I laughed. He seemed incredulous about that, but at least he wasn’t dwelling on the fact that I sort of dated them both for a week.

“It’s a long story. Basically, it was because the night we met, he ticked me off by lying to me and being a sneak. So, I locked him out of everything digital. Just like most of the world, that means pretty much everything. His techie couldn’t crack it, nor could they find me. They resorted to following my brother, who I meet every week for family dinner with our father. By the time I came out of the building, Dillan was there, fuming.” I laughed. It was a good time.

“Then how…” He scratched his head, still confused.

I shrugged. “Who knows with men, you all don't make sense to us womenfolk.” I teased and stepped off the elevator. The distraction had helped, and I was more relaxed now.

When I reached my office, Linda nearly knocked me over with her hug. We had messaged a few times but had not seen each other yet. She patted me down like a mother hen, inspecting me. 

“I’m fine, Linda. Really.”

She ended on my face, both hands holding my head as she took in every detail. “You look good, but that could be make-up.”

I licked my finger and wiped it across my cheek. “You know I don’t wear much.”

She finally relaxed and let me go. “Alright. I won’t badger you anymore. At least not right now. The Senior Partners are waiting in conference room B for you.”

I cringed and looked down the hall, but the door was closed. “Any ideas which way the wind blows?”

“Not a clue, but you are a brave girl. You’ll be fine.” She spun me and pushed me to get me walking.

I huffed in annoyance at her. She didn’t realize this was worse for me than dealing with Ivan. 

I knocked on the conference room door and waited until Lawerence opened it. He was usually my direct line supervisor. His smile was there, but not as light as normal. My heart sank. They waved for me to take the seat at the end, all the way across from them.

I smiled, barely. Then I decided to hell with it. If they already had their minds made up, how did my behavior matter?

“So, what’s the verdict? Am I being kicked to the curb because of my idiotic brother or because I fell for a moron who happens to own a club?”

Gary guffawed. “What?”

“My contract said that I could not associate with criminals while working here. My brother has a gambling problem, which he is finally seeking help for, and my boyfriend runs a club that the mafia frequents. He’s not part of all that but likes to have a roof over his head. I’m not saying he is innocent - we all know that would be a lie after what happened a few weeks ago, but still. I broke my contract.”

“I love this girl.” Gary said in a sigh. “No, you are not being fired. As for the contract, that is more for those who would take advantage of their position here. We all know you don’t do that.”

“Eh. I kind of do.” Oh, will you shut up, Fiona! Apparently once I got started… “I mean, mostly because hacking is fun, and you all seem to get a kick out of me freaking out the clients. Here I get to do it without getting in trouble. Although now I hack my boyfriend and his friends just for kicks and giggles. His IT guy thinks it's the best game ever.” I cringed. “Sorry, I get mouthy and ramble when I’m nervous.”

“I’d be curious to know what all you said to Ivan.” Gary was still leading the charge. 

I gulped. “It wasn’t pretty. It nearly got me, and my brother killed. Or rather him killed and me a fate worse than death. I got a couple good shiners out of it though. Sorry, I’ll shut up now.”

“We asked for this meeting so we could talk about what happened.” Kurt cut in, before Gary could get his next words out. He looked a little glum about that. “You were taken from our offices, right under our noses. We thought our background checks were good enough. It’s not often that our own security system fails us.”

Oh, cool. I could work with that.

I told them the story of going to pay off Dillan and locking him out (not the why, of course, that would be a bit too much info). I told them about Bunny and Ivan, and then how Ivan used my brother. I told them what Ivan wanted me to do, and how I got around him (I left out the tidy little nest egg I made for myself. I still found it funny that the Russians hadn’t asked any questions about their missing money). Finally, I told them how we got out. 

When I was done, they all looked at each other like they were having a silent conversation. 

“We need to create a list of the major criminals in the area, at least.” Lawerence said. “We can’t promise safety for our employees if we aren’t actually being safe.”