeper than the agency that you likely outsourced your background checks to can go.”
“What makes you think I don’t do them myself?”
“Because you’re the CEO.”
My eyebrows rose. “I’m the boss so I don’t have time for the more basic, routine procedures.”
“No, you don’t.”
He didn’t back down. He stared me in the eye as if he was daring me to be the first to look away. The man obviously thought highly of himself. Like he could do my job better than I could. Did I seriously ask these people into my office to insult me?
I stood up and started across the room, ready to pick up the phone and ask Jacy to send security to show these gentlemen out.
“You were born in a rural town outside of Springfield, Illinois. Virden, I believe it was called. You had two siblings, an older brother and a younger sister. You tell the press you left home at seventeen because you got a scholarship to MIT, but the truth is, you left at sixteen because you weren’t getting along with your stepfather. You lived with a friend for a few months, saving up money, then you bought a car and made your way to Cambridge where you hacked their computer system and gave yourself a scholarship.”
I spun on my heels and stared at him. No one knew those things about me.
How the hell…?
“I got that after just an hour at my computer. Imagine what I could do with a few more hours of time on my hands.”
I tilted my head and studied him, seeing him in a new light.
“You hacked my personal computer.”
“No. I hacked the county records in Sangamon County. The rest I already knew.”
“How?”
He shrugged his broad shoulders. “Like I said before, I’m a fan.”
What?
I wanted to wrap my hands around his throat and choke the life out of him, but at the same time I wanted to know what else he knew about me. It’d been a long time since I’d talked to someone who knew about that part of my life. I missed talking about that time, about the excitement of breaking into something that was supposed to be unbreakable. But I’d left all that behind me when I started Friend or Foe.
“You invaded my privacy.”
“That’s what we have to do in order to protect you.”
“No, you don’t.” I looked from him to Donovan. “You’re not here to protect me. You’re here to protect my corporation.”
“It’s one in the same,” David insisted.
Donovan shifted in his seat, looking uncomfortable.
“I won’t be bullied by someone I hired. How insulting! To pay someone to invade my privacy!”
David wheeled his chair around and approached me. “I’m sorry you feel insulted, but this is our job—and we do it better than anyone else.”
“You think highly of yourself.”
“Would you want someone who didn’t?”
We stared at each other for a long moment. Then he again began to wheel his chair, swinging it around me and heading toward the door.
“Wait,” I said. “I do need your help.”
He turned. “Then you do it our way.”
“Okay.”
A small, self-satisfied smile slipped over his lips. “Then we should probably get started.”
I didn’t know what to think, but I knew I wanted to get to know this guy a little better.
Chapter 6
David
Ms. Dennison sent Donovan down to human resources with the name of the woman who was in on our little scam and could set him up with whatever he needed to get close to the IT techs. Then she took me to a room on the executive floor where there was a workstation not unlike my own back at the compound.
“This is where my head developer works, but he’s out of town this week. Vacation with the wife and kids.”
“Convenient.”
She shrugged. “You should be able to access the mainframe from here and anything else you might need.”
“Great. If you could just move the chair.”
“Oh, yeah…”
She grabbed the office chair and slid it over, watching as I wheeled my chair into place at the keyboard. I was sort of hoping she would make herself scarce now that I’d proven to her that I knew what I was doing. But she didn’t. She stood there, hugging the back of that chair against her ample chest and watched every keystroke.
She was different from what I’d expected. All the stories I’d heard about her, I expected her to be tall. And broad shouldered. I kind of expected her to be one of those women—sort of like Brigitte Nielson—who just seems larger than life in more ways than one. But she wasn’t like that. She was small, a petite woman who couldn’t have been much taller than maybe five four. And she had the most feminine features—a delicate little nose, a button mouth, and wide, gorgeous blue eyes. Her hair was a delicate golden brown, long and simply pulled back into the kind of ponytail that was once only popular for little girls. And she was almost soft spoken, even when she was angry.