“We aren’t sure, but since you ran it, we were hoping you could tell us.” She leaned over the desk. “What are you up to? Who have you given your login credentials to?” Her gaze blazed with barely controlled fury. He and Judy had been friendly, and Devon knew Judy had been an advocate when he’d been hired. She must have felt betrayed, or this was some sort of act and she had been the one to run the program. God, this was a damned minefield of fucking intrigue, and Devon had no idea who to trust.

  “That’s my user ID, but I didn’t log in to that system and run anything. I don’t give out my passwords to anyone, never have.” He lifted the sheet. “This says that the program was executed at 12:35. I was working on your spreadsheet and sent it over to you then. You can check the file times and signatures.” He figured he needed to plead innocent and try to prove that he’d been working elsewhere.

  Judy opened her email and began looking through it. “I see,” she said softly, glancing at James, who sat back. He didn’t say anything, but Devon felt his unsaid accusations looming in the small room.

  “I don’t know what’s going on, and I have no idea what the program is, but I didn’t run it.” Devon leaned forward. “It was run just a half hour ago.” He wanted to ask how Judy got this information so quickly. It wasn’t like they watched the logs and files so closely for every system. Someone had been, and had managed to make sure the information got to his boss pretty quickly. He was getting tired of being accused of doing things he hadn’t done. “Is there an associated system login for me?” He knew there couldn’t have been.

  “I don’t know, but we will dig further.” She pulled back the report.

  Devon glanced at James, wondering if that was the first round.

  “If something is going on, Devon, or if anyone has approached you to run something for them, we need to know. The firm can’t be protected if we break our own security protocols. But if you tell us what’s happening, we can help you.” He said it so gently, like a siren song, luring him to the rocks of destruction.

  Devon inhaled, Powers’s betrayal flashing forward in his mind. Maybe he should just tell them what he suspected had happened. Hand the whole mess over to them and be done with it. If one of them was the thief, so be it. At least he’d have come clean and would be clear of the mess. It wasn’t likely that both of them were involved, and what he knew of the plot would be out in the open. The chips could fall where they may and to hell with the rest.

  He knew that was the ultimate in sucky options, but it still ran through his mind. Devon reminded himself that he had promised that he’d help Powers, and he wasn’t one to break his word. Even if Powers had turned out to be a shit.

  “I had nothing to do with that program, and I didn’t run it.” He turned to James. “You should look a lot deeper before you go blaming someone.”

  “Devon,” Judy cautioned.

  “Things might not look good on the surface, but if there is a problem, then the easiest answer might not be the correct one.” If this was some sort of version of good cop, bad cop, then he needed to try to play to Judy.

  “What if the surface is the true picture?” James countered. “That report is pretty damning. You have to know something.” Now the olive branch was gone and his eyes were hard, adding pressure that Devon felt keenly. He could easily be railroaded right out of a job.

  “I don’t know anything about that program, and I didn’t run it,” he said to Judy. “Check the logins. Whoever did run that program had to be logged in to the system, and I wasn’t at all.” He kept his gaze down, not challenging either of them directly, but not backing down either.

  “We’ll look into it,” Judy said.

  Devon took that as a dismissal. He pushed himself to his feet. There was nothing else for him to say, and he could repeat his denials, but that wasn’t going to help. Devon left Judy’s office and returned to his desk. He went back to work, not talking to anyone for fear he’d bite their head off, and as soon as he was done for the day, he left the building and took the train home.

  In his apartment, everything was quiet, the way it usually was. He dropped his bag by the door, locked it, and went to his bedroom to change his clothes.

  So much was different in the last week, and he’d begun to enjoy the change in routine. Powers had added excitement to his life, something Devon hadn’t expected. And just as he was starting to think he could have more than his dull existence, that he might want more, this shit threw his entire life into turmoil.

  What if Mr. Mauer decided Devon wasn’t worth the trouble and fired him? He could. No matter what happened, on the surface it looked like he was guilty. Sure, Alexander had been able to figure out it wasn’t him, but Alexander wasn’t supposed to be helping them. What was Devon supposed to do—tell management that he’d brought in a hacker to help catch these people? Oh, and the hacker had the evidence to prove him innocent? That would go over like a lead balloon.

  A knock made him jump. Devon pulled on some jeans and a T-shirt, then went to open the door.

  “What are you doing here?” he growled at Powers. “Just go home and leave me alone.”

  “I told Mr. Mauer that you weren’t involved, but that the system was set up to make it look that way. You’re going to have to take some heat for a little while until the rest of the management reaches the same conclusion. But I wanted you to know that you don’t have to worry about your job.” Powers swallowed and peered inside.

  “Thanks for that, anyway.” Devon began to close the door as Powers came closer. “What do you want?” he demanded. “I think you already said more than enough today.” He kept the volume of his voice down, but there was no way Powers was going to mistake him for anything other than majorly pissed off.

  “Devon?”

  “What!” He stepped back. Powers obviously wasn’t going to go away, and Devon wasn’t going to have this conversation where the neighbors could hear.

  Powers came inside, and Devon closed the door more forcefully than he intended, but what the hell. “You called Alexander, and he told you what happened, but the first thing you thought was that I was involved. After I helped you and was mugged and everything, you still didn’t trust me.” He could barely see straight, he was so mad. “Alexander at least dug deeper—you took everything at face value.” He glared at Powers, breathing deeply, mouth open because he couldn’t get enough air. “Well, maybe that’s why you haven’t solved this case. Maybe you’re only looking at the surface instead of digging into the details.” He rolled his eyes. “Sounds like a shitty way to run an investigation.” Devon reached for the door handle. “Go on back to PI school and leave me the hell alone if you can’t trust me. We’re done.” He yanked the door open and pushed Powers out into the hall, then slammed the door closed and threw the lock.

  It took about five minutes before Devon calmed down, and then he sat on the sofa, staring at the door, wondering what he’d done. Damn, the things he’d said. Sure, he was pissed off at Powers, but it was truly over between them. Even with his limited experience, he knew there was no coming back from that. He’d called Powers’s integrity into question, his profession—hell, even the man himself—all with a twenty-second rant.

  Devon went to the kitchen. He needed to eat dinner, not that he was hungry anymore. He pulled out the things for salad. He paused halfway through cutting up a tomato, looking around the small, rather shabby apartment. The sofa with the worn arms and the chairs that didn’t match were the same, as was the carpet remnant that served as a rug. But it felt different, like it was just there. No life and no interest. It was just furniture.

  He cut the rest of the way through and put half the tomato back in the fridge. It had become easy to make food for more than himself. Once the salad was done, he pulled out a blue box and heated the water before dumping in the macaroni. Devon had told himself that he wanted his quiet, ordinary life back. Well, that looked like exactly what he was going to get. His life was going to be the same as it was before. No Powers to come in and add his own particular brand of excitement. No Lucy stopping in to gobble dinner, talk his ear off, and add her own brand of half-insane madness that helped fill the apartment with life. Nope, he was back to the way things were. He’d gotten exactly what he wanted.

  So why did he feel like complete shit, and why did he wish things had turned out differently?

  ALEXANDER STOPPED by after Devon had finished dinner, and they worked to shore up their defenses within the system.

  “I’m not sure this is even necessary. The program has been spotted within the system and will probably be removed,” Devon explained.

  “I agree. But they are going to try again, with a different program, if they are going to get this information. And them running the program indicates that they don’t have what they need yet. Are they trying to throw suspicion away from themselves and onto you?”

  A soft knock interrupted them, and Devon slid off the stool. Lucy stood outside the door. He opened it, and she charged inside.

  “I’m so mad, I could smack Powers into next week.” She set down her bag and hugged Devon. “Sometimes men are complete asses. But he’s my brother and I love the big lug, even if his head is sometimes up his butt.”

  “Okay, then,” Devon said softly, not quite sure what to make of this. He hadn’t expected Lucy to come by or to be on his side.

  “Look, Powers is an ass sometimes, and he doesn’t trust people easily. But I understand how you feel. He should have asked and waited to see what was truly going on before he jumped to his conclusions.”

  Devon nodded. “Thanks.”

  Lucy turned to Alexander, and her lips curled into a slight smile. It took Devon about two seconds to work out that he might as well be invisible right now. He shook his head and sighed. This evening was going to be an exercise in discomfort. Still, he could make it through it and get done what they needed to.

  “Oh, just so you know, he’s probably on his way here. If we’re reviewing the case, he probably should be included.” She shook her head slowly.

  “Great….”

  Lucy grinned something worthy of the Cheshire cat. “Make him suffer. Lord knows he deserves it.” She winked and sat down next to Alexander, the two of them talking softly.

  Devon braced himself for the knock that came a few minutes later. He inhaled deeply, released the breath, and then opened the door. “You can come in, but only because we need to finish this case.” He kept his gaze as hard as he could. “It’s what I need to do for the company.” He closed the door after him and went right over to where the others were waiting, doing his best not to even look at Powers. “We’ve made another change to the system to confuse whoever is working on this program,” Devon explained. “And it’s done.”

  “I also added to my program and was able to disable the use of extensions,” Alexander said. “Though I don’t know how much good that’s going to do. The program has been discovered and will likely be removed. So they’ll have to use another one. Still, if it’s close enough, my net should catch it, and this time we’ll be able to determine who ran it.” He smiled and finished up. “I think that’s all I can do for now.”

  “Thank you,” Powers said without any of his usual energy.

  Devon allowed himself a glance at him and then looked away. He slipped off his stool to see Alexander out after he’d packed up his things.

  “I appreciate all your help,” Devon told Alexander and hugged him.

  “Don’t make the big lug suffer for too long,” Alexander whispered. “But definitely make him suffer… some.” He released Devon and stood in the doorway. “Until next Saturday,” he said to Lucy, who nodded. Alexander left with a huge grin on his face.

  Devon closed the door, threw the lock out of habit, and sat down at the counter next to Lucy, pulling over his laptop. “What do we do next?” Devon asked, and received no answer at first. A smartass comment about Powers welled in his head, but he shook it away. There was no use poking the bear.

  “What do we know now that we didn’t know before?” Lucy asked. The tension in the air was thick, but Devon did his best to ignore it. He was content to wait as long as necessary.

  “It seems to me that the program might have been a diversion. At least this version of it was.”

  “Maybe not,” Devon countered. “If the program had worked, they would have gotten what they wanted, and in the investigation at some point, I would have been blamed.” The others nodded. “But it failed, and….” He lifted his gaze. “That would throw an error on the system that could be the source of the report Judy had. They investigated and found that information.” How could he have been so stupid?

  “No,” Lucy said. “This program wasn’t in any of the normal run schedules. So it probably wouldn’t have shown up on those reports. Powers, you’re going to need to look into that.”

  “It’s already on my list.” He finally said something. “I have already been tracing that information. Judy received the report from security, but I’m trying to work back how they got the information. I’ll talk to them first thing in the morning.”

  “Someone activated the program, and we need to get to them, fast. They also used me to try to cover their tracks.”

  “Yeah. Which means it was either coincidental, and I doubt that… or they think you’re still a threat and wanted to neutralize you.” Powers finally sat down, but the tension didn’t ease at all. “Maybe we need to let them think that’s what they’ve done,” he said softly, shaking his head, his hands on either side. “I honestly don’t know which way to turn or what the fuck to do. There are so many false turns and paths that lead to nothing.”

  “Maybe not,” Devon said. “Let’s take a step back a minute. So far everything has revolved around me, and not in a nice way. The envelope got put in my bag, and we assumed it was some courier thing gone bad. But what if it wasn’t? What if the plan was for me to be caught with it?” Devon had never thought of it before, and he probably should have. “And you did, in a way. They had no idea that you were going to believe me. Then there’s the mugging, and eventually they took back the evidence because their plan didn’t work.”

  “Are you saying this is some plan to discredit you?” Lucy asked, leaning closer.

  “No,” Powers said before either of them could add anything. “It’s a way to pull off the theft and blame it on someone else. The envelope, the program—it’s all designed to have the company and us looking at Devon. The program failed, and they made sure that someone was looking in Devon’s direction because if they’re watching him, then they aren’t looking at the real culprits. They’ll eventually figure it out, but it would be too late. The information would be stolen, Devon would be blamed, they might get off scot-free, or have time to get away.” Powers turned to Devon. “Someone doesn’t like you.”

  “I hope not. I’d hate to think this was done by a friend.” He wasn’t in a humorous mood, but it just came out.

  Powers gaped at him. Thankfully Lucy wasn’t fazed. “Let’s go over the people you work with. Have you argued with any of them?”

  Devon shook his head. “I sat with the group at the gala, and everyone was nice. I don’t know them that well. Karen is the nicest to me, and I like her. I don’t want her to be involved, but that doesn’t mean much. Susan is nice enough, and we’ve never argued or anything. Lee and I sometimes have differences of opinion.”

  “What kind?” Powers asked.

  “He’s pretty conservative. I don’t think he understands me being gay. Not that there’s any open hostility, he’s just quiet about it. It never bothered me. I do my tasks the best I can, and I work hard.”

  “What about Mark?” Powers asked, taking over for Lucy. “He’s been in the group the longest and is the senior member.”

  Devon shrugged. “Kind of. Maybe he wants to be the senior member, but no one will follow him. He’s all about pushing his ideas on others rather than listening. Susan is a little like him. The two of them have strong opinions. Susan is always the first to say something like ‘We’ve always done it this way.’ She’s the keeper of tradition, which is useless in a constantly changing technology organization. But that doesn’t make her the person who might be after me.” Devon hated the suspicion that crept higher. He didn’t want to think of the people he’d worked with for the last six months having anything to do with this. To one degree or another, he considered them friends, and he didn’t have many of those. It hurt, and part of him wanted to reach out to Powers for comfort, the way he had after the mugging, but that was closed now. It had to be.

  “I know this is hard, but you have to look at people objectively,” Lucy said. “If someone could be trying to frame you for this theft, then we need to try to figure out who it is, and that means looking at everyone.” She patted his hand. “What about Mark? Is he resentful?”

  “I don’t know. We talk some, but he can be surly. I think he does the least amount of work, but always tries to look like he’s busy. I don’t know for sure, though. That’s what Karen says. I know she doesn’t particularly like him, but she tolerates him for the sake of the team. I really don’t know what Judy thinks of him, but up until now, she’s been giving me the assignments that she needs done quickly and that are important.” Maybe Mark did resent him. Devon had never given it much thought before now.

  “I have an appointment with each of the managers tomorrow, and I want to get an impression of each of them.”

  “Of course,” Devon said. “Do you think Judy could be involved? The way she talked to me was the way I would expect someone in her position to handle the situation. She seemed genuinely confused and angry. I don’t think she knew what the program was or why it was there. I know Judy was surprised and worried that I’d been hacking into systems. She doesn’t know that I have access, which is great, because in the normal course of my job, I shouldn’t.”