The Insiders by Tijan

SIXTEEN

“She hacked into all of our hard drives! “All of them!”

I was sitting outside an office in a separate section of the estate, and I could hear Quinn Francis screaming from inside. After meeting her in the hallway, I wouldn’t have imagined this side of her.

But there it was.

Kash was saying something.

“I don’t care!”

I winced. To give her credit, I thought most of this was the mama bear coming out. She was upset when she talked about her files. Her voice rose another decibel when it came to Seraphina. I heard Matt’s name mentioned and it went up again, but when she got Cyclone’s … Full. On. Screaming. I couldn’t tell if it was because he was the baby or because he was her favorite. My guess is that it was a mix of both.

“… get it all back.”

“You’re damn straight you’ll get them all back,” she snapped. My chair wasn’t even right next to the door. There was about five yards separating me from the door, and when someone walked inside and I glimpsed her, I saw that she was completely on the other side of the room. Her heated level was impressive. She had to be close to boiling.

Kash was talking again. I couldn’t make out the words. He was being more discreet, but I could hear his own frustration. Judging by how he’d handled me when he caught me, he was as pissed as she was. He was just keeping it together. After sitting here, I knew another reaming was coming, once he got me alone. That was, if he got me alone again; if they reported me or kicked me out, I was sure Kash Colello would find time to kick my ass. I had a gut feeling that if anyone did any of his charges wrong, he annihilated them.

I let out a sigh, resting my head back against the wall.

There were two security guards standing at the ready, one at each end of the hall. It was because of them that I wasn’t paying attention until I heard, “A friend of Kash’s, huh?”

Aw, not good.

Matthew Francis was coming my way, his hands in his pockets and his eyes fixed right on me. He was dressed in trendy skinny jeans, a black long-sleeve hooded shirt, and a baseball cap pulled low over his forehead.

I didn’t know what lie to go with, so I kept silent, watching him warily.

Instead of sitting, he grabbed the chair next to me and turned it around so he was facing me. He sat down, straddling it, and folded his arms over the back, his head leaning forward to scrutinize me better.

I looked down.

He was studying me way too intensely.

“Bullshit,” he breathed out.

“What?” I looked back up.

His nostrils flared. “I say bullshit. If Kash walks out of that room—”

“I don’t care whose daughter she is, I want her gone!”

“You don’t have the authority to make that demand.”

It wasn’t Quinn’s scream that startled us, though the scream took precedence. It was Kash’s calm retort that had both my brother and me rearing back in surprise.

We could hear her gasp from inside.

“No offense,” Kash snapped, “but her placement isn’t up to you, Peter, or anyone else. It’s up to me, me alone. And I say she stays here.”

“Kash—”

“Enough, Quinn.” He was walking to the door. His voice was getting louder, clearer. “I’ll get her to erase everything she took, but she stays where she is. That’s final.”

“Kash! Do not walk out that door, not like that, not after what she’s done. Kash—”

He shoved open the door, took in the sight of me, took in Matt’s presence, and raked a hand through his hair. “Fuck me.” Then he was off. He snapped his fingers, pointed at me, and barked, “Follow. Now.” And he didn’t stop.

Matt hopped up from his chair, hurrying after us. “Hey, Kashy. How’s it going?” He snickered under his breath, shoving his hands back in his pockets.

“Not now, Matt.”

Coming up to the door leading outside, Kash turned, grabbed for my arm, and used his back to slam the door open. It was one of those that could be pressed and shoved open. He pulled me with him without missing a beat, and once we were outside, he urged me next to him. His hand came to the small of my back, but once he saw that I was keeping up with him, his hand fell away. He leaned forward a little, his shoulders hunching forward, and he shoved his hands in his pockets almost the same way Matt had as he walked toward me in the hallway.

My brother wasn’t walking that way now. He jogged to catch up, moving past us and turning to dart backward. His eyes were dancing, sparking even, and half of his mouth was up in a grin. “So. Can we talk about the elephant on the estate here?”

“Matt,” Kash warned. “Don’t start.”

Ignoring him, Matt smirked at me. “Can we make this all official? Is she my full-blooded sister or half-blooded? What are we talking about here?”

“Matt,” Kash growled in warning.

Matt got too close to Kash, veering over, and instead of going around him, Kash lifted up a hand and pushed him aside. All without breaking stride, just like inside.

Laughing, Matt started walking sideways, his long legs crossing over each other. “Come on, Kash. She’s here. No one comes here. What she did, the secrecy about who she is … I might be going out on a limb, but it’s obvious who her father is. I’m shocked more haven’t figured it out.” Matt narrowed his eyes on me. “She looks my age, so sometime around the end of Dad’s divorce coming through? Maybe in that whole middle time after I was born? I heard there was a five-year period where it was just messy between the two. You know, my mom suffering postpartum and Dad just straight cheating. Nasty, nasty time for both of them.”

His mom suffered postpartum?

“Stop, Matt. I mean it.” We were nearing the sidewalk just outside of the villa. I didn’t know how we got there so fast, but I was guessing Kash knew some shortcuts. Coming up to the door now, he led the way. Opening it, he went in first, stepped back. I ducked inside, and he had a hand out, stepping behind me to meet with Matt. “I said no.” His tone returned to the authoritative command he used when talking to Quinn earlier. Without another word, as Matt stepped back from reflex, Kash stepped inside, shutting and locking the glass doors.

Matt’s mouth dropped open. “Come on! Are you serious?” His hands went up in frustration. “Come on!”

Kash hit a button on the wall and two curtains flew down, shutting Matt out completely from seeing inside. Then it was just him and me, and he turned that furious gaze on me.

My stomach slipped to my feet.

This was not going to be good.

“I’m sorry—”

He shot a hand up, his other rubbing at his forehead. “Save it.”

I did. Closing my mouth, I sank down on one of his couches and saved it.

His hands went to his hips and he continued to look down at the floor. He hadn’t moved from the door, and when he started, his voice was low. “You have no idea what I was in the middle of when I got the call two hours ago. There was an online security breach. They found it and began tracing it back to the location it was coming from. We’ve had breaches before, and just shutting them out isn’t usually what we do. We like to eliminate the risks completely. That’s what they did. But while they usually move faster, get a location quicker, they were stalled because this hacker … this one had put up security walls behind her. Behind ‘them.’ That’s what they called you, these computer specialists that are some of the best in the world. They work for your father, who is the best, and I quote, they said, ‘These guys have to be a team collective. They’re moving fast and at the same time putting up firewalls behind their tracks at a speed that no one person could manage.’ Not one person. A team. And one reported to me that this must have been in the planning for months, not at the fucking sudden whim of a pissed-off child—”

I shoved to my feet. “I’m not a child!”

“You’re acting like one!”

I had no comeback. He was right. So I just sighed. “I’m out of my depth here. I’m—”

“I get it. I do!” He started to pace now, his head still bent forward, one hand rubbing at the back of his neck.

The exhaustion came off of him in waves now. Exhaustion and frustration. It was then that I took in his clothing. Black. All black. Black shoes. Black pants. Black long-sleeve shirt. All. Black. Familiarity teased me. There was something, something about him, about how he was standing, about his voice, about his clothes … I couldn’t place it, though.

“Christ, Bailey!” He stopped, his head up and his eyes blazing at me, piercing me. “One day. One fucking day and you rip through their online security like it’s candy. Like it’s Halloween and all you have to do is put on a costume, knock on a door, and you get the treats handed to you. One person. One fucking afternoon! It took them three hours to locate you. Three hours. Your walls were so good that they had to keep shutting down their own programs because your viruses were that good. This is one of the best in the world, and you crumbled them to their knees in a day. Not even a day.”

I hadn’t realized I’d done that much damage.

“I’m sorry.” My voice was a hoarse whisper as I sat down.

“What were you thinking?” He stepped closer to me. “Did you want attention? Your dad’s not here. He’s in New Zealand. Did you want payback? You said people had said some messed up shit to you—was it them that you wanted to hurt? You went through your siblings’ social media, their emails. You downloaded a copy of Seraphina’s online journal. Why would you do that? She’s in tears. Tears! I heard her crying when Quinn called me. She’s humiliated by whatever you found in there.

“Marie—” He stopped, taking a deep breath. He started again, calmer, but only slightly. “Marie said she’s completely wiped out of her computer. She said it’s all gone. You took everything and you left a blinking middle finger icon as her wallpaper. It pops up every time she tries to put a password in.”

I mashed my lips together at that one.

It wasn’t funny.

It wasn’t. Nope.

I started coughing, remembering how I had laughed to myself when I programmed that in. Hearing it from Kash now, it was so totally not funny.

But it was. It was hilarious.

I coughed some more, pushing that tickle away. No good would come if I let that out.

“Yes. I…”

Kash snorted. “You don’t even sound remorseful. You sound like you’re about to apologize for being thirty minutes late for curfew. I’m not your father. This isn’t a situation where you merely get grounded. The shit we have on you, you could do prison. It’s that bad. Your father has files on those computers. National security files. You launched an attack that could’ve compromised those files. I say the word, give my go-ahead, and your father’s lawyers could make this go all the way in the black. You could be hauled off and never see your mother again.”

I felt the blood draining from me. That tickle was replaced with fear, real fear, the kind where I felt a cold trickle of sweat on the back of my hairline.

He was right.

He was so right. I knew the laws. I knew the risks. I knew my father had job contracts with the government. I’m not playing in the little leagues. I messed with a professional, a big and powerful professional who may or may not have any sentimental feelings toward me. He probably had none, to be honest. I was a risk to his empire.

Then I asked, “He’s in New Zealand?”

“What?”

“There was an event here earlier. I thought—”

“It was a charity brunch. Quinn does a lot for nonprofit organizations. But no. Your father wasn’t in attendance.”

Oh.

I swallowed over a lump in my throat.

Why did I care?

I shouldn’t. I mean … yeah, why did that bother me so much?

Kash sighed. “You wanted to get your dad’s attention?”

“No.” I said the word quickly. Too quickly.

“It’s okay if that’s what you were doing.”

God.

Another wave of embarrassment rode through me, crashing. He was right. I was acting like a child. I was almost twenty-three, and I had acted out like a rebellious teenager. It was the equivalent of drinking too much, taking drugs, racing cars—what some wealthy kids might’ve done. Not me. I crashed their internet. I basically walked up to their house, and instead of knocking like a normal person, I set it on fire.

“I’m sorry.”

Kash was silent a moment.

“I am.” I smoothed my hand out over my shirt before looking up again.

He was standing a few feet from me, his arms crossed over his chest and his eyebrows pinched together. He didn’t believe me.

I said it again, “I really am sorry. I … I wasn’t thinking. And you’re right. I was told to go back where I came from, in essence, and I reacted. I was mad, and hurting, and I lashed out in the way I can lash out. I am truly sorry.”

His chest rose slowly. He drew in some air before letting it back out, just as slowly. He shook his head. “I know. I can see that.” His eyes softened. The lines around his mouth smoothed out. “Look, they won’t be told who hacked into their privacy. They won’t know it was you.”

“Matt knows.”

“Matt knows nothing. Matt will know what I tell him to know.”

He said it so swiftly, with a hint of violence, and that familiarity was whispering at me again. How he said those words, that cold look in his eyes … What was bugging me?

“You need to put back what you took, and you need to delete what copies you made. By now, the team’s got most of your bugs out of their systems. You will go in and remove the rest.”

“Go in? What do you mean?”

Not … No way. He gave me a meaningful look.

My eyes widened. “You mean go into their security room and use one of their computers?” I didn’t know if I was salivating at the chance to see what they were working with on their end or dreading it because they would see me in person.

“Quinn wants you removed from the estate. I won’t allow it. But you will not be free to walk around any longer, not until you’ve earned trust back.”

“Trust? Whose trust?”

“Mine.” His eyes were heated again, smoldering at me. “You will earn my trust. After removing your viruses, you will be stripped of computer privileges—”

“You can’t do that! I need to work on my graduate project. I—” I surged to my feet.

“Watch me.” He met me, surging right back at me.

I didn’t move. Neither did he. We were almost touching, staring back at each other, both angry, heated breaths coming in and out, and I was suddenly hot for a whole other reason.

God’s sake.

I needed to look away. I did. I couldn’t.

I wanted to reach out. I wanted to touch him, and my gaze fell to his chest. I could see how his shirt molded to him, hugging him so perfectly, and I could desperately imagine the feel of him against me. So strong, firm. Earlier, I had thought there wasn’t an inch of fat on his body, and now I was salivating, wanting to test my theory.

Kash broke first, stepping back. His voice came out ragged. “Your punishment is this: You will remain in this house. You will only walk on the grounds with a security guard, and when I feel you can be trusted, you will earn your freedom more and more.”

“My God,” I bit out, but I wasn’t sure if I was reacting because of the punishment or something else. I stepped back, drawing more air. I needed to clear my head, because it was swimming.

“Prison,” he said. “You could be made to disappear and never come back. That’s a drastic measure, but in a way, it’d clear up your father’s problems a whole lot easier for us. You need a reality check of what I’m saving you from. Quinn wants you gone. She doesn’t give a shit about keeping you protected. I’m doing this. Me. You’ll do as you’re told and you’ll do it without an attitude or, so help me, Bailey, you can get fucked in a thousand different ways here. None of them pleasurable. Deal with it.”

Really. Those exact words.

Okay.

That burned.

I wanted the entire summer with my computer. I wanted a head start on my graduate project, and I couldn’t do any of that now. I had screwed up, but damn, it was going to be a hard one to swallow.

He started to move away, and then he stopped. He was half turned toward me, his head tipped back, stormy eyes taking me in.

“You never asked who noticed your breach in the first place.”

My throat swelled up for some reason. “What do you mean? I thought their system would’ve caught me.”

His phone buzzed in his hand, but he ignored it. “You disabled their alert system almost right away. It was one person who realized you were in the system. If he hadn’t, who knows when they would’ve realized you were there. Quinn and your siblings didn’t know you hacked them until they were told to check their accounts. They were in, doing their own thing at the same time you were in there, taking their things.” He paused, his eyes narrowing slightly. “It was the same person who shut you down, too.”

I felt it. The burn was back. It was spreading from my throat, to my stomach, to my feet. Traveling all the way down my legs, setting every nerve on edge.

“Who was it?”

A look flared in Kash’s eyes. Menacing, a warning, but there was something else there. I wasn’t quite sure what it was. And he said, “Your father. He’s the one who caught you. You got your wish.”

A beat.

He looked at his phone.

“Your dad’s coming back. He’s on the plane right now.”