The Harder They Fall (11 page)

“Of
course I am.”

He
pulled her close again. “Thank you for telling me what you did about your
aunt.”

“Thank
you for trusting me with what Brad sent to you. Funny, isn’t it? The way this
turned out?”

“You
mean because your aunt might be the one person who can fix all this?”

She
smiled. “Yeah. That’s exactly what I mean.”

He
kissed her neck. “If I hadn’t met you, I would have suspected she was involved,
like the rest of my friends do right now.”

She
moved away so she could look into his eyes. “Then I guess it’s a good thing we
met.”

He
gazed into her eyes for long moments, and Colleen held her breath. His
expression was so thoughtful and intense that she had the unmistakable feeling
something else was going on, but she didn’t know what.

“You
have no idea how glad I am we did.”

His
voice was soft, sexy, and it was difficult not to say the hell with a video
chat. She wanted to make love to him again in the worst way. “So am I. Let’s go
call your friends.”

A
quick shadow of what Colleen swore was disappointment crossed his face, but
then it was gone. She followed Blaine into his office.

Chapter
Thirteen

Blaine’s
head reeled from the look in Colleen’s eyes just now as he set up the video
call with the other Weathermen. This extraordinary woman was as into him as he
was into her. He’d bet a shitload of money on it. He wanted to talk about it.
He needed to man up and simply ask her, but this was too important to wait.
Unfortunately, dealing with this situation trumped discussing their feelings
for each other.

Once
the others were on the call, Blaine introduced them to Colleen, then brought
them up to speed on what she’d told him concerning her aunt and Brad. “I think
we need to seek VP O’Leary’s help with this.”

“Sounds
great in theory,” said Viggo. “But are you sure we have to tell her this soon?
No offence to you, Colleen, but wouldn’t it be better to do our own
investigation first?”

“I
don’t agree,” said Ace. “We don’t have time to look into this. If it gets out
to the press, we start all over again fighting rumors and lies.”

“I
have to agree with Ace,” said Emmett. “We’ve had our suspicions about Brad for
a while now. As far as I’m concerned, this solidifies them. He thinks because
he is who he is, he can send us an email like this and we’ll cower in the
corner, waiting for him to make the next move.”

“Exactly,”
said Kane. “Let’s get the jump on him and go above his head. He won’t expect
it.”

“But
it’s no secret that Colleen and Blaine are dating,” said Atticus. “Since Brad and
O’Leary have a history, he likely knows that Colleen is her niece, so he might
expect it.”

Blaine
swore mentally. Ace was the only person who knew about his past with Charlene,
but now he realized he might have to spill his guts to the others. “I don’t
think we should sit on this. Brad could go to the press at any time.”

“Sounds
like we might be split on this,” said Damien. “How many agree on waiting?”

Viggo,
Atticus, and Oliver were the only ones who wanted to wait.

“I’ve
known Sam for years,” said Oliver. “Let me send an email to Brad, asking to
speak with Sam. Maybe I can reason with him?”

“I
think that’s risky,” said Grayson. “We don’t know what history those two have
together, or what Sam has told him.”

“I
say we get in touch with O’Leary tonight,” said Dominic. “Why should we fuck
around with Brad
or
Sam? What the
hell have either of them done for us? Obviously they’re setting us up for
something big and bad. Let’s beat them at their own game before this hits the
media.”

“Colleen,”
said Addison, “can you reach your aunt tonight if we need you to?”

“I
can call her, yes. Whether she answers the phone or not is another matter. But
if I text her and tell her what’s happened, she’ll probably find a way to call
me back as soon as possible.”

“I
say we come up with a text message for Colleen to send,” said Barclay. “Right
now.”

“Are
you three okay with that?” asked Kane.

“All
right,” said Oliver. “Let’s try it this way.”

“I’ll
go with what the group wants,” said Atticus.

“I
will, too,” said Viggo, “but I’m also going to dig into this on my own. Any
objections?”

No
one had any, so they wordsmithed the text message until they came up with one
everyone could agree on. Colleen sent it, and then they waited. She felt awkward
sitting there, glancing at her phone every few seconds while the Weathermen
made small talk on their conference call. Apparently they intended to stay on
it until she heard from her aunt. Should she tell them it could take a few
hours? It might even take a few days.

So
much for sex with Blaine tonight. They could be here a while, and he looked
quite comfortable with his shoes up on the desk, leaning back in his chair so
far Colleen hoped he didn’t tip over.

She
rose with the excuse she needed to pee. After she spent a few minutes in the
bathroom to make it look good, she wandered back into the main area of the
apartment. She could hear Nick in the kitchen, cleaning up the remnants of
their dinner. Not wanting to disturb him, she went up the back stairs and into
the room that now contained at least half her clothes and personal items.

The
past three weeks had been so surreal, but at the same time, she’d enjoyed them
far more than she’d enjoyed anything in her life to date. Blaine was the
perfect man. He didn’t pressure her to spend every waking moment with him, yet
when they were together, he was totally focused on her.

He
was fantastic in bed, and he was easy to be with and talk to. She obviously
could trust him, and he hadn’t gone back on his word to her yet. She didn’t
expect him, too, either. She could tell from the way he and the other
Weathermen communicated with each other that all of them had integrity.

The
media stories had these men wrongly depicted. They weren’t criminals. They
hadn’t held the hackers hostage or duped the public for years about what was
really going on. If anything, it was the other way around.

Blaine’s
distracted manner this evening was unusual, but now she understood why.
Something was very wrong at HCS, and who knew where else? Her aunt had been
right to start an investigation. Colleen imagined her aunt was also very
grateful never to have become so entrenched with Brad Sykes that now she’d have
to make explanations.

She’d
dated him years ago, and that would likely resurface if whatever her aunt found
went public, but Colleen had seen Charlene O’Leary weather some nasty media
storms quite well over the years. She’d weather this one, too. As for the
rumors about Brad vying for the Cabinet position, Colleen did not believe her
aunt knew anything about that.

And
as for Sam Preston, she doubted he had anything of substance on the Weathermen.
Hadn’t Oliver said Sam had worked for him since before everyone moved
underground? And before that, he had worked for NSSL, like so many of the others
involved in ruining The Madeline Project. If anything, the Weathermen had more
dirt on the hackers, and on Dave Perry, than the public would ever know.

Colleen
frowned as she realized she was defending Blaine and his friends. She had it
bad for him. But did he feel the same way? He had given her some very curious
and heart-shattering looks earlier, but she was reluctant to allow hope to
build. She’d only be setting herself up for hurt. No. She needed to keep some
distance and let this relationship take its natural course.

Her
phone rang, startling her back to the present. She answered it as she made her
way back down to Blaine’s office, asking her aunt to hold on for a second so
she could put the phone on speaker.

“Are
all of them there?”

“No,
not in person. I’m in Blaine’s apartment. The others are on a video call with
him.”

“How
did you end up in Blaine’s apartment on a Monday night?”

Colleen
was nearly out of breath because she had run down the stairs. “Aunt Charlene,
can we discuss that part another time?” She burst into the office and laid the
phone on the desk in front of Blaine’s computer. He sat up straight, a question
in his eyes.

“I’m
putting the phone on speaker, all right?”

“Is
that her?” he mouthed.

Colleen
nodded, then pressed the button. “Can you hear me, Aunt Charlene?”

“Yes.”
She didn’t sound happy.
Tough shit.
“Hello, Blaine.”

“Um,
hi there, Char—Madame Vice President.” Blaine cut his gaze toward the monitor.
“The other Weathermen are on a video call. I think you know most of them.”

“I
know their names, at least. Hello, everyone. Here is what Colleen told me so
far.”

While
Colleen listened to her aunt reiterate the story, she studied Blaine’s profile.
He looked a bit uncomfortable, but not embarrassed or guilty. This was what
they all had wanted. She had put them in touch with her aunt. She only hoped it
would turn out the way they hoped.

“All
right,” said Charlene, once she’d finished telling them what she knew from
Colleen. “Here’s what I need from each of you. Blaine, will you take point on
this?”

“Okay.”
He gave Colleen a questioning look, but she merely shrugged.

“I
need each of you to put together as much detail as you can recall about
incidences involving Brad that made you suspicious of his activities at HCS.
I’m talking about events that called into question his ethics surrounding his
job duties, not his personal life. I can’t use any of that. Colleen said
several of you have reason to think he and Sam are working together. I need
more than assumptions.”

“I
can help you with that,” said Oliver. “I’ll pull the systems logs of everything
he did on his work machine since he began working for me. Do you want me to
email those to you via Blaine?”

“You
have those? That’s very helpful. No, I’ll give you an email address and you can
send those to me directly. Blaine, I’d like you to coordinate gathering the
rest of the info and then forward it to the same email address. Will
forty-eight hours be enough time for all of you to accomplish this? Colleen
said you expressed concern about this leaking to the media, and I agree. We
can’t let that happen.”

The
Weathermen all agreed forty-eight hours was plenty of time. Charlene gave them
the email Blaine and Oliver would use, and then she asked her niece to take her
off speaker and continue the conversation in private.

Colleen’s
face burned with embarrassment at being singled out like that. She shot Blaine
an apologetic look, then took the phone out into the hall.

“Don’t
ever
do that to me again.”

Colleen
was pissed off at her aunt’s condescending tone. “What exactly did I do wrong?”

“You
ambushed me into speaking with them as a group.”

“
No
, that’s why I texted you first. To
give you the choice.”

“Colleen,
I have a history with Blaine. That was very uncomfortable for me.”

Colleen
stopped herself from confessing she knew her aunt’s history with Blaine. She
had promised him she wouldn’t say anything. “If it made you uncomfortable to
speak with him, why did you ask him to coordinate everything?”

“Because
he’s the only one I know that well.”

“Is
that why you objected to my dating him? Because you have a history with him?”

She
heard her aunt’s sigh. “I don’t object to it. I merely don’t want to see you
hurt.”

“You
said some pretty rotten things about all of them to me. Have you changed your
mind? Do you suddenly trust them all now?”

“Why
are you calling me out like this?”

“Because
I can’t help wondering why you suddenly don’t view them each as evil on two
legs. Is it because you now realize they can help your investigation?”

Colleen
counted five seconds of silence, but knew she hadn’t lost the call. She could
hear her aunt breathing.

“You
don’t fully understand my situation. I have a history with Brad, too. It wasn’t
fun for me to find out he’s been abusing his power at HCS for years. I also
have special interest groups breathing down my neck over everything connected
to The Madeline Project, from finding the server on which its stored and
blowing it up, all the way to keeping everyone alive underground instead of
letting them rebuild the surface.”

“We
can’t do that. Ask Oliver about—”

“I
know all about the oxygen issues, but a lot of people still don’t believe
that’s true.”

“I
believe it. I’ve seen the data. I’ve been on the surface. The air is different.
It’s thin.”

Colleen
heard voices in the background. “I have to go. I’m not blowing you off. I
really do have to get off the call.”

“Okay,
but I need to know if you trust them now.”

“Why
is that so important to you?”

“Because
I don’t want to find out you’re using them. I like Blaine. I want him to be
able to trust
me
.”

“Don’t
fall for him, Colleen. It won’t work.”

“Just
because it didn’t work for you, doesn’t mean it can’t work for me.” That was a
low blow, but she wasn’t going to discuss her feelings for Blaine with her
aunt. “Do you trust them, Aunt Charlene? Yes or no?”

“Yes.
I trust them, but only because you do. I do hope we don’t both regret that one
day.”

The
call disconnected, and Colleen stared at the phone for long moments, playing
the conversation over in her head. She hoped she wouldn’t have reason to regret
her decision, either, because one thing was suddenly crystal clear. She
definitely had fallen in love with Blaine Parker, and she wasn’t afraid to
defend him to anyone. She was in very deep shit here.
Very
deep.