The following week I was on the way to the studio when my phone dinged from the passenger seat. At the next red light, I reached over and read the text message from Paul.
P: Got news. See me when you get in
Excitement rose inside me. It had to be about the leaker. I needed that sorted.
Twenty minutes later I was barging into Paul's office. "Tell me you know who the rat bastard is!"
Paul looked up from his desk. "Possibly."
"Tell me," I demanded, flopping into a club chair across from him.
"After the second leak I had an outside IT contractor I trust install extra security measures. It was done after hours, he reported directly to me and no one else was told," Paul explained.
I raised an eyebrow. "Not even me apparently. You think I'm leaking my own shit?"
"I forgot to tell you, okay. I got a lot of shit to do!" Paul huffed, waving his hands in the air. "Anyway, the new security stopped a third leak yesterday and confirmed it's someone with inside access. Tyrese was the only one scheduled to work yesterday. If Jared wasn't here at all, then it's Tyrese."
I shook my head. "Jared was off, but he stopped by for something. I saw him in one of the unused studios."
"Really? Fuck," Paul sighed. "I thought we finally had him."
We sat in silence for a moment.
"Why was Jared here on his day off? Think he slipped in to leak the songs and avoid suspicion?" Paul asked.
I shrugged. "He could have forgotten something he needed in the studio. Could have come in to work a bit on an independent project. It's not unusual."
A nasty thought had been bothering me for a while now and this latest attempt fit the pattern. The first leak occurred after Nat and I broke up. The second after I'd fucked Nat but refused to get back together. This third attempt happened after I'd walked out on her following Emma's call.
"Are you sure it's someone inside?" I asked. "No one outside could be doing this?"
"I'm sure," Paul said. "Why?"
Chewing my lip, I hesitated. Was I being paranoid?
"The timing of the leaks ... they line up pretty well with blow ups I've had with Nat."
Paul looked thoughtful. "She's vindictive, I can see her wanting to do it. But is she tech savvy enough? This is expert level stuff."
I shook my head, relieved. "Nah. She's competent with technology, but not an expert."
"So we're back to Jared and Tyrese," Paul said. "Nothing in their background checks raised any red flags. I'll have to come up with another idea."
I nodded and rose. "At least they didn't succeed this time. Thanks."
Walking into the studio I was greeted by Tyrese.
"Hey dawg," he said, looking up from his phone.
"Yo," I said, sliding into my chair at the sound board and twirling around. "How's it going?"
He shrugged, slipping his phone into his pocket. "What are we starting with today?"
Tyrese didn't seem in the mood to chat, so I asked him to cue up a song I'd been working on this week that just wasn't coming together. If it didn't improve today, I was shelving it for now.
After recording some new lyrics, Tyrese and I listened to the playback.
"I like it," he said as his phone dinged twice with new messages. He flipped it to silent mode and apologized.
I barely noticed as I rewound and played the new part again, letting it run into the older portion. It sounded wack. Something about this song just wasn't working.
"Nah," I shook my head. "It's not working for me. Let's leave this for now."
"Okay. What's up next?"
As Tyrese called up the next song from the computer, he yawned.
"You look tired man. Everything okay?" I asked, thinking of what Paul had said. Tyrese could have tried to leak my shit again yesterday. Maybe he was feeling bad? Losing sleep?
"My girl's having some issues with an ex," he shrugged. "Trying to get past it."
That explained all the text messages this morning. He'd probably been up half the night fighting with Ayisha. I knew what that was like.
"That's rough," I nodded. "Hope shit works out."
"Thanks man," Tyrese said. "You seeing anyone these days?"
"Nah. Too busy with work," I said and turned back to the soundboard.
When we took a break for lunch, I leaned back in my chair and pulled out my phone.
M: U still owe me. Dinner & sex 2nite. I'll call it even
When I checked my phone later in the afternoon for a reply, I saw Callie had responded with an eye rolling emoji. She hadn't said no, so that meant yes as far as I was concerned.
Tyrese's tense mood grew worse as the day wore on. That girl was really putting him through the wringer. As quitting time approached, I couldn't wait to see Callie and relieve my own stress.
Walking into Callie's house, I found her in the kitchen pulling something out of the oven. It smelled damn good.
"You make that?" I asked. She looked good in a sleeveless blouse with her blonde hair pinned up.
"Who do you think I am? Betty Crocker?" Callie said as she set the chicken pot pie down on the counter beside salad. "No. I heated it up."
"Good. Then we can re-heat it," I said, moving behind her and scratching my beard along her bare neck.
"But I'm hungry!" Callie protested.
"So am I," I said and bit her shoulder hard enough to make her gasp. "Dinner can wait."
Dragging Callie to the bedroom, I rid us of clothes in a hurry. Slamming my lips on hers, I ran hands over her smooth skin.
"Damn," she said, a little breathless when we parted. "Who needs food?"
Grinning I flipped her over onto her knees and reached for a condom.
A couple orgasms later, we settled at the table with our plates. Starving now I tucked in. Callie's phone dinged from the counter and she rose to read the message. With a disgusted look she put the phone down without replying and sat back at the table.
"Bad news?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Dickwad with more demands," she sighed.
"What do you mean?" I frowned. "What does he want?"
"He supposedly wants me to work on a new case with him. Keeps trying to set up meetings to talk about it."
Callie pushed food around on her plate.
"And?" I prompted, thinking that sounded pretty normal.
"The only meeting times he has available are late in the evening, after everyone else has left for the day," she said. "I'm not interested in being alone with him in an empty office."
"Yeah," I nodded. "That sounds sketchy as hell."
"There's a work event on Thursday. I told him we could meet before that so I have a foolproof exit strategy and they'll be others around."
"Fuck co-workers with agendas," I said, thinking of the rat bastard betraying me.
"You don't like your employees?" Callie asked.
"Not all of them," I said. "Especially the one tryin' ruin me."
"What? Who's trying to ruin you?" she asked. "And why haven't you fired them?
I explained about the leaked songs and how we'd been able to narrow it down to two employees.
"It's been tough, working with Jared and Tyrese while suspecting them," I said.
"Jared? I think I met him at the Shady party. Tall, shaggy brown hair, cute?"
I grunted.
"It can't be him!" Callie cried. "He was so sweet. Why would he try to ruin you?"
"How the fuck should I know?" I growled, annoyed she was defending him. "And you talked to him for like five minutes. You've no idea who he is."
"Okay, what do you think of him? Since you've talked to him for longer than five minutes," Callie asked, mimicking me.
I shrugged, ignoring her sass. "He's good at his job, quiet. But I get the feeling there's more going on beneath the surface."
"And the other guy? Tyrese?"
"He's more straight forward. What you see is what you get," I said.
"Hopefully you catch whoever's doing it," Callie said.
"Yeah. I need a stress reduction," I muttered, helping myself to more of the chicken pie.
"How are things with your ex? Any more interventions?" Callie asked.
"Nah," I shook my head. "Hopefully she got the message."
"You never thought about getting back together with her?"
"Why you asking about this? What do you want?" I demanded.
Callie held up her hands in surrender. "If you don't want to talk about it, all you gotta do is say so."
She ate some salad while I glared at her.
"Think the Red Wings will be any good this year?" she asked.
"What?" I asked confused.
"I'm changing the subject since the last one made you mad. Keep up," Callie grinned.
I relaxed. "I don't follow hockey that much. More into football and basketball."
"Duly noted," Callie nodded. There was silence as we continued eating.
"I thought about it a lot. Getting back together with her," I said, looking down at my plate. "But she lied. And cheated more than once."
"Ouch," Callie said.
"Yeah," I laughed bitterly.
"People make mistakes," Callie said. "But a mistake is once. If they repeat it, it's no longer a mistake but a choice they're making."
"It definitely wasn't a mistake. She cheated a lot. With multiple guys. And took photos."
Callie's eyes widened. "No!"
I nodded.
"Huh," Callie said. "Is she brain damaged?"
It took me a moment but then I grinned. "Yeah. Bitch must be."
"It's the only explanation that makes sense," Callie said.
"I guess I coulda fucked her too hard," I shrugged. "Scrambled her brain."
"Of course," Callie said, rolling her eyes. "You ruined her."
"Watch your mouth. Or Imma ruin you too," I threatened.
"I'll take my chances," Callie laughed, rising and putting the dishes in the sink.
