On the Job Read Online Free Page A

few of her rights?” he asked evenly, his eyes fixed on the computer screen. “Anyone close to Tony is a potential security breach. Kidnap Madeline Sayer or threaten to kill her, and Tony is suddenly at risk for giving away software to China or Pakistan or who-the-fuck-ever who wants the opportunity to attack U.S. financial institutions.”
    â€œYou mean beyond the stuff we think Tony hasn’t already given to the Russian mob?” Walker gave Barry a wry glance before he continued his search. Barry had just mentioned the crux of the reason he, Barry and two other members of his team, Arthur Lange and Jim Stephano, were in Lake Tahoe undercover—because the Secret Service criminal investigations division believed that Tony Hallas had been selling software to the Russian mob, information that had been used for a recent hack into U.S. ATM accounts. Over 10 million dollars had been stolen before the breach could be sealed.
    Tony hadn’t questioned Walker’s cover about moving back to Lake Tahoe in order to start his own corporate security operation. Tony had bought his cover because, in fact, that’d been precisely what Walker planned to do. He’d already handed in his resignation with the Secret Service and was counting the days until he returned to Lake Tahoe when they’d received some alarming intelligence in regard to Tony Hallas.
    One of the Secret Services’s missions was to investigate computer-based attacks on the nation’s financial and banking infrastructure. Tony Hallas was suspected of breaching that security, and Walker was tailor-made to go undercover. Walker’s boss had begged him to stay on the Secret Service payroll for a short period of time and lead the Hallas investigation.
    Tony trusted Walker. They’d been friends since they were both seven years old. Walker’s father used to be Tony’s father’s gardener, and the two boys had spent more than a dozen summers practically attached at the hip.
    Until they’d met Madeline Sayer, anyway. Until they’d both vied for her attention. Walker had been the clear winner in their younger days. He’d left Tahoe, though, and the spoils went to Tony.
    Barry rubbed his sunburned nose and continued. “I did explain things to Ms. Sayer about why she was a weak point in security, and do you know what she asked? How come we didn’t have a person guarding all of Tony’s friends?”
    Walker stopped typing and glanced up. “He’s not planning on marrying all of his friends,” he said grimly.
    â€œI told her that. How do you suppose she manages to pull off looking down her nose at you when she probably barely tops five foot four?” Barry mused.
    Walker grinned. “Forces of nature can come in small packages.”
    He didn’t waste time telling Barry that Madeline was actually one of the warmest people he’d ever met in his life. The fact that they were discussing her like she was a royal bitch was as good an indication as any of how off balance she was with him being there. It was something, he supposed, knowing he was having an effect on her. He couldn’t be too choosy about her manner of reacting to him when the woman he wanted like his next breath was engaged to another man.
    He’d hardly expected her to run into his arms. Not Madeline Sayer.
    Walker stared out three floor-to-ceiling arched windows onto the shimmering blue lake cradled in the cup of the High Sierra Mountains. Tony’s enormous, secluded lodge was made of river rock, pine and glass, but the glass dominated, giving a person the impression that the outdoors and indoors blended seamlessly. Even though Walker had grown up in a comfortable, modest apartment in Kings Beach with his father, mother and brother, he wasn’t unused to being inside the realms of grand Tahoe estates. He’d often accompanied his father for jobs and had been a regular visitor at Tony’s father’s