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

Mav released a harsh breath. “He’s alive.”

“What do we do?” We couldn’t carry him out of here.

“Put him on his side. The best thing to help him, is to get to the hub and call for help.”

I nodded. I helped him gently roll Ruben onto his side. I unbuttoned Ruben’s shirt and maneuvered it off him, leaving him in a T-shirt. I used the shirt to staunch the bleeding, tucking the fabric under his head.

“Hold on,” I whispered.

Mav pulled me up.

We jogged down the hall, and I stayed close behind him.

He paused, listening. “Almost there.”

We rounded another corner, and picked up speed.

“That door.” He pointed.

I saw it. It had an emergency light above it and the sign was marked Security. I felt a rush of giddy relief.

Suddenly, a tall form shot out of a doorway right at us.

Mav knocked me back and I swallowed a cry.

Mav moved and rammed a punch at the man, then grabbed him and slammed him against the wall.

“Mr. Rivera!”

Mav stilled. “Tisdale?”

The disgruntled employee.

“I didn’t do this.” The man swallowed. “I only wanted to help.”

He was thin, pale-faced, with greasy, dirty-blond hair. He swallowed again and his large Adam’s apple bobbed.

“I know, Tisdale,” Mav said. “You need to hide. There’s a dangerous person in the building.”

The man’s eyes went wide. “The Russians?”

Mav sighed. “I don’t think so.”

“The Chinese?”

“No,” Mav growled. “Look. Can you hide until I come and get you?”

Tisdale straightened. “I want to help.”

“Great, let’s—”

There was a sound behind us. A scraping. It echoed down the hall.

My heart jumped into my throat and I spun. I didn’t see anyone in the darkness. “Mav, we have to hurry.”

Tisdale stepped forward. “I can lure him away.”

“Tisdale, no.” Mav lunged, but the man took off, surprisingly fast. “Fuck.”

“Hellllooo,” Tisdale yelled, disappearing around the corner.

I saw that Mav wanted to go after him. “The best way to help him is to call the police.”

Mav nodded.

We reached the door to the hub. I connected to it and tried to hack it. I frowned. “It’s not working.”

“Security rooms have enhanced security.” Mav’s jaw tightened. He opened the panel, and yanked the wires out. He fiddled, and connected some.

The door opened.

So much for enhanced security.

Mav shot me a look. “Yeah, I know. Not the problem right now.”

I shrugged in reply as we hustled into the room. Mav slid a deadbolt across the door behind us.

Inside looked like a standard security office, complete with a wall of screens. They were currently blank.

I sat in one of the chairs. “Okay, let’s do this.”

Mav pressed his hand to a scanner. It beeped and the system unlocked, the main screen flaring to life.

“Hmm.” I frowned. I needed to find the power system for the building. “Where’s the power system?”

He rattled off where I needed to go and I tapped quickly.

“I like watching you work,” he said.

I glanced at him. “Hey, no flirting. At least, not while a deadly assassin is after us.”

His teeth were white in the low light.

I lost myself in the system. Ah, I saw what the asshole had done.

There.

I tapped the Enter key. The lights came on.

“You did it,” Mav said.

Security screens flickered to life one by one. I saw lights coming on in different spaces around Rivera Tech Park. I could see that outside, night was falling.

“Look,” Mav pointed.

I saw the assassin. He had his back to the camera and was dressed in black. His hair was black as well, and he had a mask over the lower portion of his face.

He raised a handgun.

Oh, no. I saw Tisdale running.

I couldn’t hear the report of the gun, but I imagined it.

Tisdale fell.

Mav cursed. “We need to stop his jamming and make the call.”

“On it.” I looked back at the computer screen. My fingers flew. Come on.

This asshole couldn’t be as good as Mav and me.

Mav was tapping on the other desktop.

“I can’t stop the jamming,” I said. “However he’s doing it, it isn’t through your system.”

“We need to block the frequency he’s using.” Mav stood and started yanking things out of the cabinets.

He pulled out some items, found a screwdriver. Next, he yanked out some electronics. He muttered as he joined wires and pulled parts of things and joined them together.

On the screen, I saw the assassin head into a corridor.

The next second, he was gone.

My insides crawled. “Mav, I lost him.” I frantically searched the screens.

Where the hell did he go?

Then I saw a flicker of movement, and glimpsed him.

Bile rose in my throat. “Mav, he’s coming this way!”

“Okay, hang on.” He plugged his makeshift device into the computer.

He thumbed the keyboard—Mav’s fingers didn’t dance, they punched.