Hacking Mr. CEO by Anna Hackett
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.
But once he knew what I was up to, then he’d hate my guts.
Guilt was a sucky emotion. I felt like I was coated in filth.
“Earth to Remi,” Steve said.
I jerked my head up and found everyone looking at me. “Sorry.”
“You’ve barely touched your food,” Mama said.
“I know. I’m not hungry. I have a lot on my mind.” I rose and took my plate to the sink. “I’ve got some more work I need to finish…”
I felt a tug on my jeans and found Kaylee in front of me. The little girl hugged me and my throat closed.
I dropped to my knees and hugged her back. “Love you, KayKay.”
She touched my nails. “Uh-oh.”
A couple were chipped. Probably thanks to my stint as an undercover electrician.
I smiled. “I might paint them tonight. What color should I do?”
The little girl cocked her head and grinned. “Red, with sparkles.”
“Deal.”
“Me too?” She held out a hand, a hopeful look on her face.
“No,” Steve said from the table.
Kaylee pouted. I tweaked her nose. “When you’re bigger, Princess.”
I walked past the others, and ruffled Jamal’s and Charlie’s hair. “Be good.”
“Never,” Charlie growled like a pirate.
Beside him, Naomi rolled her eyes.
I dropped a kiss to Mama’s cheek.
She grabbed my hand. “None of us are alone, Remi. We’re a family.”
A family she’d made. Love filled me.
I couldn’t let our family be broken. I’d had enough broken families to last me a lifetime.
I headed through the smaller side door into the auto shop. Everything was dark and quiet. Back in my loft, I made a beeline straight for my computer.
Nothing yet from my angel. I tapped my fingers on the desk. I was terrible at waiting.
I pulled out my nail kit and removed my old nail polish. I started work on blood red, with sparkle flecks in it. Mama had given me my first manicure a week after I’d come to her.
“You choose what color, Remi,” she’d said. “They’re your nails, it’s your choice.”
No one had ever given me a choice before.
Over the years, I’d become obsessed with pretty polishes. No matter what life threw at me, my nails were always colorful.
As I waited for the polish to dry, I awkwardly tapped in a search on Maverick.
I really, really didn’t want to steal from him. Corporate espionage left me feeling sick.
But a few days had already passed and my deadline was looming. My stomach heaved.
The guy was a billionaire, right? He’d bounce back if I stole some fancy design or program for my mystery employer.
The Calix Project.Again, I wondered what it was.
Some recent articles on Rivera popped up. There was a picture of him in a tuxedo at some fancy fundraiser. My entire body pulsed. The guy looked like he didn’t want to be at the shindig. He was scowling, but boy, oh boy, the tuxedo fit him so well.
I indulged a moment, imagining taking the suit off him.
Mmm.
Clearly it had been far too long since I’d had sex. The last guy I’d dated had been some banker from the city. We’d dated, slept together a few times, and then he’d ghosted me. Asshole.
Before him was a tattooed mechanic with a sexy motorcycle. We’d had fun, until I’d dropped in unannounced, and found him having sex with some short-skirted biker babe on the sexy bike.
My track record with men was not great.
The next article on Rivera was from some trashy gossip site. It was a grainy picture of him in a fancy bar. A flashy blonde in a tight dress was leaning into him. It looked like the picture had been taken from someone’s phone.
Man, it must suck to have people taking pictures of you all the time.
I studied the stacked blonde. She was the complete opposite of me.
The next picture was of him with Zane Roth and Liam Kensington. The billionaire bachelors.
Roth was your typical tall, dark, handsome, and rich. Liam Kensington looked like a prince—tall, golden, handsome, and rich.
There were two women in the shot, as well. It was from a party just this week. It appeared that the billionaire bachelors of New York were dropping like flies.
Zane was living with a locksmith store owner named Monroe O’Connor. Liam had recently been targeted by some crazy blackmail plot involving a gangster treasure and white-collar criminals. He’d fallen in love with a private investigator, Aspen Chandler. Their story was still all over the news.
The next shot was Maverick with his family.
I froze. There was a group of them, all dark-haired and brown-skinned. He had his arm around a curvy, comfortably plump, older woman. His mother. Behind them, his father was smiling, and so was Maverick.
Ha, so the man could actually smile. I stared at him. It was a hell of a smile.
I wondered what it felt like when he smiled at you like that.
I shook my head.
He wouldn’t be smiling at me. Ever.
It was clear that he loved his family. My gut curdled. Hell, maybe he was a decent guy.
And I had to hack his system and steal the Calix Project.
I squeezed my eyes shut. A headache was building. My computer chimed and I leaned forward. Then I gasped.
My little angel had given me a way in. It was still undetected.
I pulled in some deep breaths, and sent another silent apology to Maverick Rivera.
Okay, time to have a poke around at Rivera Tech.
* * *
Mav
Mav sat at the head of the conference table, his hands steepled in front of him, listening to the joint venture partner drone on.
He hated late-evening meetings. Outside, through the windows, the lights of Manhattan gleamed and twinkled.
Mav felt his CFO glaring at him and flicked a glance at Richard on his left. The man rolled his eyes wildly.
Mav grunted. Yeah, yeah, I’m listening.
He refused to just hand over the business side of Rivera Tech to a CEO. He’d prefer it, because then he could spend all his hours in his lab, but it seemed too many people lost their companies after trusting the wrong people.
Rivera Tech was his. He’d keep his fingers in every inch of it, even if it bored him to tears.
“We’ll be looking to spread manufacturing of the new tablets over several locations—” the man presenting continued, pointing to a large screen on the wall filled with graphs and charts.
Mav had already been over the production plan and budget. Consumers were clamoring for the new Riv 5+ phone.
He just wanted his team to get on with it.
His phone—a prototype 6+—vibrated in his pocket. He pulled it out and glanced at it.
His chest locked.
He had an urgent message from Rollo.
NEED YOU! NOW!
Mav rose. The presenter stumbled to a halt, and Richard gave him a narrow stare.
“I’m sorry. Something important has come up. Richard will stay here as my proxy.”
Maverick didn’t wait for questions. He strode out of the conference room, buttoning up his suit jacket as he went.
He marched down the hall and burst into an office.
It was dark. Only the blue glow from the screens illuminated the man sitting in front of them. Rollo was munching on chips, and radiated nervous tension.
“Rollo?”
The man turned his head and blinked.
Rollo’s brown hair had left windswept far behind, and could only be classed as wild and crazy. He had a round face with a high forehead, and large, brown eyes.
“Hey, Mav-man.”
“What have you got?” Mav pressed a hand to the back of Rollo’s chair and leaned in.
“We have an intruder.”
“What?”
“We’ve got a trojan cruising the system. It’s clever. It doesn’t stop, and it isn’t leaving much of a trail.”
Mav’s gut tightened. “Has anyone hacked in?”
“Nope.”
Fuck. “Did it come in via an email or something an employee accessed?”
“Nope.”
Rollo, a man of few words. “So someone connected to the system internally to upload it, or had an employee do it.”
Rollo munched on another chip with a crunch. “Yep.”
“Fuck.” Mav pressed a hand to his hip. “Can you flush it out?”
“Trying to catch it is the problem.”
There was a soft ping from Rollo’s computer and Mav’s phone.
“Someone’s connecting to the trojan to make their way in!” Rollo straightened. “Fuckers.”
Mav’s gut told him exactly who it was.
Her.
“I’ll take care of this.”
“What?” Rollo straightened.
“Leave this to me.”
Mav strode out, and down the corridor. At the end, he stormed into his office. When he’d outfitted the River Tech offices, the designer had wanted to fill his office with stuff. Useless stuff, like vases and statues. He’d vetoed that, so his office had a dark-wood floor, and sleek, austere lines. He had a large, modern desk, and a great view of the city. Minimalist to the extreme.
Mav dropped behind his computer and the screens flared. He tapped, then swiped the touchscreen.
There.
He saw his visitor zooming through his system.
“Where are you going, Little Ms. Hacker?”
His shoulders tensed. He’d been sure she was just a thrill seeker. Now, he wasn’t so sure.
She looked like she had no plan. He tapped his fingers on the desk and studied how her trojan worked.
It flitted all over the place. Interesting. He definitely wanted to take a closer look at it.
Mav saw her pause. For a second, he thought she was gone.
Then he saw where she was headed, and cursed.
She was going into the confidential, top-secret files. Where designs of future projects were stored.
There were many classified projects in there. Some were government, including one with the DOJ, and another with the military.
He couldn’t let her in. He tapped and activated his own program that he affectionately called the dragon.
It threw up a protective wall around the files.
“You’re not getting through that,” he muttered.
She paused again.
Mav opened a chat window.
I see you.
Busted.
Couldn’t hack your way in, so you snuck in the old-fashioned way.
A girl’s gotta do what a girl’s got to do.
He felt a slow simmer of anger.
What are you after?
I can’t tell you.
You’re not just a gray hat.
There was a pause.
No. Sorry.
Sorry? He frowned and remembered Hannah had been sorry too, after he’d discovered her real reason for fucking him.
You can’t have any schematics. You’re just another fucking thief.
You don’t understand!!!
Sick of typing, Mav took a risk and opened an audio channel.
“I’m very used to frauds, thieves, and scam artists. You find a little success, and they all come out of the woodwork. They want something, need something, and they lie to get it. They don’t want to work their asses off, just expect to take what’s mine.”
Chest heaving, he waited.
The silence stretched on and he figured she wasn’t going to respond.
“I am sorry, Rivera.”
He straightened. A smoky, female voice. Brooklyn accent. His pulse leaped.
“You’re sorry I caught you,” he said.
“You haven’t caught me yet.” There was a heavy dose of sass in her voice.
“I will hunt you down. You are not taking anything of mine. I have the time, resources, and skills to hunt you to the ends of the earth.”
He heard her breathing come across the line.
“Man, someone was really mean to you when you were little. Is that it? Look, you wouldn’t understand, but I’m out of options—” Her voice hitched.
Mav leaned back in his chair.
“I don’t have any good choices,” she continued. “Only a really bad one.” She sighed. “I hate being backed into a corner.”
Mav did too.
“I hate that I have to hack your system and take something of yours. But if I don’t do this…”
God, just another sob story. He ground his teeth together. He should just track her down and have her arrested.
His fingers curled.
“Tell me,” he said. “Tell me who’s forcing you to do this?”
