by Ivy Nelson
When she was into the dark web forum she was after, she started her search.
An hour later, they were both deep in their work.
“Well that doesn’t make any sense,” she muttered as she picked up a pen and wrote down a name.
“What doesn’t make sense?” Lance said, adjusting his glasses.
“I think I found our hacker, but it can’t be.”
Lance stood and came around to her side of the table. “What do you mean?”
“If my research is correct, he’s in prison.”
Lance hummed. “Interesting. I love a good mystery. What’s his name?”
“Sebastian Forcythe.”
Lance lifted an eyebrow before he looked away and back again. “I’ve heard of him. I wasn’t aware he’d been arrested again. What’d he do?”
“Looks like some sort of cryptocurrency scam.”
“OK. But some prisoners get access to computers. Maybe he’s doing it from the inside. Or maybe he has partners and proteges.”
Marissa nodded. “I was thinking the same thing, but so far everyone is saying he’s the only one with this specific signature. I don’t know what he has to do with any of your members. We can run his name against all of your background information on your membership roster and see if we can find a connection.”
“Do it. Can you find out which prison he’s in?”
“Already done,” she said as she pulled a sticky note off the pad she’d been using.
He picked it up and went back to his computer.
Ten minutes later, he cursed and pulled out his phone. She watched him type out a text and set the device next to his laptop.
Less than three minutes later, Patrick Yates poked his head in the door.
“What’s up?”
“Where is your dad?”
“Holly keeps track of that. I’m doing my best to forget him.”
Lance glared. “Seriously? Well then get her. I need to know. I can dig it up but if I can get the information faster from you that would be helpful.”
“One sec.”
Patrick disappeared.
“What does his dad have to do with this?”
Lance whistled. “How long do you have? It’s a long twisted story.”
“Patrick, I swear to God, you better have a good reason for pulling me out of the dungeon. Do you know how often I get to see Elijah right now? Not very fucking often.”
Marissa and Lance turned to the doorway to see a very irritated Holly and a smirking Patrick.
“Sorry, Holly. It’s my fault,” Lance said. “Can you tell me where your dad is right now?”
“He just got released from prison. He’s on house arrest for the next nine months. Why?”
Before Lance could answer, Patrick exploded. “He what? Why the fuck didn’t you tell me?”
“Because you said you didn’t want to know where he was.”
Patrick slammed his fist into the doorframe. “I meant I didn’t want to know which prison he was in. Why the hell would you think I wouldn’t want to know he’d been fucking released?”
Holly shrugged. “I figured I would tell you next time you came to California.”
Turning to Lance, she said, “What’s this about?”
“We found the person we think is the hacker. The thing is, he’s in prison and the prison he’s in is the same one your dad was just released from. It’s possible that it’s a coincidence but you know how I feel about those.”
Patrick dropped into the chair next to Lance and Holly leaned against the door.
“God. I really thought I was done with that man.”
Marissa was so confused. “I feel like I need someone to fill me in here, guys.”
Holly came further into the room and shut the door.
“It’s a pretty convoluted story but I’ll do my best to give you the Cliff’s notes version.”
By the time Holly finished her story, Marissa’s head was spinning.
“OK,” she said, blowing a stray piece of hair out of her face. “So, this definitely doesn’t feel like a coincidence.”
“Is the entire board here this weekend?” Lance asked. His tone was subdued, and Marissa worried for him.
Patrick nodded. “As far as I know. What do we need to do?”
Lance cleared his throat. “Shut down the website.”
11
Lance sat at the head of the table in the conference room on Sunday morning and watched as the others filed in. Marissa sat behind him with her headphones on. At first, she hadn’t wanted to attend the emergency board meeting, but he’d wanted her there and she’d finally given in.
When everyone was sitting around the table, many with cups of coffee in their hand, Lance cleared his throat. “Thanks for coming, everyone. Thanks to Marissa’s keen eye, we were able to identify some discrepancies in our application code. They are the result of a hacker and this individual has definitely been tracking the information that comes in. As far as I can tell, it’s been going on for at least eight months, but possibly longer. Because we don’t know how much damage has been done or who is at risk, I see no other option but to shut down the website and completely rebuild it from the ground up.”
“So why isn’t it already offline?” Samuel asked.
Lance gave him a pained smile. “Because I know my own ego and when we wrote the bylaws, we made this something the board had to vote on.”
“Bylaws be damned, we can retroactively vote. Get it down, Lance,” Samuel barked.
Lance nodded as he stared wide-eyed at the man. Outbursts were rare from Samuel. But he had a feeling the outburst would be the collective response from the board.
Austin spoke up. “Now, can we issue a statement to the membership?”
“I think it’s past time,” Dakota said.
“Let’s have Holly write it,” Austin said.
The group agreed and Elijah promised to ask her as soon as they adjourned.
They went through the motions of voting to pull the website and then turned to whether or not to host any more parties until their security was assured.
“I think we should issue the statement and let the membership vote.”
Matthew raised his hand.
“We’re not in grade school Matthew. What is it?”
“I’m assuming all of this communication with our membership will be electronic. How do we assure them that these communications are secure if we can’t even assure them our website is secure?”
Lance cleared his throat. “People love a scapegoat. You tell them you removed me from the board and brought in a new cyber security expert.”
“Bullshit,” Dakota said harshly.
Hunter leaned back in his chair. “It’s not a terrible idea. I’m not saying we should actually kick him off the board, but if we assure them that we have someone looking over your shoulder it could work.”
Elijah cleared his throat. “I think you’re forgetting that a lot of our members are close friends of ours. People we trust. While they may feel frustration, I don’t see any of them coming after Lance with pitchforks. I think we need to have our founder attach his name to the statement. As a board we have to show a unified front. We’re a team and we’re not replacing Lance.”
He blew out a sigh of relief. The suggestion was made in sincerity, but he was terrified of losing Solitaire.
To his surprise, everyone gave him a hug when the meeting was over. He wasn’t sure what to do with that. These people were his family, but this kind of affection wasn’t normal.
Marissa pulled her headphones out as the meeting ended and came to stand next to him.
Matthew turned to leave but Dakota stopped him.
“How long will it take to pull the site down, Lance?” she drawled.
“Technically about thirty seconds. Marissa and I will want to run some cleaners and such before we shut the server down completely but that will come later.”
“Let us be here with you while you do it. This can�
��t be easy for you.”
Dakota was always the one to check in and make sure her ‘fellas’ as she called the male board members, were OK, but she also called them out if she thought they were being assholes—which had happened more than once since Solitaire opened.
He gave her a kind smile. “I appreciate the support.”
Beside him, Marissa slipped her hand into his, and he gratefully squeezed it. She was the last person he would ask to support him, but he was comforted by and thankful for her gesture, nonetheless.
With heaviness in his heart, he pulled up the administrator panel for the club website and hovered his mouse over the button to disable it.
He would not cry in front of this group, he thought as he squeezed his eyes shut.
With a click of a button, the Solitaire website was down.
He and Marissa still had work to do but the ceremonial step was done, and it wasn’t possible for anyone to visit the site anymore.
The simple click of the mouse felt like a punch to the gut. Feelings of failure swarmed him, and he needed to sit down.
Marissa stayed next to him and the group remained quiet for a few seconds. When he gave the nod that it was done, they subjected him to another round of hugs. He was appreciative, but he knew if they didn’t leave soon, he was going to break down in front of them.
When the board finally filtered out of the room, he leaned with his palms flat on the table.
“You OK?” Marissa whispered.
He shook his head. “Not really. This sucks.” The lump in his throat threatened to give way to tears and he took his glasses off.
“Can I give you a hug?”
“You’ve never needed permission to hug me, Marissa.”
He stood upright and turned to face her. When she wrapped her arms around his middle, he buried his face in her neck and let the tears fall. It was embarrassing to say the least.
“God damn it,” he said, pulling away from her to wipe his eyes. “Sorry.”
“If we were still together, I would say take me upstairs and work your frustrations out on me, but since we’re not, how about we get back to work and get this sonofabitch?”
Lance nodded and leaned forward to kiss her forehead.
“I miss you. I hope you know that,” he said.
She looked at him warily. “It seems unlikely since you haven’t contacted me for five years.”
He smiled and his conversation with Austin on Friday night echoed in his mind. “I deserve that. Can I show you something?”
She nodded. “Of course.”
Sitting at the table, he pressed a few keys on his laptop and pulled up a document he’d been keeping for the last five years.
Spinning the laptop, he shoved it in her direction.
At first, she was quiet as she read the screen.
“Seriously?” she whispered a few minutes later. “You did all this?”
He nodded. “You’d made it clear that we were done, and I desperately wanted to respect that, but I also wanted to make amends, so I did what I could without talking to you.”
“God damn it, Lance.”
Was she angry?
“I thought you would appreciate it.”
“I do. That’s not what I’m swearing at. Why didn’t you fucking say something sooner? I would have talked to you. We might have fixed our problems if I had known this.”
He winced. “I try to respect no, Marissa.”
She sighed. “I guess I have to be thankful for that.”
“Is there a chance we can still talk about this?”
She gave him a shy nod. “Maybe. Let’s get this website stuff cleaned up and turn the server off so we can tear it apart and rebuild it.”
He nodded. “I can live with that.”
She moved her laptop so she was next to him, and Lance’s heart soared. She’d been purposely sitting across from him since she first arrived.
They worked in tandem until the job was done and the Solitaire website was no more.
Traces of it may always be on the web, but they’d done everything they could do to remove it and start over.
Lance was already working through the code in his head and thinking of ways to make it even stronger.
“I’m going upstairs,” Marissa said. “Follow me if you want.”
Lance stared after her as she stood and walked out of the room. Did his ex-fiancée and submissive just invite him into her room—his room?
He saved his progress and stood, unsure of whether or not he should follow her.
Deciding he would be a colossal idiot not to follow her he strolled out of the conference room and locked it behind him.
♦♦♦♦
Marissa paced in Lance's suite. Had she been wrong to invite him up? What exactly was she inviting him up to do?
Was she ready to sleep with Lance again? Images of the cops showing up in their living room flashed in her mind and she wasn't so sure. Then again, he'd proven that he knew how mistaken he'd been. She sat and peeled her boots off, tossing them in the corner as she contemplated her predicament.
Her therapist would tell her to take a step back and evaluate her choices.
Was there time for that?
A knock at the door told her there was not.
On shaky legs, she went to the door and pulled it open.
"Hi," she said, surprised she could speak around the lump in her throat.
He leaned against the door frame and shoved one hand in his pocket.
“What am I doing here, Marissa?” he asked in that quiet but stern voice she’d been so familiar with in the past.
Marissa stepped back, inviting him in. “I’m not sure. Talking, not talking. Can we just figure it out as we go?”
He laughed as he stepped into the room and lifted a hand to cup her cheek. “I think we’re at the figuring it out part now, Kitten.”
She sighed at his touch. “Then I definitely vote for not talking,” she whispered.
His eyes drifted closed for the briefest moment before he bent to kiss her.
“Maybe just a little talking,” he murmured as he pulled away and took her hand, guiding her to the bed.
His hand stayed in hers as he sat on the edge of the mattress.
“Why now?”
She shrugged. “Why not now? Are you seriously going to question having sex with me?”
He tugged at her hand until she sat next to him. When she did, he put his arm around her and pressed a kiss to her temple.
“Believe me, Kitten. I want to have sex with you. I want a lot of things with you, but we’re both running high on the emotions of the day, and I’m just trying to make sure you’re not going to wake up in the morning and regret coming to bed with me.”
Marissa shifted and tried to straddle him, but he held her steady, a stern look on his face. Since seduction wasn’t going to work, she tried the next best tactic. Sarcasm.
“It’s barely noon. I know you have stamina, but I doubt you can wear me out enough to knock me out until morning.”
His eyes narrowed and he turned in toward her. He moved so quickly she barely had time to react before she found herself flat on her back. His arms rested on either side of her head on the mattress as he hovered over her, glaring.
“I think you and I both know that’s not true. Or have you forgotten the time you spent twenty-four hours tied to my bed?”
She swallowed hard. That was a day she would likely not forget until she was old and senile.
“I’m not going to have regrets,” she whispered, though she wasn’t sure if she was lying to herself or not.
Warmth flooded her as he nuzzled the spot between her neck and shoulder. Then he was peppering her throat and face with soft fluttering kisses, driving her insane. When she was on the brink of combustion, he crushed his mouth to hers in a scorching kiss.
She lifted her hips attempting to grind against him, but he rolled off her.
“Hey,” she protested.
He pulled
his t-shirt over his head and her protest died. His jeans sat low on his hips, and though she’d had no reason to doubt it, it delighted her to see he was still in perfect shape. She wasn’t sure how he managed it either because working out wasn’t always something he made time for.
“Marissa.”
She blinked and shifted her gaze to his eyes. “Yes?”
“Darlin’ if I’m going to fuck you I kind of need you to take some clothes off.”
She giggled and sat up. “If you insist,” she said as she pulled her sweater off and tossed it on the floor.
As she reached for the button on her jeans, he held his hand out to her and helped her stand. His fingers found the button and worked it loose, then he lowered the zipper.
With a gentle tug, he pulled the pants over her curvy hips and down her thighs, taking her panties with them.
“God damn it, I’ve missed you,” he murmured as he dropped to his knees and helped her step out of her pants.
Tossing them aside, he kissed his way up her leg, starting at her knee. When he reached her pussy, he paused. His eyes drifted shut as if he were praying. He inhaled her scent before pressing a kiss to her center and looking up to meet her gaze.
She raked her fingers through his hair and pushed his head between her legs again.
Her knees threatened to buckle as he suckled her clit. He chuckled against her folds before pulling away. “Let’s move to the bed, baby.”
She backed up to the mattress and laid down, her breath ragged as she watched him move.
Her nipples hardened as he crawled onto the mattress and settled between her thighs. When his mouth met her slick pussy again, her toes curled, and she pressed her head back into the mattress. God, how had she gone five years without this man’s magnificent tongue on her?
His fingers dug into her thighs as he lapped at her cunt. Her hips bucked as bliss curled deep in her belly. It was as if they’d never stopped sleeping together. He strummed at her most intimate parts and made her body sing the way he always had. There was no stopping the orgasm that tore through her a few minutes later.
