“I figured you’d go home, so I waited for you to book your ticket and made sure to take off an hour before you did. I’m seriously going to pitch my services to American Airlines. They have no idea how much they need me.”
He reached for her hands. “I wanted to see you. I wanted to talk to you again. I love you, and I know we can make this work.”
Passersby gave her worried glances when she started to cry.
“They were out of her favorite,” Ian explained. “I’ll get her something else.” He pulled her in close and rubbed her back, and the way he smelled and the feel of his arms around her was so familiar and good and him. She wanted to stay there forever. Finally she lifted her head and reached into the Cinnabon bag for a napkin to wipe her eyes.
“You okay?” he asked, brushing the hair back from her face.
She nodded and clasped Ian’s hands in hers, running her fingers over his knuckles. “A hacker came into the food pantry yesterday. He’d been in twice before.”
He looked alarmed. “How did you know he was a hacker?”
“I didn’t at first, and I’m still not sure. His story was good, and he’d obviously put some thought into it. He was quite friendly. Really had me fooled.” She explained the ruse Zach had used and how he’d asked for her by name but had never mentioned who’d given him the referral.
“I checked the dates on his paperwork. The first time he came in was right before I asked you to look at my computer. I was my normal self that day. Happy, smiling. If he was a hacker, that means they were already watching me. The second time he came in, I was a complete mess. Red eyes, tears. The whole nine yards. When he came in yesterday I thought I was being paranoid, but he always had an excuse about why he couldn’t show me his ID, and he was wearing a wrist brace the way you sometimes do. After he left, I discovered the phone number and address he’d given me were bogus. I was feeling pretty down, so I don’t think I aroused any suspicion.”
“I’m sorry, Kate. I never wanted anyone I love to be messed up in this.” He wiped the tears that were running down her face. “I’ve been thinking a lot about the future, and I’ve decided to start a new company. I’ll have plenty to keep me busy because I’ll have to start over and build it from the ground up. Phillip needs someone to do pentesting on government systems so they can be strengthened, and I told him I’d do it. There’s no infiltration. Nothing undercover. Just hacking and coding. It’s not nearly as warm as I’d hoped, but the DC area makes sense because I’ll have to spend more time at headquarters than I did before. I don’t want to live in the guesthouse forever, so I’m going to buy a house. For us.”
“Can you do that?” she asked. “Can you just move somewhere and start over?”
“A dead man can do whatever he wants. But I don’t know who doxed me and hacked you. I don’t know if they’ll ever truly believe I’m gone, and they may never stop trying to find me.”
“When did you know you loved me? You said one day you’d tell me and then we’d see who was first.” When she thought he was gone forever, the answer to that question had haunted her and she’d regretted not asking him.