Page 4 of The Hacker
“The free one?” Ramón looked skeptical.
“Yup. My friend Alice—who’s a member here too—is engaged to a very fancy consultant from New York City. His firm, KRG Consulting, runs a free program to help small business owners with problems. Alice hooked me up with their computer expert. All you have to do is agree and he’ll jump right on it.”
“It sounds too good to be true.” When Ramón shifted in his chair, it creaked so loudly that Dawn feared it might collapse under him.
“I’d agree with you except that I saw what they did for Alice’s bookkeeping issue.” Of course, Alice had nearly gotten herself killed when she and Derek uncovered the fraud that had created the problem. “They put every resource she needed into the project, even rented a private jet. At no cost to her.”
“I’d have to run it by Vicky.” Ramón still sounded dubious.
“I know. She’s the tech queen.” Although how Vicky could even type without ruining her jewel-encrusted manicure, Dawn couldn’t figure out. She stood up. “Let me know if you want to use KRG’s services.”
As she walked away from the management office, she frowned. It surprised her that Ramón wasn’t aware of the Wi-Fi problem. Why the hell hadn’t Vicky told him after all this time?
It also complicated things for her because she had expected Ramón to hail KRG’s assistance as a lifesaver. Now she was in the awkward position of having asked for help for someone who might not accept it. Hopefully, Leland was too busy to care whether a gym in Cofferwood, New Jersey, wanted his assistance or not.
No such luck, though. After she finished with her first client, Dawn checked her email messages. She grimaced when she saw one from Leland.
Ready when you are.
She considered ignoring it until she’d heard Ramón’s decision. Leland would figure that she was working and hadn’t read it yet. She started to slide her phone back into her sweatshirt pocket and then stopped. Leland was a computer expert. He might be able to tell that she’d read his email.
She growled in frustration, pulled out her phone, and read it again. On second glance, it seemed a little provocative. She was only supposed to put him in touch with her boss. His words made it sound like they would be working on the problem together.
No, she had to be imagining things. After a minute’s thought, she typed out a careful response.
My boss is excited about the opportunity, but his wife is the IT person so he doesn’t want to step on her toes. He’s going to get back to me after he speaks with her.
Thanks,
Dawn
That was only a slight lie. A polite one.
She started to stow her phone but decided to wait a minute. Without the Wi-Fi connection to screw things up, her regular phone service still worked fine. Sure enough, an email came back from Leland.
Ah, the joys of a family-run business. Not only office politics but domestic dynamics to contend with. This may be more than I can handle.
She snort-laughed. Mr. Southern Charm could probably talk a state trooper out of giving him a ticket after being clocked at a hundred miles per hour on the New Jersey Turnpike. Even worse, she was enjoying his email messages way too much.
I have a client. Catch you later.
She shoved her phone in her pocket and strode past the grunting, sweating gym rats to the lounge, where her next client, Leslie, was chatting with the blond ex-jock, Chad.
“Dawn, baby,” he said, flashing his whitened smile. “If I didn’t respect you so much, I’d steal away this lovely lady and train her myself.”
Leslie, a frazzled mom with three small kids and a husband who traveled for business three weeks out of every month, trilled a giggle. Dawn didn’t begrudge her the pleasure of flirting with a guy whom some considered good-looking. So she just narrowed her eyes at Chad in a warning before turning to Leslie with a wink. “Don’t let that dazzling smile fool you. He’s way meaner than I am.”
“Did you just call me dazzling?” Chad pressed his hand to his chest in mock astonishment.
“Don’t let it go to your head,” Dawn said. “Leslie, let’s get you warmed up and ready to work.”
Leslie rose from the couch and touched Chad on his bulging biceps, her fingers lingering slightly. “Thanks for keeping me company.”
“My pleasure.” Chad looked deep into Leslie’s eyes. “I hope our paths will cross again.”
Dawn controlled the urge to gag and shepherded her client away from her cliché-spouting fellow trainer.
Dawn was eating a kale-and-quinoa salad in the employee break room when Vicky sashayed through the door and up to the small white plastic table where Dawn sat.
