The CEO (24 page)

After a short drive down the freeway, I pulled into the parking lot of a Mexican bar and grill named Turbana. I had never heard of it before, but I was starving and for some reason, trusted Justin.

I parked my car and saw him waiting by a red Chevy pickup truck in a long black trench coat and leather boots. “Is that your truck?” I asked.

“Why yes it is. I call her Ol’ Reliable. Don’t get me wrong, I like sports cars too, and I know they’re all the rage, but I prefer low profile and will take a classic any day. Anyway, shall we?” he said, bending his elbow to receive mine.

We walked up a flight of stone steps to a small building. It had huge windows reaching from the ceiling to the ground and you could see all the way to the kitchen from the front door, which was nice. It felt more personal. Justin opened the door for me and the smells swirling around the room were wonderful. Waiters and waitresses in red and green uniforms were serving people their food on sizzling hot plates and as soon as I saw the chicken fajita plate, I knew exactly what I wanted.

We were seated in a booth in front of a large brick archway with an orange painted wall underneath. There were paintings of flowers and other Mexicana artwork. The building was made out of mostly bricks with some updated wooden beams stretching across the ceiling with fans mounted over each table.

The waiter, Jose, was very polite and told us about all the house specials on the menu without even looking at it. I was already set on the chicken fajitas so I ordered that immediately and let Justin pick out our drinks. Jose placed our order and came back with a couple of pink lemonades and free chips and salsa to snack on while we waited for our meals.

Justin and I sat in silence, locking eyes as we both reached for the freshly baked chips and salsa. It wasn’t weird or awkward; it was actually nice not to be questioned and just eat.

Our waiter and a waitress came out with two sizzling plates and placed them down in front of us. Justin also got fajitas but with steak instead of chicken, and we got a margarita pitcher.

After dinner I invited Justin over to my place, which was something I didn’t normally do. I left him on the couch while I grabbed a few drinks from the fridge. “Is Moscato okay?”

“It’s perfect,” he smiled back at me.

“Cheers!” I said, tapping my glass against his.

“So Justin, tell me more about yourself. You mentioned that your father builds things. What kind of things does he build?”

“Honestly, anything you can imagine, he could find a way to build it, but he’s more known for his ROV units.”

“Remotely Operated Vehicles, right?”

“Correct. How’d you know about that?” he asked with a puzzled expression on his face.

“I’m a lot smarter than I appear I guess.” I grinned before taking another sip of wine.

“What kind of work do you do?” he questioned.

“I’ve recently taken over my dad’s company.”

“That’s nice. Well look at us, both working for our dads,” he laughed. “Hopefully you enjoy your job, though.”

“Who wouldn’t enjoy bossing others around?”

Justin and I talked all night long. He gave me a shit ton of information about himself and I barely had to spill anything about myself, which was just what I wanted. For once it felt nice to talk to someone and get to know the real them for a change.

The next morning I rushed into the bathroom to shower and get ready for my work day. I had a meeting with a well-known app developing company and wanted to compare them to John. I felt he was taking an awfully long time to develop something that seemed so simple and I was starting to second-guess his true intentions at Quinn National.

“Hi, Mr. Inuyasha. Thank you for meeting with me today. So can you tell me more about your app technology and how fast you could get it up and running?”

“Absolutely, Ms. Quinn. For the service you require it would take my company no longer than two weeks. That includes debugging and thorough testing. We’d have everything on a backup server and in the event your system is hacked or temporarily shut down, our security systems would scramble the data so they couldn’t steal any information. Also, our app team can translate English into different languages to suit your clients needs.”

Everything this man offered sounded three times as good as the bullshit John was feeding me. He offered extra security and our data couldn’t be compromised; John has been working on it for a month with hardly any progress and we’d already been hacked once.

“You’re hired. Quick question, your app wouldn’t interfere with the other current data development right?”

“No, ours will be on a brand new server, but I strongly suggest getting rid of the other one. If it’s not running by now, there’s something definitely wrong with it. May I see it by any chance?” he asked.

“I’ll find out for you.” I went back over to my desk and paged Karen to send John to my office.

“You rang, Ms. Quinn?” John snarled sarcastically.

“Yes. Do you have your app data with you by any chance?”

“It’s on my phone,” he responded nervously.

“Could you show it to Mr. Inuyasha please?”

“Sure,” he said handing his phone over to the short Japanese man with gray hair.

Small beads of sweat formed on John’s forehead as Mr. Inuyasha quietly studied the app. I could see the panic starting to set in just by his subtle nervous ticks.

“Thank you,” Mr. Inuyasha said, handing him his phone back.

“That’ll be all for now John, thank you,” I said, dismissing him from my office. Mr. Inuyasha looked at me and shook his head with disapproval. I knew then that John definitely had ulterior motives.

“Thank you for your time, Mr. Inuyasha. I’ll definitely be getting rid of the other app developer, and I’ll be in touch with you in a few weeks.” He shook my hand and left my office. As soon as the door was shut, I texted Lucky.

Me: I need a favor.

Lucky: Anything.

Me: Can you hack into apps?

Lucky: Ha. Is the sky blue? Piece of cake.

Me: Good. I need you to hack into the Nat-Co app here. Something is off about John and his fishy business.

Lucky: You got it. I’ll also dig up some dirt on John too while I’m at it.

Me: Thanks. I owe you one.

Lucky: You’ve done enough. But I do need a favor from you.

Me: What?

Lucky: I’m going to drop off a thumb drive to you. I need you to plug it into John’s computer for sixty seconds and then rip it out and leave it at the dog park for me.

Me: Can do.

A small package was delivered to my office and inside was the thumb drive from Lucky. I paged Ryan to my office so he could take John out to lunch and buy me some time to plug it into his computer.

“Yes, Ms. Quinn?”

“Hey Ryan, why don’t you grab John and take him to lunch? He barely leaves his office and I think it’s time for you guys to get to know each other. Take the company card and enjoy yourselves.”

“Okay, but why would I want to get to know him?” he said, arching his eyebrow at me.

“Because he’s the new man around here and he’ll be playing a very important role in our company, being the new app developer and all,” I lied through my teeth.

“Okay, whatever you say!” he answered, staring at me suspiciously. “What’s in the box?”

“I have no idea, but I’ll find out soon. John’s on his way up, so hurry up and get ready to go!”

I watched as John and Ryan shook hands in the hallway and left. I opened my office door and walked to the front office where Karen was, just to make sure they were actually gone. I walked back down the hall and took the stairs one flight below my office to John’s.

His office door was unlocked, but I didn’t see his computer anywhere. I looked all around his cubicle and before I accepted defeat, I saw that he had left it on the conference table. It was locked, but Lucky told me I would still be able to upload the data and eject the thumb drive without John ever knowing I was near it.

I panicked at every sound I heard around me. It felt like the longest sixty seconds of my life and I was nervous he would be back at any second. I finally saw the green bar pop up on the screen, so I ejected it and tried to leave everything how I’d found it. I went back upstairs to my office and grabbed my jacket to run and meet Lucky at our meeting spot.

I left the box on the table and walked away from it. I stood by a vacant tree and saw Lucky come over, grab it, and walk off. I hoped he would be able to get me some answers.

It was almost six o’clock and my weekend was just minutes away. I’d signed every legal document that was piled sky high on my desk, checked and replied to every single email in my inbox, and checked that our stocks were still in the green and in good standings.

I wanted to do something different this weekend. I felt like disappearing for a couple of days to regroup and I knew just the perfect person to do it with.

Me: Hey Justin, I’m not sure if you work Fridays or not, but I wanted to know if you have plans for the weekend.

Justin: Nope, I don’t work Fridays, but I do need to get away from here. This has been a very stressful week for me.

Me: Any idea where we could escape?

Justin: There’s this lake house about thirty minutes away. Meet me there, tonight.