The Harder They Fall (9 page)

Chapter
Eleven

Blaine
couldn’t shake the feeling he still wasn’t in the clear where Charlene was
concerned, even after he spent the rest of the weekend with Colleen, and she
told him she’d received no further calls or emails from her aunt about dating
him. It nagged at him that Charlene would call or email Colleen about him in
the first place.

The
woman was the VP of the United States, for heaven’s sake. Why would she still
hold a grudge over a college fling that had occurred more than twenty years
ago? Talk about petty and vindictive. No wonder Blake Harrison had chosen her
as his running mate. The two were alike and deserved each other.

Eight
days after Colleen had pushed his permits through to committee, he received an
email from her that afternoon saying she’d just heard they were approved. She
was in a meeting but promised to call him later. Blaine was so relieved, but
still didn’t make a move to call Townsend until he received the official email
an hour later from the AFSR, confirming he could begin construction.

Even
though he’d submitted all the blueprints and project notes along with the
application for the permits, there were still more forms to fill out. After a
quick glance at them, Blaine realized Townsend could take care of ninety
percent of them, so he shot the man a quick email and attached the one he’d
received from the AFSR.

Townsend
emailed him back within ten minutes and told him he’d take care of it, then
asked when Blaine wanted to break ground. Blaine told him Monday morning would
be great, and Townsend said he’d have everything ready.

Blaine
set his email indicator to “Busy” so he could lean back in his chair, put his
shoes up on the desk, and bask in the glow for a few moments. It was over! He’d
break ground next week, Charlene hadn’t tried to stop him, and he was dating a
woman who made him happier than anyone had so far.

He
frowned at the realization he enjoyed Colleen so much. Was he too emotionally
involved with this woman, after only a couple of weeks? Blaine grinned when he
heard Ace’s voice in his head, telling him his time was coming. He hated to
differ with his friend, but this was
still
only a casual thing.

They
had a lot of fun together, and she was incredible in bed. She was easy to be
with and talk to, and she never made demands on his time or asked where this
was going. He’d mentioned Kane’s and Julianne’s wedding coming up at the end of
April, and she hadn’t committed to going with him one way or the other. She
also hadn’t started talking about weddings, or how much she couldn’t wait to
have her own.

On
the surface, she was his ideal woman. She was fine with their arrangement, and
wasn’t seeing anyone else. He wasn’t either. He never did that, regardless, and
she’d told him she didn’t either. They had a good time with each other, and she
hadn’t made any noises about moving into his apartment permanently. She had
some clothes and personal items in the guest suite, but that was it.

In
fact, it was Blaine who had asked if she was staying over past Sunday
afternoon, both weekends now. That was a first for him. He usually had to make
excuses when a woman asked him if she could stay during the week, but Colleen
hadn’t even broached the subject. She was more detached than he was used to.

Was
that what bothered him? The fact that she wasn’t falling all over him, becoming
clingy, or bringing up the question of how long-term their relationship was? He
expected it now, and to find someone who didn’t do all that made him question
how into him she was.

This is about your ego, dude!

Blaine
rose from his desk and walked over to the wall of windows. Ace would laugh at
him if he could hear this exchange in Blaine’s mind right now. Imagine Blaine
Parker conflicted over how a woman feels about him. And imagine Blaine Parker
feeling neglected because a woman he was dating wasn’t pushing for a long-term
commitment, two weeks in.

He
needed this project to begin so he’d have something concrete to focus on, pun
intended. It would keep him busier than usual, and he’d be up on the surface
nearly every day. That meant he might not have as much time for Colleen.

Did
that bother him, too? Would it bother
her
at all?

Blaine
shook his head and walked away from the windows. He sat down at his desk again
and got to work on his project notes. Monday would come quickly, and he needed
to be ready.

****

Blaine
spent the following weekend with Colleen again, and everything was so
comfortable and easy that he kept waiting for the other shoe to drop. He
couldn’t understand why it was so difficult for him to simply accept this
relationship as it was, instead of expecting it to mirror those from his past.
This woman had crawled so far under his skin already, and he wasn’t used to
that. He liked it, but he had no frame of reference for it.

On
Monday, Colleen asked if she could be at the ground-breaking ceremony, and
while Blaine was thrilled she asked, he also had to make sure it wouldn’t be
seen as a conflict of interest by her boss or her aunt. She assured him it
wouldn’t be viewed that way, so Blaine was more than happy to let her come with
him to the surface.

The
ground-breaking went off without a hitch, and he and Colleen stuck around for
about an hour to drink champagne and watch the equipment that had been
painstakingly brought up through the airlock begin digging. That feat in and of
itself had given him a couple of sleepless nights.

He
knew the equipment existed, and where it was stored, but finding people willing
to move the diggers had given Townsend a headache. Anything that gave Townsend
a headache from this point on would also give Blaine one.

Blaine
wanted to stay longer, but he had a lot of work waiting underground for him,
and his laptop was refusing to pick up a Wi-Fi signal today. He left everything
in Townsend’s capable hands and descended through the airlock with Colleen.

She
had her own job to return to, so Blaine told her he’d speak with her later.
Then he returned to his office. As soon as he had his laptop connected to the
Internet again, he found an email that made his blood run cold.

Blaine
read it three times, not wanting to believe it. He had already missed six calls
from various Weathermen, because the email had gone out to all of them. It
originated from the Assistant Director of HCS, and had been sent while Blaine was
topside.

He
called Ace first. “What the fuck? Is this true?”

“Barclay
and I both have been trying to call Brad since we got the email. We were told
he’s in meetings all day and can’t be disturbed. Would have been nice if he’d
sent the fucking thing on a day when he could speak with us.”

“Sam
Preston is one of the fucking hackers, Ace. How in the hell did he get past
enough people at HCS to get in front of Brad Sykes? He’s the fucking Assistant
Director over there, for fuck’s sake!”

“Yeah.
I know.”

“So
he gets a free pass because he has
dirt
on us? What dirt? The guy worked for Oliver for years. If he had dirt on us he
could have sold it to any number of rag mags over the past eight years. He
doesn’t have shit on us. I’d bet all the money I’m spending to rebuild my
company on the surface right now against that. He’s only trying to avoid jail
time.”

“I
agree with you. All of us agree with you. But until we talk to Brad and find
out what happened, we can’t do shit.”

“Where
is he? Where is Sam right now? Where was he hiding all this time? How the hell
did he get into HCS?”

“We
don’t know any of that yet, Blaine.”

Blaine
slammed his fist on the desk and immediately wished he hadn’t. Breaking a bone
or two in his hand wouldn’t solve this. “This is such fucking bullshit.”

“I
agree. I promise you as soon as Barclay or I hear from him, we will let the
rest know. We’ll push to set up a call with everyone so he can tell all of us
what the fuck is going on.”

A
nasty chill moved down Blaine’s spine. “You know he’s pushing for the open
Cabinet position on Charlene’s staff, right?”

“Brad
is?”

“Well,
they were dating for a while. And now the rumors are that he wants to leverage
that to get on her staff.”

Ace
didn’t say anything for a couple of seconds, and when he spoke again, his voice
held a note of caution. “Blaine, are you suggesting the VP is somehow involved
in this?”

“No.
I’m not saying that. Especially not over an open phone line. I’m saying they
know each other very well, and now suddenly out of the blue, Sam Preston
surfaces again, and he has somehow bypassed the US Marshals and is talking to
the AD at HCS.”

“This
won’t play out well for us no matter what’s going on behind the scenes.”

“No
shit.”

“All
right. We’ll have to wait, either way.”

“Why
did he send the email if he wasn’t prepared to talk to us today?”

“I
was wondering that myself.”

“This
is bullshit.” Blaine didn’t trust Brad. He’d been with HCS longer than Dave
Perry had worked for them, and his history included too many questionable
actions over the years.

“We
won’t know the answers to anything until he calls one of us back.”

Blaine
knew Ace was right, but he didn’t like this. It was underhanded and sneaky, and
it made everything they’d done up until now seem like a fucking waste of time.

In
the articles Julianne had written for
Underground
Technology Update
, she had made sure Sam Preston’s name was included as the
missing hacker. They had all agreed they wanted the public to know his name,
believing that
someone
knew where he
was, and would out him.

So
how the hell had
this
happened? If
one of the known hackers could get past everyone at HCS and get in front of the
AD, why the fuck had they gone to so much trouble to track down all these
people? Why had they pushed Dave into doing the right thing? Why had they done
everything they’d done for the past eight years? What the hell did this really
mean?

Ace
was still waiting for him to respond. All Blaine wanted now was to get off the
phone. “Thanks, Ace. I’ll try to concentrate on work and wait with everyone
else.”

“I
do understand. We’re all very pissed off right now.”

After
Blaine got off the call, he considered talking to Colleen about this, but then
realized that would place her in a tenuous position. If her aunt was somehow
involved, she was better off not knowing, especially since she was linked in
the tabloids with Blaine. Their pictures were online every day. It was no
secret to anyone now that they were dating.

Blaine
sat down and put his head in his hands. What a fucked up mess. They’d all
dreamed of the day this would happen, and now that it had, things were still in
chaos. That was life, but this was a twist no one would have anticipated. It
cast more doubt on all of them, which none of them needed at this point.

They’d
fought against bad press for over a year before Dave finally helped them shut
down The Madeline Project. If it started up again, they’d have another PR mess
on their hands. Blaine wished Colleen were here right now. He needed to hold
her lush body and inhale her sweet scent.

That
surprised him more than anything. That he’d want to turn to her at a time like
this for comfort. Was it possible he was falling for this girl? Were Ace and
others right? Would this happen for him, too?

He
sat back in his chair and let that possibility roll around in his mind. It was
a lot pleasanter thinking about Colleen than fuming over the realization that
Sam and Brad might be in cahoots. Or worse yet, imagining Sam, Brad, and
Charlene conspiring.

Blaine
had never been one to picture his ideal woman. He didn’t have someone in mind
who would encompass all the things he wanted in a relationship. He preferred to
take them each at face value, and enjoy the unique aspects of them until the
woman grew tired of him, or became too clingy and demanding. Or until it was obvious
she only wanted him for what he could give her in terms of material possessions
and social standing.

Colleen
didn’t care about any of those things. She certainly didn’t need the money, and
she didn’t bask in the glory of everyone knowing who she was. She’d never
played up the fact she was the VP’s niece, and if anything, she wanted to avoid
the press. She enjoyed his company, period.

But
did he need more from her? Did he
want
more? And if so, where the hell had that desire come from? Blaine grinned. He
liked this feeling. All of it, from the fuzzy warmth coursing through his
veins, to the way he found himself wanting to call her, just to hear her voice.
It was nice. It was comfortable. It was
intimate
,
and not only in a sexual way. It evoked images of curling up in front of a
fire, cuddling for the sake of closeness, not as a prelude to sex.

His
adult relationships had always included sex, but not a great deal of intimacy.
He avoided it on purpose. There was too much of an emotional stake if you
allowed things to reach that stage. Refusing to let his investment in any
relationship reach that point had been the pivotal reason most of them had
ended. He knew that, but up until now, it had never bothered him.