With Friends Lie These

Once again, I want to thank Gamblinluck and CurrentParameter for all their support and inspiration. I will submit Part 3, which is the final part, of With Friends Like These as soon as this one is published. Thank you to everyone who has supported me on this foray into a different genre.

Part 2

Late into the night, Cindy and Lisa were allowed to take me "home". As soon as we entered the front door, Cindy loudly and firmly commanded me to strip.

"What?!" I exclaimed.

"You heard me. Slaves are naked when in the house. Now STRIP!"

I stared at her disbelievingly. This was Cindy! What the hell.... Then she and Lisa burst out laughing and came in for another hug.

"I'm sorry, Matt," she said between laughs. "I couldn't resist. Consider it payback for bringing those two sociopaths into my life. Come on, I'll show you to your room."

Breathing a sigh of relief, I pulled them both in tighter.

"Show me later. Right now, I have to know how you pulled this off."

They led me to the living room and Lisa ran to kitchen to grab a bottle of champagne and three glasses. When we were all settled, Cindy started to tell me about her life for the last eight months.

"It's really all thanks to you and Lisa. I'm so sorry I ran out on you all those months ago. Seeing you in that collar was just too much. I knew you would never do what they said. There was no reason to. $20 million is nothing to you. You would never risk getting enslaved for that. But more than anything, I knew you never could do that. It's not in you. You gave us all equal shares in the company. Hell, you gave us everything. You don't have it in you to steal, especially from us."

I was touched and felt a little guilty. I had believed Cindy had abandoned me almost a year ago. What she just said made me feel like shit for ever doubting her. She then continued her story.

"Anyway, right after Cassie returned to work, Jim and Cassie had a big meeting with the entire company and let everyone know how you were so sorry for everything you had done, were too embarrassed to be seen and would do everything you could to make it up to all of us. He really laid it on thick and almost the whole company bought it all. It wasn't until he said you had requested no contact from anyone in the company and had requested all communications go through them until you had served your sentence, that I started questioning things. That's when I really started to think things were fishy.

"I've known you since seventh grade. I may have been made to believe you were embarrassed, but there is no way you would cut yourself off from everyone. I knew you wouldn't cut me out. It also seemed weird that Jim was suddenly your confidant after he stormed out on you at the police station. I went up to him after the meeting and told him I wanted to see you. He was emphatic that you wouldn't see me. And then he handed me a thumb drive. He said you wanted to make it up to me, so you fixed the eye tracking problem we had been having for the next Morrigan game.

"Now all my flags were up. How would you even know there was a problem with the tracking? We discovered it after you were arrested. Besides that, I had already fixed the problem, it was a simple coding error that I saw immediately. None of it made sense. But I took the drive and went back to my office to see what you had done. I love looking at your code and thought it would make me feel like I still had a connection to you if I could see your work again.

"I was happy to see your fix was exactly what I had done, but then noticed some extra coding in there. That was strange because ever since you did the compression program, you were a stickler for removing redundant and unnecessary code from any project you worked on. Besides that, the code you added made no sense. It was nothing but garbage taking up memory, which I know you would never do. I was able to determine pretty quickly it was an encryption, but I had no idea what the key was.

"You know, you could have made it a little easier on me, asshole. I isolated the code and saw the inscription key was only eight characters long. I had already figured you were trying to send me a message, because who else would look closely enough to see this. And eight characters pretty much confirmed it was a date. But I had no idea what date. I tried everything. Your birthday, my birthday, our graduation date, the date we founded the company, shit, I even tried Cassie and Jim's birthdays. Nothing worked. I was going crazy trying to figure it out. It had to be a date that meant something to both of us, but not to anyone else who might stumble on the encryption. Still, nothing was coming to mind.

"Then I stepped back and tried to think about what your mind space must have been like when you wrote it. I knew you were still trying to come to terms with what had happened to you, and you were at about the lowest point you had ever been. I tried to remember any other time you were so beaten down and it hit me. Your mother's death. I remembered how depressed you were when she died and I remembered being the only person you would talk to during that time. I don't think we had ever been closer than we were then. I entered the date, and everything opened up."

She started laughing then.

"Dude, you write messages like you write code. Succinct and to the point. But when I read it, shit, I was so pissed. Even as short as it was, I got the message. Jim and Cassie were behind everything, and they were going to force me out as soon as the game was completed. I wanted to storm into their offices right away and confront them, but all I had was your message. I needed proof.

"So, I started walking around the accounting department. I used the excuse of seeing Cassie and begging her to let me come visit, but she was adamant you didn't want to see anyone. Fucking bitch told me that you seeing me would be just too hard for you. I left her office and wandered around the department, trying to appear like I was lost in my depression. That's when Lisa spotted me."

I looked over at Lisa and realized I hadn't really introduced myself to her yet.

"Lisa," I began, "I know we have met a few times, and I am sure from what I am hearing that you played a big part in rescuing me. I remember your interview a couple years ago and some conversations we had at the office, but I can't help but wonder why you helped me?"

Lisa blushed and said, "I knew you couldn't have done what they said. You're right, you did sit in on my interview, and you were the nicest person I had ever met. I was fresh out of school and had no experience. Your wife, sorry ex-wife, and Mr. Robinson had made it clear that I had no chance at the job, but you told them to give me a chance. I remember your words clearly. You told them, 'Hey, none of us knew what we were doing when we started this, but we've made it work. We don't need another stodgy accountant that's set in their ways. We need fresh eager talent.' Then you looked at me and asked me if I was excited about the job possibility. I told you working for the company would be my dream job. You gave a stern look to both of them and hired me on the spot. Someone who took a chance on someone like me could never do what you were accused of. If you were being railroaded, I had to help.

"When you were sentenced for embezzlement, I wouldn't believe it. You cared too much for the company to do that. You cared too much for the people working there to do that to them. Every time you visited the accounting department, you made sure to talk to all of us, check in to see if we needed anything, you showed all of us how much you cared for the people working under you. I couldn't match the person I saw at the company with the person everyone said you were.

"I started digging around the old financial reports, and all the other stuff they said proved you were guilty. It seemed to show everything they were saying, but for some reason it didn't look right to me. I couldn't figure it out, but something just seemed off.

"Seeing Cindy wander around the office, I could tell she wasn't buying it either. That afternoon, I went to her office. I was scared shitless. I knew if I went to her with my suspicions, and she didn't believe me, I was throwing away my career. But I owed it to you. I walked in and shut the door. I started to tell her what I suspected, and she stopped me immediately. I almost pissed my pants then. I thought she was going to fire me right then and there, but she said we needed to talk somewhere else and asked to meet me at a bar outside of town that night. When we met there, we exchanged notes. I told her that something seemed off in the reports, but I couldn't figure it out. When she told me about the message you sent her, and that Mrs. Peterson and Mr. Robinson were the guilty parties, everything started to click."

The two women kept going back and forth, picking up the story whenever the other one took a break. And it was quite a story. While they knew what had happened, they still needed to prove it. Cindy had Lisa start making copies of every financial document she could get her hands on. Lisa basically moved in with Cindy as they would scour each document, file, memo, anything they could think of to find proof that Cassie and Jim had set me up. Cindy was trying to buy as much time as she could for Lisa have a breakthrough. She slowed production on the graphics for the game to a standstill, knowing as soon as it was done, she was out. Unfortunately, Cassie caught Lisa looking into a file she shouldn't have been looking at and fired her on the spot. Cindy saw the writing on the wall after that and decided to throw them off balance.

She went to both and asked them to buy her out of her shares. She told them it was too hard to keep working there as there were too many reminders of me at the company. She told them she wanted to make a new start. Cassie and Jim were more than happy to let her go, and did give her a nice buy-out package. The only thing Cassie asked was chance to download some of the graphic programs she had developed to play with and tweak for future projects she may take on. They were fine with that. So, nobody was alarmed when she spent her last two days camped out in the server room.

What they didn't know was that Cindy was downloading every financial record from the start of the company to that day. They had unknowingly given her access to everything she needed to burn their asses. She sold her house and bought the one in which I was sitting in a private sale, so they could try to disappear while they worked to free me. She and Lisa spent the next two months, living off Cindy's savings and going over all the data, but it seemed those assholes had covered their tracks too well. All the transactions were done from my computer, using my logins. They were starting to lose hope. They knew I was innocent, they knew Cassie and Jim were guilty, but they just couldn't prove it.

"Then Lisa made a comment, and everything fell in place," Cindy continued. "It happened to be my birthday, and we were sharing some drinks while going through transaction records for the millionth time. Lisa pointed out that the shitheads had even made one of the transactions on my birthday."

I smiled when I heard that. I knew what was coming.

"I can tell by your smile; you've already figured it out. We never went into the office on my birthday. Ever since you hit it big with the compression program, you have made sure to have some big surprise on my birthday just for me. You were always insistent that we leave our phones home and were unreachable for the entire day. That year you had taken me to a casino, and we spent the entire day there. As we started to check dates of the other transactions, we found more and more timestamps for times we knew you were out of the office. I called your old secretary, Janice, who they let go right after your conviction, by the way, and she had your entire schedule on her home computer. She always backed it up there because often times you had appointments after hours or needed to make a change when she had already left the office.

"With your schedule in hand, we were able to show every single transaction was made at a time when you were scheduled to be out of your office. We had everything we needed to prove you were innocent, but still didn't have any evidence it was Jim and Cassie. But we decided we would show it to Det. Baker anyway. Even if we couldn't nail Jim and Cassie, we still wanted to get you free. Luckily, Janice came through for us again. She had been wondering why we had asked for your schedule and asked us if we were trying to prove your innocence. That woman is loyal as hell to you, Matt. We told her what we knew and how her copy of your schedule proved you were innocent, but we still had no way to prove Jim and Cassie were behind it. She just started laughing then.

"She knew how protective you were of your software, so she had been secretly filming anyone who entered your office when you were not there with her phone. It wasn't unusual for people to grab things from your office, it was like Grand Central Station at the time. Hell, I went in there to grab a file or leave you a note all the time. But, every night, she would download the clips and save them to her home computer. As she put it, 'If ever someone stole something from you on her watch, she wanted to be able to nail the son of a bitch'. We took the list of transaction dates and times over to her house, and for every one of them, she had a clip of either Cassie or Jim entering your office. Now we had all we needed.

"We took the information to Det. Baker. She started an investigation immediately. She was even able to get more evidence. She contacted the casino and got a ton of video of us gambling the whole day. During the time of that transaction, we are both clearly shown throwing the dice at the craps table. Then this morning she told us they were picking Jim and Cassie up at the office and were going to pull you out of the house. We hightailed it down to the precinct and now we're here."

I pulled both women in close and hugged them for dear life. My oldest friend and my newest one, both had risked and sacrificed so much for me. They never doubted me, they never gave up on trying to save me, how could I ever repay them. For now, I could only offer them my thanks. And that I did. I kept thanking them both, over and over. Finally, Cindy said it was late and we should get some rest. They walked me to the guest room and said goodnight. I was a little surprised to see them both enter the other room. I never knew Cindy liked girls. Good for her.

===========

I laid down on the bed and tried to get to sleep. Unfortunately, two things kept me awake. The first was simply the fact that my mind wouldn't shut down. My brain kept going over how much my life had changed in just a few hours. In two weeks, I would be free. I would have my life back. Jim and Cassie were going to get what they deserved. The second thing keeping me awake were the noises coming from the other room. From the sounds of it, Cindy didn't just like girls, she LIKED girls. After spending eight months watching Cassie and Jim, and not being able to get any relief myself, the sounds of Cindy and Lisa were driving me crazy.

I resisted the urge, ok, overpowering urge, to jerk off. It just didn't seem right to masturbate to Cindy. She was my oldest friend, after all. But I couldn't deny I was looking at her differently. I had never really acknowledged how cute she was. Her glasses highlighting her big brown eyes, her long brunette hair always up in a ponytail, and seeing her today in her tight top and jeans, I had never noticed how nice her breasts and ass were. She was the typical hot geek girl. I realized I had been blinded by Cassie for so long, I never took the time to appreciate what was right in front of me. And Lisa was a little hottie. Blond, blue-eyed, with that girl next door look, she clicked the right buttons for me. Imagining the two of them together was enough to keep me awake.

That's why I was so surprised to hear a soft knock on my door. Telling them to come in, the two came and sat on the end of my bed. Even in the dark I could tell they were blushing fiercely. They kept looking at each other and then to me. Back and forth. Finally, Cindy broke the silence.

"Matt, can we talk to you for a minute?"

I told them of course.

"Ok, we were planning to wait to bring this up, but we've been talking, and we can't wait any longer. As I'm sure you heard just now, Lisa and I are kinda an item. We'd been working so closely, spending all this time together trying to prove your innocence, well, things just started to happen. She's a wonderful girl and we just fit, you know."

"Cindy, it's ok," I tried to reassure her. "I'm happy for both of you. After everything you two have done for me, I just want you both to be happy."

"That's the thing," Cindy responded. "We are happy, really happy, but we're kinda missing something. Don't speak. I'll never work up the nerve to finish if you interrupt me." I just nodded. "Anyway, here's the thing. We love each other, but... Shit. Matt, we're both in love with you too."

It took everything I had not say something. They were in love with me? Where did this come from? Cindy started to explain.

"Matt, I've been in love with you since high school. I was so happy when we decided to go to the same college. I had tried to work up the courage to tell you, but then Jim introduced you to Cassie. It hurt, but I could see how happy you were, so I was happy for you. And she did seem like a great person back then. Neither of us knew what a bitch she was, and by the time we figured it out, it was too late. I have never been so conflicted as I was on your wedding day. I was so happy for the two of you, but so sad that I had sat on my ass and missed my chance.

"After the first night Lisa and I got together, I burst into tears. I felt like I had used her and taken advantage of her. I confessed to her how much I was in love with you, and well, she surprised me. I'll let her tell you the next part."

Lisa looked at Cindy shocked. It was obvious that she had expected Cindy to tell everything. But she took a deep breath and made her own confession.

"Shit. Ok, when Cindy was lying in my arms apologizing for 'using me', I did the dumbest thing I have ever done. I started to laugh. I saw immediately how she misread the laugh and thought I was making fun of her. I blurted out my deepest secret then. I told her I loved you too. It's the truth. Ever since the interview, you had been so kind to me. You gave me my dream job. You always had a something nice to say to everyone at the company, and took time to talk to us no matter how busy you were. You seemed like the perfect man. I was so jealous of Mrs. Peterson. It was apparent to me early on that she wasn't in love with you. Anytime her secretary would tell her you were on hold for her, she would just roll her eyes and make you wait before she returned to her office with a big sigh. You always brought her coffee and did all these nice gestures for her, and she never seemed grateful for any of it.

"I kept thinking to myself, what a stupid bitch. She didn't realize how lucky she was to have you. I kept dreaming I was the one you were married to. I would show you how appreciative I was to be with you. I admit, I was starting to get a little stalkerish. Every time you would come down to accounting, I wouldn't be able to concentrate on my work for the next twenty minutes.

"When you were convicted, I wouldn't believe any of the shit they were saying about you. I knew you were innocent. That's why I started looking at the files. That's why I went to Cindy that day. I couldn't let the man I loved, even though it was from afar, be railroaded. When she showed me the message you hid, and showed it was that bitch and her brother who did it, I didn't care what happened to me. I needed to set things right."