“Fine. But do you know who it was?”
“So your email says that you needed to know about market elasticity, right?”
“Even from two hundred miles away, you’re still a dork.”
“Don’t bite the dork that helps you with your homework.”
“Yeah, yeah.”
We spoke for another twenty minutes before I hung up then stared at the phone for a long time trying to process the conversation…the news of Cyndi’s failed marriage, the crazy events of the day in general. My head hurt, but I had hours of work of ahead of me yet.
I called my Internet security guy and made one other phone call to my information guy. I had to find out what April Weiss was up to—what made her tick, and why she would be motivated to record herself having sex and then upload it to the Internet. And if she had dirt on me, was she the type of person who would use it?
So I asked him to gather information on her. I had to make sure I had dirt in return. Because I was the type of person who would use it to get what I wanted. And what I really wanted was her tempting, mouth-watering body out of my radius. But since I couldn’t have that—yet—I needed leverage. Just in case.
No hookup—not even a damn hot one—was worth this shit. Or that was what I kept telling myself.
At least my last sexual encounter before this newly established period of abstention had been a damn fucking hot one. After she was gone, I’d take time to savor the memory. Until then, I had to shove it out of my mind and not dwell on it.
In the meantime, I could enjoy myself by making her life a living hell.
Chapter 5
April
I woke up the next day amid a pile of shopping bags from my late-night shopping spree. Sid, who had gone to sleep before I’d gotten home—as usual—and arisen long before me—also not unusual—had not been apprised of the complications in the viral video situation.
When I finally woke up, she was eager for me to fill her in.
“No way… he knew it was you?”
I sighed. “He saw my tat and recognized it from the video.”
Sid shook her head. “Girl, that is one mistake that has come back to bite you in the hiney—literally—and who knows when it will happen again?”
“Yeah, yeah, I’ll get the laser thingy done when I have time. I have to psyche myself up for it.”
Sid waved a hand toward all the shopping bag debris. “So what’s all this? Retail therapy?”
“Hah, no. These are new clothes—all very long shirts and sweaters that won’t ride up in the back and a couple of body suits. I’m not taking any chances. It’s bad enough that Jordan knows it’s me and is still, for some reason, allowing me to work there. I’m sure if anyone else found out, there would be hell to pay.”
“But the mean girls know it’s you, right? Do you think any of them will say anything?”
I shook my head. “Cari told me she has my back.”
Sid frowned. “Do you think…did anyone else have your phone this weekend besides you?”
“No way. I may be an idiot, but even I know not to give someone access to my phone. I don’t even give you access to my phone.”
“Well, that’s good to know. They are not nice. Especially Cari—that chick is like Regina George.”
“Who?”
Sid rolled her eyes. “You need to see more movies, Apes. You read too much.”
“There’s no such thing as reading too much!”
“Anyway…Regina George was the head of the mean girls in the Mean Girls movie. Cari reminds me of her.”
I got up and started pulling tags off my new clothes, grabbing the trashcan to toss them into.
Sid rubbed her eyebrow thoughtfully. “After class, I spent a big part of the afternoon rewatching that fracking video.”
I scrunched my brows together. “Why? Do you really need the sex education that badly?”
She glared at me. “I was looking for clues…like I know how the officers figured out it was an employee in the video.”
“How?”
She went to her computer and cued up the horrid thing again. But instead of forcing me to watch it, she froze the frame soon after it started. “See here? You set the phone to record after you took off your underwear, it looks like… and the phone is right next to this badge right here.”
I leaned in and my eyes followed where she was pointing.
Holy. Shit. She was right. Sure as anything, that was a Draco badge. The kind we all used to get into the building and move around anywhere on the campus. It was tied to the company’s security system. They required us to wear them in conjunction with our industry passes at the Con. I leaned in more closely to get a better look. If my name was on that thing…