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

His eyebrows went up. Ah, I bet the grumpy billionaire was used to bowing and scraping, not smartasses.

“What did you say?” he said.

“Oh, is this where you use the old ‘do you know who I am?’ line. Because I hope you aren’t that clichéd.”

“I think you must’ve hit your head.” With a disgruntled noise, he stomped off.

He might be a big lump of grumpiness, but the man’s ass was still bitable.

Right. Time to go.

I’d tell blue-hair lady at reception that I needed to order some parts, and that someone would be back tomorrow.

Then I’d get home and wait for my angel to give me a way in.





Mav


Mav let himself into his penthouse.

“Lights.”

The lights clicked on. It’d been a long day, with an afternoon of endless meetings. He shrugged out of his jacket and tossed it over a chair.

He had some leftover empanadas to eat. His mom had made a huge batch for him last time she’d visited.

Then he wanted to check if his hacker had been back.

He hadn’t received an alert, so, if she had revisited, she hadn’t set off any alarms.

He stepped into the kitchen, and set his laptop on the huge island. He grabbed a beer from the fridge and popped the top. It was a microbrew he liked. He’d found the brewery on the trip upstate with Zane and Liam one long weekend.

He sipped the beer and leaned against the island. There’d be no more guys’ trips away, now. Zane and Liam had snagged women they wanted to keep. They’d be having romantic weekends away.

Mav sighed.

It wouldn’t be the same, but he’d still spend time with them, and with Monroe and Aspen.

His laptop chimed with a call. He saw his mother’s name and smiled.

He touched the screen. “Hey, Mom.”

“There’s my boy.”

He had the perfect view of one of his mother’s dark eyebrows.

Mav rolled his eyes. No matter how many times he showed her the tablet camera and how to get it right, the lesson never stuck.

“Wait, wait,” Maria Rivera said. “There.”

Her smiling face came into view.

She was going gray and didn’t care. She’d told him, I raised four children, Maverick, I’ve earned those grays.

His parents still lived in the same apartment Maverick had grown up in in the Bronx. He’d tried to buy them something else, but they refused. He’d paid off their mortgage and updated the place for them, at least.

“You don’t look like you’re eating enough.” Her gaze narrowed on the beer. “You can’t drink beer for dinner.”

“Mom, I just walked in the door. I’m about to heat up some of your empanadas.”

She looked slightly mollified. Then she licked her lips. “So, I saw your photo in the paper. You were at some party.”

Mav grunted. He went to far too many parties for his own liking.

“You were with a blonde. She was very beautiful. I think her name was Alyssa. They said you’re dating.”

His hand curled around the bottle. “I told you not to read that crap, Mom. They make shit up.”

“Maverick, that mouth.”

He pressed a hand to the back of his neck. “I met that woman at the party. We talked for three minutes. That’s it.”

His mother’s shoulders slumped. “So you aren’t dating?”

“No, Mom. I don’t date.”

Her face got a look. Shit, he hated that look.

“Your brothers and sister are married. I have two grandbabies.”

“So you should be happy.”

“I want you to be happy, Maverick.”

“Mom, I am happy.” He waved an arm at the sleek kitchen.

His mother made a harrumphing sound. “All alone in that giant place. That’s not happy.”

“I love my work and I have good friends. I’m happy.”

“Your friends have women now.”

“Yes,” he conceded through gritted teeth.

“You need a good woman. One who makes you laugh, and who doesn’t let you get your own way all the time.”

“Mom—”

“It’s all that woman’s fault,” his mother spat.

God, Mav didn’t want to talk about Hannah. “No, I—”

“She was all gloss, but rotten inside. None of us saw it.”

“It was a long time ago.” He knew his mother needed to run out of steam, get it out of her system again, so it didn’t really matter what he said.

“Yes, so you should stop letting what she did still control your life.”

He stayed silent. He just needed to wait until his mother was done.

She stared at him. Sighed.

His father walked past behind his mother. “Hi, Mav.”

“Hi, Dad.”

Hector Rivera was as tall as Mav, but had a lean, wiry body. He grabbed a beer from the fridge and disappeared.

“How are Linc and Nora?” Mav asked.

Asking about the grandkids was a surefire way to distract his mom.

“I know what you’re doing.” She shot him a resigned look, then she smiled. “They’re great. Nora is crawling now, and Lincoln drew me a new picture.” She pointed a finger at the painting stuck to the fridge.