One more chapter done, wone more chapter uploaded. I have got to get my schedule together this job is cramping my style. BTW my writing prompt book it out now its called "In Every Shade: The art of crafting Romance for the rest of us" I'm proud of it. It's on Amazon support if you wanna, or tell writers that could use a little inspiration. and BTW Can't wait til that next part of Village by the sea... Traylor better survive damn it!
Forty Two
C'mon, Chi.. in you go." Jade held the door to the cabin open, allowing the rest of her family to enter before she stepped over the threshold and followed them inside.
It was dark, close to ten pm, and later than either of them had expected them to arrive after Touching down, a bit of heavy traffic and a stop at a tiki hut intervened. But it had been a nice drive even so, and Jade didn't regret it as she detoured towards the wall switches.
Ah. She turned the lamps on and gazed around appreciatively. Definitely worth the trip.
Tori dropped her overnight bag on the couch as she headed for the cabin's kitchen, putting the bags she was carrying down on the stone countertop just inside the door. She whistled softly under her breath as she put away the supplies they'd picked up, listening to Jade ramble around putting on the air conditioning and flipping on the lights.
It felt very good to be here. Tori opened the cabinet after she finished, taking out a coffee filter and going about the task of putting them up a little coffee after the long drive. The cabin was now finished, and she leaned on the counter as the hot beverage brewed, looking out over the interior with a sense of pleasure.
The living area had a long couch against the wall, it's ends curving around to make a huge seating pit across from a wood enclosed television set. The furniture was overstuffed and comfortable, butter soft green leather that blended with the stone floors and wooden walls.
There were woven richly colored carpets scattered around, and in one corner a large round dog bed that Chino was busy scratching and snuffling at. On the walls were a few pictures, one piece of Jade's mother's art, and some of Tori's photography.
Overall, the impression was one of a richly appointed, if very small, hunting lodge, except it had no tacky animal heads on the wall and there was a distinct lack of testosterone.
Tori turned around in the room she was in. The kitchen had it's stone countertops, a polished and cool granite, which framed the gas stove and brushed stainless refrigerator, and blue shutters that closed over the window above the sink.
Rustic. Except that there were wireless access points mounted sedately on the walls near the ceiling, the television was a flat Art frame display, and the entire cabin was hooked up to a remote monitoring system that could have let her turn on the air and the coffee from the car on the way up if she'd really put her mind to it.
But she hadn't. Tori smiled as Jade appeared from the bedroom, having already traded her jeans and crisp cotton blouse for a pair of shorts and an old, ratty tshirt. "Know what?"
Jade walked over and leaned on the other side of the counter from her. "You're glad we're here." She said. "So am I."
Yes, she was glad. Tori sighed happily. It felt so calm and peaceful here in the cabin, with the sound of the ocean audible through the sliding doors that opened onto their big porch. Which was a little funny, because their house on Belvedere island was equally quiet, and had an equally close relationship to the sea – and yet, she always felt different when she was here. "I am very happy to be here, yes." She said. "But what I was going to say was, how about a bowl of designer popcorn, and a movie?"
"You don't need to ask me twice." Jade replied instantly. "Tell you what, I'll fix the coffee up while you go change."
"You don't need to ask me twice." Tori repeated, doing a little dance as she exited the kitchen, bumping hips with Jade on her way to the bedroom. "Don't Pick something gory."
"Only if you promise not to use that red candid apple stuff on the popcorn." Jade took her place in the kitchen, taking down a set of mugs and putting them down on the counter. "Gave you night mares the last time."
Tori chuckled as she entered their bedroom, smiling as she bypassed the neatly made waterbed and the mahogany dressers that held the clothing they now left at the cabin all the time. They'd picked ocean colors for the bedroom – blues and greens, with the odd punch of color, fiery orange and red, as though tropical fish had made an unexpected appearance. Over the floor to ceiling windows on both sides were stained glass panels, throwing warm bars of color when the sun slanted through them.
She loved this room. Tori unfastened her jeans and slipped out of them, folding them neatly and putting them on the shelf inside the closet. She put her hiking boots next to them, and then removed her shirt, hanging it up as she traded it for a shirt of Jade's, which hung down halfway to her kneecaps.
Chino trotted in to find her, tail wagging as she spotted Tori and rushed over to bump her knees. "Hi, sweetie.. did mommy Jade send you in here after me?"
"Growf."
"Okay, well here I am." Tori reached down to pat the dog's head. "Are you glad we're here too?"
Chino wagged her tail even more furiously. The Labrador enjoyed the cabin almost as much as her owners did, her favorite activity chasing the crabs down the beach just outside.
Tori gave the soft ears one more scratch, then she patted her leg and headed back out into the living room. Jade was just emerging from the kitchen with the coffee cups, and she paused to put them down on the counter as Tori passed her. "Tor?"
Willingly, Tori detoured, swinging around and coming nose to nose with her partner. "Yes?"
Jade leaned forward and kissed her gently on the lips. Then she rubbed noses with her. "I love you." She rested her forehead against Tori's. "Do you care if it rains tomorrow?"
"Hell no."
"Me either."
Tori leaned in for another kiss, then she reluctantly backed off and ducked into the kitchen. "How do you feel about milk chocolate and caramel?" She asked, removing a package of popping corn from the refrigerator.
One of Jade's eyebrows waggled. "Lose the corn, shortie." She drawled, in her sexiest voice.
Tori started laughing.
"Wasn't the reaction I was going for." Jade complained.
"I know." The brunette got the corn in the popper. "But I was just imagining the godawful mess."
"Harumph." Jade took a sip of her coffee.
Tori looked at her, then left her corn to pop as she climbed up onto the counter and leaned across it, capturing Jade's lips just as she managed to swallow. "You can drizzle me whenever you want, my love." She leaned even closer, whispering in Jade's ear. "But caramel hardens in really, really awkward places."
Now it was Jade's turn to laugh, almost making her spill her coffee.
Satisfied with the reaction, Tori got down off the counter and retrieved the small containers of sweets, sticking them in the microwave to heat up as the corn started popping in the popper. "You know, I'd love it if it rained tomorrow. I would absolutely adore a day to just lay around and be a complete bum."
"You can do that if it's sunny." Jade walked around the counter, handing Tori her coffee.
"Nah. If it's sunny, I just have to be outside messing around on the beach, or in the water, or on the bike…" Tori demurred. "I feel so guilty being a couch potato when it's pretty out."
"Eh." Jade had no such problem, having learned to take her slothdom where she found it. "Well, if it's nice out, I'll fish for dinner. How's that?"
Hm. Tori removed the corn from the popper, putting into the huge round bowl obtained specifically for the purpose. She drizzled her additives over it and tossed the corn. "I think that sounds spectacular." She looked over her shoulder at Jade and grinned.
Jade grinned back. They took the corn and the coffee and curled up together on the couch. Tori leaned back and felt the aggravation of the week dissolve as Jade wrapped both arms around her. Even the tension of the ship, where the wiring had slipped behind schedule eased into that place she reserved for things she had limited control over.
John was going as fast as he could. The conditions in the ship were hellacious, there was intermittent power, and no air, and even Jade had come off the vessel shaking her head.
Tori could not change the conditions. All she could do is press John to meet his commitment, because time was running short and she had a deadline herself.
Here, she could release all that, putting it aside until Monday. Even in the condo, that was hard to do because all she needed was to walk outside and she could see the ship from there. In the cabin, there was only peace, the sea, and the warmth of Jade's body pressing against hers.
She picked up a popcorn and offered it to Jade, who accepted it, licking the chocolate drizzle off her fingers as she took it between her teeth. "Can I ask you something?" She looked away from the opening credits of the bare chested hack and slasher her beloved partner had selected and peered back over her shoulder.
"Sure." Jade opened her mouth and poked her tongue out, looking inquiringly at the bowl.
Tori placed another corn on the pink appendage and watched it disappear. "I was a lot more pissed off about all the bullpoop talk at the office than you were."
"Was that a question?"
"Erm.. no. I guess I was just…" Tori paused. "I guess you're just used to it, huh?"
Jade's hold tightened. "No." She gazed reflectively past Tori's shoulder. "I just knew none of it was true, so I didn't care."
Tori's brow creased.
"The last time I heard stuff like that, it was." Her partner clarified quietly. "And the time before that, and etc." Her shoulders moved in a faint shrug. "All I felt was just this sense of relief, honestly. As long as you know the truth, nothing else matters."
There were faint reflections in the depths of Jade's eyes. Tori disregarded the movie and the popcorn, half turning to lay her hand gently on Jade's cheek. "Nothing else does matter." She said. "I never thought about that, you know? About how it was before for you."
"Mm." Jade blinked peacefully at her. "It sucked." She said. "Especially the last time. Everyone took a.." She paused a second. "certain glee in our very, very public breakup."
Tori rubbed the side of her thumb against Jade's skin. "Well, if I'd been there.."
"If you'd been there, it'd have been a moot point."
"Okay, well, if I'd been there and we hadn't been together…" Tori restarted.
"You think that's really likely?"
Tori shifted her hand to cover Jade's mouth. "Let me finish my over the top declaration, please." She scolded. "If I'd been there, and we hadn't been together, and we were just friends, I would have taken the biggest mallet I could find and gone around whacking all those bastards on the head like moles." She removed her hand and leaned closer. "Do you believe that?"
"Oh yeah." Jade agreed instantly. "You have the staff scared spitless. They'd rather spill gossip to me than dare to tell you about it."
Tori's eyebrow cocked. "Really?"
"Really." Jade kissed her. "So yes, Victoria, I believe that with all my heart."
"Oo." Tori nibbled a piece of corn. "I feel like such a mercenary." She let her head rest against her partner's. "Grr. You bring out the beast in me."
Jade eyed her, a grin surfacing immediately. "I'd buy that a lot faster if you didn't have that cute smile, Tor."
Tori solemnly stuck her tongue out, then licked Jade's nose with it.
Jade reveled in their closeness, feeling a simple happiness not only in having Tori in her arms, but in being here in this place that was so much a part of both of them. The troubles at work niggled at the very periphery of her conscience, but she ignored that, leaving the potential issues for the daylight.
Tonight didn't belong to work, it belonged to them. Jade poked her tongue out for another popcorn, and they settled in to watch the mayhem.
As it happened, it rained the next day. Tori was in her glory, lounging in her pyjamas on the couch watching luridly violent, yet curiously satisfying cartoons. Jade was stretched out facing her, the length of the furniture explicitly planned for so that they both could relax on it at the same time.
"Mm." Tori wiggled her toes against her partner's, grinning as Jade responded. While purchasing leather furniture didn't usually involve measuring for footsies, in their case they'd decided to make everything in the cabin fit them to a T.
Even the chairs outside on the porch did. Hers was a little smaller, with a shorter seat, and Jade's had a length that fit her long legs perfectly. Precious, perhaps, and a bit pretentious, but as Jade had said at the time, they could afford it and it lasted longer than an ice cream cone.
At least they hadn't had the towels embroidered with Hers and Hers. "Find anything yet?" Tori asked.
"Nope." Jade had her laptop balanced on her thighs. "So far, nada. That MCI router exists, but they swear nothing in it's got our IP."
"Uh huh." Tori put her head down on the plush leather couch arm. "You they're covering up, or just clueless?"
"Eh. Let me threaten more people. I'll let you know."
Sounded like a fine idea to Tori. She stifled a yawn as she watched the animated characters thrash and dance their way across the screen, reminded suddenly of her little friend Gopher Jade. "Are you messing with that program a lot more?"
Jade's fingers stopped moving, and she peered at Tori over the top of her laptop screen. "That program." She repeated. "You mean.." She made a face, and chattered.
"Yeah."
Jade continued typing for a bit in silence, thinking about the question.
"I thought maybe you were getting a little bored." Tori suggested. "So you were using that to keep yourself interested."
"No." Her partner shook her head. "Actually, I think I've just been lonely."
Tori rolled over and looked at her in surprise.
"That's my way of hanging out with you when we're both busy." Jade had most of her concentration focused on her screen, and was unaware of Tori's rapt attention. "I'd be sitting in my office.. c'mon, you bastard… and I'd be on this stupid, pointless conference call wishing I was out on the boat with you instead – and all of a sudden some new idea for the damn thing would occur to me. New tshirt, new dance.. I finally got the vocal program working the other day…"
"I noticed." Tori replied quietly, now understanding the message it had conveyed.
"Anyway, it's more interesting than listening to people bicker about their budgets."
Tori studied her partner's angular face, watching the pale eyes flick over the screen with restless energy. "Jade?"
"Hm?" Jade looked up.
"Do you… not like what you're doing now?"
Jade's brow creased. She thought for a moment, then cleared her throat a little. "I don't know, really. It's not so bad most of the time."
Tori got to her knees and scrambled forward, sprawling over Jade's legs to get closer to her. "You liked what you were doing before though, right?"
Jade shrugged. "Yeah, I guess."
"I took your job."
The dark haired woman chuckled easily. "No you didn't. I horse wrangled you into the position over your protest, if I recall correctly." She set the laptop aside. "Besides, you do it better than I did."
Tori crawled up further. "That's not the point, Jade." She objected. "Not if you're not happy because of it."
"Happy?" Jade took hold of her and pulled her up further, until Tori was half lying on top of her, their limbs tangled in a warm mess. "I have never in my life been happier."
Tori rested her chin on Jade's shoulder. "That's not what I.."
"I know. But it's the truth." Jade nuzzled her hair.
Perplexed, Tori fell silent, not really sure of what to say next anyway. Maybe, as Jade had hinted, it was time for her to change, and move on to do something else. The thought made her anxious, though, and she had to admit if only privately that the last thing she wanted from a professional standpoint is for Jade to leave the company.
Maybe they should both leave. Tori liked that idea better. They'd talked around the idea of forming a new business together for the longest time – maybe it was really time to get off their butts and do something about it.
She put her arm over Jade's stomach and squiggled down between her and the couch, liking the view from this end better anyway. She thought for a bit about her own job, and whether or not she liked it as much as she had when she'd started.
It was okay, she finally decided. The one big problem with it was that it never really allowed a sense of completion of anything. It was always one situation after another, after another, after another. There was never really any time when she could sit back and feel satisfied with where she, and by extention, the company, was.
Would that ever change? Tori doubted it. She was about to mention her revelation to Jade, when her cell phone rang, as though punctuating her thoughts with eerie precision. With a sigh, she took the instrument Jade handed her, and opened it. "Hello?"
"Ms. Vega?"
You called my cell phone. Who else did you expect to be answering it, my dog? "Yes?"
"This is Justin in operations, ma'am." The voice replied. "I'm sorry to bother you on the weekend, but I had note in the log about a file transfer on the financial lines?"
Tori glanced up at Jade, who was now listening. "Yes. Is it happening again?"
"Well, I'm not sure, ma'am. I'm just seeing a lot of traffic on that line, and it's sort of unusual for a Saturday, you know?"
Jade picked up her laptop as Tori straightened to give her room.
"Yes, I understand." Tori said. "Okay, we'll take a look at it, Justin. Thanks for calling me. Did anyone from the bank contact you?"
The tech sounded surprised at the question. "On a Saturday? No, ma'am. They sure didn't." He said. "I've notified my boss, and he's checking it out too, but he thought maybe you'd be interested in hearing it also."
Jade switched off the program she'd been using and opened up her network systems instead. "Got that right."
"He's spot on." Tori told the tech. "Thanks for calling me, and let me know if anything changes, okay?"
"Yes ma'am, I sure will." Justin promised.
Tori hung up and squirmed around so she could see the laptop screen. "I am getting really freaking annoyed at all this crap, Jade."
"Mm. Sorry." Jade was typing quickly. "My stupid fault." She accessed the circuit in question and reviewed it. "Damn it, he's right." She sighed. "Same crap as before.. I'm going to just cut it off."
"Don't you want to try and trace it?"
Jade's fingers hesitated. "I don't think we can risk it." She admitted. "I don't know what this is, Tor. It's too dangerous on the bank lines." She typed in another command. "I'll grab what I can, then dump the connection."
Tori watched in silence as she completed the action, and the activity in the monitors fell to normal levels. "Why didn't Sinjin do that?" She asked, curiously. "Was he trying to track it down?"
Good question. Jade keyed up her messaging program and typed in a question, then hit send. She reviewed the logs of the router, checking the address sources still held in it's memory. "Hm." She frowned and reviewed them again, then copied and pasted them to her desktop. "Tor?"
"Yeah?" Tori peered at them. The list of addresses were mostly of no interest to her, save one. "Isn't that one of ours? Is that you.. or maybe Sinjin coming in remote?"
Jade checked her laptop's configuration. "Nope.. not me." She probed further. "I don't think it's Sinjin."
"Another spoof?" Tori leaned even closer. "But wait, that's from.."
"Inside our network." Jade completed the sentence unhappily. "Now I hope it's Sinjin.. it's gone already." She searched, but found no trace of the offending station. Her machine beeped, and an answer came back from Sinjin.
I was trying to get a dump. Got a partial.
Jade typed back a question.
No, that's not me, I'm on the protected security range. Sinjin typed back. That's one of the pool addy's.
"Shit." Jade sighed again. She typed back. Then we need to find out why one of those pool addresses was inside the bank router. Because it's one of the sources of that data parse.
The screen was briefly silent. That sucks.
"No kidding." Tori felt a sick sensation in her guts. "Someone inside the company is doing this? Is that what we're looking at, Jade?"
"Maybe."
Well, ulterior motives didn't usually show up on the security checks. Tori thought back over the recent new hires in their division. "Jade, we haven't hired anyone for three months. Are you saying someone might have been here for that long, just lying low?"
"Doubt it." Jade put a series of controls in place. "If it's a pool, it might not be from IT." She debated a moment, then exhaled. "I'm going to put my program in all the border routers."
Tori winced. "Is it ready?"
"No. But it's better than nothing." Jade called up the utility and started transferring it from her laptop to the remote devices. "Worst it'll do is crash the whole net."
"Jade…"
"I know, hon, but we've got very few options." Jade replied gently. "I'll take responsibility for it."
"That's not my issue." Tori protested. "It's just really hard to fathom having to explain to a zillion customers that they're down because you crashed us."
Jade chuckled without humor. "I'll take the calls if it happens." She finished transferring the program to the first router, then activated it. "I built the network, I can wreck it, I guess."
Tori hid her face in Jade's shirt. "Can you program it to scream if it crashes? At least we'll get warning…"
"Hopefully…" Jade finished her work. "Okay, it's in the number one pair." She monitored the devices with some anxiety, despite the confidence she had in her own skills. You just never did know when something you never anticipated would interact with a program, and send everything all to hell. "I think it's okay."
Tori peeked at the screen. The gauges were steady, but with the same odd flutter she'd seen the last time Jade's program had run. "Can you dump the warnings here?"
Jade drummed her fingers. "Yeah, I better. Ops has nothing set up to receive them." She keyed in the programming change carefully. "Okay… let me get that on the rest of them."
Jade!
"Whoops..shoulda warned him." Jade glanced at the message. Sorry. I'm putting my new code in.
Hey, that address was from inside the office! The server issued it at 2pm. I'm calling security to find out who's in.
Tori reached across Jade's forearms to type on the keyboard. I want to see that list! KS
Jade glanced at her, a grin twitching at her lips. "Should I get the mallet?"
"This is not funny." Tori growled. "Jade, if someone inside the office is responsible for that, we need to call the police."
"I know." Jade answered. "Let's just find out what's really going on before we jump to conclusions though." She typed further. "Not that there's any legitimate reason for anyone in our office to be in that router, but I do like to have the facts."
"Grr."
"Then we can whack em."
Tori put her head down on Jade's shoulder to wait, watching the screen with impatient eyes. Someone inside. Her eyes narrowed. Didn't that just suck.
