Hacking Mr. CEO (Billionaire Heists #3) by Anna Hackett

“Ah, it’s very colorful,” Mav said.

“It’s a bus,” his mom said proudly.

It looked vaguely like a yellow-and-green hurricane to him. “Right. I’d better get going, Mom.”

“All right, Maverick. Come to dinner soon.” A pause. “Bring a girl, if you like.”

Not happening. “Te quiero, Mom.”

“Te quiero, hijo mio.”

Mav ended the call. Just then, his computer pinged.

His pulse spiked. It was a security alert.

He tapped on the keyboard and brought up his monitoring program.

Hmm, a hacker was skimming again. He trailed the hacker. They weren’t delving deep, but all his instincts told him it was the same hacker as last night. His guess was that she was a gray hat. Flexing her skills for the thrill of the challenge.

He opened the chat window and took a chance.

You’re back.

I’m back.





It was her.

I warned you. I’m going to track you down.

You wish. You might be the mighty Maverick Rivera, but you aren’t God.





God, another smartass. He’d already had a tiny, feisty electrician snip at him today.

I’m the God of my system.

He set his tracker to work, but he suspected she was too slippery for him to trace. He’d have to work a lot harder to pin this hacker down.

So you aren’t busy, out buying a yacht or test-driving a new sports car?





Mav shook his head and typed.

No.

You’re not out buying a new tuxedo, or jewels for your supermodel girlfriend?





I don’t have a girlfriend.

Shame, might sweeten your disposition.





He frowned. What did she mean by that?

Do you have a boyfriend?

You don’t know for certain that I’m a girl. And maybe I like girls.





She was female.

You’re avoiding the question.

No, I don’t have a boyfriend.





Why are you back poking at my system, Ms. Hacker? Just for the thrill?

No.





He frowned.

Have you ever made a bad mistake, Rivera?





He thought of Hannah.

Yes.

Well, I made one, but for the right reasons, of course.

I’m totally sighing dramatically over here.





Mav’s lips twitched.

You can recover from bad mistakes.

I hope so. I just…





The cursor blinked.

What?

Regret that some people will get hurt.





Mav felt a shiver down his spine.

Why are you here?

There was no response, and he realized that she was gone.





4





Guilt was a Sucky Emotion





Remi


“Remi, are you listening?”

I blinked and looked at Killian. I was pretty sure my boss wasn’t used to being ignored.

“Are all those jobs I sent you okay?” he asked.

I nodded and looked at the list again. They were all straightforward testing of systems. One client had been targeted with some brute force attacks, and another with a DDoS attack—Distributed Denial of Service. I’d map their vulnerabilities and report back to Killian.

Nothing I couldn’t handle.

“Are you all right?”

I glanced at Killian’s hawkish face. I needed to pull myself together. “Yes. Sorry. I…fell off a ladder today.” Oh, and I have to hack a billionaire tech CEO.

I totally wasn’t sharing that with Killian.

My boss’ dark eyes said he didn’t believe me.

“All right, well, I’ll wait to get your report.” He paused. “Remi, I take care of my employees. If you need anything, you can come to me.”

I needed almost one million dollars. Killian couldn’t help Mama, but I could.

“Thanks, Killian.”

I closed the call and a notification popped up. A message from my hacker buddy, Wesley.

Hey, Remi. Haven’t talked for a while. How about we grab a coffee and I can show you my latest botnet tracker?

Ugh. Eventually, I was going to have to have a frank discussion with Wesley. I closed the message and glanced at the screen with my angel data displayed. She was floating through the Rivera Tech system. She’d find a way in for me.

A glance at my watch made me wince. Crap. I was late for dinner.

I hustled over to Mama Alma’s and was met with chaos. Everyone was at the kitchen table. Adults were scooping food onto plates, the boys were yelling about some video game they were playing, and Kaylee was giggling.

“You’re late, child,” Mama said.

“Sorry.” I slipped into my chair. “I got caught up with some work.”

Mama met my gaze. “You’re going to work yourself into the ground.”

I heard the warning in her voice.

“I won’t.” It was a lie. I’d do anything for Mama. I’d work my fingers to the bone for years if I had to.

But Mama didn’t have years.

My stomach was a giant knot and all I could do was pick at my casserole.

My thoughts turned to Maverick Rivera. Wow. The guy was gorgeous, grumpy, and smart. It was a hell of a combination, and it sure appealed to me. Thoughts of those dark-brown eyes and the stubble on his jaw made me suppress a shiver. I was pretty sure he could be an asshole. I sighed. I kind of even liked that. I liked our little cat-and-mouse game.