An Appetite for Blackmail

by Ravenna Tate

  ****

  Ace was in the IT department, talking with Javier Ortega, one of his best systems analysts, when his phone buzzed with an incoming text. He thought it was Harper and ignored it, until the damn thing wouldn’t stop buzzing and he finally looked at it.

  “Took another look in your system and found something I missed last night. We need to talk.”

  It was from Merrick. Ace glanced at the clock. It was eleven in the morning where he lived, and he’d been up all night. Did the man ever sleep?

  He glanced toward Javier. “I need to chat with him, and you should probably listen in.” Ace used one of the IT work stations to contact Merrick. “What did you find?”

  “Something bothered me about this when I tried to sleep this morning, so I took another look at the data log. Your IT department should access this for you, too.”

  Ace moved the monitor so Merrick and Javier could also see each other. “Javier Ortega, meet Merrick Anderson.”

  “Great. Okay.” Merrick told Javier which log to bring up, and he did so on another station. “See where it shows Harper’s machine as accessing an offsite computer? That’s Ace’s laptop. But look at the three entries before that one, and tell me what’s wrong with this picture.”

  Javier frowned, and then he clicked a few things, but ended up shaking his head. “They’ve been altered, but there are no reason codes for the changes, and there should be.”

  “Exactly. And that’s probably because whoever altered them hacked into the system but then tried to hide what he was doing. He likely didn’t know he could only alter the logs to a point. He couldn’t delete them completely. You have the same failsafe in place that Dominic has over here.”

  “Is there a way to find the original entries?” asked Ace.

  “Oh yeah, there sure is.”

  Merrick’s voice was full of triumph, and Ace pumped his fist in the air. “What you found clears Harper, doesn’t it?”

  “Yes. But not only that. I found out who hacked into her work machine, and then manipulated the data log to make it look like she hacked into your personal laptop. And, that’s not all. This man’s name just might be the real identity of one of the names on the list Harper is compiling.”

  “How do you know about that?” asked Ace.

  “Emmett sent a partial list over to Dominic a few days ago, and Dominic had me look it over to see if I recognized any of the user names from our own company. You know he’s convinced that Tommy Twister was an inside job, and that the culprit or culprits might still be working for one of us.”

  “Tell me what to look for,” said Javier.

  Merrick gave Javier a set of instructions that Ace barely heard. A shiver snaked down his spine as Merrick’s words finally hit home. Dominic had been touting that theory for years, but he didn’t have much support within their group for it. If it turned out he was right, this went far deeper than any of them had imagined.

  “Holy shit. Ace, you need to see this.” Javier moved the screen over and Ace frowned. Javier pointed toward a line of code. “Snake Man. That is Rob.” He pointed toward another spot in the code. “See this? It’s the original logs. Rob uses that moniker as part of his password. It has no business being here, in my systems access site, but it is. He hacked in and changed these logs to a garbled mess, basically.”

  “And then he hacked into Harper’s work machine,” said Merrick, “and used it to access yours at home. That way it looked like she had accessed it. But he couldn’t completely hide it because he likely didn’t count on not being able to delete the systems logs.”

  “But how the hell did he hack into my home network?”

  “He didn’t.” Merrick and Javier spoke at once.

  “He used Harper’s machine to do it,” said Javier. “All he had to do was look up your passwords on the system, which means you have them stored somewhere on your hard drive. Don’t worry. We all do that.”

  “Son of a bitch. How do we shut him down?”

  Javier grinned in a decidedly wicked way. “Already done. He’ll never get into this system again from any computer because he stored his passwords, too. And I just changed them all, only he’ll have no way of knowing that until he tries to use his personal computer again.”

  “Why would he be stupid enough to use the same moniker for everything?” asked Ace.

  “The best hackers can still be the most narcissistic sons of bitches,” said Javier. “It’s like they want to get caught. It’s a game to them. They want to brag about their conquests while believing they’re above it all.”

  “His own arrogance has just fucked him six ways to Sunday,” said Ace.

  Merrick nodded. “Yes, it has. All set then, Ace? Do you or Javier need me anymore?”

  “No. Thank you. You have done me an invaluable service. And tell Dominic I’ll talk to him later about how we should proceed with Rob being a potential candidate behind the Tommy Twister virus.”

  “Will do.”

  Once they logged off the chat with Merrick, Ace sat and put his head in his hands. Then he ran his fingers through his hair. “This is fucked up. Tell me how to fix it.”

  “From a systems standpoint, or with Harper?”

  “You work on the system. I’ll take care of Harper.”

  Javier explained to him what he wanted to do. After Ace was convinced that Javier had this under control, he returned to his office and emailed his team, thanking them for responding on a weekend and for their help. Then he contacted each of the Weathermen and updated them on what Merrick and Javier had found. They set a date for a meeting that coming week, and then Ace was ready to return home.

  He had some serious begging to do. That is, if Harper hadn’t already moved out of his apartment. If she had, he’d comb this city and every other one he could reach until he found her. He loved her, and he wanted her with him for the rest of his life. He’d been the worst kind of fool to imagine she could have betrayed him in this way again.

  He should have stopped and thought this through first. He hadn’t done that, which meant he didn’t deserve her. He had fucked this up big time, and he prayed it wasn’t too late to beg her for another chance.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Harper spent the morning sitting in her suite. She’d eaten a tiny breakfast and had one cup of coffee, only so she didn’t end up with a headache. She was online, searching for cheap apartments and looking over job listings, when she glanced up and realized Ace had been gone for nearly six hours. What if he stayed away all day? What if she had no chance to speak to him before he left for work in the morning?

  Panic engulfed her as she realized she might never have the chance to speak to him again. He might stay away from the apartment, and not allow her into the building again. She couldn’t let that happen. She loved him. It wasn’t supposed to be this way. She might be inexperienced and have no frame of reference for this, but she knew enough to know that people who loved each other had to trust each other or there was no relationship. At the very least, he would hear that from her. And then what he decided to do with the information was up to him.

  She grabbed her phone and was about to text him when she heard his voice in the apartment. Her hands trembled as she put down the phone and walked to the doorway. She went out into the hallway and waited, listening. She heard him talking to Alena, explaining what he wanted for dinner, and then she heard footsteps.

  Harper planted her feet, waiting. She took several deep breaths, determined not to cry, no matter what he said to her. But when he came around the corner, holding flowers—actual flowers—she started to cry anyway. She hadn’t seen roses in so long, although she knew they were grown in the same hothouses where most of their food was grown. But they were rare since it was so difficult to get them to thrive. They must have cost him a fortune.

  He held them out, and then she realized he looked as terrified as she felt. “Ace … thank you.” She didn’t know what to say, but it was clear he wasn’t about to kick her out of the
apartment. He must finally realize she hadn’t done this.

  “I have so much to tell you, but first I have to say this or I won’t get it out at all.”

  Her pulse raced as she took the roses from him. He looked ready to jump out of his skin, and a fine sheen of sweat covered his face. Was he afraid of her? Why?

  “I love you, Harper.” His voice shook. She’d never heard that before. “I love you so much. I was an idiot to think you could have done this. I should have believed you when you said you hadn’t. I never should have thought you had done it to begin with. Can you ever forgive me?”

  She put the flowers down on the hall table and held him closely. “You don’t even have to ask. Of course I do. Thank you for believing me. I love you, too.” Harper was certain her heart would burst from joy.

  “It was Rob. And that’s not all. Part of the moniker he used in his systems passwords was Snake Man.”

  She frowned, pulling away from him so she could see his face. “Snake Man? I found that name in my research.”

  His grin was triumphant. “We know. Javier Ortega from IT and Merrick Anderson from IT at Greco Communications are aware of it now and will handle it behind the scenes. If you hadn’t found the link between my PR site message boards, and the message boards I asked you to hack into, we would never have found out that someone who used to work for me might be involved.”

  “But that means the people responsible for Tommy Twister might work for any one of you…” Her voice trailed off. “Oh my God, Ace. They could still work for one of you.”

  He nodded several times, still grinning. “Yes. Exactly. Dominic Greco has been saying that for years, but I’m ashamed to admit most of us didn’t take the possibility seriously. We will now.”

  “This runs deeper than I was imagining.”

  “You and me both.” He sighed.

  “But why would Rob risk this? Just to harass me?”

  Ace shook his head. “I suspect he’s been playing a game with both of us, but especially with me. When you got too close … when I put you on the same team, he thought you were there to spy. He said so.”

  Understanding dawned on her. “And then when he realized you and I were that close, and when Traci saw us together, he thought he could intimidate me again.”

  “Yes, I imagine that’s pretty much how it went down. Traci must have told him everything. Then when I fired him, he thought he could take out his revenge on you by framing you. The dumbass should have been more careful with the names he used.”

  “Ace, I don’t know what to say right now.”

  The tender look in his eyes melted her heart. “I don’t want to talk about Rob, Traci, or work right now. I came here to beg your forgiveness, but that’s not all.” He pulled a small box out of his pocket, and she drew in a sharp breath.

  “Harper, I know what I did was horrible. I still have demons to work out. I hope you’ll be patient with me while I deal with them.”

  “We all have those, Ace.”

  “And despite my demons, I don’t need any more time to figure out that I love you with all my heart and soul. You’re the woman I want to spend my life with. I’m as certain of that as I am of my own name.”

  He got down on one knee, and now she couldn’t stop the tears. Was this real? When he opened the box, she gasped. The ring was stunning. A large diamond surrounded by tiny sapphires on a gold band. Where had he found such a gorgeous piece of jewelry?

  “This reminded me of your eyes. They’re the first thing that drew me to you. Not only because of their color, but I was mesmerized by the depth of passion and emotion in them. I waited too long to do something about that, and I took advantage of your drunken adventure. But if none of that had happened, I’d never have known the beautiful person inside this stunning woman. I want to spend my life making you happy. Please be my wife.”

  “Oh Ace, yes. Yes, I will marry you.”

  His smile was as brilliant as the summer sun in the sky above ground she remembered. He slipped the ring on her finger, and she wasn’t surprised when it fit perfectly. He did nothing half-assed, after all. It felt so right wearing it, as though her body had been waiting for this ring to make it complete.

  Ace picked her up and twirled her around. She laughed and cried, and then when he kissed her, she forgot about everything except the feel of his mouth on hers. What had started out as an arrangement to benefit Ace and ensure she kept her job and didn’t serve jail time had ended with her finding the man of her dreams.

  And now, she would work with him and the rest of the Weathermen to find the people responsible for taking out The Madeline Project. And she hoped they’d gain control of the program again. Maybe one day she’d live above ground with him.

  But whatever the outcome of that issue, she’d be with Ace, the man she loved. Her future husband. And she would spend every single day of her life making sure he knew how very, very much she loved him.

  The End

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