Read Online Unauthorized Access by Andrew McAllister - Free Book Online Page B

scoop. His insides felt like someone was stirring them with a jittery stick.
    “Why did you want to hear that so bad?” Kirsten asked. “I thought you knew all about it.”
    Tim tried to shrug nonchalantly. “I just wanted to see what other people were saying, that’s all.”
    “Are you afraid the bank will go under or something and you’ll lose your job?”
    Tim pointed the remote and clicked off the wide-screen TV.
    “Not really,” he said.
    “Or is it because Lesley was on?”
    Tim looked around to see Kirsten glaring at him.
    “What do you mean?” he said.
    “Do you think I’m stupid or something?”
    Tim blinked. Where did that come from?
    “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said.
    “Are you kidding me? Whenever we’re out somewhere and she shows up, you can’t keep your eyes off her.”
    “No way.”
    “Way.”
    Did he really do that? He thought he’d been so subtle. Women never ceased to amaze him. They routinely picked up on things no man in history ever noticed. Tim closed his eyes and kneaded his forehead with his fingertips. The adrenaline buzz in his brain made it hard to concentrate, not to mention the lack of sleep.
    “I bet that’s why you wanted to watch the news,” she said. “Your precious Lesley was on.”
    Tim felt a stab of guilt. He really liked Kirsten, but he had to admit she had a point. For years keeping a girlfriend on his arm had been the price he paid for being a part of Lesley’s social life without seeming like a third wheel.
    He looked up at her.
    “I’m sorry,” he said. “I was kind of rude, wasn’t I?”
    “You mean tonight, or all those other times?”
    “Both, I guess.”
    Kirsten’s face softened a bit. She bit her lower lip and looked away.
    “So it is true?” she said after a moment. “Would you rather be with her?”
    Tim sighed. “This has been bothering you for a while, hasn’t it?”
    Kirsten nodded.
    Tim shook his head and looked down. His hands were absent-mindedly turning the beer bottle around and around. He had always known that breaking up with Kirsten was inevitable, and after today it had to be done sooner rather than later. Still, he never found this sort of thing easy.
    “Do you remember the first night we went out?” he said, offering her a wry smile.
    This got her looking at him again.
    “Sure,” she said. “You invited me to a party.”
    “And Rob looked so surprised when I showed up with his ex-girlfriend.”
    Kirsten raised one skeptical eyebrow.
    “He seemed to get over it quickly enough.”
    Tim chuckled. “I suppose.”
    They lapsed into silence again. Tim picked at the label on the bottle. Finally he asked, “Did you see me doing it that night?”
    “You mean staring at Lesley?”
    “Uh huh.”
    Kirsten nodded.
    “Yeah,” she said, “right from the start.”
    The guilty feeling washed over Tim again. Kirsten was caring and fun, and with her perky little body she was cute as hell. In the end, though, his relationship with Kirsten had always been doomed for the same reason as all his other girlfriends.
    She wasn’t Lesley.
    * * *
    The wall clock said nine minutes after five when Paul Dees pushed out through the security door of the computer operations center. He was trying to figure out which emotion was winning the war inside him. Paul figured he was fifty percent exhausted, fifty percent satisfied … and ninety-eight percent pissed off.
    The satisfaction came from working with the team to re-install the AMS executable in record time. The software seemed to be working perfectly. As for the fury that had been building in him all day, Paul could count the reasons for that on one finger; he wanted to get his hands on the prick who caused this whole mess. Paul wanted to wring his neck. It galled him that some jerk would be selfish and stupid enough to pull a stunt like this. Whatever satisfaction they were getting from it, how could that possibly justify all the problems it was causing for so many