Safeword Quinacridone (45 page)

She smiled, but knew it was a sad smile. “I don’t think revenge is healthy. Part of me wants to cheer you on but a bigger part knows this is wrong and we should let the lawyers and PR people handle it. You told me you were a white-hat hacker but this doesn’t feel very white-hat.”

He moved his head to the side and back, once. “Technically, it fits the definition. I don’t plan to damage anything while I’m in there, and I’ll be using the information to protect my girlfriend and myself. I’m not stealing funds; I’m just looking at where they’ve been spent. I won’t damage her computer as I’m only looking to see what she’s up to so I’ll know our most advantageous plan of action, and how best to react to minimize the damage she’s created and is likely still planning to create.”

He rested his hands on the tops of her thighs and continued. “Because I assume she’ll wait until the press and public forget this and move onto something else, then she’ll sell the video so we have to go through it all over again.”

She continued her hard look, not convinced by his arguments, and he sighed. “You’re right, it’s in a gray area between white and dark, but I’m doing it to protect us, more than
for
vengeance. Any decisions concerning a reprisal will come
later
. R
ight now my focus is damage control. I’ve been through this enough that I couldn’t care less what the public thinks, but I hate seeing you this upset and I’ll do whatever I can to keep your embarrassment around this to a minimum.”

“If we’re true partners then you won’t do anything without talking to me first and getting my agreement.” She leaned forward to give him a peck on the lips. “No revenge, just information gathering.”

He stood, walked to his desk, and propped against it as he silently deliberated. Cara assumed he was deciding how much he’d agree to, and had to suppress a smile when he finally said, “I’ll promise no action beyond data acquisition without telling you first and hearing your input, but I won’t promise to refrain from something you object to. I
will
promise my motives won’t be for revenge, but to deliver a warning of what happens to people who attack the woman I love.”

Further argument was futile, as this was likely the best she’d get out of him until he had more information. She narrowed her eyes and looked at him a few moments. “That’ll work for now, but if you decide on a tactic I don’t agree with be prepared to have a major fight.”

His grin was relaxed this time, happy. “I’d expect nothing else from the woman who stole my heart. I love you Cara, don’t be upset with me for taking actions to make sure this doesn’t happen again.”

She rolled her eyes. “Hopefully no one else has a video of me in compromising positions.”

He stepped closer and reached for her hands, pulling her up to him, and his warmth enveloped her. He might not be able to fistfight someone to protect her, or pick her up and carry her like Rhett Butler toting Scarlet up the steps, but the havoc he could create with his hacking skills was downright scary. Wanting to lighten their conversation she chuckled and said, “Tricia says if I had to have naked photos splashed to the world of my being ass-fucked, these were good pictures and it could’ve been worse.”

He laughed. “I can just hear her saying it, too. She broke the ice for me once in a very tense company meeting after one of my tabloid embarrassments. And she’s right, you know. You’re beautiful in those pictures. I wonder how many people are jacking off to them, either imagining they’re you, or imagining they’re doing you.” He hugged her even tighter. “Too bad for them, they can’t have you unless I give the okay. I get all of this wonderful sexiness
and
the love of my life, all the time. God Cara, I love you so much.”

He pulled away to look at her and the tension in her belly melted. She’d suck it up and deal with her family and friends, but she suddenly didn’t give a flying fuck what the rest of the world thought. Travis was right; they needed to do something spectacular. The best revenge was living well. And happy.

“I love you, too. Have you figured out what we’re doing this weekend? I need to know so I can call Jacob and figure out what to wear.”

Chapter Thirty

He didn’t want her to go with him Thursday, and said he’d need around four hours to drive down and back plus an hour or so for research. He’d bought throw-away phones, carrying one and leaving the other with her since she wanted to know when he was finished and safely heading home.

Cara was a nervous wreck until she heard from him. She killed time doing yoga in the backyard until a helicopter made an appearance and she escaped inside, cringing at thoughts of what they’d print under a picture of her in downward dog.

When Travis finally called he only reported he’d had success, as he’d been wary of encrypting the phones and drawing attention to them. He’d even gone so far as to take the SIM card out of the router in his car, and disconnect the power.

She wanted to wait for him in the garage but curbed her anxiety and instead busied herself by setting the table and warming the dinner Debbie had made.

As they sat down to broiled fish, wild rice, roasted root vegetables, and a mixed fruit compote; she reined in her tongue and didn’t immediately give him the third degree.

He placed a spiral notebook on the table beside him but didn’t open it until he’d heard how her afternoon
had
gone and given her a brief rundown of his. He waved towards the tablet and said, “All information gathered from hacking will go here. Nothing in email, text, or on any networked computer.”

He opened and turned it towards her, talking as she looked through the data he’d gathered.

“They paid her one hundred thousand dollars and, other than what appears to be a shoe and clothing spree, the entire amount is still in her account. I hacked into the tabloid’s servers and downloaded around fifty gig of email and memos, and found the google login they use to share documents so I can keep an eye on future articles. Sloppy of them, but I’m not complaining.”

He pulled two thumb drives from his pocket and placed it on the table beside the notebook. “I’ll go through them later on the playroom unit, since it isn’t hooked to the ‘net. We’ll keep all documentation in the downstairs safe; it’s hidden well enough I don’t believe anyone will find it even with a warrant.”

“If you’re so sure no one’ll catch you hacking, why are you being so careful — the throw away phones, keeping this in the safe, and using only the playroom computer?”

“If I decide to retaliate they’ll know it’s me, even if they can’t prove it. With only circumstantial evidence I doubt a judge will agree to enough probable cause for a search warrant, but I’m making sure they won’t find proof just in case.”

“Okay, so what do we know?”

“Some of this comes from what I found when I hacked her computer, the rest I discovered tonight. The jock’s name is David Calloway, and he’s Connie’s stepbrother. It sounds like they had a sexual relationship as teens and it turned into a fuck-buddy agreement in their twenties. David’s a few years older than Connie, and she’d go to his apartment to hang out when she was still living at home and he’d moved out after graduating college.”

He took a bite, and circled his hand on the tablecloth, looking up in obvious discomfort to say, “From what I can tell, I believe he’d called her and invited her over one evening
,
but she had plans and told him she couldn’t come. He went to a club and found someone else, and brought her back to his apartment. Connie had a key and came waltzing in when her date didn’t work out, but found him in delicto flagrante with another woman.”

Cara’s memory instantly supplied a replay — a very pissed-off woman barging in on them, screaming terrible things. Cara had felt awful and had apologized, saying, “He told me he was single. If I’d known he was in a relationship I’d have never gone home with him.” She’d donned the minimum amount of clothes necessary to flee to her car without being arrested
, and t
he girl had called her all sorts of horrid names with the guy looking helplessly at Cara and saying over and over she wasn’t his girlfriend but his sister, he hadn’t lied, and he was sorry for this.

Now, she looked at Travis and said, “I remember now. A young woman storming in, my thinking they were in a relationship, and him telling me not to worry about it because she was his sister and being unreasonable. But she didn’t act like a sister and I didn’t know who to believe or what to think. She called me horrible names.”

“Yes, that’s it. I found the video on her hard drive and have a copy if you’d like to see. There are also videos of Connie and David having sex, and of David with other women. Based on a voice mail left on Connie’s phone, it appears Connie had a hidden camera in his apartment allowing her to keep tabs on him. He had no idea, but figured it out when the pictures went public.”

“What’s he doing now? Is he in a relationship? I can’t imagine this is easy for him, either.”

“He’s apparently happily married with a baby on the way, and Connie doesn’t care that the video caused problems in his marriage.”

“So, legally, if David and I press charges she’d get in trouble for taping us. We weren’t in public, and had a reasonable expectation of privacy. Neither of us consented.”

He traced circles on the tablecloth again, not looking at her as he said, “That’s one possible way to handle her.”

“What would be your way?”

His hand stilled and he looked up, decisively meeting her gaze. “I’d like to empty her account, making it look like she authorized a transfer to an offshore fund so the bank won’t be required to reimburse. In ten or so years, when the statute of limitations runs out, David’s child, or children, will receive a trust fund for whatever the account has accrued, with stipulations the money is used for college tuition. Once a degree’s acquired remaining monies can go towards a down payment on a house.”

“And...”

He closed his eyes and smiled affectionately, “You know me so well.” He opened them, took a breath, and plunged. “I want to destroy her hard drives. All of them. Spectacularly so. And I want to grab still shots from the videos of her having sex with David, but crop him out so he isn’t recognizable, upload it to a website, and send the URL to everyone in her email contacts list. I might even edit some of the video,
fuzzing him out and
altering his voice to be sure no one’ll know it’s him.”

“And...”

“I need to make an example of the tabloid as a company, as well as the people directly responsible. I believe I can handle the corporation through the legal system, though I’ve discovered the firm they lease office space from is having cash flow issues so I may consider buying the building. I could have a lot of fun with them as their landlord.”

“Connie will know you hacked her computer if you point all her friends and family to the pictures and video.”

“Of course, but she won’t be able to prove it. The email will come from her account and her IP address. Not mine.”

“She’ll know you transferred her money offshore, too.”

“Yep.”

“I think you’re playing with fire.”

“And you’re worried it’ll backfire and we’ll get burned?”

“That, but I also worry we’ll spend too much time and energy on revenge instead of enjoying our life.”

“Do you know why the worst of the stories about me stopped five years ago?”

She shook her head, almost afraid of what he’d say
,
but needing to hear.

“Two tabloids primarily reported the sleaziest gossip, and I’m certain they fabricated most of the rumors. They could report something totally innocent and make me sound like the scum of the earth. They harassed me, my friends, and all of the girls I was seen with in public. Instead of targeting the companies, as I’d done in the beginning, I went after the men behind the harassment. One was quite rich
,
and I re-arranged his investments, making it appear as if he used insider information to trade, and arranged for one of the affected corporations to file a report with the SEC.”

He paused, shrugged. “He managed to stay out of jail, but barely. Six weeks after his legal troubles ended, I fiddled with his portfolio again but this time I positioned him in futures. He was on vacation
,
and by the time he came home his fourteen million was worth less than four thousand.”

“Have I mentioned lately how scary you are? How’d you get in a second time, didn’t he establish safeguards to make sure you couldn’t do it again?”

“Why yes, he did. He changed investment companies and was assured their systems were safe. Unfortunately for him, I wrote the security software the brokerage utilized.” He shrugged. “I made a side door and was able to get in and out without leaving a trace. I even worked it so the changes originated from the IP address of his vacation rental home.”

“And the other man?”

“I found footage of him from his college days, lobbying hard to keep the Ivy League school he attended from admitting more than the handful of black students already enrolled. He called them animals, said they belonged in the jungle and not the classroom — it was a horribly damning video. Besides making the clip available online and assuring everyone in the industry saw it, I also included copies of his embarrassingly low grades and his expulsion letter. It seems he was caught with drugs on campus on more than one occasion.”