The Retreat (A Clean and Sweet Romance Novella)

by Veda Whitfield

Chapter 1

  James

  He was always causing trouble. As a small child he was the one that other parents didn't want their own kids inviting over. He was popular, even as a toddler, simply because he was far more intelligent than any other child his age and he knew how to use it to his advantage. He figured out from a young age that it was easy to get people to do exactly as you wanted, by simply changing the way you spoke to them or by the way you made them feel about themselves. This was a skill he took with him into his teenage years and then finally into adulthood. He knew exactly how to get everything he wanted because he was always two steps ahead of everyone else.

  He should've taken this skill and used it in a positive way - a brain like his could've done great things in the world. But instead he did what most smart guys his age always did - he used it to make money for himself and he figured out a way to get rich quick without ever entering the corporate world.

  When James Easton met Charlie he thought that all his dreams had come true. The two of them had met online when James had not only beaten him on one of the hardest online games of the moment, but had then went onto create a new one - something he described as 'more challenging' than the one before. Charlie had contacted James and asked to meet him. Of course James had immediately been suspicious of Charlie, who turned out to be everything that James had suspected. He was short, had no sense of style, and wore big bug-eyed glasses that made his eyes look huge. In other words he encompassed everything that one would imagine when trying to conjure up the idea of a nerd. Why would this nerd want anything to do with James, other than to idolize him? James had worked his way up the ranks of nerdville through the creation of his video game and seemed to be revered by all. When Charlie invited him out for a drink, James said yes and then instantly regretted it when he saw Charlie sitting at the table sipping a Coca-Cola. James had ordered a whiskey and sat down heavily in front of him, pretending to be friendly. To this day James had no idea why he had agreed to the meeting. Perhaps it was his serious lack of human interaction, or the idea that someone out there loved his work so much he wanted to meet him. Or maybe it was more serendipitous than that. But by the end of the meeting James knew that his life was never going to be the same again.

  It was Charlie who had introduced him to hacking. It was something that Charlie himself had been involved in for many years but on a small scale. He had been looking for someone to get on board with him for a long time but he didn't trust most of the guys out there.

  "You have to be careful, James," Charlie had told him, "A lot of guys think they are a lot better at this than they really are. They may be great at online gaming or solving computer crashes, but hacking is a whole new level. I've been doing it for a long time but I can only get so far by myself. I'm good, but I'm not great. But you James, you have greatness inside of you. You figured out a game that everyone thought was impossible, and then you went on to create another one which was even harder than the one before. You must know that everyone is practically in love with you. There are boys out there figuring out how to meet you, and girls dying to have your baby. I'm not exaggerating. In the computer world you are like the God. Why you said yes to meeting with me I have no idea. But of course, I'm not complaining. So? I have a proposal."

  And just like that James had been introduced into the world of hacking, with a promise that great things would come his way. Charlie wanted to start him off slowly. He taught him how to hack into people's social media accounts and their emails, before moving on to bigger things like their bank accounts, their social security details. Charlie made James promise that he would never simply steal from anyone, but that all his targets were people that deserved to be punished. Charlie wasn't a bad person, but he believed that the world was corrupt and that people like him and James could do something about it. His speech had enamored James who had always seen himself as an outcast desperate for a mission in life. Soon, he and Charlie were meeting on a monthly basis, and while he tried to keep those meetings purely online there were times when the two of them would still meet over a cup of coffee or a strong glass of whiskey - all depending on what was going on at that particular time in their hacking progress. Charlie had big plans for James, but the process was slow because he wanted James to be completely confident in his skills.

  When James had gotten home that day, he had kicked off his shoes and started to work on his new mission. James lived alone, in an apartment quite small for someone who could easily afford more. But he had chosen it because it was a stone's throw away from the beach - the one place that had the ability to keep him calm. He hadn't grown up near the beach, but he had gone with his parents on holidays to the beach twice a year. Which meant that twice a year he felt relaxed and happy - and his parents finally got a break from his energetic childlike frustrations. There was something soothing about the sound of the crashing water, and while he didn't go in much, he liked to sit and watch it. His apartment was situated on the 10th floor and when he sat on the balcony he had the perfect view of the beach below. It was where he liked to start each and every day, cradling a cup of coffee and watching the world go by. Then he'd go to his computer and his other life would begin.

  He'd been at it for almost a year now, and his hacking had gotten more and more advanced. Just like Charlie had taught him he was very careful about everything he did. He checked, double checked and triple checked everything, making sure that nothing could be traced back to him. Charlie had taught him to treat his hacking almost as if he was going to get caught - so that he could always be forewarned of anything that might trail back to his computer. It was easy to get cocky and to become caught up in the idea that hacking makes you better than everyone else, so it was important to always get a daily dose of reality; which is what the mornings looking at the beach helped him to see.

  It was hard not to get caught up in the lives of others and it was always amazing to see how much people put of themselves online. He found liars, cheaters, lovers, stealers - all admitting to their crimes to someone online - someone they obviously believed they could trust. Humans, it seemed, had an inability of keeping secrets to themselves, even to their own detriment. In the beginning this is what James had enjoyed best. James himself had been cheated on once by a woman, so he knew the feeling of betrayal that came with it. He always wished he could've known before he had invested so much of his time and energy on that one woman. So when he found a cheater online, he always took great pleasure in making sure that the other person found out. These were the easy cases - simple emails, or accounts read by the wrong person. He just had to sway them in the right direction and they would find out without once suspecting that an outsider had played a role in the affair. Once he had done that, he always washed himself from their lives - knowing that the longer he dwelled on them the more chances there were of him being caught. Everyone, except one.

  Anna Rosemary Miller. Age: 27. Height: 5 feet 9 inches. Weight: 114 pounds. Hair color: dark brown. Eye color: green. Profession: online content creator. Dream profession: novelist. Favorite movie: Dead Poet's Society. Favorite book: The Little Prince. Tattoo: stack of books up spine. Pet: dachshund named Ruler.

  Best friend: Carla. Boyfriend/Husband/Partner: none.

  James had only found her because her boyfriend at the time had been cheating on her. He'd done what he normally did and set out to make sure that she found out. Which she did. He followed her for a bit of time afterwards to see what would happen with the two of them. He was often surprised by how many people took back the ones that had cheated on them. When this happened he never intervened further. Well then you deserve each other, he'd shout at the computer and forget about them completely. He was pleased, however, to notice that Anna had broken up with the scumbag the day that she found out about him and had totally blocked him from her life. He immediately liked her for that. But there was something else about her, something that kept him coming back over and over again. Anna Rosemary Miller was beautiful. She wasn't just beautiful
to look at it, but she was beautiful to watch in her interactions with other people. He loved reading what she wrote for her clients, and he loved reading what she wrote for her own blog. He loved reading her emails, and watching her videos and looking at her pictures. He kept telling himself that he must stop - that what he was doing was not right, but he couldn't help himself. Every night, once he had finished his work, he would scroll through her profiles and get to know her even more. Soon he felt as if he knew everything about her. There was only one problem - she didn't know he existed.

  And so, in a moment of insanity which he eventually put down to lack of sleep and perhaps too much caffeine, he sent her an email. And then he waited and hoped for a reply.