And maybe cows could fly.
Clay had just poured a second cup of coffee when Sophie pulled her car into her parking spot. He watched as she opened the door and stepped out. She looked flushed and her brows were drawn into a frown. Not typical for Sophie, who was the most positive person he knew; she always had a smile for everyone. He hoped she wasn’t sick.
He couldn’t help but speculate what was wrong. Had she received bad news from her family back in Indiana? Was she covering up the fact that she wanted to stop their affair? Technically were they even having an affair? When she was in his arms, she gave him just the opposite impression. He still wanted her to move in with him. Or he wanted to set her up in a luxury apartment closer to the ranch than the cottage she was renting. To hell with what anyone would think. Let the town’s gossips do their worst. It was none of anyone’s business but their own. He could give her anything she wanted and he wanted to do so. The only thing holding him back was Sophie. A more independent woman he’d never met.
The door opened and the smile of greeting was back on her face. Was he imagining she was working to keep it there?
“Good morning,” he said as she put her small briefcase on top of the desk and began taking out her laptop and assorted notes.
“Good morning to you.” She smiled her response. “Sorry I’m running a bit late. I seem to have caught a bug. You know, the kind that hits your stomach.”
Ah. “If you need to take the day off...”
“No. Thank you, but I’ll be fine. If it doesn’t let up I might take you up on your offer later on.”
Before Clay could walk over to her, the phones began to ring and Sophie, always efficient, began to answer the calls while still unpacking her laptop.
“John Dunn for you on line two,” she said then quickly answered another line.
Clay nodded and walked to his office, located directly beyond Sophie’s smaller one. For this call he closed the connecting door. Word had reached him a month ago that someone was spreading gossip about his Everest cloud-computing company, even going to the extent of running stories and commenting in online forums about how the mainline computers had been hacked and the information stored there was no longer safe. That Everest had been compromised. He’d had administrative IDs checked out thoroughly to confirm security and systemically reset to new passwords. Sweeps of each area of the system had been painstakingly tested for any virus or malware susceptibility. Absolutely nothing was found.
All security measures were in place and an in-depth security audit had been performed, researching each account on the infrastructure. When nothing came to light, all employees and administrators hired within the past year were scrutinized, their references rechecked, and finally a new interview had been conducted with each, this time by both the cleared administration and the security division. Everything checked out. He couldn’t have asked for a better overall picture of Everest and its working components. If the buyers’ information that was stored on Everest had been compromised, damned if he knew how they’d done it.
He had instructed John Dunn, head of Everest security, to run individual reports for each company and have a specialized team review each one. It was thousands and thousands of clients and it would take many man-hours to accomplish. But it was all he knew left to try. Unfortunately, none of it had stopped some clients from pulling their accounts and taking their info elsewhere, which was slowly mounting to millions of dollars lost.
“Yeah, John,” he answered the phone, dropping down into his dark brown leather chair.
“Just thought I should touch base with you. We’ve cleared the larger accounts and are half through the rest. So far we’ve found nothing to indicate our cloud was breached. The bad news—we had eight more companies pull out last night. One was Stratfire Inc., which, as you know, was a multimillion-dollar account.”
“Any luck on finding out who is behind this?”
“We tracked the online articles back to the screen name Maverick.”
Clay immediately sat forward in his chair. He knew that name. He’d heard it before. It was some hateful, malicious character who had been blackmailing and exposing the secrets of Royal Texas Cattleman’s Club members for months now.
“John, check out that name in relation to the TCC. I’m not the first business he’s attacked. We need to find this bastard and shut him down once and for all. And place a call to Sheriff Nathan Battle. He’s the sheriff here in Royal. If anyone else has experienced similar, he would know. He should be able to fill you in on what has transpired with the other victims of this Maverick.”
“I’ll get right on it. Do you have any leads I could start with?”
“Check with Chelsea Hunt. Someone mentioned she was experiencing similar harassment regarding her chain of steak houses. I think she may be able to head you in the right direction.”
“I’m on it. I’ll report back as soon as I know anything.”
Clay ended the conversation. Damn. This was crazy. He didn’t know where to go next. Probably contacting most of the larger accounts would be a good idea. Offense was always the best defense. Explain to them what was going on and give his personal assurances that everything was fine. It was thousands of accounts. It was time to call Sophie in to help. She was so efficient she could keep the office running in her spare time but in this situation it was probably a better idea to bring in a couple of secretaries to cover the phones and the administrative part of her job while the two of them got busy.
Clay walked to the connecting door and opened it only to find Sophie’s desk area empty. A hastily scribbled note on top of her desk said she’d gone home. Clay frowned. He’d call her later to make sure she was okay. Or better, stop by her house and check on her in person. Sophie was not one to miss work. Knowing she’d left concerned him. Once he’d returned to his office, he picked up the phone and called Fran Dodson in his human-resources office. She would have two secretaries there to help him within the hour.
“Ms. Prescott? The doctor will see you now. If you will please come this way.” The nurse smiled as Sophie entered the examining room. Dressed in old-school aqua scrubs, the nurse looked efficient right down to the smile no doubt intended to put the patients at ease. “If you will step on the scale, we can get your weight.” Sophie followed the instructions.
Dr. Hutchinson didn’t keep her waiting very long at all, which was a surprise. He rushed in through the door, closing it behind him, and held his hand out to Sophie. After asking Sophie a multitude of questions, it came down to the one and only query: Could she be pregnant?
“Yes.”
“What symptoms have you noticed?”
“Nausea in the mornings, headache and cravings for strawberries and tuna fish.”
The doctor laughed. “That would pretty well convince me. I’m gonna step out for a minute. If you would please change into the gown on the table? We will run a couple of tests while I examine you and we should be able to confirm yea or nay by this afternoon.”
An hour later Sophie exited the new multistory medical building in a state of shock mixed with absolute bliss. She was pregnant. She was going to have a baby. She was going to have Clay’s baby.
The carefully manicured lawn around the building was bright green, thick and rich. It was a beautiful background for the multitude of flowers growing in the beds nearby. The trees were in full leaf and the birds that made their home there were singing for all they were worth. But Sophie didn’t hear them. She didn’t notice the flowers or the pleasing scent of the recently mowed lawn. She was two months along, which meant she’d gotten pregnant in May, the night of the masked ball. Their baby would be born in February of the following year.
What would Clay do when he found out? What was she going to do? The best for all concerned would be for her to return to her home in Indiana. She knew her mom and dad would support her through this and she needed that support. They would love her no matter what. They had already proven that.
She didn’t want to go back to Indiana. This was her home now. But she knew she couldn’t stay here. At least not for very much longer. She had two, maybe three months until she began to show. By then she had to tell Clay. It would be so easy to quit her job and disappear. But she couldn’t do that.
Clay had a right to know.
Six
The headline on the front page of the business section of today’s Dallas Times was Everest Compromised—Millions at Stake. The article went on to say that despite attempts by the founder and CEO, Clayton Everett, business tycoon and former cowboy Hall of Famer, to refute rumors that the company had been hacked, new evidence had surfaced that would strengthen the original reports that Everest had, in fact, been compromised.
Clay wadded the paper and threw it across the room, unable to read any more. The first wave of internet stories that he’d managed to survive would be nothing compared to this. The phones would be ringing off the wall and clients would challenge the security of Everest, resulting in a tsunami crashing to the shore, spreading unparalleled destruction to his life. Without another thought he walked to the inner door.
“Sophie,” Clay said as she hung up the phone.