LAUREN (Silicon Valley Billionaires Book 1)

by Leigh James

  At thirty-two, Gabe was already a self-made man. He was a brilliant man, he was a powerful man, but he also seemed kind underneath all that. That glimmer of kindness was helping me relax around him, even though I didn’t want to relax.

  He took a sip of wine. “I think I’m going to bash Clive Warren’s skull in.”

  So much for my kindness theory.

  “Excuse me?”

  He leaned toward me. “I said, I think I’m going to bash Clive’s skull in. I don’t want him coming around you. I don’t like it, and I don’t like him. He was at Paragon this morning to threaten you. I’d like to threaten him back, except not at arm’s length. I’m gonna fight him.”

  “You’re going to fight him? Are you protecting my honor?”

  He kept his body angled toward me across the table, close enough that I could lean in and kiss him.

  I moved as far back in my chair as possible.

  He grinned. “I’d like to protect you. I think your honor’s pretty safe.”

  “You can’t fight Clive Warren, or bash his skull in, or anything like that. I have to be the one to handle him.” My mind started racing, and I tapped my foot, trying to keep up with it. “All I keep thinking is that maybe he had some sort of documentation or notes with his director materials—something he thought he could use against me after I refused his offer last night.”

  Gabe sat back a fraction. “Like what? You don’t release proprietary information to your board, do you?”

  I took a shaky sip of wine. “No. I present general data points and reports on testing, but I don’t get specific. The technology is classified as a trade secret, so there are no disclosures. That’s the way we’ve always done it.”

  “So he can’t have anything he’s not supposed to have, or anything that he hasn’t seen already.”

  I nodded. “So I can’t understand why he came and why he wanted that stuff. Unless…”

  “Unless what?”

  “Unless he didn’t really want his materials. Maybe he just wanted an excuse to be in the building.”

  Gabe watched my face warily. “For what?”

  I took an angry bite of my salad. “Like you said—to send me a message, whatever it is. That’s what I need to figure out. Tonight.”

  We rushed through the rest of dinner, speculating about Clive and what he’d really been up to at my office. I begged Gabe to let me go back to the lab with my driver and my guard, but he wouldn’t hear of it.

  He insisted on driving me to Paragon. “We’re still on a date. I’m taking you. Plus, I might get more information to fuel my fire against Clive. Then you’ll have to let me punch him.”

  I shook my head at him, secretly pleased…even though the thought of fighting made me uncomfortable. I relaxed against the seat of his luxurious car, enjoying someone else sharing a burden with me, for once. I felt safe and protected as we drove over the hills and back down into the Valley.

  But I knew feeling safe and protected was only an illusion, and a fleeting one at that. I stiffened in my seat. I shouldn’t let myself get too comfortable. It was just going to hurt that much worse when I said good-bye to Gabe, which I needed to do soon. I could feel myself getting attached, and of all the things I didn’t have time for, a personal relationship topped the list.

  I watched the dark hills fly by. “This must be the worst first date ever.” I had nothing to compare it to, but it must be a disappointment for him. “You bring me to a fantastic restaurant, and all I can do is obsess over a possible corporate sabotage.”

  “You have every right to obsess. Besides, we can still rescue the date. We’re just getting started.”

  “I have to be at the office first thing tomorrow.”

  “We’re going to your office right now. By the time we leave, it’ll probably be tomorrow. So you’ll have already clocked in and out.”

  A flash of heat shot through me as I wondered exactly what he would like to do with me on my imaginary time off. “You know I—”

  He held up his hand, silencing me. “I know, I know. You have to work. I get it. You’re a very important CEO of a very important company, and the world is depending on you.”

  I stared back out the window. “The world isn’t depending on me.”

  He reached over and patted my knee, then quickly removed his hand, as if he knew a lingering touch would make me uncomfortable. “Yes, they are. They just don’t know it yet.”

  Timmy and Gabe waited as I entered the complicated code to the building. Gabe looked away while I punched in the numbers.

  Gabe hesitated at the door. “Do you trust me to come in with you? I don’t want to compromise anything.”

  “I trust you, but you still have to sign in and sign the NDA because I don’t deviate from our protocol.”

  “Of course you don’t.” That dimple showed itself, making me want to reach out and caress his face—a thought I immediately, and somewhat violently, shoved aside in my mind.

  We went into the reception area, and I turned to Timmy. “Please go up and let them know I need the tape of Mr. Warren sent to my office.”

  He nodded and set off, his broad form disappearing down the dark hall. I sometimes had lab workers there on third shift, but on the weekends, I tried to let everyone have some time off. Except for security, which we maintained twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, including all holidays. I’d been vigilant with premises security since we’d moved into our large facility. The fact that Clive Warren had possibly caused a breach made me simmer with anger.

  Gabe dutifully filled out his paperwork, then we headed through the dark halls to my office. He let out a low whistle as I turned on the lights. “This is quite the work space.”

  I glanced at the couches, the artwork, and the view of the grounds, which were dark at the moment. “I spend a lot of time here, as you know. Hannah decorated it so I’d be comfortable.”

  “Do you ever actually sit on those couches?” He sounded as if he already knew the answer.

  I switched on my screen. “Never.”

  Security had already sent the video feed. I watched it again as Clive came in, talked to the receptionist and the guard, then headed down the hall to the boardroom. Gabe sat next to me, his brow furrowed, as we watched it again and again.

  “Wait—watch that,” Gabe said, pointing at the screen. “He just did something.”

  I rewound the feed and we watched Clive walk down the hall on his way back from the boardroom, pausing for a moment at an employee’s workstation to lean down. It looked like he tossed something in the trash or adjusted his pant leg or shoe—I couldn’t be sure.

  I shrugged. “He just threw away a gum wrapper.”

  Gabe hopped up. “If he did, I want to see it.” We headed to the hallway to look for any signs of disruption or any clues remaining from Clive’s visit. Or for his gum wrapper.

  I peered into the small trashcan. “Do you think he put something in here?”

  Gabe got down on all fours and inspected the workstation where Clive had stopped briefly. He went around the desk, inspecting the computer. He took a Swiss Army knife out of his pocket and used it to pry the keyboard apart, peering inside.

  “Gabe! What are you doing?”

  “I’m looking. You saw it—he stopped here for a second.”

  I was losing patience. “So?”

  He crawled underneath the desk and started examining the hardware. “So he’s a slimy bastard. That’s why I’m looking.” Gabe cursed and pulled something off the hard drive of the computer. He held up a tiny, square chip. “I don’t know what this is. Do you?”

  My heart started pounding as I looked at it. “Part of a computer?”

  He handed it to me. “It was attached to part of a computer.”

  I turned the miniscule piece over in my hands. I resisted the urge to crush the chip into dust, knowing I needed to analyze it. “You might just get your wish, after all.”

  “What’s that?”

  “To bash
Clive Warren’s skull in. I might even hold him for you.”

  Chapter 5

  Clive Warren tried to hack me. He’d put this device in my headquarters to bypass my firewall and navigate inside my system. Based on the quick research I’d done on this chip, he’d probably already succeeded.

  I cracked my knuckles and waited for the database report to finish compiling. I turned to Gabe. “You should go.”

  He’d spoken with a programmer friend about the chip, and they were texting each other furiously. He looked up at me, still seemingly distracted by what he’d been reading. His eyes cleared after a moment, but his brow was still furrowed. “I’m not leaving you. This doesn’t look good. My guy says that this is probably a capacitator chip.”

  I rubbed my eyes. “That’s what I was just reading about. They ran a study on them at the University of Michigan recently. It’s a piece of hardware that can hack into an operating system, right?”

  He nodded. “It’s more like a cell than a piece of hardware, but you’re on the right track. It’s unique in that it has to be physically present on computer hardware in order to work. It takes a while for it to become fully functioning, but once it’s up and running, it can hack into the entire system. But that’s also why it’s preferable to a regular old software hack—these cells are impossible to find.”

  “Unless you’re caught on a security tape sticking it to the back of a computer.” Clive might be dumber than I’d thought.

  “He did that on purpose, you know. He wanted you to see him.”

  I knew Gabe was right, but I still didn’t understand Clive’s motivation. “But why?”

  “I don’t know,” he admitted. “But I think you’re going to want to call the authorities. You shouldn’t even let him get away with this for a day.”

  I shook my head. “I can’t have outsiders in here right now—not even the FBI or the police. We’re finally getting somewhere with our clinical trials. If information about the patch leaks out now, it’s going to compromise everything. We don’t even know if he got any information… It’s not worth the risk.”

  “I don’t think you’re being reasonable.”

  His voice was even, not preachy, but I still arched an eyebrow at him. “I don’t remember asking what you thought.”

  Gabe put his phone down and started pacing. “I have an opinion, whether you want to hear it or not. I don’t want you to be at risk. If you won’t go to the police, we’re going to have to take care of Clive privately.”

  “Gabe. There is no ‘we’—this is my problem.”

  He stopped and turned to me, and I could see how tired he was, lines creasing his handsome face. “I’m not surprised you’re saying that, but at least listen to me. There’s a ‘we’ to the extent that I’ve asked you to partner with my company. I have an interest in Paragon, whether you like it or not. And I have a background in security. I have connections.”

  “You do?” I barely knew Gabe—I’d do well to remember that.

  He nodded. “My brother runs a security company. My dad did too. I can help you take care of Clive.”

  I swallowed hard. “I appreciate that, but I have to deal with him on my own. I also appreciate that you’re here with me, and how supportive you’ve been tonight, but it’s a one-off. You’re going to go back to Dynamica tomorrow, and I’ll be here. And that’s okay. That’s the way it should be.”

  He ran his hands through his hair. “My programmer friend thinks he could have already gotten into your system. Your technology’s at risk. You’ve most likely been compromised.”

  “I don’t know that for sure. We have the most up-to-date firewalls, the most sophisticated security on the market. There’s a chance that Clive got nothing.”

  “Let me help you.”

  “I don’t need your help,” I said, exasperated. Gabe was the last person I wanted to lash out at right then, but he was the closest one to me. “I can handle this myself. I handle everything myself. I’m going to have my team come in and re-encrypt all the data. Even if he got in, he couldn’t have gotten everything. I have some information that’s impenetrable.”

  Gabe crossed his arms and smiled at me faintly. I wondered briefly if it was because I’d used the word impenetrable, but I sure as hell wasn’t going to ponder that at the moment.

  I turned back to my computer. “You’re not leaving, are you?”

  “No.” He shook his head and sat down heavily. “I don’t want to leave you alone.”

  “Suit yourself.” I started analyzing my intelligence for signs of a possible breach.

  Gabe was snoring lightly on the couch when I found it. Part of the security code repeated itself twice in a row, indicating an irregularity in our firewall.

  I wasn’t a programmer, but I could tell from what I’d found that Clive had gotten in. He’d gotten past our sophisticated firewalls and into Paragon’s main database. He’d seen my most recent reports and the results of my first positive prototype trial.

  What Clive didn’t know was that the actual design and technology for my working prototype wasn’t contained in Paragon’s database. It was only on my private laptop, which was never synced to the network for this very reason. We manufactured the prototype in house. Because I lived in fear of being hacked, I personally oversaw every aspect of production. I provided my employees the correct data for each portion of the production, but after every cycle was complete, I switched out the most up-to-date specs with older information.

  So even if Clive had successfully hacked me, he didn’t have the updated plans for the patch—the plans that finally worked.

  This was where being a paranoid recluse came in handy.

  “Gabe.” I nudged him, and he hugged his arms around himself as if trying to ward me off and stay asleep. I watched him for a moment, his breathing even and regular, his arms wrapped around his chest.

  He opened one eye to look at me. “You’re staring at me, aren’t you? That’s really rude.”

  I sat back and rubbed my eyes. The lack of sleep was starting to catch up with me. “Uh—sorry.”

  “I’m kidding.” He sat up a little. “What did you find?”

  I swallowed hard. “He breached the firewall. He was in. Now that the chip’s been turned off, he probably can’t get anything else. But he had hours. I’m sure he got a good look.”

  Gabe patted my hand. “You want me to go fight him now?”

  I laughed, but it sounded as miserable as I felt. “If I thought it would help, maybe.”

  “It would definitely help. Think about it. Consider me on call.” He looked at his watch. It was six in the morning. “I told you that you’d put plenty of time in today. Let me take you home. You must be exhausted.”

  I shook my head. “I have too much to do. I have my entire IT team coming in.”

  Gabe sat up and gave me a firm look. “You need to go home and sleep for a few hours. And eat something. And change your clothes, even though I’m quite fond of that dress.”

  I’d completely forgotten what I had on. “I don’t need you to take me.”

  “I insist. Besides, I promised your sister I’d take care of you. I want to deliver you in one piece. I want her on my good side.”

  I wearily closed up my office. “I’m pretty sure she already likes you.”

  “There’s always room for improvement. I bet I could work on you liking me more, too.”

  “After this, I consider you a friend.” And a sexy, charming one, at that. “You helped me get through a tough night. I owe you.”

  “I look forward to cashing that in.” His eyes glittered, and I felt my face start to redden. “Now, let’s go. I know a very important CEO who needs breakfast.”

  A few hours later, I met with my IT security team in my office. “Tell me what you know so far.”

  Leo, the head of the group, looked up at me from his laptop. “They had over twelve hours inside your system. Depending on who this is, and how much a priority Paragon is to them, they could hav
e copied half the files off your server. They certainly had the opportunity.”

  I groaned, then held up the offending chip. “Is this a sophisticated piece of technology?”

  “Yes and no. It’s pretty evil in its simplicity,” Leo said. “It’s sophisticated in that you have to know what you’re doing in the first place to configure the transponder to disrupt a home signal. But it’s pretty simple after that—you just have to place it physically on a hard drive in order for it to work.”

  “Does your average hacker use technology like this?”

  “No, but your average hacker is evolving.” He took a sip of water. “This is a hardware hack. It’s rare, but I think this is the next wave in corporate espionage. These chips are being manufactured in China and inserted directly into hard drives. So—boom—you buy a computer made in China that’s rigged with one of these, you’re automatically hacked. But this chip was added recently.”

  I made a mental note not to purchase any foreign-made computers in the near future. I paced around the boardroom, acid bubbling in my stomach. “I know who did this.”

  “Okay.” Leo leaned forward. “I take it you’re one hundred percent sure?”

  I nodded and kept pacing.

  “If you want to bring this to the authorities, we have plenty of proof,” he said. “You could have them prosecuted under state and federal laws for a cybercrime.”

  “I’m not ready to go to the authorities. Not yet.” I kept a small circle. That was how, to date, I’d protected my company and my invention. But things had changed as of yesterday morning, and if I were going to survive, I would have to adapt.

  Letting Gabe stay with me the previous night and telling him about Clive was the first step. But going to the authorities wouldn’t be the second. I had to keep my technology secret. I had some plans that might run afoul of state and federal laws, so I would take my chances on my own. For the moment.