Page 3 of Pressure

Marissa Sullivan giggled at Russell Adler’s stern tone. The man couldn’t help it.

“Sorry. I’ve been in corporate America for too long. I’m desperate to get back to a grassroots tech company. Doing this job will be exciting.”

“You’ve done excellent work for me in the past. I was happy to refer you to Elijah.”

Elijah Barrett, another billionaire. Russell told her she would be working with Garrett Oliver and Patrick Sutton, too. An in with a group of billionaires was good for her goals.

When she got off the phone with Russell, she called her sister.

“Hey Daphne, I’ll be in Colorado for some work soon. I could make a trip there first if you want some girl time,” she said when she answered.

“Yes please. And Ice cream time. And a movie date, and maybe a trip to Vegas?”

Marissa laughed at her sister’s list. “I’m only going to have a day or two. Yes, to Ice cream and a movie but we’ll have to wait on Vegas.”

Daphne sighed dramatically. “Fine. Wanna go on a double date? My current plaything has a really hot cousin.”

Marissa sighed. Her sister was forever trying to set her up. “No, Daph. How many times have I told you to stop playing matchmaker? I do not need a relationship mucking up my plans.”

“Right, because a cubicle in Chicago is exactly where you want to be. I just think it’s time for you to move on. It’s been five years.”

“Stop. I just called because I want to spend some time with my sister. Please don’t make me regret that. I’ll fly in tonight and we’ll spend the next couple days together.”

“Party pooper. I’m excited though. I’ll just tell Chris he’ll have to wait until the weekend to get together with me.”

She said goodbye to her sister and dialed the number Russell had given her.

“Mr. Barrett, it’s Marissa Sullivan. Russell Adler says we can meet as soon as Thursday afternoon in Colorado. Does that still work for you?”

“It does, Miss Sullivan. We’re excited to have you come on board. Russell tells me you’re not unfamiliar with what goes on at Solitaire. I’m assuming we can count on your discretion, but we’ll need you to sign an NDA since you’re not a member.”

Marissa knew exactly what went on at Club Solitaire and would very much love to be part of it, but she’d walked away from the lifestyle five years ago—except for the occasional hookup on a dating app.

“I’m well aware, Mr. Barrett. I’ve been a part of the community myself. I’m just not regularly active at the moment.”

That was the understatement of the year.

“Well perhaps once you’ve finished your work for us, you’ll consider becoming a member.”

Highly unlikely. A thriving kink community would only stir up bad memories that she had long ago buried alongside her dreams of owning a tech startup. Though she was eyeing the potential to dig that dream out of the rubble and do something with it. Who knew, Elijah Barrett might be on to something. An elite club in the middle of Colorado was a long way from the Chicago scene where all her ghosts were.

“I’ll think about it,” she promised. “Is there a chance I can get into the system before our meeting and familiarize myself with it?”

He coughed. “I still need to introduce you to our cyber security expert. He’s protective of his code, so he’ll be the one to get you hooked up with everything you need. It’s all gibberish to me anyway.”

“Is there a reason I’m not communicating directly with him?”

Elijah laughed. “Let’s just say he’s hesitant to bring anyone else in. But the board outvoted him, so he’s going to play nice.”

She sure hoped so. A reluctant partner could make things difficult.

“I’m sure once he realizes how good I am, he’ll feel more comfortable. Programmers are notoriously protective of their work, and they usually have big egos.

“That sounds about right, Miss Sullivan. Where will you be coming from? I can book you a flight.”

“I’m actually leaving tonight to visit my sister in Arizona for a couple of days. I can just rent a car. The drive will be nice.”

“Save your receipts and I’ll see that you’re reimbursed.”

When she ended the call, she rubbed her hands together, feeling excited about the prospect of pouring through lines of code chasing down leaks and potential hackers. It was something she hadn’t done in a long time. Now she ran the IT department for a corporate law firm, and it was so dull. Some days, it felt like if she had to walk another old guy through how to recover his password or do another lecture on not storing your nudes on the cloud, she would claw her eyes out.

There was a knock on her door and a man stuck his head in looking sheepish. “Sorry Marissa. I did it again.”

She sighed and motioned him in. “It’s OK, Mr. Thomas. I’ll unlock your computer in just a few minutes. How would you feel about setting up facial recognition? That way you don’t have to worry about remembering your password.”

When Mr. Thomas left, she put in her PTO request and hoped this job with Elijah Barrett and the BDSM club was going to be enough to get her out of this hell hole.

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