She wouldn’t meet his gaze.
Tate cleared his throat, and Jared’s head swung in that direction.
Tate shrugged. “This kind of violation isn’t exactly easy to pull off, is it?”
“You know it’s not.”
Tate glanced at Vivian, but she was still fiddling with her purse. He looked back at Jared. “So who would love to see us fall? Who has someone working for them who knows how to do something like this?”
He was asking if Mikki was behind this. Jared wanted to snap at him for the assumption. What he hated even more was that part of him was asking the same question, even though she’d just finished apologizing.
He stashed the doubt. “If someone on Hayden’s side did this, we’ll shut them down. First, we have to make sure we’re clean, we have to make sure this won’t happen again, and we have to do it now. Where can we set up?”
Tate’s face twitched with a bitter smile. “I’ve got the high roller suite. A lot more room to spread out.”
“Good call.” Jared glanced at Vivian. “Grab your laptop. Track down the concierge and see where we can find a couple of clean ones as well. Out of the box. Nearest Fry’s, Walmart, whatever. I’ll grab the secure hotspot.”
“Right. I’ll meet you both upstairs as soon as I can.” Vivian turned away even as she spoke.
A hollow ache throbbed under Jared’s ribcage. It wasn’t true. This was bad luck, and it had nothing to do with Mikki. Except it did. Even if it didn’t come directly from her, her carelessness, combined with a scary knack for the obtuse, could have made this happen. He shoved the thoughts aside. Wallowing could wait.
“Can we get Legal on the phone?” he asked as he and Tate made their way to the elevators.
“Can you prove NetSys is behind this? Like undeniable, someone’s-grandpa-could-understand-it proof?”
Jared clenched his teeth. They both knew proof was almost impossible. Some hackers signed their names, but not usually those involved in corporate espionage. Besides, right now it all pointed back to Jared anyway. Unless they could pinpoint where the infected message had actually come from, there was no point in doing anything besides plugging the hole as quickly as possible.
MIKKI SET HER PHONE on the counter in the bathroom and cranked the volume. It wasn’t as good as having it attached to the docking station she had back home, but the echo of the tiles gave her enough to sing along with. She wiped the steam from the mirror. Happy eyes and cheeks flushed with the heat of her shower stared back. She’d finished clearing up their display in the exhibit hall early and rushed back to her room, giddy with fantasies of the night ahead of her. She’d tried to take her time in the shower so she wouldn’t have to wait long. Her clock told her she still had more than an hour until Jared would be there, though.
Blow-drying her hair only took up fifteen minutes. She stared at her luggage. Now, what to wear? After examining and discarding every piece of clothing she’d packed, she sank onto the bed. Maybe she should have thought of that earlier. Stopped by one of the casino shops and picked up something sexy. She absentmindedly twirled the belt of her robe around her finger, sliding the red satin back and forth.
She looked down at the kimono-style robe. Then stood and spun, examining herself from every angle in the mirror above the desk. The thought of opening the door for him dressed in nothing but the robe sent a rush of excitement through her. She needed to calm down a little. He’d mentioned dinner and conversation. And as much as she loved the memories of what he could do to her body, she was looking forward to some more in-depth getting to know each other as well.
Her imagination wanted something else. She perched on the edge of her bed, legs crossed.
The minutes passed, and the clock rolled past seven. Something twinged inside as the time hit five minutes late, and then ten. He was just tied up, right? She knew how busy he was. Something had snagged his attention. He couldn’t let her know because he was on the phone or in a meeting.
And didn’t have her number. The thought rolled through her head, taunting her. But trailing behind came another, much better one. She did have his. She’d snagged business cards from pretty much every booth at the show, and his was in the stack.
Seconds later, she dug his card out and had his number in her phone. Her thumbs hesitated above the screen. Would she seem needy if she sent him a message? He was probably on his way up now. Right? She glanced at the clock. Twenty minutes late. No, this would be okay. She sent him a quick text. It’s Mikki. Just making sure everything’s okay.
Another half an hour ticked by, and nothing. Sick dread nudged her senses. He’d said they weren’t completely okay but had still forgiven her. Had he changed his mind? Had the few hours apart given him a new perspective on how badly she’d fucked up?
She was overreacting. There was nothing wrong. Sometimes life happened. She set him another quick note. You all right? Where are you?
Which was okay, right? They hadn’t exactly defined their relationship this afternoon, but she assumed when he said he wanted to see more of her, he’d meant it.
Except an hour after she sent the message, and still had no response, she wasn’t so sure. She clicked on the TV and cycled through the channels two times before she realized she had no idea what she’d just seen on any of them. Another hour passed. He wasn’t coming. Whatever was going on, he wasn’t going to show up.
She set her phone on the nightstand and lay on her stomach on the bed. Crime drama. That should take her mind off things. Classic, straightforward whodunit with a smattering of interrogation and court room drama. The victim had been killed by his business partner, who had been sleeping with the victim’s wife, and embezzling from their company.
Mikki clicked the channel to something with cartoons instead. The inanities and three nights of almost no sleep combined with her wounded disappointment and pulled her eyelids shut.
A loud hum tore through the room, jarring her awake. She stared around her room, blinking away the sleep. What the hell? She turned toward the nightstand. A sad giggle escaped. It was just her phone vibrating against the solid surface.
She grabbed the device, not able to suppress her hope. It was Jared. It had to be. He had a good excuse. Her gut sank when she read the message. It was definitely him, all right.
His note just said, Cleaning up your mess. A Trojan, really?
She clicked the words around in her head, looking for a meaning. She knew what they meant, but how did it relate to her? Realization crashed in around her, and she sank to the floor. Someone had exploited what she’d found. It was the most plausible reason she could think of for why he’d be blaming her. Someone who’d known all the details of what she’d uncovered and had access to her phone less than twenty-four hours ago.
Her hands were shaking as she pulled up her phone’s email history. There it was, sitting in a file that was deleted but still hiding on her phone, with Jared’s email information spoofed as headers. Whoever had used her phone to do this hadn’t even bothered to cover his tracks.
She pulled up Hayden’s number, her raging fury making it difficult to even think. He’d still be on his flight, but he always checked his messages as soon as he landed. She didn’t try to keep her voice steady. It took enough effort to keep a string of profanities and cruel names from flying to her lips. “It’s Mikki. I know it’ll be late when you get in, but I thought you’d like to know sooner rather than later. I quit.”
All his warnings about her finding other work faded into the back of her mind. This was unacceptable. It bordered on illegal. She couldn’t draw a paycheck from these people even if it did mean finding another job would be a struggle.
She pulled herself into the easy chair next to the bed and turned her attention back to the TV. Cleaning up your mess. Jared’s text echoed in her thoughts. She hadn’t meant to cause a mess. It was never supposed to be like this. This was more than the simplicity of her wanting to know if she was better than the legendary Jared Tippins; it impacted
an entire company. The livelihood of thousands of people.
She needed to find Jared and make things right. It didn’t matter that sleep tugged at her senses. Rest could wait until this entire thing was straightened out.
She pulled on some clothes, grabbed her phone and her room key, and headed straight for the elevator. Hopefully Jared would be in his room. She had to help him make this right.
She pounded as loud as she dared without drawing attention from the neighbors and staff. Her gut sank further when there was no answer. Now what?
When her phone vibrated against her hip, it jarred her from the edge of panic. She didn’t check the display, hitting answer on autopilot while her brain whirred for solutions on where to look for Jared next. “Hello?” Her voice cracked, and she winced.
“Everything all right?” Hayden’s cheerful tone sharpened the edge of her exhaustion.
Any restraint she’d used earlier was lost in the haze of exhaustion and frustration. Time to be blunt. “No, it’s not. Things have moved past bad and straight into fucked up.”
His chuckle drifted over the phone line and sent ice dragging up her spine. “Then maybe you should have been more selective about how you landed your job.” His tone was steel. “I’ve tried to put this politely, and I’ve tried to hint. You’re smart. I figured you got what I was implying. The signing bonus was to help soothe your conscience. The fact you’ve kept quiet for six months implies you didn’t want to be found out. That you fucked their director of technology and still didn’t say anything indicates you’re getting off on the entire thing. If you quit now, you’ll never work tech again. Not just in this industry, but in any. Just like the guy who interviewed you. And your resignation is accepted, by the way.”
The line clicked off, and Mikki stared at the device in her hands. Rage, fear, and nausea all rolled inside. She didn’t know how she was going to make this better, but if it was the equivalent of spitting in Hayden’s face and helped Jared out at the same time, she’d sacrifice a lot to make it happen.
Chapter Nineteen
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?”
His Hacker (Love Games, #5) Page 15
