“Crap.” Devon jerked upright. “It’s him. It’s the hacker. He took my bait.”
Extricating herself from his arms, she stood and pulled up her jeans. Then she raced to her office.
Trey took a full minute to gather himself. Arms braced on the couch, he looked down at the bulge straining his pants and released a growl of frustration. Cursing, he dragged himself to his feet, then followed after Devon.
When he caught the consternation on her face, he reached her with quick strides. “What is it?”
“I don’t know,” she said as she stared at the screen and fixed her tank top. “I think he’s taken over my computer.”
“That’s possible?”
“It’s called remoting in. Basically, he somehow found my private IP address and my encryption-locked password, and he’s using both to take over.”
Trey frowned. “That doesn’t sound good.”
She shook her head. “This doesn’t make sense. I programmed my operating system so I’m the only one who should be able to do this.”
He watched the mouse arrow maneuver eerily around her screen. Like a ghost in the machine.
He gripped the back of her chair with one hand, planted his other palm on her desk, and leaned in for a closer look. Devon’s fingers shook slightly as she jiggled her mouse. The arrow continued to glide around, unaffected by her manipulation, then opened a folder containing pictures.
Photos of Devon at Allison and Logan’s wedding filled the screen. She looked beautiful, smiling, laughing, posing for the camera with other people, or holding up a glass of champagne.
A disturbing effect started to happen in every photo. The background suddenly faded to white, leaving Devon alone in each picture. As though the hacker was erasing everything and everyone in her life. Except her.
Stunned and worried as hell, he felt a block ice form in the pit of his stomach. “This is messed up.”
Devon stared wide-eyed, her features strained. “He knew exactly where to find my pictures. He’s been in my computer before. He’s a hacker, a PhotoShop expert, and a thief. And he’s really creeping me out.”
“You and me both,” Trey muttered.
Without warning, her computer went dark.
Trey tensed.
Gradually, an image began to surface. An image of a pirate flag stamped with a skull-and-crossbones. Alarm speared through Trey when a cursor appeared at the bottom of the monitor. One by one, as if someone were typing right this second, bold, blocky red letters filled the screen.
He shouldn’t be there. I should.
Chapter 4
Dread swept through Devon’s veins like fast-acting poison. Her body went numb and her brain slid into denial.
“Impossible,” she whispered.
How could this happen? To her, of all people?
She stared at the screen. This hacker had infiltrated her personal life and the files within her computer. Including special photographs from her best friend’s wedding. Somehow he’d also violated her home, her innermost sanctum.
She blinked back tears of hurt and bitterness and fear. She refused to let the jerk get away with this.
“Devon.”
Lost in a whirl of shock and vengeful emotion, she’d momentarily forgotten about Trey, who stood beside her with his gorgeous torso looking warm and inviting. Except, the hacker had stolen their intimate moment from her, too.
Her hands trembled. “I can’t believe the balls on this bastard.”
“If he had those, he’d step out from behind his computer screen and face me like a man,” Trey gritted out.
“That’s one of the reasons guys like this delve into IT. So they can counter the jocks that bullied them by taking over the world one byte at a time.” Devon released a pained sigh at the irony.
“We’re not on the playground anymore.” Trey’s eyes flashed with a dangerous gleam. “This is the real world. And he’s really going to wish he hadn’t trespassed on you or my company.”
Although she’d desperately wanted to have sex with Trey—still did—this invasion deserved retaliation. Fury trumped her useless sense of betrayal. The hacker had made this personal.
“I’m going to nail this prick to his motherboard. I’m going to melt his system until it’s a worthless heap of dead weight.” Revenge pumped through her. She raced to a cabinet against the wall, dug through the lower drawers, and hauled out her hacker equipment. A little old-school, but she’d make it work. “I’m going to fry his circuits.”
“Devon, wait,” Trey said, his tone was composed and reasonable.
“No, I need to get a trace on him, before he erases his breadcrumb trail and access points.”
“Do that, and you’re giving this guy exactly what he wants.”
Insulted, she stiffened. What did Trey know about hackers? “What do you mean?”
“He did this to get your attention. To make you angry and vulnerable. Your reaction is feeding into his delusions of power.”
That sounded entirely too rational. “I don’t care. I can’t just sit here and do nothing. Or he wins.” Her voice cracked on the last word, betraying her fear and reckless need to act in the face of confrontation. “Trey, he can see me. He knows where I am and what I’m doing.” Her chin wobbled, and she shivered. “It’s disgusting.”
Trey slid his arm around her shoulders and drew her against his hard, solid chest. She didn’t want his comfort, she wanted to go after the hacker, but his embrace soothed her and she couldn’t find the resolve to push him away. He pressed a kiss against her hair. “That’s why you need to leave everything exactly as it is. We’ll call a team of security technicians in here and find out the extent of the invasion.”
She scoffed. “At ten o’clock at night?”
“You underestimate me.” Keeping one arm securely around her, he reached in his pocket for his phone and dialed. “Hey, Logan, it’s Trey. Devon’s in trouble. We need your help.”
“Stop!” she told him. Maybe Logan was the right man for the job, but he had his own life. She wasn’t Logan’s problem, and she wanted to handle this herself. “Give me the phone.”
Turning away, Trey raised his elbow just out of reach. He went on to explain the gist of what had happened. Despite her efforts, she couldn’t budge his rock-hard bicep. She might’ve had better luck trying to separate a large branch from the trunk of a tree.
“Yeah, it’s serious,” Trey said. “We need a team of your best guys to do a sweep of her house, her security system, and her computer. That’s your company’s expertise. My bodyguard business won’t do much good in those departments.”
“I don’t need all that,” she insisted, though as her adrenaline wore off, vulnerability set in. She might be able to handle this herself, but Logan could do so much more with his team.
“Okay.” He nodded at something Logan said. “Yeah, that’s great. See you soon.” He ended the conversation. “Help is on the way.”
She pulled out of his grasp, stepped several feet away from him and crossed her arms. She didn’t like this authoritarian side of Trey at all. Maybe he did do the right thing, but she wanted to do things her way, and then come to the right conclusion herself. “That was not your decision to make.”
Although calm and focused, his eyes narrowed as they met hers. “My company. My girl. My call.”
A slippery sensation sloshed in her belly when he referred to her as his girl. If she wasn’t so upset by the whole situation, she might have melted into his arms. But she had enough anger and pride roaring through her veins to keep her soft, gushy side at bay. She paced and refused to look at Trey while he slid into his shirt and made himself presentable.
Thirty minutes later, Logan arrived. When she met him at the door, she said, “Logan, you have a baby at home. You shouldn’t have come here in the middle of the night.”
“Allison is just as worried as I am. She practically shoved me out the door.” Logan eyed her with brotherly disapproval. “Why didn’t you tell me th
ere’d been a breach of your network?”
She pasted on a fake smile. “Because, as I keep explaining to Trey, I can handle it.”
Logan set his hands at his waist. “Are you going to make me stand out here all night?”
“Maybe.”
“Devon.” Logan stared at her beneath the stern shelf of his eyebrows.
“Oh, fine.” She unlocked her screen door.
Logan entered and immediately approached Trey. “When did this start?”
When Trey listed the details of the hacker’s infiltration of his company and her house, she exhaled loudly and stormed off to find Peanut. At least her dog would let her gripe about hard-headed men who didn’t listen to her and took charge without asking. If only their macho stubbornness could be resolved with a simple string of code.
After another half-hour, a team of four men showed up on her doorstep. For an eleventh-hour request on a Saturday night, they all looked professionally dressed as though they’d been on-call and ready to leap into action for one of Logan’s million dollar clients. However, she was far below that echelon.
“Sorry you had to come all the way out here tonight,” she apologized to the men as she let them inside and closed the door behind them. When they gathered inside, next to Trey and Logan, relief engulfed her. Despite her initial reaction, she didn’t want to face this hacker alone. She sent a silent glance of thanks to Trey, who dipped his chin in recognition.
The first man touched the brim of his baseball cap with the Stone Security logo emblazoned on the front. “No trouble at all, Miss Leigh.”
The team set up quickly on her dining room table, which offered plenty of surface space for the half-a-dozen metal cases that housed all their equipment. They pulled out gadgets she’d never seen before. She poured a glass of wine from the bottle Trey brought, sipped slowly, and leaned against the archway between the kitchen and dining room, watching them. They worked in silence like four efficient components in a finely-tuned machine.
One guy walked around her first floor with a gadget that looked similar to a hand-held metal detector. The device crackled like a Ham Radio, and he followed a strong frequency into her living room. She followed, too.
The sounds led them to the center of the room. To her ceiling fan. He set the machine down and felt around the base, then the wiring. “Do you have a step stool, ma’am?” he asked her.
Swallowing, she nodded. She set her glass down and retrieved a stepstool from her coat closet. He stood on it, drew a screwdriver from his tool belt, and proceeded to take apart her ceiling fan.
A few minutes later, he froze. “Got it.”
“What?” Logan asked, striding into the room. Trey was one step behind him.
“Definitely a wire that shouldn’t be here, sir. A camera wire.”
Devon’s hand flew to her throat. “Oh, my God.”
“That’s how he knew,” Trey muttered. “His timing was too damned convenient.”
Logan turned to Trey. “Knew what?”
Trey shook his head. “Nothing. Just a hunch.” His fists clenched. “The sick fuck.” His gaze shot to Devon. “Excuse my language.”
Logan exhaled. “You said what we were all thinking.”
Her throat started to close. Before she threw up, she raced from the room. Trey had almost made love to her there on the couch. Right under this hacker’s eagle eye.
“Here,” Trey said.
Startled, she glanced to her left and found Trey holding out her leather jacket. She took the light summer coat he handed her because she needed something to hold on to, desperate to regain her bearings in a world that had tilted off its safe axis.
“I need some air. Let’s go for a ride,” Trey said.
“Where?” she asked, numb, sickened.
He extended his hand to her. “Anywhere.”
When she placed her hand in his strong, warm palm, he wrapped his fingers around hers. “Logan, we’re taking a drive,” he said. “Call when your crew is finished.”
Logan gave a single nod.
No explanation required.
Once Trey had navigated beyond town traffic, he veered onto a highway road and shifted into fifth gear. Then he reclaimed her hand, resting their joined fingers on her thigh. The comforting gesture radiated warmth up her arm, through her bloodstream, and settled like a tender glow against her heart. She didn’t have the energy to balk at her heart’s fluttering response. Maybe because she wanted, needed, his solid and reassuring touch.
With the convertible top down, wind whisking across her skin, they drove for forty-five minutes before Trey hit an unpaved road. To her surprise, he kept driving.
Gratitude welled in her chest. The man was genius. She hadn’t wanted to stand there, helpless, while strangers tore her home apart.
Somehow he’d seen through her fortified walls of self-reliance, and knew what she’d needed. She rested her head against the seat and let the wind coast through her fingers. So freeing. Like the time her mom had saved up a few extra dollars to take her on a train ride through an old mining town. She’d stuck her arm out the open window and hadn’t cared when the train spewed black dust that coated her arm. She’d rarely had opportunities to venture beyond their two-bedroom apartment in the city near the factory where her mom worked. Each new vista, even a one-hour train ride, was a big adventure. As Trey maneuvered up a steep incline to God-knew-where, a similar sense of anticipation cascaded through her.
The destination didn’t matter. The glimpse of remembered peace did. Those memories settled her down a little, helping to distance her from the horrifying idea that someone had planted cameras in her house, and he’d been watching her.
Eventually, Trey slowed his convertible, released her hand to downshift, and pulled off the road. He parked on a gravel strip, cut the engine and sighed. The relief etching his handsome face mirrored her own. Being in the mountains, away from the city, away from everything that was happening beyond her control, calmed her.
So quiet. So peaceful.
Just the song of crickets and the soothing drone of spring peepers. She sighed. “I love it here.”
He unbuckled his seatbelt and turned to her. “I know. It’s a kind of oasis, hidden away from the rest of the world.”
“Is it part of a park?”
Shrugging his big shoulders, he said, “I’m not sure. I don’t live far from here and found the place by accident.” He reached for the door handle. “Join me?”
After Trey swung his long legs out of the car, then shut the door softly, he moved toward the hood. Anxious to enjoy the peaceful, beautiful starry night, and even more anxious to be near Trey, she quickly joined him.
With a grin, he leaned against the hood, his legs outstretched, crossed at the ankles. “The first time I saw the stars up here, I was blown away. There are more points of light than black space, and they seem so close you could reach out and touch them. I’ve never seen anything like it, even in the desert.”
Their heads tilted back simultaneously.
She stared at the sky, absorbing a renewed sense of wonder. “Out here, it really is incredible.” She inhaled and exhaled a calming breath. “It reminds me of Presto.”
“As in ‘magic presto chango?’”
She elbowed him. “No, it’s a Rush song, on the Presto album.”
A laugh caught in his throat. “You really are a die-hard Rush fan.”
“Shame on you for doubting my fan girl status.”
“I’ll never doubt again,” he vowed, holding his hand over his heart. “Why does it remind you of that song?”
“The song compares being in an airplane looking down on houses to constellations. Like when I flew to visit my dad for the first time. When the plane descended into Tampa, Florida, I marveled at the effect. Rather novel to a ten-year-old.”
He glanced at her sideways. “You took a plane ride by yourself at ten?”
She waved off his observation. “No big deal. I was pretty independent. They say only
children are adults by the age of eight, and I agree. I was already getting myself ready for school, doing my own laundry and cooking dinners. Riding on a plane was just a fun adventure.”
Then she lost herself to the memory of visiting her father. “I’ll never forget that image, so many tiny yellow lights spreading out below the plane like a map of the stars on the ground. My dad was late picking me up from the airport. A stewardess waited with me and taught me how to use a yo-yo. Dad eventually came and got me. The stewardess handed me off, and my dad took me home. If you could call it that.”
Trey leaned back on his elbows against the hood of his car. “Not the castle you were expecting?”
“Hardly. He lived in a trailer park, in a single-wide, stuffed to the gills with electronics equipment. He fixed TVs and VCRs as a side job. At the time, you could make reasonable money doing that.”
“What was his regular job?”
“He didn’t have one.” Sad acceptance welled up inside her. “His hobby was his passion, and he never bothered to develop people-skills to make him hirable to anyplace that would pay him.”
Trey looked slightly stunned. “What did you do there?”
“It was awesome, actually.” She brightened, recalling how a whole new world had opened up to her that week. “He taught me how to fix tube televisions, rewire a stereo, and create a computer from component parts alone.”
Awareness sparked in Trey’s eyes. “He gave you the foundation that led you to the path you’ve walked ever since.”
“Exactly.” She nodded. “I’m definitely my father’s daughter. I kept in touch with him afterward through letters we sent each other every week. I invited him to my fourth grade science fair, where I was a finalist.”
“Not surprising.” Trey glanced at her with admiration. “Did he show?”
She shook her head. “Six months after that I received a batch of letters from the post office, letters marked Return to Sender. My mom helped me call around until we learned the trailer park where he lived had been sold to a condominium developer.” A prick of sadness nicked her. “I never heard from him again.”
He pulled her close to him, resting her back against his hard chest. Wrapping his arms around her, he said, “That’s insane. You’re his daughter, his family. How could he hang you out to dry like that?”
Defended & Desired Page 7
