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. It’s an amazing opportunity. It would fast-track this technology into the stratosphere. Millions of dollars are at stake. Company growth will skyrocket. Assembly line jobs will boom just to keep up with the demand. And as the cherry on top, our national security will be better served than ever before. It’s a win-win for everyone.”
She watched him as he talked and could see why he was considered to be so charismatic. Despite her confusion she felt pulled in by the force of his personality—his mannerisms, his gestures. Mentally she shook herself.
“Your brother was handling some debugging issues for the program the morning he died. You can imagine with an operation this large, it can get ‘glitchy’ at times, especially when it’s just going online. He was about to install upgrades to take care of that.”
“Sure.” Abby nodded. She didn’t have a lot of computer expertise but she knew how easy it was for her own PC to get “glitchy.”
“Up until then Jason hadn’t been sharing the software upgrade plans or file on the company network and frankly, I
