Page 7 of The Hacker
It was a bad sign that both of them were there, especially in the evening. They seemed to feel it was okay to deal with personal stuff after normal work hours.
“You’re here late,” Leland said to Derek as he eased into a chair beside Tully. Since his partner had fallen in love with Dawn’s friend Alice, Derek spent more time out of the office, although he often worked from home.
“I have a personal request,” Derek said.
Leland steepled his fingers again as he waited with a faint sense of dread.
“You’re the only person I know who can do that and pull it off,” Tully said, imitating Leland’s gesture. “When I do it, I look like an asshole.”
“I could say that you always look like an asshole but it would be unkind,” Leland said.
Derek gave them a tight smile. “Could we focus here?”
“My posture indicates that I am focused,” Leland said.
“Right.” Derek cleared his throat. “Now that Alice and I are engaged, we are planning a wedding.”
“That generally follows an engagement.” Leland restrained himself from doing a fist pump of relief. This meeting wasn’t about him.
“Unless you elope.” Tully sounded hopeful. “I’ll drive the getaway vehicle.”
“We’re not eloping,” Derek said.
“Do you have a date yet?” Tully asked.
“As soon as possible,” Derek said. “Which means in about six months.”
“Your Alice is very organized,” Leland said. “Most New York metro–area weddings take at least a year to plan. Unless you’re considering a destination wedding?”
“We’re not ...” Derek glared at his friends and partners. “Trying to talk about this with you two is like herding cats.”
Leland was enjoying himself now. It was rare to see his unflappable partner off-balance.
“Forget all the details,” Derek said. “I’ve been thinking about my best man. I know it’s supposed to be just one man, but this job calls for two. You’ve both been there for me through all the ups and downs of our roller coaster ride with starting KRG. You helped me make my proposal to Alice an event straight out of her dreams.”
“Leland even wore a wig. He gets extra credit for that,” Tully interjected.
Derek’s fiancée loved Regency romances, so Derek had rented a mansion in New Jersey and asked his friends to dress up as a coach driver—that was Tully, since he somehow knew how to drive a team of horses—and a nobleman’s butler. Hence the wig, which had itched like the devil.
“You’re the kind of friends a man is lucky to have one of, let alone two.” Derek swallowed visibly. “It’s a little unorthodox, but I would be honored if you would both agree to be my best men.”
“Hell, yes!” Tully said. “I’ll drive you to the church in a coach-and-four.”
Derek chuckled. “That won’t be necessary.” He turned to Leland.
“The honor is mine.” Leland meant it. The three of them had been through hell and high water together since business school. They’d had each other’s backs when they thought KRG was going to fail. They’d celebrated every success, of which there were pitifully few in the beginning. They’d beaten the odds because when one of them got discouraged, the others were there to shore him up. These men were more than brothers to him.
“Are we going to have a group hug?” Tully asked. “Because I’m in.”
Derek laughed. “Maybe at the wedding. Thank you, both of you. You are indeed thebestmen.”
The happiness that glowed around Derek these days would have been nauseating if he didn’t so richly deserve it. Leland hadn’t believed that any of them could find that kind of love. They were too driven by their own personal demons, always striving for the next level of success.
All this talk of Alice brought his thoughts back to her friend Dawn and his disappointment that the Wi-Fi problem had been resolved without his help.
Although he still wondered what had generated such a high level of traffic on a local gym’s Wi-Fi. Especially since it had continued for two weeks without anyone detecting or blocking it. Even an idiot could see that it was what had caused the streaming impairment. Did that mean they weren’t able to stop it, or they didn’t want to? The second possibility intrigued him.
Leland started when Derek plunked a glass of neat bourbon down on the coffee table in front of him.
