Before I could get the word out, he pulled me to him and kissed me.
21
The kiss waslong and deep and sent shivers down my spine, which had nothing to do with the frigid temperatures. It was everything I had wanted after the reunion, and more. Too bad Pete proved time and time again he was such a closed-minded jerk, because a huge part of me felt like I could melt in his arms and remain in the moment forever. But then, before I gave in to the warm feeling, I came to my senses.
“Stop!” I pushed him away with all my might. “What do you think you are doing?”
He scratched his head and, with an impish grin, said, “Playing canasta?”
“Not funny, Ennis. Does it look like I’m laughing?”
“Waverly.” This time his voice was soft, almost tender. He reached for my arm, but I wasn’t about to be fooled again by his phony kindness. I jerked away from his touch and kept my hands up defensively.
“Don’tWaverlyme! You made your feelings crystal clear. Nothing has changed. I don’t need or want your sympathy now.”
“Let me explain.”
“No! There’s nothing to say. Don’t be fooled. Just because I accepted your help once, I’m no damsel in distress! I don’t need a white knight to swoop in and save me. I’ve been on my own for a long time. I’m capable, strong, and self-sufficient. I’m the furthest thing from one of the desperate, lonely hearts you spoke about inside.”
With a grave expression, he said, “I never implied you were like any of those ladies.”
“It doesn’t matter.” I forced a smile. “For the record, Jamie is single. Maybe she’d be more your speed. She certainly seemed to be into you. I saw her drooling over you like you were a medium rare porterhouse steak served on a silver platter.” I let my shoulders slump. “I don’t need to tell you, though. You saw for yourself and seemed to enjoy eating up her attention.”
He closed his eyes for a split second. Then he ran his fingers over his face. His voice was husky. “Waverly, I’m not interested in her.”
“Whatever. I don’t care. I’ve been out here far too long. I have to go back inside and face the music. I have to get back to work and try to help sort this mess out.” I pointed to Detective Sanchez, who was approaching. “And you and your partner need to help figure out how we can get our money back.”
I turned and walked back into the building. I didn’t expect Pete to try to stop me, but I won’t lie. I was devastated he didn’t.
The next severaldays and nights passed in a blur. Sydney and I somehow managed to keep our day-to-day tasks running while speaking with the police, the FBI, insurance brokers, banks, and a host of other entities. I was a bundle of nervous energy. I constantly felt as if I was crawling out of my skin. I couldn’t sleep at all. The only thing that soothed me a little was running on the treadmill. I didn’t have to ask to know Syd wasn’t coping much better.
“Hey,” I said as I poked my head in Sydney’s office. It was Thursday, late afternoon, and she had a massive bag of chips on her desk. She was dipping five at a time into a gigantic tub of jalapeño hummus. Just the sight made me gag.
“How can you eat at a time like this?” I asked. Ever since the incident, I struggled to swallow food. I survived solely on coffee, white wine, and tomato soup.
“I can’t handle the stress,” Sydney said between bites. “If something doesn’t give soon, you’ll vanish into thin air, and I won’t be able to fit through the door.”
I couldn’t help but laugh.
“Have you made any headway with the banks?”
She frowned. “Not really. They were able to reclaim some of the funds, but we’re number eight in line. I think they may end up doing an allocation among all those affected. If so, and we get extremely lucky, maybe we’ll get ten-thousand back.”
“Oh man.”
She pushed her snack to the side of her desk, and I sat down opposite her. “How is the new firewall coming?” she asked.
“Pretty good.” I bit the corner of my lip. After dragging his feet for months, Charles authorized the project immediately after we met with the police. Fueled by guilt, I was moving heaven and earth to implement the updates as soon as possible.
The county investigator Detective Lombardi was nice but not much help. She didn’t hold a candle to the NYPD Cyber Crime Inspector who went above and beyond the call of duty as a personal favor to Pete. After I identified where the original email came from, by running an IP address search, the inspector tried to further trace the devices and exact locations of those involved in an unsuccessful attempt to help recoup some of the lost money.
The only bright side, as far as I was concerned, was the scammer didn’t gain access to the network or Sydney’s email account. They spoofed her. The downside was that the thieves were able to identify us as a target after gaining knowledge of our business practices when incompetent Kimmie logged into her work webmail on a public computer at a hotel in the Caribbean and forgot to log out. I have since changed the setting to prevent this from happening again. I must admit I was glad Jamie wasn’t to blame because I couldn’t handle having another reason to be annoyed at the woman. I struggled to look at her without seeing her throwing herself at Pete.
I twisted my hair into a high ponytail. “I expect to be finished installing the firewall by tomorrow, which is perfect timing for Charles to hand me my walking papers before the weekend.”
Sydney let out a deep breath. “You know he’s not going to do any such thing.”
I stared at her. “How can you be so confident? He’d be completely within his right to fire us all.”
