Breaching His Defenses (Love Hack #1) (16 page)

Jared stared at the laptop in front of him, and tried to blink some moisture back into his eyes. Vivian’s phone sat in the middle of the table, speaker on and cable running back to her machine to keep it charged. The clack of keys filled the room. Occasionally Dewson would report something, or one of them would snap out a question or command, but for the most part, they kept their heads down.

When he’d gotten Mikki’s first text several hours ago, the rest of his doubt had been obliterated. The message headers matched. The email—the one pretending to be him—had come from her phone.

He didn’t want to believe it. It devoured every thread of his consciousness not already dedicated to fixing the problem at hand. He’d really fallen for it again. Not in a million years would he have ever guessed…

Then again, that seemed to be his curse. It really was true—what his parents had between each other, the love he’d grown up around—that was the shit of fairy tales.

He hadn’t been able to tell his friends the newest information. Vivian at least thought highly of her. They could deal with that after. The only thing he didn’t understand was the shitty job she’d done covering her tracks. Six months ago, he hadn’t seen a trace anyone had been on his network. This had her name stamped on it. Literally. Was she mocking him? He didn’t want to believe it, but he also couldn’t ignore the possibility.

He raked his fingers through his hair. He needed to focus on work. Where was the hole that had allowed the Trojan onto their network? What was he missing? Maybe Rosen had been right; he’d been out of the tech for too long. At least the network was clean, as far as they could tell. That was killing him, too. Not only could they not find the holes in their network, they didn’t even know if they’d completely removed the immediate threat.

“Next steps?” The exhaustion in Tate’s voice reflected the weary atmosphere of the entire room. It was barely eleven, but they’d been at this for hours, only breaking long enough to down another can of Red Bull or cup of coffee. For about thirty seconds, he’d considered using the former to make the latter. Fortunately, he wasn’t that exhausted. Yet.

Would Mikki do something like make coffee with Red Bull? He hated himself the moment the thought passed through his head. He’d managed to keep from thinking her name all night, and now there it was, flooding back in and taunting him. Maybe that was what he needed to do. Think like her.

Sexy, alluring, deceptive… He pushed the string of words aside.
Later. Wallow later.
Impulsive, fickle, and fleeting. There was the mindset he needed. He closed his eyes and breathed deeply—one…two…three times, trying to push away all the indoctrination he’d picked up over the years. If he was just some person, someone who had the skill and intelligence, but not the corporate experience, where would he poke around for holes?

Her words echoed in his head.
Remote computers. Machines you wouldn’t ever expect to have access to your deepest, most important information.
He focused on the room again, gaze pausing on Tate. “Check the virtual machines quality assurance uses. You’re looking at database users. Accounts with no passwords, admin access, shit like that.” He turned to Vivian. “Same thing, focus group VM’s. Dewson.”

The drowsy “Yeah?” echoed off the glass coffee table.

“Every fucking administrative assistant we have. Ours, reception, all of them.”

That was it. It had to be. Hope surged inside as he dove into his own work, searching and scanning the same things he’d ordered everyone else to do.

Except an hour later, no one had anything. It was all tight and secure. He flopped his head back against the couch, letting a frustrated grunt escape. “Fuck.”

A knock echoed through the room. Jared shot a questioning glance at Tate.

His friend shrugged and nodded at the tray on the table. “Room service was already here, and even if it wasn’t the middle of the night, I told the front desk to give us some quiet—including housekeeping.”

Vivian sighed and stood. “Staring at each other isn’t going to answer the ‘who’ question, and we’re obviously at a standstill, so an interruption won’t hurt.” She pressed her eye to the peephole and muttered, “Well then. Didn’t expect that.”

Jared’s gut sank, rage twisting with betrayal. He didn’t have to ask who it was.

“We’re kind of busy for a booty call.” Tate’s comment barely reached Jared’s ears through the scream of his thoughts.

What the hell was she doing there? Rubbing it in? The latch clicked, and the hinges squeaked. He didn’t want to look, but he couldn’t help it. There was Mikki, standing in the doorway. Even across the room he could see the circles under eyes. Her shoulders were hunched. She shifted her weight from one foot to the other, gaze darting everywhere. Every time she reached him, she skipped past, never making eye contact. “I want to help.”

Vivian opened the door wider.

Jared’s protest stuck in his throat. He should be ordering her to leave. Ignoring everything she said. But that tiny little voice in the back of his head refused to accept all the facts at face value. Mikki stepped into the room, and the door swung shut behind her.

Vivian nodded at Jared before she turned away. “It’s his show, it’s not my call.”

Apparently it was her call, at least on some level. He fixed his most damning glare on Vivian, who shrugged it off and settled back onto the couch across from him. Maybe he should have told them there was evidence to back up their suspicions of where this had come from.

A heavy silence descended on the room, filling Jared’s lungs until he thought it might suffocate him. He forced himself to breathe but still couldn’t look at her. “How did you find the room?”

“It’s um…luck?”

“We have work to do.” Jared couldn’t keep his exhaustion from his voice. “You hacked another computer so you could come tell us you’re sorry for hacking ours?”

He finally forced himself to look at Mikki. Even being as furious with her as he was, she still spoke to parts of him which were desperately infatuated with her.

Her shoulders straightened, though she continued to shift from foot to foot. “People talk. You know that, right? Hayden. I mean, apparently not about the significant things like corporate espionage and ethical violations, but he does talk. I’ve never figured out if he hates you three or wants to blow you.”

Vivian snorted, and one corner of Mikki’s mouth twitched, but her expression didn’t shift. “Which is how I know one of you is a high roller. They only have so many of those rooms, at least the really nice ones, in this hotel. And logic dictates it’s more likely the one with the Red Bull on the tray outside the door than the empty champagne bottle.”

Jared’s brows rose. She was more observant than she gave herself credit for. Not that it mattered at this point.

“You still have to have a card to get up to this floor,” Tate countered.

Her gaze faltered, but only for a moment. “If you step onto an elevator someone else calls, and look like you know where you’re going, no one questions whether or not you belong up here.”

Jared rubbed his eyes. The contacts would have to come out soon. Fortunately, he had a spare set of glasses in his laptop case. “Why are you here?”

“I told you. I want to help.”

He was on his feet in an instant, crossing the room in a few short strides and stopping less than foot away from her. Her eyes grew wide, but she didn’t move. He couldn’t keep the anger and irritation out of his voice. “I’m pretty sure that’s how this started. You wanted to help someone.”

Her chin quivered, but she regained her composure quickly. “I can tell you everything they know. I can tell you more than they know. I can show you all three weak spots, and where I assume another two exist.”

Her confidence, the quiet but firm voice, and the fact part of him still couldn’t hate her, made something inside Jared snap. He didn’t try and hide it when he spoke. “Is this fun for you? Is that why you did it? And now you’re here to hold it over our heads? I didn’t peg you as a sadist. Did you plant the Trojan yesterday for challenge too? To prove you could do it?”

Her face went blank, the color vanished from her cheeks, and even as she shook her head, her eyes never left his. “You don’t think that little of my skill, do you? Thirty seconds after you mentioned a virus, I found what I assume is the same thing you did. That someone else used my phone to set us both up. I’m reckless, but I’m not stupid.” She licked her lips and bit the inside of her cheek. “And I quit by the way. About the moment I realized what had happened. Told Hayden he could shove his job.”

Fuck. If he hadn’t believed her before, that really drove her point home. It didn’t make the situation any less stressful, or alleviate his anger. He just needed a new focus for it. “So what are we missing? We’ve been through every inch of the blade array, and there’s nothing.”

“The holes aren’t in your data center.” She was standing straight now, defiance flashing in her eyes. It was the same sense of challenge he’d seen the night they met. Had it really been less than seventy-two hours?

Disappointment rushed through him. He turned away and headed back to his spot on the couch. “I kind of figured. We’ve checked everywhere.”

“You’ll need someone on site. Is anyone on call?”

“Dewson, you still with us?” He’d been hollowed out. The pain was vanishing. The anger. The exhaustion. He didn’t feel anything.

“Present. Barely.”

“Listen to the lady,” he told Dewson. He couldn’t believe he was turning this over to her. “Do what she says.”

Mikki had followed him and stood a few feet back from the circle of furniture. “You have a handful of machines—probably marketing or accounting, since they’re full of profit-loss projections. That’s your first weakness.”

This was useless. Now she was just mocking him. At least before she’d arrived, they’d been spinning their wheels in useful directions. “Marketing doesn’t have access to the data center.”

Her jaw clenched. “Number two, you have a server, probably call-center based, with no admin password.”

Jared bit back a snarl. “Call center operates on its own domain. It doesn’t touch us.”

“And then there’s the Exchange server.”

This was bullshit. There was no way their email was an issue. “If you’re not really here to hel—”

“Stuff your ego back in your pants.” Her nostrils flared and her eyes narrowed. “I’m sorry. For everything, the stuff I did on purpose, the stuff I chose to ignore, the stuff I never saw coming. But I’m not here because I like you glaring at me. All of you. I want to make it better. If you don’t want to know what I know, I can leave.”

He locked his gaze on hers, half scowling, half searching for answers he knew he wouldn’t find. An eerie silence settled into the room. He nodded to an empty chair, jaw clenched. He wanted to ignore her, except every one of the things she’d mentioned could be a real problem. It was what he’d been searching for, just in a different place. Fuck. “Do what she says.”

Jared rolled his neck and stretched his arms above his head. Muscles protested and joints argued as he tried to force out the kinks of falling asleep on the hotel room couch. At least the silence was pleasant. A glance at his phone told him it was almost nine. Later than he’d slept in years. Then again, they hadn’t pulled an all-nighter since…

The Karen incident, right. His creeping good mood vanished under a wash of too many emotions to identify. He let his attention trip around the room while he tried to work the knots from his arms. The suite was a wreck. Cups, cans, and picked-at snack platters littered the coffee table.

His heart sank when he looked further. On the opposite couch, Vivian had fallen asleep mostly sitting up, and Mikki was curled up next to her, head in her lap.

They’d fixed it. Plugged every hole and set measures in place to prevent a series of new ones. He was confident in that. Too bad he wasn’t as confident about anything else. He pulled his gaze from the sleeping brunette. The last thing he needed was one more memory seared into his thoughts of another mistake.

But there was one thing he had to admit. It was the one thing he had Mikki to thank for, even if everything else was a wreck. She’d reminded him why he did this. That he’d gotten into this line of work for the challenge, for the way he worked with his friends, and because it pushed his limits mentally, and he loved it.

There would be other promotions. He’d already dedicated a portion of his brain to figuring out how to get Skriddie to add a CTO position to their list of executives, but until then and even after, he wasn’t going to lose track of his roots again. What made him love his work.

He wandered to the sink in the kitchenette, grabbed a glass, and downed the lukewarm tap water in a single swallow. It wasn’t the most exquisite drink ever, but it did help his throat loosen up. He splashed his face and reached blindly for a towel. He raised an eyebrow when one landed in his hand, and dried his face off enough to open his eyes.

Tate sat on the counter next to him, staring at something in the living room. His voice was low when he spoke. “You know how many guys would give their right nut to wake up to that?”

“Because they haven’t had to.” Jared didn’t have to turn to see he was talking about the two sleeping women, and honestly, the last thing he wanted to do was see Mikki any more than he had to. Second to last was having this conversation.

“Ouch.” Tate blew a strand of blond off his forehead. “She saved us.”

Jared shook his head. Warm fuzzies aside, he was still struggling with what Mikki had done. Even if she hadn’t done it maliciously, she still wasn’t innocent. “She almost ruined us.”

“Yeah, but—”

“I’m going back to my room to shower.” Jared tossed the hand towel at Tate and pushed away from the counter, spinning back toward the living room. He managed to hide his shock when he saw Vivian was awake and sitting on a stool at the breakfast bar. Mikki was upright now, too. Still on the couch. Legs drawn to her chest.

“He’s got a point,” Vivian said. “She didn’t have to track us down. Yet here she is.”

Jared looked back and forth between his friends. And to the sunlight streaming through the window. And the doors at the far end of the room. Anywhere but the dark eyes watching him from Mikki’s expressionless face.

Vivian leaned forward, but her voice was distinct enough to carry through the entire room. “I can have an offer letter ready by ten on Monday.”

Mikki’s jaw dropped, and she stared at Vivian. Her voice was tiny in the large room. “For me? Why would you—”

“Whoa.” Jared shook his head. “How did we go from ‘oh fuck, we’re screwed’ to ‘come work for us?’?”

Vivian’s brows rose. “Have you heard anything I’ve said for the last two days?”

“Really, she hasn’t shut up about it.” Tate tossed the towel back at him and moved to stand near the balcony. His gaze was directed outside, but it was clear from the angle of his body he was still part of the conversation.

Jared couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “A person can’t just make a mistake like that and hope it all goes away with an apology and a bit of hard work.”

“Not that you’d know from experience.” Sarcasm dripped from Vivian’s every word. “You’d never make a mistake like that. And then spin your entire career off it. What is it they say about you? That you’re a demi-god on college campuses?”

“Deity,” Tate offered.

Jared didn’t need this. “Why the fuck are we having this conversation while she’s still here?” Guilt followed the almost-yell. Better question, why did he feel so bad for snapping? It had nothing to do with the fact that as much as he was trying to ignore Mikki, his gaze kept drifting back to her. The sorrow and apology in her dark eyes. That his friends were making more sense than him. And it had nothing to do with how much of an ass he was being.

“Because it’s rude to talk about someone behind their back,” Vivian offered.

Jared ground his teeth, trying to maintain his composure while he spoke. He finally forced his gaze to stay on Mikki. To keep his stare hard and demand the rest of him feel the same coldness. “It’s nice you helped make it better. We all appreciate last night.” He let the ice from his tone flow through his veins. “But sometimes after the fact isn’t not enough. This wasn’t an apologize-and-forget-it mistake. A lot of people might have found themselves out of work.”

It was only a slight exaggeration. If someone had exploited the virus before they’d obliterated it, or if someone more malicious than Hayden—he shuddered at the thought—had known about the security holes, it could have cost the company millions.

“You can’t live life one minute to the next, hoping it will all work out.” Each word tasted bitter on his tongue, but it was true. “Sometimes being impulsive has terrible consequences you have to live with. And I don’t know how Vivian, or anyone, could trust a job—especially in security—to someone who doesn’t know the difference between ethics and a challenge.”

Vivian’s tone was sharp. “That’s not—”

“He’s completely right.” Mikki finally spoke. She uncurled herself from the couch and finally pulled her stare from Jared. “You should be all set now. I have a plane to catch in a little while.”

The moment the door clicked shut behind her, Tate tossed the towel back at him, full force. It fluttered to the floor before it reached its destination.

“You’re an ass.” Vivian pushed away from the counter. “I’m going back to my room to clean up. Do we need to get early flights out of here?”

So he could head home and spend the rest of the weekend alone with his thoughts? Even hanging out with pissed-off friends was a better option. “We can stay the weekend. We’re in the clear.”

“Wow, I wonder how that happened. No, wait, I don’t. I was there. Are you sure you were?” Tate turned toward the bedroom. “I’m going back to bed for a few hours.” He paused halfway to the door. “I know you think that stupid fucking logic of yours is going to save you from yourself.”

Great, the lecture was taking on a new tier. That was what Jared needed—to hear Tate talk about how love wasn’t a business negotiation. “I’m going now.”

Tate faced him again. “She’s nothing like Karen. Mikki’s her own person. I can’t fathom she’s ever catered to your ego just to make you happy, and I’d never bet on her to back down if she knew she was right. Oh, and there’s her honesty. The list goes on. In fact, the only thing they have in common is they worked for the same company. You and Mikki, the two of you have sparks. Sorry to sound cliché, but every time you’re together, they’re bright, they’re electric, and you feed each other.” And with that, he vanished into his room and the door swung shut behind him.

“You think you’re the only person suffering here?” Vivian asked. She stood near the door, arms crossed, glare fixed on him.

“Really?” He couldn’t hide the disbelief in his voice. “That’s the problem, isn’t it? Everyone suffers for this. She almost destroyed lives.”

“Melodramatic much? And I meant her.”

“You’re taking the sympathy a bit too far, Viv. And it’s not melodramatic. She could have collapsed the entire fucking company because she wanted to see what she was capable of.”

She gave him a smile he knew from experience was laced with condescension. “Do you really still blame her for the Trojan?”

His thoughts ground to a halt, tripping over the sudden shift in conversation. He’d completely forgotten. One more thing to be furious about. “Even if she didn’t plant it, she’s not innocent.”

“You know those assholes look for every chance they can find to make us look bad.” She had a point. Hayden didn’t have to be technical if Mikki had laid out every detail for him, hoping it would help someone tell Skriddie how to fix the problem. He knew enough to manage a technical team. That was all the knowledge it would take.

“Do you really think she’d leave fingerprints, and then come groveling for forgiveness?” Vivian asked.

It didn’t matter that all the pieces pointed to Hayden. He couldn’t forgive this, and he wouldn’t be suckered again. He fixed a cold smile on her. “But she didn’t ask for forgiveness, did she? She showed up hours after the fact, flaunting the fact she’d found something we couldn’t. You do understand how that kind of ego works, right?”

She studied him, disgust and disappointment heavy in her frown. “Apparently not. But I can tell you’ve got a solid grasp on it.”

She thought he was describing himself? Jared obliterated the part of himself agreeing with her disdain. Squashed the voice into oblivion pointing out he was the one being irrational by refusing to yield. He grabbed his laptop and walked out of the room without another word. It didn’t matter how much he wanted to convince himself otherwise, what Mikki had done was unforgivable.

It had to be.

*

Mikki didn’t blame Jared for his reaction. He had every right to be furious. At least she’d finally corrected her original mistake. His friends were wrong though, in comparing her actions to any he’d taken in the past. She wasn’t trying to spin it into some sort of career-changing move. She’d just wanted to make things right.

She pushed into her room. Everything inside her ached with sorrow and regret. And a little bit from the position she’d slept in. She stripped off her clothes, cranked the shower on, and stepped under the stream. The water heated as it beat into her skin. It didn’t dredge away her exhaustion, or anything else.

Her thoughts fumbled for focus as she toweled off and dressed. The bed beckoned her, but she had to be on a plane in just a few hours, and there was no reason for her to stick around. She’d grab the biggest cup of espresso hopped-up coffee she could find and snag a cab to the airport.

Her phone buzzed. She snagged it off the nightstand to press
ignore
and saw Hayden’s name on the screen.

Her ambivalence and self-pity evaporated in a rush of angry heat, and she clicked
answer.
Her frustration had just found an outlet. “Hello.”

“Michaela.” Hayden was the kind, friendly person she remembered. “You were pretty stressed last night. I just called to make sure you were all right.”

But she’d seen his true face, and she was tired of filtering her thoughts. “You mean last night when I quit and like the asshole you are, you threatened my entire career? Or are you thinking of a different conversation?”

His nervous chuckle was hollow over the line. “It was late, I was tired and jet lagged. That’s behind us, right?”

“Oh yeah, completely.” She let her irritation flow into her responses. “So behind us, it’ll never be an issue again.”

“Glad to hear it—”

“Because I just finished typing up my resignation and it will be on HR’s fax machine in about twenty minutes.”

“Excuse me?” And just like that, Hayden’s smooth talking vanished.

“No, I won’t.” She held her free hand out in front of her, palm down, as she talked. She should be shaking from all the anger and adrenaline pumping through her, but all she felt was a growing calm.

“You’ll go down for this.” A low threat ran through his words.

“Too late.” She let the words flow as they popped into her head. Impulsiveness had already ripped so much away from her, why not let it rain down chaos a little longer? “I’ll destroy my corporate card before I walk out of the hotel, and drop my laptop with security on Monday. I expect they’ll have the contents of my desk waiting for me by then.”

“Where are you going to go? Skriddie’s not going to have you. You’re not getting a reference from me. So…you’re planning to go back to call center life? That’s not going to pay the bills.”

“It’s better than working for someone who thinks healthy competition is planting a virus on another company’s network.” It was true, Skriddie wouldn’t have her. Jared had made that clear, and he was right. Not that she needed the reminder. She wasn’t giving up a job opportunity because of a guy. It was because it was the right thing to do. Even though missing Jared was tearing her up more than the damage to her career. “If I burn, I have ways to take you down with me. You shouldn’t have used my phone.”

“Mik—”

She was done. As she hung up, the adrenaline took its toll. It plummeted into her gut, snatching away her breath and leaving her ill. She sank onto the mattress, staring at the wall. In less than a week, she’d gone from being a growing name in her field and falling in love to being heartbroken and unemployed. Even worse was she didn’t know which devoured her more—her career being dead or the realization she’d actually been falling for Jared.