by Keary Taylor
“What did you say you do for a living?” Kale says in awe as I park in front of the last bay of the garage.
“Computers,” Julian says simply as he climbs out of the car.
“Don’t let him fool you,” I say as we all get out. I lock the car. “He invented what got my company off the ground.”
“Maybe I do need to go back to school,” Kale says as we walk toward the front door.
I sigh. I am never going to be able to convince Kale that he needs a college degree. “Yeah, Julian only went for two years. Sometimes you’re just born with the smarts.”
Julian chuckles, but I can tell he is embarrassed. It seems strange, to see him like this. He’s usually so calm and cool and at times, cocky. But he’s never revealed too much about himself. It’s easy to act that way when no one really knows anything about your real life.
I’m realizing now that there is still so much I have to learn about Julian Dohring.
The entryway inside the house rises to the height of both levels and a modern chandelier casts a soft glow to the space. There is a set of stairs that immediately rises to the second story. Directly back I can see endless windows looking out over the water. There is the soft sound of music and talking, like a TV has been left on.
Not waiting for Julian to play the tour guide, I walk past him. And just as I pass him, there’s the booming sound of an explosion.
I scream and my shoulders shrug up to my ears and I press myself to the wall.
“Mic!” Julian suddenly shouts and he storms past me, not in the least bit concerned by the sound of gunfire that has followed the explosion. “I told you not to bring that thing over here!”
Finally realizing that we are not actually under terrorist attack, my muscles relax and I stand upright once more. I follow Julian into a living room.
There is a guy sitting on a couch. His dirty blond hair is half in his eyes, half swept back in a messy but controlled way. There’s a few days scruff hugging his chin and brilliant blue eyes are glued to a TV that is bigger than I knew existed. In his hand is a controller and another explosion sounds over what must be a very extensive surround sound system.
“Sorry, but my projector burned out this afternoon and I’m this close to beating this level.”
He speaks with a heavy Australian accent.
“Mic,” Julian says, frustration heavy in his voice. “I’ve told you, you can’t bring that crap over here. And I thought I changed the gate code. How’d you get in?”
Mic looks over at Julian and gives him a wry smile. Julian just shakes his head and fights his own.
“A female!” Mic says in what I’m not sure is complete mock surprise when he notices me. “I can’t remember the last time you brought one of them over.”
“This is Sage McCain,” Julian says with exasperation in his voice. “She works for Digit. Well, kind of.” He corrects himself when he remembers that isn’t really true anymore. “Sage, this is Mic Duggar, my sometimes unbearable best friend. He’s into computers. He’s done all the testing trying to break through the Red Door.”
“I tell ya,” Mic says, his eyes turning back to the video game. “This boy here created something made of black magic. If I can’t touch it, no one can.”
“So you’re a hacker?” I ask as a smile curls on my lips.
“I could be a hacker,” he corrects me. “I use my powers only for good.”
“Well, it’s nice to meet another computer superhero,” I say.
“Nice set up, Julian,” Kale says with an impressed smile as he joins us in the TV room. “What you playing?” He directs his question at Mic.
“Nothing,” Julian interrupts. He grabs the remote from the couch and clicks the TV off. The sound continues to play. “Mic is leaving.”
“Ah, come on!” Mic cries in protest, holding his hands up. “What’d you do that for?”
“You know I can’t have that stuff around,” Julian says and his voice sounds uncomfortable. “Time to take it home.”
Mic says a string of words under his breath as he gets up and starts unhooking his game counsel. “You’re no fun anymore since you quit.”
“Quit what?” I ask, my brows furrowing. I look at Julian, who is glaring daggers at Mic. When he feels my eyes on him, he looks over, looking incredibly uncomfortable.
“I had, uh, a problem,” Julian says. He stuffs his hands in his pockets and his shoulders shrug.
“With video games?” I ask when it starts clicking. I raise an eyebrow at him and try not to laugh.
“Yeah,” he admits with embarrassment.
“Julian here was a champion,” Mic says as he winds all the chords up and picks up the counsel. “He could go for twenty hours straight with breaks only to use the toilet. He was a god.”
“It became a problem though,” Julian interjects. “I could play nonstop for weeks at a time. It started in high school and my grades plummeted. It didn’t get much better through college. I finally quit cold turkey three years ago though.”
“The most tragic thing to happen in the history of mankind,” Mic says as he dumps all his stuff in a bag.
“Mic is a bit dramatic,” Julian says with a thin lipped smile. “And on his way out.”
“Yeah, yeah, I know when I’m not welcome,” he says as he gives me a wink and walks for the front door.
I turn back to Julian as I hear the door close. It takes everything I’ve got to not burst into laughter.
“Let me have it,” Julian says as his face flushes red.
“You’re a serious gamer,” Kale says, loud with amusement. “You’re a legit nerd!”
“Not a gamer anymore,” Julian says, half in defense, half making fun of himself. “But still a nerd, yes.”
“So, Julian Dohring has his flaws,” I say with a coy smile. He looks completely sheepish and completely adorable now.
“Seriously, Mic knows he can’t bring stuff like that here. If I even play once, it’s game over for my recovery.” He’s got a wide smile on his face now.
I just smile and walk back out of the room.
The entryway opens up into a huge dining room and a chef’s kitchen that looks out over the water. Directly off the living room in the back of the house is a huge infinity pool. There are glass walls that encase it and I can tell from the mechanisms that the roof is retractable.
Directly down from the property is a personal dock with a sleek speed boat tied to it.
I turn to Julian and give him an incredulous look. He looks at me sheepishly and actually seems embarrassed. “I think I’ve greatly underestimated how much Digit is worth. You selling the Blue Wall to them wasn’t a one-time deal, was it?”
He shrugs and I can tell he doesn’t really want to talk about this. “I make a certain percentage of each sale. Gideon couldn’t pay me outright in the beginning so we worked out this deal. It’s turned out surprisingly well for me.”
A smile curls on my face and I take steps toward him and wrap my arms behind his neck. “So I haven’t just been making Digit and Mr. Maxwell rich these past five years. You’ve been getting benefits from my efforts all along too.”
“I like the personal benefits of your company more than the financial ones of Mr. Maxwell’s,” Julian says as his hands slide from my back lower.
“Could you at least keep your hands off her until you’re in your own room?” Lake growls as he walks to our side and looks out the window.
“Sorry,” Julian says and his hands immediately jump from my rear end to his own hips. “I am not ashamed to admit I am genuinely scared of you sometimes.”
“As you should be,” Lake says through an intense stare and a smile.
“Cut it out,” I say to Lake as I fold my arms over my chest. “You’re being annoying.”
“Just doing my job, big sis,” he says as he pats my head and lets himself out onto the deck.
“Why have we been hanging out at our place when you have a pool, Julian?” Kale says as he comes up to the windo
w. “You don’t hold out on a brother like that.”
Julian beams when Kale uses the word brother.
“I’ve got a few extra suits in my room if you want to go for a swim,” Julian offers.
“Nah, sharing suits is kinda’ gross,” Kale says as he pulls his shirt over his head. I look away embarrassed when he unbuckles his pants on the way to the door and drops them. He’s just in his boxer briefs. “I’m good,” he says with a smile in our direction before he sprints across the deck and cannon balls into the pool.
“Your brother is very comfortable in his own skin, isn’t he?” Julian chuckles as we watch him resurface with a victorious yelp.
“Since the day he was born,” I shake my head. “My parents couldn’t keep clothes on him until he was about twelve, and even then he preferred to be half naked. As you can see, he still does. I’m surprised he hasn’t flexed for you yet.”
We watch through the window as Kale tries to talk Lake into getting in as well. Lake looks around the area, his military showing in blaring colors. Finally, he strips down too and gets in. They immediately start a dunking and splashing war.
“You’ve got some pretty awesome brothers,” Julian says as he slips his hand into mine. “They’re protective. I always wondered what it’d be like to have a younger brother or sister. You’re lucky.”
“I know,” I say as I look up into Julian’s eyes. I lean in and gently press my lips to his.
“You want to see the rest of the house?” he breathes.
“Uh huh,” I nod, my nose brushing his. A grin curls on his face.
Hand in hand, Julian leads me through the living room into the billiards room. The table alone had to cost over ten thousand. There are old movie posters framed on the walls, as well as an old set of golf clubs and what I’m pretty sure is the bumper of a classic car. This room is most certainly a man cave. “Mic’s other favorite room,” he explains.
“I think I need to get to know this Mic character more,” I say as I wander around the pool table. “He seems like an entertaining guy.”
“He has his moments,” he says with a smile that says even though Mic ousted an embarrassing secret, he’ll be forgiven. “Are you ready for the proof that I do actually have my own car?” Julian moves on. I can hear the hesitance in his voice and can tell he doesn’t really want to do this. He’s embarrassed by his money, and I find that incredibly endearing.
“I need to see it with my own eyes or it isn’t real,” I taunt him.
He heaves a huge sigh and opens the door to the garage. He flicks the lights on.
There are only two cars inside, but they leave an impression none the less. In the middle bay is a rugged black Land Rover with aggressive tires and enough dirt on it to tell me it’s been a while since its last washing. And in the bay closest to us is a candy apple red sports car that doesn’t even look like something that belongs on the road.
“Does that even drive?” I ask. It looks like a toy model of a space car from the future.
“It does, although I admit, I have been too scared to drive it more than three times,” Julian says. I look at him in disbelief and the embarrassed look on his face confirms he is telling the truth. “They only made three hundred seventy five McLaren P1’s. I put my name on the list for the heck of it, knowing I’d never have a shot. I only got it because the guy ahead of me died.”
“And you aren’t afraid to drive it just because of your mazeophobia,” I say with a grin.
“No,” Julian admits with a shake of his head.
“Uh huh,” I say with a nod as I close the door and walk past him back into the house.
That car had to cost a fortune. Julian isn’t just afraid of driving in it in cities. He’s afraid to breathe on it.
I don’t wait for Julian to catch up and he follows me up the stairs.
When Julian said he had a guest bedroom, he really meant he has three. They’re nice and simple and manly, and do the job of giving someone a place to sleep.
“And where do you sleep, Mr. Dohring?” I ask as I trace my fingers up his tattooed arm.
There is hunger in Julian’s eyes as he looks down at me and every fiber in my body jumps to life at his gaze. He licks his bottom lip and bites it. He nods his head toward the end of the hall and keeps his eyes on me as he walks backward toward a door.
I may spontaneously combust before we reach it.
When we get to the end of the hall, Julian finally turns, releasing me from his smoldering stare. He opens the door and stands to the side to let me in.
Julian’s bedroom is quite simple. The floors are long, grey stone tiles. The walls are covered in thickly textured black wallpaper. The wall across from the window holds a queen-sized bed. The headboard is a padded dark charcoal and the pillows and blankets are the same color. To either side of the bed there is a simple night stand.
Breaking off to the side of the bedroom is a smaller room that also looks out over the water. There is a desk in the middle of the room and it is loaded with monitors, keyboards, and stacks of papers. It is an office that looks well lived in.
There is no door between the bedroom and the bathroom. The walls are solid concrete and there is no shower door splitting the shower off from the enormous concrete sink and counter top. It all flows together in an oddly comfortable industrial way.
To the other side of the bathroom is an enormous closet. I can see Julian’s many suits hung neatly and the rest of his clothes are hung or folded just as precisely.
“This room is…” I struggle for just the right word. “Sexy.”
Julian chuckles and looks toward the ground. “I like it.”
“Hmm,” I say as I once again wrap my arms behind Julian’s head. I stand on my tip toes and reach for a kiss. I linger there, our lips barely brushing. For a moment, I just breathe him in. The complicated world my life has become fades away and for this second, there is just the perfection of moments with Julian.
“Will the guard let a delivery guy in if I order pizza?” Lake’s voice booms up the stairs.
Julian’s jaw clenches tightly and he closes his eyes for a moment. A giggle works its way up my throat.
“Someday, we’ll have an uninterrupted moment,” he says, pressing an aggressive but quick kiss to my lips. He then turns back to the door and heads down the stairs.
I cross to the window and look out over the lake. A ridiculous smile crosses my lips and I press a hand to it.
I am happy. Deliriously, ridiculously, cheesily happy.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
For four days, the investigation continues.
The FBI interviews the entire IT department. They have flooded the Digit building and are sorting through records like crazy.
Digit has lost six major clients in the last week, and fifteen smaller ones.
This scandal will cost Digit billions.
Because, suddenly no one is sure they can trust us to protect our money. They couldn’t even protect me from being targeted.
Julian spends the vast majority of his days trying to help Digit out. He even brings Mic in to help. They’ve found the hole the hacker managed to bore into each of the bank accounts. I don’t understand the details behind it all, I am far from a computer whiz, but Julian is fixing them all, one at a time.
If ever there was a time we needed something new and even more secure, it is now.
But what good will launching the Red Door do when the hacker is within our own walls?
Finally, on Wednesday I cannot stay away from Digit any longer. I am still not officially hired back into the Digit fold, but I do know that they cannot afford to not have me on board.
I have bills to pay, a life of my own to try and put back together. And I keep all of that stuff at work.
“You wanna come with me?” I ask Kale as I grab my purse and dig for my keys. Julian is already at Digit and my brothers are still watching me around the clock.
One would think I was in the middle of some drug run scandal
with guns and henchmen instead of money and stolen ID to buy fancy cars.
“Sorry, I got a night scene shoot in twenty minutes,” he says as he steps out of his room. He’s buttoning up a burgundy suit shirt and is wearing slacks. There’s no way he afforded that suit himself. It’s a costume for the shoot.
“And Lake is helping Mom and Dad with their yard,” I say as I head for the garage. As nice as it has been playing house with Julian the last few days, it feels good to be back home, even if it is only for a few minutes to get clothes and check on things.
“But Julian is at your work, right?” Kale asks, guilt in his eyes. “So you just have to get there and he’ll keep an eye on you?”
“You make me sound like a toddler who might wander off and fall into the creek,” I say as I shake my head and head for the garage.
“Be careful,” he calls. I wave and walk out the door.
This is the first time I’ve gotten alone since this whole mess started other than to use the bathroom. The men in my life are going overboard in a major way.
It was amusing at first, having three of my own personal body guards, but the vanity of it all wore off somewhere around day two of lockdown.
I take the long way to work, just to enjoy my own company.
“Well, there’s that gorgeous girl I haven’t seen in far too long,” Dustin says with a smile as he leans on his forearms in the guard station window. I smile at him through my rolled down window. “I’m sorry to hear about what Corbin did to you.”
“Thanks Dustin,” I say. “It’s nice to see you again.”
“You’re welcome to see a lot more of me again, anytime you want,” he calls as I pull into the parking garage. I can’t help but smile.
And smile more when I see Julian’s Land Rover parked in the mystery spot. I’ve wondered who it belonged to all these years. Now I know.
It’s eight o’clock at night by the time I walk into the building. My access card thankfully still works and I swipe it to let myself into the locked door. The lobby is deserted, but I can hear a constant hum and murmur from the upper floors where the FBI is still going through all our files.