“I’m not at liberty to sa—”
“Oh, bull.” He didn’t rise to the bait.
“Did you even know my brother?” she asked a moment later.
“I’d met him.” He took another pull on the bottle.
“Did you sleep with him?”
He coughed and sputtered, the question obviously taking him by surprise. “I don’t see what that has to do with anything.”
“I want to know. He was my brother. You approached me claiming you were friends. I want to know how much of that was a lie.” Her voice broke on that last word as she felt the loss and toll of the day begin to catch up with her.
“All I said was that I was an admirer of his work. That much is true. But if you need to know, then no, I didn’t sleep with your brother. For the record, I’m straight, not gay.”
Right. She’d pretty much guessed that when she’d caught him checking out her legs in the limo, but she’d wanted to know for sure. She studied him like a bug under glass, and to his credit he didn’t flinch beyond that initial splutter with the water. Instead, he leaned back into the plush sofa.
“Some people might find your line of questioning offensive,” he added.
“You said you’d tell me everything you could.”
He shook his head and narrowed his own stare for a moment. Other men might have raked their eyes down her body to make their point, but his eyes never left hers.
He looked deeply into her face, reading her and letting Abby clearly see that yes, he’d been aware of everything—just as she had in the limo. He’d felt her body beneath his, he’d enjoyed it and he wouldn’t mind repeating the experience—minus the flying bullets.
She wasn’t unused to being examined in what seemed such a personal way, but it had been a while. She was fascinated and uncomfortable at the same time. She didn’t want to think about how this made her feel. Certainly not now. She moved on to a new topic.
“Who do you work for?” she asked.
“Zip Tech.”
She snorted. “The same company as Jason. I don’t know that I believe that.”
“Why not?”
“You’re definitely not an engineer.”
“There are other jobs at the company.”
There was a knock at the door and he stood to answer it. Abby didn’t know what to expect—certainly not for the CEO of Zip Tech to walk into the hotel suite. She’d seen Donner’s picture before in Newsweek. Today he wore an expensive Italian suit and shoes that she guessed had cost more than her own designer ones.
“Hello, Miss Trevor. I’m Michael Donner. I’m terribly sorry to meet you under these circumstances. How are you feeling?” He reached out to shake her hand then sat across from her without any preamble. He was tall and almost as big as Shaun but fair-haired and not quite as buff.
She noticed that Shaun had snapped to attention when he walked in. Was this who Shaun had been texting from the limo? Come to think of it, she remembered him saying something to the driver about Donner, but she’d been too distracted by trying to breathe to notice at the time.
“I’ve been better, thanks. So what am I doing here under these circumstances?” she asked.
“You’re Jason’s sister and you’re in danger. We want to help you.”
“Why am I in danger?” This was feeling more and more like Alice down the rabbit hole by the minute.
“Your brother’s work was very valuable,” said Donner.
“I know nothing about Jason’s work. He took those nondisclosure agreements very seriously and didn’t share technical details with me. Not that I’d have understood them, anyway.”
Donner nodded. “It’s not just a question of what he might have told you, though. Our concern is what he left behind. You’re his sole beneficiary—and the only one who might be able to access the files putting you at risk.”
“I’m sorry. You’ve completely lost me.”
“Jason was our top engineer on a wireless security project. His hardware and software designs were at the heart of Zip Technologies’s newest product, Zip-Net. I believe his security protocol will revolutionize cell phone capabilities.”
She nodded. Jason had been so excited about his job. She hadn’t realized the magnitude of its significance till now. “But that still doesn’t explain why someone was shooting at me.”
“We believe the shooter wants something from you. Something that Jason wasn’t willing to hand over. Something that may have been responsible for his accident.”
“I thought my brother’s hit-and-run was random.”
“We’re not so sure.”
“I don’t understand. What do you mean? And who’s we?”
“Shaun and I. We don’t think your brother’s death was an accident. We think he was murdered.”
“MURDERED?” ONCE MORE ABBY felt the world tilt. “What? Do the police know about this? Are they investigating?”
“Yes,” said Donner. “The police are investigating as much as they intend to. We are as well.”
“I don’t understand. Why you? Why aren’t you letting the authorities handle it all?”
“Because they don’t want to believe there’s more here than a simple hit-and-run. It’s a delicate situation. Allow me to explain. May I call you Abigail?”
“Please…everyone calls me Abby.”
“My name’s Michael.”
She nodded impatiently. “Delicate how, Michael?” Her voice rose on that last word as her composure slipped over the edge of the cliff.
“Like I said, your brother created a new kind of security protocol that’s quite unique. I believe he’s changed how all cellular and data networks will be designed and secured from now going forward. I also think he may have been harmed because of his work.”
“Harmed?” She shot a look at Shaun. “You’re using that word, too. Harmed is getting your arm broken, Mr. Donn—Michael. My brother was hit by a car going at least fifty miles an hour through a crosswalk in Dupont Circle. He was dead before he hit the pavement. Harmed is not the word I would choose to describe that, especially if, as you suggest, it was done deliberately.”
Donner had the grace to look embarrassed as she continued. “I don’t understand why you believe it was murder. Isn’t the product he created already in use? The design is out there and you have a patent, I’m sure? What reason would anyone have to hurt Jason over a product he’s already completed?”
Donner nodded. “While we’ve already rolled out the first generation of the product and it’s working quite well for our initial customer, it’s not entirely accurate to say that Jason’s work was done.”
“Why is that?”
Donner glanced at Shaun before answering. “We have another client who has asked for an exclusive contract for the first five years. Normally we wouldn’t award a relatively new technology with such potential to an exclusive customer, but this is a special case because of who the client is.”
“Well, who is it?” she asked.
Donner cut his eyes back toward Shaun then again to her. “The Department of Homeland Security. They want the exclusive in order to use Zip-Net for all their cellular communications security.