Breaching His Defenses - Allyson Lindt (best short novels .TXT) 📗
- Author: Allyson Lindt
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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 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 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
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