He walked into the room carrying his laptop bag and another she recognized from her place. It looked like MaeBe had found one of Noelle’s tote bags and filled it with a change of clothes. She didn’t care about any of it.
“Noelle, we need to talk. You are not taking part in this investigation.”
She got to her feet, reaching for her cane because she had to go toe to toe with this man. “You don’t get to make that choice for me. You’ve made enough choices for me.”
His gorgeous face looked confused for a moment. “Is that why you’re upset with me? You think I made a choice for you? Baby, what other choice was there to make?”
“I don’t know because I wasn’t allowed to make one.”
“What should I have done?” The question came out quiet, his sincerity hard to deny.
But her anger had a place, too. “You should have told me what was happening. Not only am I the woman you were sleeping with, I was your client. And don’t tell me you couldn’t have found a time.”
“I was going to explain everything to you this evening.” Every word he said was soft, as though he knew she was a powder keg and he didn’t want to be the one who made her explode.
The trouble was she kind of wanted to explode in a spectacular fashion. It might be better to destroy everything good left. She could do it herself before anyone else had the chance.
“After you ruined my career.”
He paled slightly. “I didn’t have any intention of ruining your career. Did you forget the part where your boss was selling your research to the bad guys? Did you think they’re going to hire you to finish it and take away a part of their business?”
Yes, this was what she wanted. She wanted to snarl his way and have him claw at her, too. That would feel good and then she wouldn’t have to miss him when he was gone. If they burned down everything they had, he would be nothing more than a regret. “Do not call me naïve.”
“If the shoe…” He stopped and took a long breath. “I’ll insert that shoe right in my mouth. Noelle, I did not come up here to argue with you. I came here to give you what I didn’t give Cara and Chris.” He held out a thumb drive. “I switched your research data to a new drive and erased it off the one I gave to them. Only you and I and MaeBe and Tag know that I downloaded your research data. It should be almost everything that was on the Genedyne system. You updated the file twenty minutes before I downloaded it, so I think it’s almost everything.”
She stared at that drive knowing there was a woman out there delivering the same information to a group of businessmen who would store it away and never look at it again. Whose only use for all her hard work was to trash it so it didn’t dent their profits. Those people only cared about their bottom line and not about the fact that her work would make it easier and cheaper to advance humanity.
“What do you want me to do with that?” All of her numbness was starting to melt, giving way to a bubbling rage that threatened to overwhelm her. Rage and fear and sorrow. It was all being held back by that wall of ice that had started to crack the minute he’d walked into the room.
Because Hutch is safe. Because even though he did something dumb, he did it for the right reasons.
No. No. Fucking no. She wasn’t giving in. She wanted one good thing to come out of this, but how could it be him?
He didn’t put you in this position. He tried to get you out. Put yourself in his place.
He was still holding the drive. “I expect you to take it and do something with it.”
He was the naïve one now. “And what’s that? Because at the end of the day it’s not mine. It belongs to Genedyne, and she has the right to use it however she wants. She has the right to sell it. God, how stupid was I? I even read the contract and I still signed it.”
“Because you were young and hungry and she offered you everything you needed to get started,” Hutch insisted. “I’m going to get a copy of your contract, and Mitch will find a loophole. There’s always a loophole. Lea will ensure that no criminal charges even come close to touching you. You have people who will look out for you. Jessica Layne knew what she was doing, and she took advantage of you. You are not the stupid one.”
Oh, but she had been. So stupid. Her stepmom had even pointed out how the contract heavily favored the company, but had she listened to her? No. She’d known better. She’d known that this was how the business worked.