Robert had just sat down at his extra-wide mahogany wood desk, powering up his computer and adjusting his double monitors—still overwhelmed by the instant closeness between Farrah and Momma Penny—when Meeks walked into his office. Meeks held his cell phone and iPad in one hand while he clipped the keys to his utility belt with the other.
“Sorry I’m late. So what’s on it?” Meeks took a seat in front of Robert’s desk, placing his iPad on its corner and his cell in his pocket.
“What’s on what?” Robert asked, sliding in his chair over to the extra-long wood-and-stainless-steel-top credenza that took up nearly an entire wall, where he turned on two additional computers.
“The flash drive,” Meeks said.
“I don’t know. I haven’t opened it yet.” Robert returned to his desk. “I just got in.”
“You just got here?” he asked, checking his watch. “What happened? Your plane landed three hours ago.”
“We had lunch with Momma Penny, and you know how that goes.”
Meeks smiled and nodded. “I sure do. How is... Wait, we? Who is we?” he asked, his eyebrows coming to attention.
“Farrah.”
“You took Farrah to meet Momma Penny?” he asked in a slow drawl, as if he was trying to figure out what such an action could mean in his own mind.
“It was lunchtime when we landed, so I took her out to eat. It just so happened to be at Momma Penny’s house.” Robert turned back to his computer and inserted the drive.
“Bull!” Meeks shot back. “You don’t have personal interactions of any kind when it comes to women. Hell, everyone knows you don’t even let women come to your house. You certainly wouldn’t take just anyone to meet Momma Penny, even if you were in the neighborhood. So, what’s up?”
“Nothing, it was just lunch...and Farrah’s not just anyone.” Robert continued examining the messages popping up on his screen. “Just as I figured, there are multiple levels of security and firewalls in place. Alexia is good. But I’m better.”
“How long?”
“Ten...fifteen minutes tops,” Robert replied.
“Good, that gives us plenty of time,” Meeks said, leaving the seat and retrieving two bottles of water from the mini-fridge.
“Time for what?”
Meeks placed one in front of Robert before he cracked the seal of his own bottle. He took two big swallows and returned to his seat. “Time for you to tell me what’s really going on between you and Farrah.”
Robert’s hand stilled over the computer’s keys for a moment before entering the code necessary to start his decryption program. He hit a final key, stood and looked out his window while Meeks sat in silence. There were very few people Robert trusted. He could trust Meeks with anything. Meeks was like the brother Robert never had and always wanted, but he wondered just how much truth Meeks was ready for. He took a deep breath and turned to face his friend. “I’m in love with Farrah,” he confessed.
“Tell me something I don’t already know.”
“How much you want?” Robert asked, gripping the back of his chair.
Meeks’s gaze darted from Robert’s hands and back up to his face. “That bad?”
“How much?”
“Will I have to keep it from Francine?” Meeks asked.
“For a while anyway,” Robert confirmed. “We both know how hard it is for you to keep anything from your wife.”
“All right, then, give me enough to convince me that you’re both okay and that Farrah won’t get hurt,” Meeks said.
“Fine.” Robert sat back down. “I’m trying to convince her that I’m not the commitment-shy playboy she thinks I am.”
“Hmm.”
“Not anymore, anyway,” Robert added, raising his right hand as though he was being sworn in and about to give a testimony. “I’m hoping that once she sees there’s more to me than what she thinks she knows, she won’t be afraid of what she’s feeling and be willing to give us a chance.”
“And introducing her to Momma Penny was a start?” Meeks inquired.
“Yep.”
Meeks offered a slow nod, rubbing his chin with the thumb and index finger of his right hand. “All right, so you think she has strong feelings for you, too...beyond the obvious.”
“The obvious?” Robert asked.
“As you once told me, a blind man can see how much you two are attracted to each other.”
“Yeah, well, it’s more than that...much more.”
Meeks took another swig from his bottle. “You’re so private about everything. You don’t let people get too close.”
“I know, and I’m working on it,” Robert admitted.
“When did you come to this realization?”
“A few months ago, but I think things have been building for a while now. I just wasn’t sure how to pursue it.” Robert looked away briefly, trying not to show Meeks more than he was prepared to explain. “But an opportunity presented itself and I went for it.”
“An opportunity...?” Meeks asked, scratching his chin.
“Yes. And that’s when things got...complicated,” Robert confirmed.
“I bet. You know your reputation is going to be hard to live down.”
Robert slammed his fist against his desk. “Damn it! That was years ago.”
“Yeah, to you and me,” Meeks countered. “To women, you can be sixty and they’ll still be looking at you sideways when it comes to other women.”
Robert’s shoulders dropped. “Francine didn’t have a problem with your past. And we both know you had your fair share of dirt. Need I remind you... Jasmine?”
“How could I forget? She nearly destroyed my life.”
Jasmine Black, a beautiful thirty-year-old redheaded Italian-American, was an ambitious security specialist and Meeks Montgomery’s former lover, who’d become obsessed with Meeks and tried to kill Francine to get her out of the picture.
“Besides, Francine and I had other issues to work through.” Meeks grimaced; clearly memories of that experience were still hard to handle. “Look, I wish you luck. Just remember their father raised all three of his beautiful girls to be brilliant, independent and tough as nails. Those Blake women aren’t to be played with.”
“Tell me about it,” he said, grinning at the familiar warning. Robert’s computer beeped. “Twelve minutes. Damn, I’m good.” Robert stared at the multiple file names that appeared on the screen.
“So, what’s it say?” Meeks asked, leaning forward in his chair.
“There are a lot of files here,” Robert responded, clicking a few keys to navigate through the maze of folders. “Looks like individual client files with notes and attachments, pictures I’m sure. There’s a calendar, something that appears to be a client list, and tons of surveillance documents.”
Meeks got up and came around the desk and stood next to his friend as he stared down at the cursor waiting to be hit. “Alexia was very organized,” Meeks confirmed. “Open the Blake & Montgomery file.”
Robert browsed through the contents until he came across a set of documents that stopped both men in their tracks—a scanned copy of earlier versions of several drawings and outlines for security systems that Robert and Meeks had worked on within the past five years. “You need to call Farrah and Francine. Get them in here.”
Meeks didn’t move. He continued to stare at the screen.
Robert fought through his own anger, stood and faced his friend. “We’re going to find whoever stole our material, find the forger and clear our name. I’ll call Paul and have him track down Farrah and Francine. They need to see this, too,” he said, reaching for the phone on his desk.
Meeks gave a short nod. “Whoever’s behind all this has to be close. They were able to plant someone in our organization that could not only steal confidential information, but managed to plant bogus documents that forced us into this mess. We could lose millions. Not to mention the hit our reputation will take,” Meeks said.
“Being labeled a liar and a thief doesn’t bode well in our field. We’ll find whoever’s behind this and we’ll make them pay,” Robert promised.