Hacked Read online

  But, I’d asked him, so while I listened, I daydreamed about the guy sitting on the opposite side of me. He hadn’t moved much in the past hour. Taking the offered meal politely, reading the occasional book, or magazine, alternating that with closing his eyes and leaning back as far as he could. I couldn’t figure him out, and that wasn’t good for my sanity. I had a thing. I would pester someone until they gave in to my Murphy charms. The wall of indifference he had put up was offending my traditional Irish social roots.

  Keith wrapped up his story, I smiled and tried to concentrate on the movie in front of me, scared that I might fall asleep and collapse on either guy beside me. I hadn’t brought one of those neck pillows and the problem was real.

  I dug in, squirmed around and gave it my all. The last thing I remember was a soft snicker coming from the direction of the window.

  Chapter 2

  Nixon

  I felt her sliding before I saw her head fall onto my shoulder. She was completely asleep and I wasn’t sure what the protocol was here. I think I could throw protocol out the window today. For starters, I was sitting beside my initial target on an overnight flight to our mutual destination. Not good, but what was I going to do? The flight was full and asking to move at the last minute would have caused more problems than it was worth.

  Then, she was chatty. I was having a hell of a time not engaging in conversation with her. Soon enough, she was going to figure out who I was and now thanks to my unfortunate seat assignment, she was going to hate me. I didn’t know how to play this one. I was thankful my partner, Hawk was here. He was the smooth part of our operation, and I was the awkward, not usually allowed to interact half.

  We had around three more hours to spend and it was probably too much to ask that she stayed asleep for most of those. I needed to stay off her radar.

  Yes, Nixon. Good luck with that one, idiot.

  This needed to be my last mission. I was tired of deceiving people. I was nearly positive Keeva Murphy wasn’t involved in any sort of terrorist hacking activity, but I still had to make myself completely sure. Her jackass of an IT director sure as hell was guilty. I could only hope that this was an in and out, wrapped up in a couple of weeks kind of assignment. I needed a vacation, badly.

  She was softly snoring and if I had to guess, the damp feeling on my shoulder was compliments of this tiny Irish fairy. All my research prior to leaving couldn’t have prepared me for the reality of Ms. Murphy.

  She couldn’t be more than five feet tall, with delicate features, but I had a feeling if I called her delicate, my junk would pay dearly for it. Her jet black hair was cut short, with an adorable floppy piece that fell in her eyes, constantly bothering her. She had a spray of freckles across her pale skin, framing a classic, straight nose and full, pink lips that did something to my long trained body. I was an expert at hiding my reaction to people, but I’d already in this short time frame, committed two major infractions. I nearly gave myself away when she introduced herself and she’d nearly caught me staring at those aforementioned lips a couple of times. I was acting like a freshman.

  She mumbled something about babies and hot dogs, whatever the hell that meant, then settled back in. I found I was reluctant to disturb her. I needed to get some rest, but that wasn’t going to happen here. Sleep would have to wait until I’d arrived in Dublin. Then a quick overnight, check in with the field office and be on my way to setting up my fake corporation in Galway. I had my first “meeting” with the lovely woman currently drooling on my shoulder in three days and I needed to get my office suite up and running, not to mention the tech tracking systems operational as soon as possible.

  I slowly shifted and tapped on the monitor in front of me, thinking I could possibly find something to watch. I used my left hand so I wouldn’t move her around and chose a stupid action film that had explosions and shit so as not to impugn my manhood. Sticking an earbud in my one ear only, I began to notice the things I was trained to notice. She was awake but she wasn’t letting me know. Her breathing pattern had changed and she had actually gone completely still.

  “Drool anymore and I might need to change before we land.”

  She shot up and tried to inconspicuously wipe her mouth. “Oh shit. I’m so sorry.”

  Her face had gone an appealing shade of pink, which only enhanced her freckles. I smiled, trying to put her at ease, but she only looked more panicked.

  “It’s okay. I’m kind of cold and you were giving off some serious body warmth.” God, where did that come from? Her cheeks went even redder, if that were possible.

  “You’re missing your movie.” She had raised her eyebrow and tilted her head towards the tiny screen. I vaguely heard an explosion in one ear and remembered I had been about to watch a movie. I removed the lone ear bud and turned to face her. In for a penny and all that.

  “So, Keeva Murphy, tell me about yourself.”

  Her eyes widened and she visibly recoiled. “Why?”

  “Well, I usually like to get to know the women I sleep with.”

  She barked out a laugh and settled back into her seat. “Okay, well, I was born and raised in New York State, to an Irish mother and an American dad. I have a sister and three brothers and four nieces and nephews, one of which I’m heading to her christening when we land. That’s Auggie. She’s my best friend Gray’s daughter with my brother Aiden. Then there’s Claire, Fiona and Max, who are my oldest brother Brennan’s kids. He and my cousin Ryan run our family pub in Castlegregory. Murphy’s.”

  She wasn’t telling me anything I didn’t already know, but it was nice just to have someone to talk to. I was kind of a loner mixed with a workaholic which amounted to pretty much zero friend conversations. Even though my interest in her was purely professional, it was still kind of nice to listen to someone talk about their life. She had a large family, something I couldn’t relate to, practically being an only child whose parents had both passed away and a sister I didn’t see very often.

  “So, I could probably go on and on, but it would only bore you to tears.”

  “What else do we have to do? The truth is,” Jesus, those words coming out of my mouth were pretty hilarious, “I’m a nervous flyer too.” Well, that actually was the truth. “So, if you don’t mind, keep going. What do you do for a living?”

  That was an intentional question. I did want to hear about her business from her own perspective. Hopefully, I could get some intel that would speed things along.

  She lit up and smiled this endearing smile and I had a severe and acute attack of the guilty feels. The information I had come to confirm could potentially destroy her business. If we were correct, and her IT guy, Robert, was using her work issued computer system to hack into secured American information on behalf of some shady organizations, then she had a huge problem. And I wasn’t going to solve it for her. I was going to create it.

  “I own a marketing business. It’s a really small firm, well, just me and my tech guy, but I’ve just gotten a great new contract and I’m really excited.”

  This was turning out to be too much. I thought I could sit here and do this, but turns out, my conscience had not been completely eradicated by my chosen profession. Sitting here, this close to her while knowing in a few days, we would meet again and she’d find out that Matt McGovern was one half of NR Inc. The very same NR Inc. who had just hired Keeva Murphy to create a new marketing campaign for their very fake company which had been painstakingly created by the United States of America’s CIA Cybersecurity team, of which I was a member.

  I had a choice to make. I could either tell her right now that I had a suspicion that she was the same the Keeva I had just hired to consult for me and wow, what a coincidence, and we could officially get this ball rolling, or I could be a dick and not tell her and see her face when she walks into our offices next week. Even though being a dick was a shitty way to go, it would make the end game plays much easier for both of us. The more she hated me, the easier it would be to walk away when
we pulled the plug on her business. She would be mad and frustrated when she found out I hadn’t told her who I was, but she was going to be livid when after we gathered what evidence we needed, we removed her employee and her hard drive in a couple of weeks. Nope, it was better this way.

  She was so darn cute though, with her freckles blazing, jet black hair falling in her eyes, tiny arms waving pointedly at my face, talking animatedly about her passions. Yes, she was an auld Irish fairy if I’d ever seen one. Simply stunning. And that was the main reason I needed to keep this encounter to one of “job requirements” only. Getting involved with a subject was not only totally frowned upon to put it lightly, but the worst idea an agent could ever come up with, and I’d come up with some pretty shitty ideas in my career.

  It was time to redirect the conversation away from her business and into more neutral territory.

  “Okay, so, tell me, why do you hate flying so much?”

  She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “Thanks for reminding me I hate flying that much.”

  “Sorry.”

  “No you’re not. Anyway, isn’t fear of flying a completely normal phobia?”

  “Keeva, I’ve got my own hang ups about flying but you and I both know millions of people fly every day. I don’t think it’s par for the course, no. So, tell me, what is it about flying that scares you?”

  This was why none of my friends wanted to hang out with me. I had a fascination with psychology and had studied extensively about the root reasons people feel fear. I also had a tendency to grill my friends about shit constantly.

  She chewed her bottom lip and something stirred inside of me. I sent a picture of my granny to my dick and all was calm down there. “Think about it. There’s something that this fear is based on that you’ve probably never admitted to yourself.”

  “Well,” she was hedging. She knew what it was, it was just sometimes hard to come to terms with admitting it aloud. “I’m afraid of crashing and dying.”

  “And?”

  “And? Are you serious? I kind of think death is the end of it. What’s worse than death?”

  “To some people, nothing. But to others, there are other things worse than death.”

  “What are you, a psychologist?”

  I laughed. “No, I just want to be one when I grow up.”

  She huffed out a breath and crossed her arms. Really, it was too easy reading her. If she wanted to up her business game, she was going to need to train her poker face.

  “Fine.” She stared me head on and her eyes became a sexy shade of gray. “I’m the youngest of five children and everyone in my family thinks I’m flighty, irresponsible, unable to commit.”

  I gave her my full attention, silently urging her on with my eyes. “But they’re wrong?”

  “I’ve spent my whole life making sure they were, but never revealing that fact to them.”

  “What’s this got to do with your fear of flying?”

  She reached over and grabbed my forearm and squeezed. A thousand volts of electricity shot from her hand straight through to my dick. Granny came back out in a hurry and I tried to school my emotions.

  “I’m getting to that, Mark.”

  Stupid assed name. My real name was Nixon Rivers, as in NR Inc. Mark was my best friend’s name and one of a few I used regularly. She removed her hands from my arm and I felt the absence immediately.

  “So, having spent the past few years building my business and doing it all without the help of my interfering family. You know? I just wanted to do something they would have never expected. So, I’ve spent the past few years in complete control. This?”

  She paused and gestured around her. “This plane, represents my actual minimal hold on control. Everything around us isn’t in our control. Someone else is in charge of my life and even though I have no idea how to fly a plane, I’m sure I could do it better than the pilot. Which I know, is insanity. But losing control right now after I’ve worked so hard to get where I am, isn’t an option.”

  “Ah.”

  “That’s it? That’s all you’ve got after you made me spill my guts to a perfect stranger?”

  “Well, I don’t really know what else to say. If it makes you feel any better, I hate flying too. And this,” I waved my hand between us. “This talking to a stranger on an airplane is new to me, so I’m not exactly sure I’m doing it right.”

  Her eyes warmed and I turned to glance out the window. This job was eating me alive. I hated lying to her. I hated that everything I said to her or did to her had deceit layered over it. I had suffered many sleepless nights thanks to this problem and it looked like my time in Ireland was going to be full of them again. I tugged my hat down farther and tried to turn back to the movie I had been watching. I could still see her in my periphery chewing that damn bottom lip, debating whether or not to keep pursuing a line of conversation with me.

  She must have decided to give up and I didn’t know what to do with the feeling of disappointment that rose up inside me. I needed to get my head examined and get it back in the game.

  A few hours later, the plane shifted and I could tell we were nearing Dublin. I used the distraction to pack up my stuff and get ready to disappear into the insane Irish fog. I could feel her eyes on me, and it was really hard to just ignore her. For starters, I had intentionally lead her to the point we were at, and add to that she was a knockout, even if she couldn’t see it. Wrap all that up in a funny, intelligent package and if things were different, and she wasn’t going to hate me in a few days, I’d ask her out for a drink.

  I had been studying her for a week now, virtually, but still, the pictures didn’t do her justice. She was going to be tricky for me, that’s for sure. I needed this mission to be clean and quick. I needed to get the information and get back to the States. I had been sent on this trip right at the worst time personally, but there wasn’t much to do about it other than get it done.

  I stared out the window at the passing sky and heard it. Her soft, whisper. “I’m sorry.” That was it. I had discovered she was often a woman of many words, but when it counted, she could say all she needed to with just a few.

  I turned to see her exotic green eyes staring at me, daring me to give in.

  “Okay, I’ll bite. What are you sorry for?”

  “I don’t know, talking your ear off, drooling all over you, whatever else is bugging you.” She smiled and the frost I was trying to give off melted a bit. She was fiddling with her laptop, trying to get it to cooperate. This, this was something I could help with.

  “You need a hand?”

  She blew her hair off of her forehead. “Nah, it’s just being temperamental like it’s been since I got it. I’m no good with Apple stuff sometimes. My IT guy usually sorts me out.”

  “Well, I’m kind of good with computers. I could take a quick peek?”

  She looked at me with the usual assessing look I got when I told people I was good with computers. I’ll admit, I wasn’t a bad looking guy. I worked out, didn’t dress like the nerd I really was. Only my black rimmed glasses gave any sort of hint at what laid beneath. For me, saying I was good with computers, was like saying the Manning brothers could throw a football around. I was a full-on computer nerd, wrapped up in a jock’s body.

  She picked up the laptop and offered it to me and I quickly assessed the problem. A few clicks, some preference adjustments and I was done.

  “Wow, you do know computers. Thanks! I’m tech challenged. I struggle finding the on button most days. I somehow got convinced to turn my business Apple and some days I wonder as to the intelligence of that decision.”

  “Well, they’re great for people in design, or visual mediums.”

  The plane started descending and hit an air pocket, shaking and jostling us around. She quickly faced forward, grabbing ahold of both arm rests with a terrified iron grip. I knew that because prior to the turbulence, my arm was strung across that arm rest and was now being subjected to said iron grip.

/>   I reached across and gently pried her hand off my arm before she drew blood. “Hey, it’s okay. Just a little bit of turbulence as we start to descend.”

  She looked at Keith on her other side and smiled and then turned back to me, looking down at my hand on hers. I was slowly sliding my thumb across the top of it to relax it enough to pry it loose. She was unusually silent, her eyes the only insight I had into her current state. They were wild with fear mixed with something I couldn’t quite identify.

  “Sorry.” She rolled her eyes as our hands separated and she grabbed her laptop back, shutting it down as the flight attendant walked by gently instructing the passengers to get ready for our arrival.

  The wheels came down and the plane hit a few air pockets, sending the passengers up and around a little bit, causing Keeva to squeak and chatter on to her neighbor to the right, Keith. I turned to watch the outskirts of Dublin appear through the clouds and marveled at the site. A beautiful, old city, full of mystery and secrets. It was just a stopover for me. I was onto Galway to get ready for the arrival of Keeva and the secrets she held that I needed to unravel.

  The plane shook as it finally landed a few minutes later and I wondered how she was taking it. She’d been silent for the past few minutes and I had retreated into my corner, trying to slowly distance myself in preparation for the shit show that was going to go down in a few days. I shifted in my seat to see her still white knuckling the arm rests, eyes closed and most likely reciting some sort of self-help bullshit to calm herself down. Keith was patting her hand and I was pleased to see she wasn’t grabbing onto his hand like she had mine.

  The plane came to a full stop, seat belts disengaged and her chest started to expand and contract in a normal pattern.

  “Hey.”

  She turned only her head to look at me, still gripping the arms of her chair. “Yeah?”

  “You did it. You made it here in one piece without freaking out.”

  She smiled and I blinked. Eyes sparkling, cheeks flushed, lips curved up, full on smile. She threw her arms around me, pulling me in for a surprise hug, forcing me to return it at least a little bit. I wasn’t a hugger. I had my space bubble and preferred that everyone stayed on the outside of said bubble.