Sweetpeas in April

 

 

Blurb:

Adam West, a high powered lawyer gets the shock of his life when he arrives to meet a new client— she's the wife he hasn't seen since they separated when he left her ten years ago.

Sam Reece doesn't need the added complication of working with her husband. She's tried hard to put her failed marriage behind her, going back to her maiden name even though they never got divorced. The situation is bad enough as it is, but it seems Adam is the only person who can help.

Can they ever move past the tragedy of the past or will its long shadow prevent them ever working together?

 

Extract:

His shirt sleeve brushed her cheek as he explained. “I took the files from your computer via a USB pen and ran them through a particular piece of software I have. The red line is the account run by Max Holder. The blue is the account run by Troy Branning. This is the amount of money missing, where it went, and so on.”
“What’s the yellow line mean? Other than the circle line on the Underground?”
“Cute.” There was a faint smile on his voice before it turned serious again. “The yellow line is a huge problem. It’s a vast amount of money that I can’t trace.”
“What?” Sam straightened so fast the back of her head collided with Adam’s shoulder.
He hissed in pain and stood properly.
“Sorry,” she apologized, as he rubbed his shoulder. “Where did you get that from? Is there a third person involved here?”
He dragged his chair around to her side of the desk and sat. “I’ve been here since three o’clock this morning extrapolating data and following the money.”
Sam looked at him, dismay coursing through her. “How could I not have seen this?”
“It’s well hidden.” Adam massaged his shoulder again, then let his hand fall to his lap. “You probably weren’t meant to see it. Or find it until it was too late.”
“I need you to show me exactly where you found this data. I want to build my own model.”
“OK. But I don’t want you do it on your work computer.”
Her head jerked up to stare at him. “Why ever not?”
“Because your whole computer system is networked. Anyone can access anything anywhere on the system. As soon as you open a file, someone will be able to read it and see any changes you make to it, especially if they are monitoring the system, which they’d have to be to remain undiscovered this long.”
She pointed to his laptop. “What about yours?”
“It’s my work one. It has six firewalls and the password is double encrypted.”
She scowled. “Bet I could guess your password.”
He raised an eyebrow. “Says the woman whose password is always incorrect. That’s how I managed to get into your computer and lift the files in the first place.”
“Hey,” she said, defending herself. “At least that way if I forget it, the computer reminds me and says, ‘your password is incorrect.’”
Adam sighed. “Pick a new one. Something no one—including me—will guess.”