“Your sister’s your weak spot, Crestwell. Anybody who knows you knows that.”
“You don’t know me. I shared the bathroom down the hall with you for a semester in freshman year. That’s it.”
“With the way you keep to yourself, that probably makes me just about your best friend in college.”
“Who are you working for? The senator?”
“That old fart? Please. He was just exercising the seamy side of his appetites while his wife was away with the kiddies. Politicians so rarely get the opportunity to do that these days, what with snoopy reporters around all the time. Luckily, he was in a safe place. But we don’t want anything from the senator. Your sister was the star of that little show.”
Jonathon ignored that, because if he allowed himself to focus on it he would beat the shit out of Dickinson. “What do you want Altman’s program for?”
“We want it to protect the Internet. First amendment and all that shit.” He paused dramatically. “Nah, just kidding. What do you think we want it for? We’re going to market it ourselves. It’s worth a fortune. But don’t you worry about that end of it. You just figure out how to get it. The spyware I put in her computer didn’t last long, like I said, so now we need an actual spy, on-site. One who’s as good as Ms. Altman and can crack her security precautions and get what we need.”
Jonathon glanced at the blank monitor where a few moments before, Liv Altman had been. “So why show me that video?”
“The nudie of her? Why not? Shows you how we tried to do this the easy way, but now it’s time to go to Plan B.” Dickinson popped his flash drive out of Jonathon’s master computer, as if just remembering to do so. “Besides, I like to watch it. I got quite a nice show out of Plan A, let me tell you. A little something to whack off to on cold nights.”
Jonathon held his palm out for the flash drive. “I want both videos back. Julie’s and that one.”
He didn’t owe Altman anything. He didn’t even know her. But that didn’t mean he wanted her subjected to Dickinson’s lurid peeping any more than he wanted his sister to be.
He knew what he had to do. He was left with no choice, really. And whether Lincoln Computers had the anti-piracy technology or someone else did made no difference to him. He never exactly played by the rules.
Dickinson shrugged and handed over the flash drive. “Okay. As long as you deliver, I’ll give you the original of the sexy geek strip and of your sister’s video.”
Somehow Jonathon doubted Altman would thank him for it.
Chapter One
Liv Altman dragged her hands through her blonde hair, unseating a clip in the process, and looked up from her desk at the stubborn, interfering woman in front of her. “I don’t know what you have in mind, Jen, but I already have a secretary.”
“You don’t have a secretary. You have a doddering old maiden aunt who likes to reorganize an obsolete Rolodex and needs to call the helpline every time she wants to turn on her computer.”
“Cecily’s not my aunt.” Liv didn’t bother to deny the rest of the charges since they were, after all, true. And Jen, her oldest friend and current human resources representative, would be quick to point it out.
“Well, you treat her like your aunt. She’s an employee, Livvie. You can fire her.”
If Liv didn’t love this woman who was like a sister to her, she’d hate her. Jenny Sealy had been bossing her around since they’d met in the first grade, back home in Northwest Detroit. Twenty years later, in Manhattan, she was still at it. An MBA along the way only enabled Jen to do it more efficiently.
“When have I ever steered you wrong?” She added quickly, “Career wise?”
“I can’t fire Cecily. She’s a sweet old lady.”
“She’s done something with her computer. It sends me fake messages from you that blow up into obscene cartoons when I open them. Then IT sends me a memo saying I’m violating policy. She’s a disaster.”
“How do you know she did it?”
“IT knows these things. You of all people should get that. You went to MIT, not me.”
“Maybe it’s a bug in her computer.”
“I had them check on it. It’s not the computer. It’s her. And she’s so muddled. If you really won’t fire her—and how did I know you were going to say that?—then promote her instead.”
“That makes a lot of sense.”
“It’s done in corporate America all the time.”
“Is that how you plan on making it up the corporate ladder?”
“Ouch,” Jen deadpanned, not letting the insult stop her. “Peterson is looking for a new secretary and he does absolutely nothing. I’m not even sure he has a computer. She’ll get more money working for somebody higher up the chain and will have to do even less actual work.”