Page 25 of Pretty Little Thing

Nora Payne is a submissive. Who fucking knew?

I lean into the corner and grip the rail on either side of me as the car rides back up.

Not just any sub either. A newbie sub. One who can easily be bent and shaped. One who isn’t totally aware of her limits yet. The kind who’s open to experimentation.

My favorite kind.

I bite my cheek. Bad idea. Very bad ideas.

Have I forgotten what I’m really here for?

The elevator stops and the doors slide open, revealing that illuminated, neon logo on the wall.

Little Black Book.

It takes another hour for the rest of the staff to clear out. Desk lamps flick off one-by-one until it’s just the receptionist left. She has to stay and answer phones until the last possible moment. Poor girl.

“Have a good night, Clive,” she says as she passes by my desk.

“Goodnight,” I say, forgetting her name.

I wait until ten seconds after I hear the elevator doors shut again. Total silence fills the floor, practically screaming in my ears.

Finally, I stand up and walk across the room to Nora’s office to jimmy the door open again.

Hopefully, this personal matter keeps Nora at home for the rest of the night. I just need ten uninterrupted minutes here. The janitorial staff usually starts emptying trash bins at six. I should have just enough time.

I sit down at her desk and wiggle the mouse to wake up the computer. She definitely charged out of here in a hurry if she left all of this on. Either that personal matter is serious or she was really, really eager to get out of here and away from me. I won’t take it personally.

I take a breath before diving in. Client files. That’s all I need to swipe and I’ll be out of here...

I double click the database software, hoping the security there is as lax as the building. It pops open and I smile at the stupidity of it, to be honest.

Millions of users access Little Black Book every day and I’m about to get the names, addresses, and credit card numbers of each and every one of them.

I blink. It’s empty.

I refresh the database, giving it a quick close and open again. Must be a glitch. It has to be a glitch.

Again, it’s empty.

There’s no way this is accurate. Unless…

I close it down and run an administrator search for the database’s application files. There should be a log in there that will tell me the last time the client list was accessed. That will point me in the right direction.

I open it and scroll down to the most recent auto-entry.

Today at 3:45 PM.

Last accessed by NPayne.

Full copy and… deletion?

From the looks of it, this same entry occurs once every day. Monday to Friday.

I sit back with wide eyes.

That harddrive in her bag. LBB.

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