Page 23 of In Case You Didn't Know

“They’re a client. Not of my choosing, I’ll add, but they paid their money and they deserved a good product.” He lets out asigh, and shakes his head, like he’s as tired of this back and forth as I am.

“What kind of product?” I ask him, more to distract myself from the soft curve of his mouth than anything else. I can remember when he set up his security business. Back then I was a teenager, and he was newly graduated from business school. Before his MBA, he studied physics and computer science. He and Eden are the brainboxes of the Fitzgerald family, not that the others are stupid. But where Hudson is clearly business-smart, Asher is just smart-smart.

He blinks, like he wasn’t expecting that question. “It’s a predictive software program. Sees problems before they happen.”

“How can it do that?” I ask, tipping my head to the side.

“We’ve built an algorithm that takes in a lot of data. It’s proprietary so I can’t go into the details, but basically, if somebody is about to do something you don’t want them to do, the system identifies them and gives you the heads up.”

“You can tell what somebody’s going to do before they do it?” My voice lifts an octave. God, that’s scary and impressive at the same time.

“Not exactly.” There’s a hint of a smile on his face, and I prefer it so much more to the anger I’ve been seeing all too often. “It’s very specific. Certain behaviors and certain individuals. Unfortunately I can’t tell the future, otherwise I’d be on a beach somewhere living it up.”

“That’s still amazing, though. How come I haven’t heard about this before?”

He runs his thumb across his shadowed jaw. “Because we don’t want people to know it exists.”

“Your competitors?”

“Among others.” He lifts a brow.

“What others?” I ask him. It’s only when I look up that I see we’ve taken steps closer to each other. He’s only a foot or so away from me now. I have to lift my head to look at him. “Who else can’t know?”

“The people it identifies, for one. Foreign governments. And you. You shouldn’t know at all.”

“Are you going to have to silence me?” I ask him, aware that I sound all flirty.

“I’m going to have to ask you not to say anything. I should probably ask my lawyer to make you sign an NDA.”

“I won’t tell anybody,” I say to him, and it’s true. I mime a zip pulling across my lips and his own mouth quirks. Why can’t it always be like this between us? When he’s soft and open, it makes me feel so warm. Hot, even.

And then a thought occurs to me. “Did you seemeon the software?” I ask him. “Is that what made you come into the room that night?”

The smile disappears from his face. Oops, I probably shouldn’t have reminded him that I was there in that room. Watching.

Feeling hot like I am right now.

“No. It alerted me to somebody else.”

“The man who was watching me?”

His jaw tightens. “Yes.”

My brows pull tightly together. “You were angry because you thought I was going to get hurt?”

“You shouldn’t go to places like that. You don’t need to. You’re a beautiful woman, Francie. Desirable. Men look at you and they want to take. Most men have control, but that guy…”

“What happened to him?” I ask, trying to ignore the way my heart pounds at his words. He thinks I’m beautiful.

Asher looks away, like he doesn’t want to answer me.

“You didn’t kill him, did you?” I ask with horror.

“Of course I didn’t kill him. What kind of business do you think I’m running?” He stares at me like I’m delusional.

“But you did something,” I breathe.

“His membership was rescinded.” His voice is emotionless.