Page 30 of One Night Billionaire

Brian considered her words. She watched him, waiting for more nonsense.

“Are you the only one poking around like that?” he asked.

Anna nodded. “I am.”

“Where have you checked?”

She told him and Brian went to the whiteboard to write them down. They discussed what else was to be checked and he made another list.

“I’ll help. You go top down and I’ll work bottom up.”

Genuinely shocked he had listened; she went back to work. Working this way took longer to find the problem, but what choice did she have? If she had built it, it would be easier, but most of this already existed before she joined the team.

Standing and stretching, she looked at the time, realizing how late it had gotten. Well past eight at night and everyone was still there.

“You can go on home for the night, guys,” she told the team.

All three of them groaned and protested.

“I need you well rested because we will be doing this again tomorrow and all night if that’s what it takes. Go take your mind off things and come back refreshed tomorrow.”

“Go. Seriously,” Brian added. “And expense whatever you ate today once we come out on the other side of this, including what you eat when you leave. I’ll make sure there’s breakfast here in the morning.”

That did it and everyone finally gathered their things and headed out.

“Aren’t you leaving?” Brian asked her.

Anna shook her head. “No. This is pissing me off, and I’m going to figure it out.”

“You should take your own advice, you know,” he told her.

“You could take it as well. I know you aren’t used to this level of technical work anymore.” She bit her lip, realizing how that sounded only after it was out of her mouth. “I didn’t mean that. I mean it’s like using a muscle you haven’t trained in a while.”

“My brain?” Brian asked.

Anna hesitated. She hadn’t meant that, but she wasn’t sure how to dig herself out of that hole.

Brian laughed. “I’m joking. I understand what you mean and you’re right.” He looked at his watch. “I think I’ve got another hour or two in me before I walk away.”

She nodded and went back to work. She was serious when she said she didn’t need distractions today and that still applied. Distractions like him not being a jerk to her for a moment were not welcome.

It was confusing and she had enough to sort through as it was without adding her own emotions back into the mix. Brian worked quietly not far from her and stayed out of her way. Finally, she blinked a few times trying again to focus on the task at hand.

After an hour, Anna finally gave in and stood. “I’m heading out.”

Brian looked up. “Sounds good. Be safe.”

She picked up her purse and laptop and left. Had he just told her to be safe? What did that mean? Outside of the obvious. He was being nice and she wasn’t prepared to deal with that version of him.

Thoughts of Brian once again kept her brain from calming down. She needed to be puzzling out what could be happening and instead, she was caught up in him again. It only proved how much they shouldn’t work together.

She got home and opened up a tub of ice cream which would have to do for dinner tonight. Anna was too exhausted to cook and wasn’t sure she’d be awake long enough to eat it.

She plopped down on her sofa and thought about the real problem, the program. What she needed to do was think about it harder from the perspective of being the one who did it. What would she do if she wanted to sabotage something?

Anna took a bite of her ice cream as she thought about it. Nothing obvious, something that no one would like to look for. She wasn’t nefarious, she didn’t know how to think of it from that perspective.

She did have one thought, though. Opening her laptop again, she plugged in a few things and took a look around. She could have ordered food, she mused, there was little hope of sleep ahead now.

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