To read a file off-site, you had to be physically in the office and check out the file with your personal security code and a random nine-digit number from one of three tokens that were forever getting lost in drawers or behind computers or in the trash cans.
Plus, the tokens were locked up at night, or they were supposed to be. Most of the time, at least one was missing. A partner had to open the safe to get them out again every morning.
It was a huge pain in the butt.
The stupid little things were constantly getting lost. Josie had threatened to put bike flags on them, but for the time being, they were just little plastic things about the size of a thumb drive that flashed a long, long number for a few seconds before they blinked and changed again and again and again.
Rox had heard that the partners had tried to have the security software’s firewall altered so that partners could remotely access any file—just the partners, not the peons—but the security firm wouldn’t do it.
Cash turned off the road and halted in front of a gate. He pushed a button, and the black bars slid aside.
The private development looked very high-end, far beyond what Rox could have even imagined.
Behind the gate, the asphalt road wound up and between the hills. Lush autumnal wildflowers waved on the hillsides.
This expanse of unused land bordered on obscene in the space-hungry city.
Rox glanced over at him, but Cash seemed more intent on driving and chewing on his lower lip, still considering their options for how to outfox Monty. “There’s something more to this.”
“Yeah. It’s weird, right?”
He nodded. “Certainly.”
And he kept driving, up the hill, around the back, winding up more hills, and switchbacks up to a house that spread around a cobblestoned courtyard with a fountain at the center.
Holy Mary, Mother of God.
Rox tried not to look like a gaping redneck.
He pushed another button near the rearview mirror, and a garage door over on the other side of the fountain retracted. After he parked inside, the garage door behind them still gaped open.
Rox stepped out of the car, walking away from Midnight’s constant yowling, and looked out of the garage door. Mountains flowed away from his house, and the air smelled so much fresher than in downtown L.A. The cool breeze of fresh water mist wafted from the fountain.
His house was on the highest hill, and it was the biggest.“Wow.”
“Wow, what?” Cash said, getting out from behind the wheel and opening the back door.
“I—” What should she say? That she was really flabbergasted by how much money he must have spent on his house? “You have a beautiful home.”
He dropped one eyebrow at her. “Perhaps the next time you’re homeless, you’ll remember that.”
Touché.
He stooped into the back of the car and came up with two cat carriers. “I’ll go back for the other one. Come on. I’ll show you to your room.”
They walked in the side door, which didn’t open into a kitchen like Rox would have expected but to a living room decorated in Spanish Colonial. Dark, exposed beams lined the white plaster ceiling. White and pale gold furniture was grouped around dark wood tables. Honey-colored walls looked like a sunset was glowing on them. Spanish-style art was framed on the walls, vibrant still-life paintings of pots and landscapes.
Brick red, lush draperies framed huge French doors that opened onto a balcony that overlooked the ocean.
The ocean?
It was so much cooler up here in the hills that the doors stood open. A light breeze drifted through the mountains and ruffled her hair, carrying the freshness of the sea far below, cooling her nose and bringing the taste of salt to the back of her tongue. She hadn’t realized that they had driven up the back of the highest hill, that Cash’s enormous house perched on the very top of the development, or that they were so near the sea. Sunlight glittered on the rippled wave tops far below.
Cash strode over and started closing the doors. “We’ll turn the air conditioning on.”
“I don’t think they’d go out there,” Rox said. “They’re all pretty old and lazy.”
“The coyotes might come in after them.”
