Hacked Read online

  He leaned in ever so slightly and my hand that had been attempting to build a wall between us was now firmly planted on his chest. I drew it back like it was on fire, and to be honest, it kinda was. That was one hard chest. My mind slid down to the second level of hell, where the craziest thoughts lived. Thoughts about that hard chest, naked, under all my fingers.

  I shook off those devious thoughts and fired my heart from ever being in charge. This guy had lied to me, for whatever reasons he had. I didn’t do liars. Literally. But what I did do, was a damn good job running my business and I wasn’t going to let Liar McLiarson here ruin my income this month.

  He pushed up his glasses and tilted his head slightly. “Fine. I’ll expect the first drafts of our projects on my desk by tomorrow. I’ll need you to arrange to work here all day on Thursday. We’ve got a few things we need to sort out as a unit and it will just go faster if we’re all together.

  “Fine.” Intelligent, Keeva. Parroting your boss always instilled confidence.

  “Fine.” Oh, he had a special parrot problem too. Douche Larouche.

  I spun on my perfect heel, and gave him the full asset management treatment as I walked out. Take your special project and stick it up your ass. This is child’s play. I could feel his eyes watching me, computing and sorting me into some sort of compartment he had in his mind. He thought like a techie. Brilliantly and analytically. It’s a good thing I loved a challenge, ‘cause resisting suggesting a full-on naked board meeting was going to take all I had to give.

  Chapter 5

  Nixon

  “What the hell are you doing, Nix?”

  I sat down at my desk, scrubbed my hands through my hair, ending with my best glare and crossed arms pose. I wasn’t in the mood to fend of Hawk’s questions, and I was sure he had plenty. Starting with why I hadn’t told him I had spent six hours in a plane with one of our assignments.

  “I’m not doing anything. Now, let’s go over everything we know.”

  “Stop trying to avoid me. Tell me.”

  “There’s nothing to tell. She sat down beside me, I tried to avoid her. I failed miserably at that and here we are.”

  “That could have gone very wrong for us.”

  “I’m well aware, dickhead.”

  “Touchy. Let’s get on with it. Where are we at on the system entry?”

  “Almost in. Do you think I should have told her that I was her client?”

  He rolled his eyes and sighed. “Probably. She has a name that can’t easily be mistaken. Now...” he leaned into the desk, “...can we get back to work? We’ve got a system to hack into, intel to grab and reports to file, and I’m needing a Guinness. Get your mind off of the little Irish fairy and onto her trusty sidekick.”

  “You’re right. The sooner we get this shit done, the sooner I can go on vacation.”

  “That’s the spirit. Do you think we should tap into both their systems, or just his?”

  “Both. We can’t rule her out just because she’s cute.”

  He raised an eyebrow and I wished I hadn’t said that.

  “Both it is.” He got up and stretched, yawning as he did so. We had been working nearly around the clock since I had met up with him here in Galway and we were both running on very little sleep.

  “Where are you going? We’ve still got to run through the plan again.”

  “No, we don’t need to run through the plan again. It’s perfect. I’ll see ya later, Nix. I’ve got to get some shit done, then I’m having a beer and crashing. I don’t care if it’ll be seniors o’clock. The time zones we’ve crossed this month have me beat.”

  He sauntered out, humming some sort of stupid tune and I laughed. We’d been partners for the past ten years. To say we spent a lot of time together was quite the understatement. He knew me better than anyone else did and unfortunately, that went both ways. He had a brilliant mind for code that lived deep, deep in the gutter.

  He was also good at reading me, so I’d have to keep my A game onside this trip. Visions of Keeva had been invading my brain since we had become unfortunate seat mates. Those startling green eyes, that sprinkle of adorable freckles across her cheeks and those jet black bangs hanging in her face, begging to be swept aside by my hands. It was all too much for me for some reason. My body, the traitorous piece of shit, reacted each and every time I thought of her, and that was often enough that I would have to guard myself against my insightful partner.

  I stripped off the straight jacket most normal people call a suit and wished like hell I could change into my jeans and T-shirt. There was always a chance a non-agent would walk in, let alone our target of the month, so best to try to find some semblance of comfort while still maintaining our cover.

  I worked through the steps we were going to take to get the information we needed for the hundredth time. Hawk was right, we didn’t need to keep running the plays over and over again, but until we could gain the access we needed, I had to be sure nothing was going to trip us up.

  I was staring at my computer, completely unsure of what our next steps were, when an email alert popped up, notifying me that Keeva had sent an email. An instant smile appeared before I even knew what the potentially virus inducing email contained.

  “What are you smiling about over there? Did you just hack into someone’s naked and alone time?”

  Hawk hadn’t gone far. He was sitting with his laptop over on my small meeting table inside my office.

  Pushing up my glasses, I raised both eyebrows above the rims and gave him my best mean boss stare down. “Are you still here? And seriously? Have you done that shit?”

  He just returned my stare with a suspicious smirk and I decided to leave well enough alone. “No, I just received an email that is sure to delight and enthrall me for hours.”

  “Do share, Shakespeare.”

  “Let me open it first. It’s probably loaded with as many viruses as she could find.”

  “Ah, I see.” Hawk’s smirk had turned into a frown.

  “What is it that you see?”

  “I’d place dibs on the email being from your little Irish fairy. We’re back to that, my friend. Don’t you remember what happened the last time you got too close?”

  I slammed the lid of the laptop down and began to pack up. This topic was one that I had become a master at avoiding.

  “Really? Just going to walk?”

  “Leave it alone, Hawk. I was there, remember? I know what happened.”

  He waved his hands up in the air. “Hey, I’m not saying anything, just I can see stuff, you know?”

  “I’m going to get coffee.”

  I walked out, lifting my hand to wave goodbye and possibly accidentally waving with my middle finger and not looking back. I’d heard his speech a thousand times and this one wasn’t going to end any differently. I knew my responsibilities and I knew what was at stake. More than most. Whatever I was trying not to feel for Keeva Murphy was going to stay buried, dark and deep. Just like all the other shit that lived down there.

  By the time I had grabbed my coffee and returned to my office, Hawk had disappeared. I decided to open the email in question while I had these few moments alone. The first bit was pretty generic, covered some key talking points of our meeting and asked a few business questions.

  Then the attachment caught my eye. I opened it to find the tasks we had asked for, completed and attached. All of them. In the span of a few hours, not days like you might expect. And they were done well. Even though Hawk and I weren’t running a real company, we still operated it as if we were a fully functional corporation. We knew how to run a company, real or fake, so that the requests and our interactions felt as legit as possible.

  Her work was incredible. I scrolled through the proposals and mock ups and assumed she must have driven right to her office and pumped out our requests. Either that, or she was so well prepared she had only needed to tweak her reports. Whatever it was, she had surprised me. Most millennials I had met weren’t always so go
od at expediting work.

  I sent a reply, lauding her ability to deliver the elements we needed ahead of schedule and tried to focus on all the other stuff I had to get done. We had made some major progress on capturing data from her network, mainly diving into her IT guy’s hard drive. He was a sneaky bastard, but we were sneakier. Not long now and we would be able to have invisible access to all the nasty shit he was into. And Keeva’s hard drive too. That was more troublesome.

  I actually liked her. I could see hanging out with her if this wasn’t our circumstance. But, that wasn’t going to happen. None of the things I wanted to happen could happen. This was what I had signed up for. A life of random hookups and zero long-term relationships. I had tried that once. Didn’t work out. And that was putting it lightly.

  Hours later, I slammed my laptop lid shut and grabbed my keys. All two of the other employees here had left long ago, so it was dark and creepy quiet in the building. My mind was in a huge scramble, as it always was after I had strung hours of code together.

  I decided just to drive to clear my head before heading back to my empty flat. I had rented an executive suite, tired of hotels and their inability to make me feel at home. Plus, having a flat gave me a more permanent vibe.

  I hadn’t been able to shake this weird feeling for the past few days. Ever since I had met her, Keeva Murphy had been occupying space in my brain. Space that wasn’t up for grabs. A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, I had fallen in love with another woman. She was the sister of our assignment, and one of my first missions. We got to him through her and along the way, while I was building my case, we fell in love. Except most of it was built on a lie. And when I told her, I nearly lost my career and I definitely lost her. I chose to tell her just before we had her brother apprehended. And she went to him and told him. And the entire operation fell to pieces. I nearly lost my job, the first month on the job. I vowed to never let someone in far enough to get near that point again.

  But there was this buzzing in my blood. It had started when Keeva walked in, all angry and her eyes throwing daggers at me. I felt it start in my feet and travel up and down my body. I’d never experienced such an alarming reaction to someone. Such a physical urge to be nearer someone. I needed to knock it off and remember what I was doing here in the first place.

  All these thoughts were running through my head when I realized I had subconsciously driven to her office or home, or whatever you wanted to call it. I threw the car in park across the street from her door and totally stalked her place of business. I sat there and watched, tapping my foot, checking my phone, telling myself not to get out and go across the street.

  I got out and darted across the street, wondering what in the hell I was doing. It was going on nine at night, the street was virtually deserted and I was about turn up the creep factor to a level ten. We had scoped out her address before, but never at night. She lived in a typical Galway neighborhood. A mix of business and residential, with her building at the end of the narrow street. There were no streetlights close by and not a lot of foot traffic.

  I was going to need to suggest some sort of security system, or at least some better lighting. With such easy street access, she needed to light up her space like Fort Knox. Anybody could decide to break and enter whenever they wanted with the way it was now, and chances were pretty good that Keeva would be there while this was happening, since she both worked and lived there.

  I raised my hand to knock on the door and stumbled backwards as man shot out of it like the hounds of hell were on his heels. It was Robert, Keeva’s tech guy and the entire reason for this insane operation. He was into something and it was our job to figure out what. That would have to wait for today though if his speed had anything to say about it.

  He didn’t look back as he took off down the street, eventually getting lost in the darkness. Not able to stare after him for much longer, I stepped inside and smiled. I barely knew Keeva from first person impressions, but from afar? She held no secrets to Hawk and me. We had been studying her for a few weeks now and since she was so predictable, something not a lot of people would think about her, we knew her habits and personality to a scary degree. This environment I had just stepped into for the first time was all her.

  It was a mix of industrial, exposed brick and wood. Three completely contrasting elements, yet together, they were a match made in heaven. Kind of like her. She was a tiny, sprite of a woman, yet she was strong and loud, and at the same time, extremely feminine, and it all worked for her.

  The woman in question came around the corner with a frown on her face.

  “Mark? What are you doing here? I didn’t hear you come in.”

  “I was—"

  She smiled. “If you were just about to give me the “I was just in the neighborhood” then you can turn around and try again. No one is ever in my neighborhood. Not even most of the people who live here. So think your reply through, and do it very carefully.”

  Yup, she was all that and a bowl of cherries. “I was about to say, I’m here because of your report. Do you have time?”

  She visibly hesitated, probably weighing her options. She most likely still hated me and if I was ever going to make this assignment work, I needed to get beyond that animosity.

  “It’s nine o’clock at night. Can’t we do this tomorrow?”

  “Yup, we could, buuut, we could also go over it now?”

  I felt the guilt creep in under her heavy stare. If it was a sane explanation she was wanting, she wasn’t going to get one from me tonight. She sighed and stepped back, waving me through, closing the door behind me.

  “You know, having your door so close to the street is just inviting thieves into your office.”

  “Thanks, Superman. I’ll keep that in mind next time I’m able to afford to move to a better location. I’ve got a lock on the door, that’s gonna have to do for now.”

  Great, I was only proving to piss her off more. It was no wonder this was shaping up to be my last undercover assignment. It clearly wasn’t my circle of genius. A solid and boring desk job was calling its siren song to me.

  “Sorry, I couldn’t help it.”

  “Yeah, I’ve noticed you have a problem with saying things you should, or actually not saying the things you need to. So, what did you want to talk about? I was just about to call it a night and grab a shower and head to bed.”

  Standing there, arms crossed, weighing a hundred and ten pounds soaking wet, looking all righteous indignation, I was having a hard time remembering why my brain drove me over to her. That and now I was picturing her in the shower. Shit.

  “I have a few questions.” That’s it. Totally sounding like the genius I am. I began to walk towards her, trying to push her back, deeper into her space so I could get a better view of her office space and how it was laid out.

  “Such as?”

  “How you did such an excellent job, in such a short period of time.”

  That one stopped her. She looked like she hadn’t been expecting any compliments from me.

  “Preparation, that’s how.”

  I took another step closer to her. It was like something deep inside of me was dragging me into her gravitational pull. I’d give her this, she wasn’t backing down from my assholery. She was actually probably egging it on.

  “So, tell me this.” God she was cute when she was all fired up.

  “What?”

  She raised her hands in surrender in front of her. “I’m having a hard time coming to terms with the brilliant brain inside that head of yours, being matched to this man standing in front of me. I watched you sort out all that code this morning. You’re a techie!”

  The top of her head barely came up to my shoulders. She had her neck cranked to the side and tilted up and it was taking every last single thread of strength I had not to just lean down and possess her, so I took a small step back to ward off that dangerous feeling. I bent over and gave her my best listen to me stare over the top of my glasses.
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  “Why?”

  “Why what?

  “Why can’t someone be both? Why can’t I have a brilliant tech mind and still be just a regular guy. Ms. Murphy.”

  “Ah, I see.” She was practically whispering to herself now.

  “What exactly do you see?”

  “You called me Ms. Murphy. I took Psych 101, Mark. You’re setting up our power situation. You’re distancing me as a person from me as your employee, and you’re reminding me who’s in charge. How am I doing?”

  If she wanted psychology, I could give it to her up the wazoo. Leaning over her, close enough to block her in and breathe in her intoxicating scent, I clarified our relationship.

  “You work for me, Ms. Murphy. That means you report to me and if I like what I get, you’ll continue to work for me and we can enjoy a satisfying employer to employee relationship. What I’ve got to give you ends there, nothing more. Understand?” I didn’t wait for her nod, just plowed on with today’s lesson. “My brilliant tech brain as you have labelled it, needs your incredibly creative marketing brain. I’ve never questioned your ability to deliver what it is you’ve promised to, just because you’re delivering it inside this insanely hot, tiny fireball of a body, now have I?”

  I turned and walked out the front door before I taught her a lesson she wasn’t anywhere near ready to learn from me.

  Chapter 6

  Keeva

  What in the hell had just happened? I felt like a cold shower was in order, or a stiff shot of whiskey, or both. I sunk to the floor reveling in the pain each brick gave me as I slowly travelled down my trendy interior wall.

  I had never encountered a man like Mark. He was obviously completely geek, through and through based on his knowledge and data files he had delivered to Robert a week ago, but then slip those glasses down, dress him up in a suit that could make a nun run around naked and rub up against him, and he was all the things no one had ever said when describing a techie.

  And for the record, I was completely pretending he hadn’t mentioned my hot, fireball of a body. I laughed and flopped over onto the floor, slowly slipping into a manic state. Next stop, the psych ward. Ticket for one. Straight jacket required.