Our Happily Ever After: BWWM Interracial Romance Black Women White Men (That Forbidden Love Book 3)

by Ellie Etienne

  “Then you should’ve called me, Harrison!”

  He raked his fingers through his hair, looking extremely frustrated, and all Leigh could feel was concern.

  “I thought I could handle it. I know you’ve been dealing with enough. You get so invested in your cases…”

  “You’re my husband. I’m invested in you.”

  But it wasn’t the time for that conversation, though boy, was it going to happen!

  “I know. I… Last night, I was working. I realized I’d been hacked. I shouldn’t have gone after the hacker myself, but I thought they were long gone. They left a little tripwire for me, code I use – it was a signature when I did some recreational hacking. If I used it, I’d be directed through a back door into classified information I had no business seeing, and it wouldn’t do it with a lock pick. It would blast the back door open with brute force, and so fast that I couldn’t do anything about it.”

  Leigh nodded, though she was at sea. She was not good with hacking. Or coding. Or developing games.

  “So, you have contacts at cybercrimes. And even in homeland, for heaven’s sake.”

  “I do. But I left it a little late to call Dave. By the time I did, it had gone above his head. There wasn’t much he could do. I got the call and I volunteered to come in. I didn’t want it to escalate. But when I got here… Well, it looked like they’d had a few tips, too. I don’t know what’s going on anymore, Leigh. They haven’t let me call anybody. They took my phone.”

  Leigh nodded briskly.

  She recognized standard bullying practice, though it was rare to see that with people as influential as Harrison was. If it hit the papers, there would be lawsuits. They must have something very substantial to be sure that they could make this stick and get away with it.

  But there was no point speculating about that right then.

  “Sit tight and don’t try to help anymore. I’m here now. I’ll make sure you’re out of here as soon as possible. I’ll call Roger for reinforcements if I have to. Do you want to get your legal involved?”

  Harrison hesitated, that that moment of hesitation almost broke Leigh’s heart. Not because she would’ve been offended if he had chosen to go with the legal firm he had on retainer – not in the least. She knew she would be outgunned very quickly where they were. But Harrison hesitated. He never hesitated.

  “No. No, I don’t think… Not now. I can’t let this get out, Leigh. Not even within the company.”

  Leigh nodded briskly, trying to make up for the lack of confidence that Harrison was so uncharacteristically showing.

  “All right. Then I’ll get on it. You haven’t been charged, you haven’t been arrested, and you have been here voluntarily for hours without being allowed to communicate with anybody. That should be enough for me to light a fire under a few asses. Many fires. Roaring ones. They’ll feel like they’re sitting right over Dante’s Inferno, getting roasted so the devil can take a good bite out of them.”

  Harrison smiled, and the relief Leigh felt at seeing that slight quirk of his lips was immense.

  “I believe you will.”

  “Now, no more cooperation, Harrison. If they ask something, say you have nothing to say except to me, and all you have to say to me is that we’ve got dinner reservations. Got that?”

  “Yes ma’am. You know, you’re very intriguing when you take charge like this.”

  Now the relief turned into amusement, to her own disbelief. But Harrison looked more like himself again, though a rather shell-shocked version of himself.

  “We’ll see how you like it later. Now, sit tight. Do you need something to drink? Water, juice?”

  Harrison shook his head.

  “Something stronger when I get out of here.”

  Leigh nodded, the frown back in place, her lips pressed into a thin line as she prepared for battle.

  “I can promise you that, too. Now let me get you out of here.”

  Leigh left the holding room with her head held high, and she did, indeed, go to work.

  She went to town on them, threatening to call everybody from the mayor to the senator to the commander of the force. She threatened to call every single media outlet that had been running stories about law enforcement and give them all a scoop. She rounded it off by dropping a few hints about the threat to national security if somebody hacked into classified information, and how high up that threat should be taken, before they decided that it simply wasn’t worth the trouble.

  The warnings to not leave town and so on were just window dressing. Leigh had made them back down, and she knew it.

  She knew, too, that if she’d thought the Lt didn’t like her before, now he hated her guts.

  Well, she couldn’t spend time worrying about it. She was a defense lawyer, after all. She was never going to be liked in the bull pen.

  She caught Portia’s eye and made sure she didn’t make any noticeable eye contact. The last thing she needed was to get her one ally in that place in trouble. She didn’t need any more problems.

  Leigh got the feeling that Portia appreciated not being put in a spot, too.

  It took two hours, still, because they dragged their feet. Leigh was beginning to wonder if they were dragging their feet to see if they could come up with a charge that could conceivably stick, to actually arrest Harrison Bloom. From the hurrying and the scurrying, it looked like that was very much the case.

  Leigh refused to panic. She could handle it.

  But she did call Roger, and give him a rundown of what was going on. His confidence that she could handle it calmed her down, and gave her the bravado to see it through. In two hours, she had browbeaten the Lt and the anonymous suited man who had turned up that they had to let Harrison go.

  She didn’t say a word as they left. Head held high, they strode purposefully out. It was only when she got to the car that the shakes started.

  “Jesus, Harrison, fucking hell, what’s going on?”

  Harrison sighed, and leaned against the car as if he had simply lost all strength.

  “It might be a pretty long story,” he told her, and Leigh held up a hand.

  “I have to make a call first. I need to get this sorted out before we get into whatever is going on with you.”

  Leigh called Darius’s number. She was late for him.

  “Did it work?”

  Leigh frowned.

  “Did what work?”

  “They let him go, didn’t they?”

  Leigh was bewildered.

  “What?” she asked again, a bit stupidly.

  “Harrison Bloom. He’s out, isn’t he?”

  Leigh glanced over at Harrison.

  “Yes, he’s out.”

  “Good. Told you my program works great. They won’t find a single trace of him. Well, unless they really, really want to. I only had the local law enforcement to worry about. Harrison Bloom seems to be on a lot of hit lists right now. Jeez, somebody really ratted him out. It’s flying all over the place.”

  “Darius… Darius, stop! Take a breath, please, and then tell me how the hell you know anything about any of this. It was all supposed to be confidential. Wait, did you know about this when you called me in the morning?”

  “Of course I did. That’s why I called. I wanted to tell you to buy me some time. I needed some time. I had to tweak the program a bit to get it to work on this kind of scale. Shit, Ms. Wells, I should get a scholarship to MIT or something for what I managed to do today. Not that I’d take it, they’re lame.”

  Leigh took a deep breath and counted to ten as Darius went on. She still honestly didn’t have a clue what was going on.

  “Darius, are you in trouble? Should I be waiting for a call from you?”

  There was a short bark of laughter from the other end of the line.

  “If they catch me at this, I don’t think I’ll be getting any phone calls. But listen, Ms. Wells, I only bought you time. I figured you’d be able to take precautions so they don’t get him inside again. They
’ve got the kind of stuff I don’t, they’ll probably break through what I did after a while. But it should be corrupted enough that they can’t use it. Legally, that is, they’ll still know that it was him. I don’t think it was him, of course. Nobody with an ounce of sense does. He’d never have done it like that if he’d wanted to do it. He’s a smooth operator. This was like setting off a dirty bomb.”

  “All right. I don’t understand any of what’s going on, but thank you, Darius. I’ll call you, all right? I’ll call you after I figure out what’s what. I promise.”

  “Jeez, don’t sweat it, Ms. Wells. It’s fine. I used to be a bit of a fan of the Bloomer.”

  Leigh glanced over at Harrison.

  “The Bloomer?”

  “It was funny,” said Harrison, but he didn’t seem to care about being teased, either. That, decided Leigh, was very bad. Harrison was always up to needling her back.

  He had really had a shock.

  “I’ll tell him you said so. Thank you, Darius. Please don’t get into trouble. If you feel there’s even a hint of it, call me immediately. I won’t let it get to you.”

  There was an awkward pause.

  “Ms. Wells, you don’t owe me a thing. You came when I called. You got my sister into that program last week. She’s into art. She’s thrilled about it.”

  Leigh smiled despite everything.

  “I listened when I asked you to tell me about your family. It was no trouble. Her teachers said she’s gifted. I just made sure she knew about the program and how she could get into it.”

  “I think it was more than that. But you don’t owe me anything.”

  After hanging up, Leigh looked up at Harrison.

  “Harrison, I think it’s about time we had a talk. Home or lunch?”

  Harrison hesitated, just for a moment.

  “Lunch. I didn’t have breakfast.”

  “You made eggs.”

  “I didn’t eat any,” admitted Harrison sheepishly.

  “Seriously, of all the… All right. We can have your car picked up later. I’m driving. We’re going somewhere where you won’t be recognized. A diner. Greasy burger and coffee for lunch.”

  Harrison didn’t argue as Leigh drove to an anonymous diner in complete silence. She was trying to make sense of what was happening. That morning, she had woken up feeling as if her world was perfect. Sure, she had felt that something was a little off, but she’d put it down to pressure, on either side. She hadn’t made anything more of it.

  In a few short hours – no, make that after a few of the longest hours of her life – she hardly knew where to start.

  Leigh was glad when the waitress gave her a reason to gather her thoughts for a couple of minutes. She considered the choice between a sandwich and a burger as if her life depended on it, as if she needed all her concentration to get it right.

  “Just a coffee,” said Harrison.

  “He’ll have the burger and I’ll have a sandwich,” overruled Leigh.

  Harrison looked as if he might object, but the look she threw his way made him change his mind and settle down, accepting the burger if that’s what Leigh wanted him to eat.

  Finally, there was no more excuse to stall.

  “All right, Harrison. Tell me what’s going on, how long it’s been going on, and why it is that I’m only getting to know of it now. I need to know what’s happening. That’s the most important part. Then we’ll figure out what to do about it. But here’s the thing, Harrison. I also need to know why it is that I was blindsided by this. We’re supposed to be partners. You’re supposed to tell me if something this bad is happening. What happens to you affects me, too, now.”

  Harrison looked guiltier with every word, so Leigh stopped. They were both relieved when the food was served, giving them a minute to gather their thoughts again.

  “You’re right. I should’ve told you about it. But I thought I could handle it. Honestly, I didn’t even think it was anything until last night. It was just a feeling. There was nothing I could put my finger on. But now…”

  Leigh took another deep breath, trying to calm herself down. It would help nobody if she flew off the handle. She could do that later, once it was all over.

  Surely it would all be over soon.

  Surely this was all some kind of mistake. But one look at Harrison was enough to tell her that it wasn’t.

  It was all very real.

  Chapter 6

  The young man sat in a cramped room, focused on the screen in front of him. He knew that he wouldn’t have too many chances to indulge himself now. But it didn’t matter. This was the game for which he had been training since he’d turned thirteen and found out the truth, finally.

  He had planned carefully. A hacker needed to be careful, even while enjoying the rush.

  He expected Harrison Bloom to be out soon. He had enough influence and money to get away with anything. Now that Bloom knew somebody was gunning for him, he’d be more careful.

  It didn’t matter, not to him. He was ready. He was looking forward to pitting his wits against that of Harrison Bloom. That was the main event, wasn’t it?

  Harrison Bloom might not know it, but he had become a target when he’d announced his engagement to Leigh Wells. His fingers clenched into fists, curling over the keyboard as he contemplated that man’s audacity. How dared he!

  Well, he would pay. Of course he would pay. That had been written the moment the engagement had been announced.

  He hated the very name – Harrison Bloom. It sounded ostentatious and undeserved, like everything about the man. He didn’t deserve happiness, or good luck, or success. Everything had been handed to him far too easily.

  That would all change soon.

  The hacker took a moment to breathe deeply and clear his mind. The hatred didn’t leave. He made no attempt to make it fade. That loathing was what drove him, what gave him a reason to get up every morning and go on with the pretense of life that he lived. He did so willingly. It was all part of the plan.

  The plan had been developed over many years, fine-tuned until there were no glitches. No self-respecting hacker would begin execution on a plan with glitches.

  So he had waited, bided his time, and when the moment came, he had been ready.

  This was just the beginning, of course. Just this would not cause Harrison Bloom any lasting harm. Any harm he did needed to be lasting. That was the point.

  He had one aim: he wanted to ruin Harrison Bloom’s life. He wanted to make it so that the name became synonymous with disgrace and failure. That was only fair. That was what the man deserved.

  If fate wouldn’t hand out just desserts, then could he be blamed for stepping in and making sure of it?

  Why, he was practically doing what was ordained!

  He would mete out justice. The hatred that guided him burnt with a dull glow deep inside him, sometimes so bright that he could hardly breathe from it, but usually more like a guiding light.

  His lips curved in a cold, steely smile.

  Harrison Bloom had no idea, but his time was over.

  Harrison Bloom would be destroyed.

  That was the hacker’s sole purpose in life now. He had no intention of failing.

  That chilling smile still in place, he got to work, before his prey started to mount his defenses. For he knew that the prey was a worthy foe, as well – it was about to get very interesting.

  He was prepared.

  “So let me get this straight,” said Leigh. “You’ve had a feeling that something was very wrong since before our wedding.”

  Harrison nodded and took a healthy bite of the burger. Leigh had been right. He was hungry.

  “Then why on earth didn’t you tell me about any of this?”

  Harrison shrugged and took another hearty bite. Leigh was tempted to smack the food away from him. She was beginning to wish she hadn’t ordered the damn food at all. The man hadn’t wanted it, had he?

  When it became clear that Leigh was not happy with a
shrug, Harrison deigned to reply.

  “I didn’t want to worry you.”

  “Oh, so you thought it would be a much better idea to get yourself down to the precinct and offer yourself up for questioning, and let me find out because I have one contact with a heart there?”

  The sarcasm was obvious and very heavy.

  “I didn’t plan it that way,” said Harrison, well aware that as far as defenses went, that was a very weak one.

  Leigh sighed.

  There was no point getting angry about it now, was there? Now they had a mess on their hands.

  “All right. All right, so we need to handle this. How do you propose we handle this?”

  Harrison shrugged again, and Leigh had to fight the urge to poke him in the nose.

  “Harrison, this is serious. It’s not a game. Do you hear me? This is a serious situation and we need to figure out a way to deal with it.”

  “I’m quite aware it’s a serious situation, Leigh. I hoped it could be dealt with amicably, but apparently I was wrong. I won’t be making that mistake again. I’ll be handling it quite differently now.”

  Leigh frowned.

  “How?”

  “I’ll handle it.”

  Leigh gave serious consideration to getting a pie just to shove her husband’s face into it. Heroically, she fought that urge, too.

  “Harrison, we’re supposed to be a team. Could you perhaps remember that and act like it?”

  Leigh managed to say that much sweetly enough, though through gritted teeth.

  “This is about my business, Leigh. It’s not like there’s much you can do. I used to do some hacking a while back. I’ll just have to start doing it again, that’s all. It’s no big deal.”

  Leigh wanted to bang her head against the table, but doubted it would accomplish anything.

  “What do you think is going on?”

  Harrison shrugged, polishing off the last of the fries. He eyed her sandwich, half of which was left, hopefully.

  “Are you going to finish that?”

  Exasperated, Leigh shoved her plate towards her husband and waited for him to make his way through that, too.

  “What do you think is going on?” she asked again, refusing to let Harrison off the hook quite so easily.