Darius nodded.
“But let’s make this very clear, Darius. If you won’t rat anybody out, you don’t have any cards in your hand. I cannot help you unless you play ball.”
Darius smiled.
“I can undo it.”
“What?”
Darius launched into a quick explanation, the gist of which, from what Leigh could gather, was that he had not actually committed credit card fraud – he had apparently hacked the system and made it so that the transaction would be cancelled in 48 hours, and there would be no record of a crime except for an anonymous statement that he had been the one who had performed five major transactions for about $12,000 with a credit card that was definitely not his.
“That cannot be done,” said Leigh firmly. She’d been with Harrison long enough to know that he enjoyed hacking as a hobby, and he was very good at it. He also designed his own security when he felt like it, and she knew that hacking of the kind that Darius was talking about couldn’t be done with the kind of sophisticated setup that this kid couldn’t possibly have.
Darius shrugged.
“It can if you’re good. I’m very good. I did it. In 48 hours, they will have no case.”
Leigh frowned.
“Assuming – and I’m not saying that I do – that I buy that story, why did you do any of this at all?”
“I had to make it look good. I can’t tell you all of it. But I need you to get me out of here. I don’t want this on my record.”
Leigh got to her feet.
“What? You’re my lawyer! You can’t go!”
In that outburst, she saw the panic and the fear, and wondered, for a moment, if what he said could actually be true. Every system had flaws. Every system could be hacked. If it were true…
“Are you who you say you are? If you have such mad skills as a hacker, is anything on record true?”
Darius shifted a little guiltily.
“The less you know,” he muttered, but Leigh was ready to walk out, and he saw it.
“Look, please, just… I am telling you the truth. Just represent me, and if in 48 hours what I say turns out to be true, have a look at it and then get me out of here. Please. If I’m lying, you don’t have to do anything.”
Slowly, Leigh sat down again.
“I have resources to use to make sure.”
“I know. You’re married to Harrison Bloom. He’s the best there is. He doesn’t do much anymore, but he’s a legend! Man, the things he’s done…”
Leigh frowned.
What things had Harrison done? Apparently, there were sides to him that she didn’t know at all.
“Fine. If in 48 hours you don’t back up your big talk, I’m walking.”
Darius nodded, looking relieved and very young. Was he twenty? He looked more like a teenager.
In the next three hours, she wiped the smirk off that annoying lieutenant’s face, much to her glee, though she managed not to let it show. Leigh knew procedure. She knew loopholes. She knew how to find one that wouldn’t let the arrest stick. If she felt some satisfaction when she demanded that Darius be produced in court or released, she figured it was just normal.
“I’m out?”
The disbelief in his voice had her torn between annoyance and more satisfaction.
“I told you, I’m good at my job. They messed up because they figured you wouldn’t have anybody watching your back. Now they know different. Next time – if there’s a next time – they will be much more careful, and your head will be on the figurative chopping block. Do you understand me? And we’re not done with this. I’ll be waiting 48 hours and if it turns out you were lying to me, I’ll phone in an anonymous tip myself.”
Darius, to her surprise, grinned, making him look so much like a teenager that she wondered just how much skill he had at hacking. Could records like birth certificates – and entire identities – really be hacked?
“Thank you. Thank you, I… I thought…”
“That I was an easy way to get through to Harrison, if you played your cards right. That maybe you could get him involved in your con. Or play the sympathy card.”
He shook his head vehemently.
“No. No, that’s not it. He’s white hat. He’s white hat all the way. We know that, everybody who knows him knows that. But almost nobody knows him. Even I’m not sure – he could be any of ten hackers, and I think I’ve narrowed it down the most. Anyway, he hasn’t been around on any of the forums for a couple of years now. Still, he probably still has the skills…”
Leigh shook her head.
“Look, whatever it is, you haven’t a hope of involving him in any way. Is that clear? Nothing of the sort. Besides, he’s not a hacker. He’s an app developer and investor. This is all ridiculous.”
But Leigh wasn’t too sure.
Harrison was a genius. He had studiously avoided every evaluation he could, but she knew that he would be called a genius if he ever did take one of those IQ tests. She knew that his father had been a genius, too. At least, she’d heard it. His parents had been killed in that horrible accident so long ago, much before she’d known anything about the intricacies of the adult world.
Harrison had paid for their deaths. It had changed him. But she had brought him back, and now he was hers. That was that.
“Now, don’t do anything absolutely stupid and numbskulled, like trying to leave town. Do you hear me?”
Darius nodded seriously.
“I won’t. I wouldn’t even consider it. I need to stay. I need to sort it out and clear my name. I… No, that’s not your problem. Thank you, Ms. Wells. I appreciate this. I won’t forget it. And… Look, I’ll give you my burner number. I don’t give that out to too many people. Will that convince you that I’m not trying anything?”
Leigh shook her head.
“Of course it won’t. Giving me that just means that you know I won’t hang up on you if I know who’s calling. Or you might be in for a nasty surprise.”
Darius hooted with laughter, surprising her.
“You’re a piece of work, lady. Thank you. I mean that. I owe you.”
Leigh grinned.
“You do owe us. There’s a bill.”
“About that….”
Leigh sighed.
“I knew it. Well, lucky for you, we have a pro bono quota for every month. Now, can I drop you somewhere?”
“No, I’m good. You’ll hear from me in 48 hours,” promised Darius, walking away.
Leigh wondered if she’d see him again, or if any of what he’d said could possibly be true. Then she shrugged it off. She’d done her job. The police had been sloppy, and they had paid for it. She, unfortunately, hadn’t gotten paid. Now the day was gone, and she had been a defense lawyer, as she was supposed to. There were people at the precinct who hated her, and there were ones who thought she might perhaps have some kind of a moral compass.
It hadn’t been a bad day, all things considered. Nothing like lounging about on an island, but also nothing like working at a stuffy corporate law firm that dealt with class action suits – or more accurately, making class action suits with perfectly good bases disappear.
“I heard you made waves,” remarked Roger when Leigh got back.
Leigh shrugged and sat down, wondering if there was anything to eat around. She’d forgotten all about lunch. And about breakfast, but she’d had coffee on the flight home. Had that only been that day? It felt like at least a week ago!
“Well, I’m not quite sure what was what today. I mean, what I did was routine, but that kid had a few outlandish tales. I bet they were mostly in his imagination. Anyway, I think I put in a shift and a half today. Oh, that was pro bono, by the way.”
Roger sighed, but he didn’t look upset.
“We’re already past our pro bono quota for the month. We really should consider getting paying work.”
Leigh grinned.
“Your book royalties keep you and your family fed, so don’t complain. How’s Mia? She must be
about ready to pop now.”
Roger grinned, but he looked like a man who had glimpsed heaven.
“I can’t believe how lucky I am,” he said fervently, making Leigh smile.
“I know. You are one lucky man. Mia was glowing the last time I saw her, and she was only three months along. She must be… Holy shit, she must really be about through now.”
“Five weeks to due date.”
“I suppose you’ll want paternity leave…”
“We have can bring the baby to work days, too. Every day, as a matter of fact.”
Leigh had to laugh.
“You’re the boss,” she told him, and was surprised to find that she didn’t mind that, after all.
Chapter 4
“Harrison, is everything all right?”
Leigh asked that hesitantly.
They’d been back for two weeks, and Leigh had been as busy as Harrison always was. But she was beginning to feel him withdraw. He was home even later than she was, and when he was there, he seemed more distant than usual.
“Yes, of course. Everything’s fine. I just don’t like to see you working so much.”
“You’re one to talk,” teased Leigh, but the smile she got in response was halfhearted. She could feel it.
“You don’t have to worry about me, Harrison. I can handle the work. I’m enjoying it, even.”
Harrison nodded, smiling, nursing his Scotch on the rocks. Leigh had her beer. She was nursing that one along, too.
“I know. I’m glad about it. But you’re making a few waves.”
Leigh shrugged.
“I know. I can’t help it if they keep trying to lock up people who are perfectly innocent but make convenient patsies.”
Harrison chuckled.
“I’m sure that’s all there is to it. I trust you to handle yourself, Leigh. But if you do feel like you need help, I need you to know that you can come to me, no matter how busy I am.”
Leigh hesitated for a moment, a little torn.
The charges against Darius had miraculously and mysteriously disappeared after 48 hours, just as she’d known they would. She had gotten a self-destructing email that had freaked her out a bit, but it had simply let her know that he was fine and still had that phone, and the email hadn’t hurt her system in any way.
Leigh was beginning to feel like she’d missed a trick, not becoming a programmer or cyber security person of some sort. Obviously, that’s where all the really fun stuff went down.
She had been tempted to try that phone number, but she’d reminded herself that she wasn’t supposed to get too involved. Becoming personally involved in your cases – there was no easier way to burn out. Leigh had no intention of falling victim to that. She was not going to be emotionally involved. If she’d made a couple of calls and discovered that his sister was gifted, and in need of a scholarship, that didn’t hurt anybody. What was the point of connections if she didn’t use them occasionally? She hadn’t crossed any lines. She’d just given the girl an opportunity, and she’d taken it.
She’d had many involving cases after that too, though sadly more commonplace. It was tragic that battered women who finally turned on their spouses and pulled a trigger was commonplace. She’d had her share of those to last her a lifetime. But she’d find strength for more.
She had to.
“I do worry that you’re too involved, Leigh. You’re empathetic. It’s one of your strengths. But it will break you if you’re not careful.”
Leigh shrugged it off, deciding that that was what was worrying him – fear for her. Something about that little explanation didn’t strike true to her, but she was willing to accept it for the moment. She simply did not have the energy to dig deeper. If there was more, Harrison would tell her about it when he was ready to, she knew that.
At least, she hoped she knew that.
Trust, she reminded herself – it was the cornerstone of a relationship.
No, a marriage. It was still hard, despite living with him, to think of them as married. They sure as hell didn’t act like her parents.
“I know, but I will be careful. You know me, Harrison. I’m always careful. Have a little faith, will you?”
“I have all the faith in the world in you. I know you’re doing what you believe in. Just make sure you take time for yourself, and keep a certain distance.”
“I could tell you the same thing,” retorted Leigh, a little annoyed at how patronizing he sounded. It wasn’t as if she was some kind of clueless country bumpkin, was she!
“I know I’ve been busy. Taking a week off isn’t something I usually do.”
“Anna must be annoyed,” said Leigh, a little mollified by his admission.
“She’s unruffled as always. Now, what do you say we go to bed?”
The salacious gleam in his eyes made it very clear that sleeping wasn’t what was on his mind. Leigh’s heart and her body leapt in response, and she grinned.
“I guess we could do bed,” she told him, her voice deep and husky.
“I was thinking more along the terms of doing you,” said Harrison on a chuckle, and Leigh found herself yanked onto the bed. She went with him willingly, and when he undressed her, touched and teased her, she stopped thinking about anything except how much she needed him. About the response he could pull from her with just a look, just a touch. About the wonder of belonging to him, and knowing that he belonged to her just as much, too.
She sighed and held him close. What they shared when they touched each other was a miracle. She knew that. She believed that.
That was the last thought Leigh had before thoughts were swept away by his touch, his mouth, and the fire that he could fan inside her from the embers that seemed to never go out.
She hoped they never would.
“I love you,” she whispered, before they finally fell asleep in each other’s arms, safe and secure.
Harrison moved slowly and deliberately, extricating himself from Leigh’s grip. His woman, thought Harrison with a smile, didn’t let go easily. In her sleep, she held on to him as if she needed him.
As he needed her.
But sleeping through the night was a luxury he didn’t have at the moment, so he moved carefully, finally getting to his feet and pulling on the sweats he had taken off earlier. He froze when Leigh stirred, but she mumbled something and settled back down to sleep, grabbing onto the pillow still warm from him.
It was tempting to let everything else go and just get back into bed with his wife. His wife, thought Harrison, savoring the feel of those words again. Had Leigh gotten used to thinking of him as her husband?
But he was wasting time now. Reluctantly, he made his way out of the bedroom and into his study. It used to be his favorite room in the house. It was where he played with everything. Work, to Harrison, was deadly serious, but also fun. He enjoyed creating things from numbers that would mean nothing to most people. He was toying with a new programming language that would make coding for games easier.
He considered it his pet project. There was no pressing need to work on it. It wasn’t on his firm’s schedule.
But there was something on the agenda that was behind schedule. Harrison didn’t like that. He had always run a tight ship. He let his employees have their freedom as long as they delivered because he had found that it was the best way to make sure they delivered.
The problem game, however, was something important to him. It was a combat and strategy-based game with exaggerated versions of real-life covert ops. It was different – because the good ones could choose to play the game as a coder, and if they were really, exceptionally good, they could change the code of the game itself. When the game detected that this was being done, new traps would be tripped, making it more and more difficult. It could end in a game of man vs. machine, in ways that Harrison felt preempted the real future. The game was a gamble because only the really gifted gamers could get to the root of it. Others would get an entertaining game, but not all of it.
&nbs
p; Matrix meets Mortal Combat meets Rambo meets War Machine, with heavy emphasis on the Matrix part of it, thought Harrison with a grin. It was an incredible ambitious project, and he had insisted on a certain degree of realism. That had meant accessing information about certain operations that civilians, generally, weren’t supposed to have. But Harrison had always known where to draw the line.
He should have pushed the development back for a few months, to make sure that he could be home and give it all of his attention. But he hadn’t, mostly because he hated changing schedules, but partly because of Jonathan Glades.
The young man looked like the stereotypical nerd – as if he desperately needed a couple of hours in the sun, a few vitamin-enriched juices, and a good meal with some hearty meat. Tall, very lanky, curly-haired and bespectacled, Jonathan looked like he lived in another world most of the time. But the young man was incredibly talented. He wasn’t a leader – he was an independent worker, too independent to lead – but Harrison had made a decision and given him a lot of responsibility, and a lot of freedom.
The game was going well, at least on the surface. Jonathan had the development under control. But something wasn’t quite right. There had been too many glitches in too many things over the last couple of months. Harrison had been so focused on that game that he had let a lot of other things slide, and that realization had come as a shock.
So now, despite his decision to delegate, Harrison found himself about to take a comprehensive look at everything that had been happening at his company. All the other investments were just that – investments. This team of mavericks that he had built, that had now grown into a tech giant, was his baby.
He wasn’t going to allow glitches. If Anna thought he wasn’t focusing hard enough to delegate to her expectations, Anna would have to deal with it.
So Harrison sat down at his system, waited for the connection, and logged in. In that system, he was god. He could go where he pleased, and do what he pleased.
For a while, he moved around, glad simply to be in there, to see what was happening. Slowly, he found a few threads that needed following. A few supply orders had mysteriously gone astray, for the new consoles they were developing. A few smaller games that were being developed weren’t progressing fast enough, and Harrison found the bugs responsible for that.
Our Happily Ever After: BWWM Interracial Romance Black Women White Men (That Forbidden Love Book 3) Page 4