Bad Boy of Wall Street: A Bad Boy Billionaire Romance (17 page)

I nudged Teddy. "The computer!" I hissed. "He's got it on him!"

Teddy just nodded, somehow not looking as thrilled as I felt. "You did say that he brought it everywhere with him, didn't you?" he pointed out, and I felt a little silly for a moment. I had told him already, after all.

"Target has his computer!" I texted to Rob.

"Great - but now what?" he sent back. And that was the problem, wasn't it?

After the barista set our drinks on the counter (and he sure took his sweet time getting those made for us, too - what were we paying him absurd amounts per drink for? It certainly wasn't speed!), we settled down at one of the open tables. At least here, Teddy was willing to pick a table fairly close to where Chad still sat and poked away at his computer. I caught a glimpse of the screen as we passed, and nearly burst out laughing - the man was browsing some sort of porn site! Right here, in public!

"Oh my god, he's looking at porn!!!" I texted to Rob.

"Sounds about right," he sent back. "Did I tell you that he's an ass?"

I still couldn't believe it. Right here? In the middle of a coffee shop? Did the man really not care about the sort of impression that he left on others? I almost expected him to unzip his pants and start tugging on himself, right here where everyone could see!

Keeping my eyes away from Chad and trying to pretend to have a conversation with Teddy proved to be one of the most difficult tasks I'd ever undertaken. "What do we do once we manage to get it?" I asked, taking a sip of the "cafe au lait." It wasn't bad, I had to admit, but I wasn't sure if it was worth nine dollars.

In answer, Teddy reached into his pocket and pulled out a small flash drive, which he held up to me for a second before making it disappear again. "This," he answered.

"What is it?"

To my amazement, Teddy smiled, perhaps for the first time that I could ever remember observing. "Remember how you thought that we'd be doing all sorts of high tech stuff, because I would know a guy?" he asked.

I nodded, not sure where this was going.

Teddy leaned back in his seat and took a sip of his own drink. "Well, in this case, I really do know a guy."

Of course, I wasn't going to let him just leave it at that and not tell me anything more. I whined a little, and finally he relented. Teddy explained that the flash drive had a large amount of storage, and furthermore had some sort of program that, when the flash drive was plugged into a computer, would automatically copy the entire contents of the computer onto the flash drive, compressing them so that they would all fit. This, Teddy explained to me, was what "cloning" a computer actually meant.

So now we just had to get our hands on the computer for a few minutes (Teddy insisted that he'd need no more than five minutes to clone the computer)! This plan might really work, if we could just get Cartmann away from his computer for a little while!

Turning, I looked over at Cartmann. Yes, I wasn't supposed to look right at him while we were surveilling him, but I just wanted to see if he was still on porn!

Oops. Chad was looking up from his screen at that very moment, and his eyes briefly locked onto mine. Shit, he might have noticed me. I hurriedly jerked my eyes away, grabbing for my cup and taking a sip.

As I lowered the cup of coffee back down, however, I saw Teddy, sitting across from me, stiffen. I looked up at him, curious about why he might be twitching.

And then I felt the tap on my shoulder.

"Excuse me." I turned and looked up, struggling to keep my face straight, as Chad Cartmann himself looked down at me.

"Yes?" I squeaked out, sounding like a half-drowned mouse.

"I just noticed you - I haven't seen you around this coffee shop before. As a sign of goodwill, I thought that I should buy you another cup, to welcome you." Chad grinned down at me, and for one moment, time stood still.

In that second of frozen time, I noticed two things:

First, Chad's suit was cut fairly close to his body. This meant that I could see that, just below his belt buckle, he was sprouting a full-on erection. Aftermath of his porn session, or something more? The shape stood out from the dark gray of his suit, and I had to resist a sudden urge to punch him right in the dick.

Second, if Chad was over here, hitting on me, he wasn't at his computer - which now sat, totally unguarded, on his table.

Fighting against all my better instincts, I put on a smile as I looked up at him. "That's, uh, so nice of you!" I replied. "I would love another cup of coffee from a handsome man like you!"

Chad grinned down at me, so pompous and stuck-up that I nearly wanted to barf. I forced myself to smile back as I stood up, trying to ignore how his eyes lingered on my figure, clearly not caring that I noticed.

Teddy better make good use of this distraction, I prayed.

Chapter Twenty

*

I forced myself to smile up at Chad Cartmann, Rob's former boss, as he did his best to leer down the front of my shirt. "Sure, I'll take a cup of coffee from you," I replied, doing my best to hide any trace of revulsion in my voice.

It must have worked, because Chad kept on smiling, reaching down and offering his hand to help me up. Yeah, like I needed - or even wanted - his help. Still, I wanted to keep him distracted, so I accepted the hand and let him tug me up.

"So you must come here a lot," I said to Chad, nodding towards his computer, still sitting - unguarded! - on his personal table. "How did you convince them to give you a reserved spot like that? It's so impressive!"

Chad shrugged, trying and failing to look like he wasn't proud of himself. "I helped set this place up, donated a considerable amount to paying for it," he said, as if this was an amazing act that he'd done. "They were quite grateful."

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Teddy slowly rising up from his chair, his eyes on me. I gave him a tiny little nod, trying to communicate my half-formed plan to him telepathically. "And did you help with the design?" I asked. I needed to get Chad away from his computer, so he wouldn't see Teddy messing around on it. "It's so... unique!"

As I spoke, I took a few steps away from my seat, in the opposite direction from Chad's table and computer. The man glanced back at his computer, however, apparently reluctant to let it out of his sight.

"Ooh, I know!" I exclaimed. "My coworker can keep an eye on your computer, and you could show me around!"

The suggestion made Chad smile, in a way that didn't exactly comfort me. "That would be wonderful. I'd especially like to show you the upstairs - it's quite breathtaking."

Erm. Alone with Chad upstairs. This was very quickly moving beyond merely uncomfortable territory and into the red-flags-everywhere minefield sort of territory. "Upstairs, huh?" I said, trying not to let any of my rising panic slip into my tone. "I didn't know that there was an upstairs section!"

"Oh, it's quite private." Chad grinned even wider at me. "But I've got special access."

And then, the man winked at me, even as his eyes locked onto my chest once again!

Oh my god. Quick, April, make a decision!

"Let's go," I said, even as I fought down the gorge at the back of my throat. If the man wasn't such a sleaze, and if I didn't know anything about his past, I might actually find him attractive, I tried to convince myself. After all, his teeth were straight and white, and he clearly had plenty of money based on his clothes. Would I really have turned him down if I met him at a club or a bar?

Yes, I would have done so, I knew. There was something about the way that he looked at me, the way he acted and spoke, that convinced me beyond a doubt that Chad Cartmann was, quite simply, not a nice guy. He had the same good looks as Rob, but none of Rob's warmth, his charm, his sincerity and deep kindness and caring. Where Rob was amazing, Chad was just an ass.

Maybe I could hit him with something upstairs and knock him out, I tried to convince myself as he reached out for my hand, leading me towards the stairs at the back of the coffee shop. Would he notice if I just hit him with a two-by-four in the forehead?

Over Chad's shoulder, at least, I saw Teddy flash me a thumbs-up as he moved towards the man's computer. At least he understood the plan.

Now, I just had to keep Chad distracted for a few minutes, in some way that wouldn't leave me horribly scarred for the rest of my life.

I tried to take my time climbing up the wooden stairs that led to the shop's second level. Chad, however, made a little noise behind me, a grunt of appreciation. "You know, I don't think I caught your name," he said.

"April," I replied. I froze for a moment, cursing at myself. I shouldn't have given him my real name!

"April," Chad echoed, almost like he was tasting how my name sounded in his mouth. "Has anyone ever told you that you've got a great ass, April?"

Oh wow. Apparently, despite all his money, Chad had absolutely zero charm.

"You know, my boyfriend has mentioned that on many occasions, yes," I ad-libbed. "He's very fond of it - very protective, you might say."

"Was that him downstairs?"

Yeah, right. Teddy was the opposite of my type. "No, that wasn't him," I answered. "He's, um, out of town. In the Hamptons."

Crap, maybe I shouldn't have said that, either. Didn't Chad know that Rob was up there? What if he caught on?

Chad, however, just chuckled behind me. "Well, they do say that anything that happens while someone's out of town doesn't really count," he purred, moving in closer behind me as I reached the top of the stairs.

Surely, five minutes had elapsed by now, hadn't it? If I told Chad that I wasn't interested in him, he wouldn't catch Teddy still breaking into his computer?

"I think it counts," I said, turning around - but this just put me face to face with Chad, and his arms were already reaching out to me. I tried to move back, but I bumped against a wall, and those hands settled down on my hips.

An instant later, however, they slid further down and around me, grabbing two handfuls of my ass!

Immediately, my hand flew up and slapped Chad across my face. "Oh my god, you ass!" I yelled at him. "What, you think you can cop a feel just because you've got money?"

"Just go with it," the man insisted, and unbelievably, his hands reached out for me again!

This time, I did think about my next move - and still did it. As he tried to pull me forward, I brought one knee up, squarely between his legs.

For a moment, I got a very satisfying sight of Chad's face as he went cross-eyed with pain, sagging down and dropping to his knees.

Hah. That would teach him for reaching out and trying to grope me!

"Pervert!" I shouted down at him, shoving him backwards. Fortunately, I at least had the presence of mind to not shove him down the stairs, and instead pushed him back onto his side on the landing. Chad just grunted, his eyes still squeezed shut and both of his hands clutching at his injured crotch.

"Bitch," he groaned, the word coming out from between gritted teeth.

"Ass," I fired back down at him.

I waffled for one more second, looking down at the groaning man laying on the floor and clutching various bits of his anatomy. Should I go downstairs? Stay up here? Kick him again?

A minute later, Chad made that decision much easier when he reached out for me, trying to grab my ankle. Kick him again! shouted a voice inside my head that, for just a moment, sounded as if it had come from Rob himself.

I obeyed the voice, and then bolted back down the stairs as Chad rolled onto his back with a fresh groan of pain. Please, please let Teddy have finished up with copying the computer's files by now, I prayed to any deity who would take my message.

I burst downstairs into the coffee shop with a bang of the door opening, attracting plenty of attention. Ignoring the curious and bemused stares, I dashed across the shop's floor, over to where Teddy still sat by Chad's computer, looking up at me with an expression of appalled confusion.

"What the hell is going on?" He asked, wide-eyed.

Looking down at the laptop computer open on the table in front of him, I saw that he'd removed the flash drive from the computer. Maybe someone upstairs in Heaven had been listening and heard my prayer after all. "We got to get out of here," I answered, reaching down and grabbing his arm. "Chad just totally hit on me."

"Duh. I could've told you that he was going to do that." I really didn't need sarcasm from my companion right now, but hearing him respond just as I'd expected was somehow rather comforting. "So what did you do?"

"I kneed him in the balls."

For possibly the second time since I'd met him, a smile danced briefly across Teddy's face. "I suppose that we ought to get out of here, shouldn't we?"

"It took you that long to realize?" I retorted. "And here I was, thinking that you were the super-smart investigative reporter!"

Teddy rolled his eyes as he jumped to his feet. There he was, back to normal. "Lead the way, Miss Karate Master."

From behind me, I heard a shout, the voice filled with mingled anger and pain. "There! That bitch just assaulted me!"