Page 36 of Escape Girl

“Professionally, it’s not been an easy road since then,” Max said carefully. “Obviously, he fired me. I’m blacklisted at the C-level in the tech community. Taggert has ruined a lot of job opportunities for me.” He sighed. “I’m fine. I do a lot of short-term contracting now, sometimes even for the FBI Cyber Crimes unit. I’m developing my own new product again, which is exciting.” Bella looked like she wanted to interrupt, but she managed to restrain herself.

“But…” Tess prompted, putting a hand on his arm.

Max smiled at her and turned his arm so it was palm up and their fingers intertwined. “But… It would be great to not always have the threat of Taggert hanging over me. To be able to interview for a job without worrying that the rug will get pulled out from under me once I have an offer.”

I tapped my pencil on the pad a few times. “So you were searching the sites for someone else who had a similar experience with Taggert in the hopes that together you’d be able to discredit him publicly for this pattern of behavior?”

“I suppose.” Max took off his glasses to rub the bridge of his nose. “Over the past year, I did find two other people who did searches similar to Bella’s.” He sighed. “But I didn’t know what to do next. How could I reach out to them in a way that wouldn’t freak them out by referring to searches they thought were anonymous?” Tess handed him her cocktail and he gratefully took a swallow.

I blew out a long breath and thought through the few facts I had. “If it had been an IP case, your situation was a clear loser since you worked at SideDoor and had a rocky professional relationship with Taggert. Also, once you released the productasTaggert, you became complicit in his ownership of the code.”

Tess glared at me, but I held up a placating palm. “I totally get why Max did it, I’m just saying that there’s no validlegalrecourse for him at this time.” I looked at Bella, who was stillstaring starstruck at Max. “Bella’s case has potential, but it’s got some pretty big problems as well. I doubt that we’re going to win this case in a way that’s going to publicly out Cole Taggert as an unscrupulous ass.”

Jo spoke up for the first time. “We know. But the reason I connected her to you was because you’re an incredibly accomplished attorney, and I knew you wouldtryto help the situation. That’s more than Max and Bella had a few weeks ago.”

I bit my own lip to keep from snapping at her. It didn’t really work. “How could you possibly know anything about me?”

Jo didn’t flinch at my snotty outburst; she just smiled. “A solid character witness.”

What could she mean by that? My father? Somehow I doubted he spoke much about me at all in their weird little fake-relationship five years ago.

But I didn’t want to ask in front of Bella, Tess, and Max. Which I think she knew. Infuriated, I drained the rest of my cocktail.

“Anyway,” Tess said. “We wanted to meet you tonight to introduce ourselves and let you know that we are in this with you. We can help! Max can give you lots of background info on Taggert and SideDoor. Jo and her team have a number of useful skills. I can keep you all plied with bourbon and dirty jokes.”

Bella giggled, and my annoyance softened. Even if our case went into the toilet, she wasn’t alone anymore. I nodded. “Thanks. It’s honestly great to have more people in Bella’s corner.”

“We’re in both your corners,” Jo said softly. She slid out of the booth. “I’ll get the check.”

Max looked at his watch. “Uh-oh,” he said to Tess. “God’s going to pee any second.”

Bella and I exchanged uneasy glances. Tess laughed at us. “God is my neighbor’s dog. Max and I help her by walking him.”

“I’ll run down there and get him,” Max said, scooping up a few fries for the road. He squeezed Tess’s shoulder. “See you at your place?”

Tess whispered something in his ear. His pupils went dark, and he tripped over his own feet getting up. “Twenty minutes!” she called to his back.

“Are you ready to go?” I asked Bella. She nodded. “I’ll get us an Uber.”

My mind was overwhelmed by Max’s big reveal. This had to be the opening to our path to win. I just needed to follow it. Did this new knowledge change the way I framed our response to the cease and desist, our request for a meeting? I bounced in the booth, anxious to leave. All I wanted was to get in my hotel bed with my laptop.

But wait. Was I really going to leave here tonight without talking to Jo about my father or what had happened in August? I scanned the entire bar, but Jo was nowhere in sight.

She was gone.

Chapter Eleven

Early August—Six Weeks Ago

Thrum, thrum, thrum.

Buzz, buzz, buzz.

“UGH.” I let out a frustrated grunt and forced one eye open. Like I did every night since coming to London in May, I rolled the wrong way in the hotel bed. No clock on the nightstand. With another exasperated huff, I rolled the other way—3:00 a.m. Yes, it was my typical insomnia time. But for once, I’d been having a solid night of sleep until something had woken me.

Thrum, thrum, thrum. There it went again. My phone was set to vibrate, and it was giving itself quite a workout under one of the pillows.

I blinked my bleary eyes clear in the darkness. Who the hell was calling now? My case was high profile and intense, but I was already working fourteen-hour days. Usually the hours between 10:00 p.m. and 6:00 a.m. were uninterrupted. My stomach dropped to the floor. There were only a few reasons to call someone at 3:00 a.m. Suddenly frantic, I grabbed for the phone. What if my father had collapsed or something?

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