I sighed. She had a point.
“Fine. But keep this to yourself, okay? I want none of this story getting around.”
She laughed. “Who will I tell? You think your adolescent crush story is more sacred than any of the other million incriminating things I know about you? The FBI wants us bad, and I could hand you right to them if I wanted to. You could do the same to me.”
Two for two. Addison was on fire.
“Okay, okay. You’re right. It’s just embarrassing as hell, and I’ve worked every day of my life since then to distance myself from that day and who I was back then.”
She waited, eyes on me.
I tried to start, but couldn’t summon the words. I had to delay. “Oh, I passed our good friend Roger Clark on the sidewalk earlier today. I don’t know if it’s just a coincidence, but I thought he was still in New York. You should be extra vigilant every time you leave the condo.”
Addison waved off the threat as though it was nothing more than a friendly honey bee. “The FBI agent? Whatever. They don’t even know we’re working together, or that I’m involved in anything shady at all. Unlike you, my face isn't linked to any of the stuff we've done. I’m not exactly worried about it. You’re just trying to change the subject.”
She would not let me get around it. I sighed and collected my thoughts.
“Kat and I grew up next door to each other. We were best friends since before I can remember, and spent every day running around and getting into trouble. When you’re that young, gender doesn’t matter so much, and kids don’t develop as distinct personalities as they do when they’re older.
“I was always a bit chubby as a kid, and that never went away. Think of me as the typical, awkward boy. Into magic and sleight of hand, played way too many video games, and except for my best friend, Kat, didn’t get along too much with other kids.
“As we got older, Kat got hotter. A lot hotter. She developed before the other girls and had the body of an athlete from the sports she played at school. Her social graces were far more developed than mine, and she had dozens of friends she had to split her time between. Somehow, she still always made time for me, and we remained best friends.”
Addison tilted her head to the side as if viewing me with new eyes. “I just can’t see you chubby. Or awkward—you’re one of the smoothest guys I know. I’ve seen you walk up to a group of women at a bar and have them buy you drinks all night.”
I nodded. “I’m not that boy any longer, but I have Kat to thank for that. And she doesn’t even know. When we got into our teens and puberty kicked in full force, I became infatuated with Kat. It was only natural—we knew each other so well, and not only was she my best friend, she was the best looking girl in school.
“She always dated older guys, the jocks, guys who ran in the most popular circles at school—her circles. It felt like a betrayal, every time, but realistically it made total sense. What made little sense was why she still spent time with me, still included me in her life.
“Once, her boyfriend at the time cheated on her. She was devastated, and I was outraged. How could he cheat on such an angel? When she told me at lunch and I saw that smug bastard sitting across the cafeteria, something snapped inside of me. I charged over there to confront him—Kat pulled on my arm the whole way, trying to hold me back and stop me from making an idiot of myself.
“Trent Smith. I still remember his name. I yelled at him in front of everyone—I don’t even know what I said. I don’t think it made much sense. Everyone in the cafeteria stopped what they were doing to watch. He didn’t even bother trying to defend his character, he said, ‘you’re just jealous that I fucked her and you never will.’”
“Ouch.” Addison had drawn her knees up to her chest and leaned forward, like she listened to a campsite story. “What did you say, then?”
I couldn’t help it, a flush spread across my cheeks. “Somehow, I thought this was the perfect time to announce my love for Kat in front of the whole school. I told her how we should be together, and that I would always treat her right, unlike the assholes who cheated on her and disrespected her. I asked her out.”
“Oh, my God! What did she say?”
I winced. The words were still raw in my memory. It had been the turning point of my life.
“She said that we could never date. That I was like a brother to her, and she didn’t see me like that. I swear I can still hear the laughter. Everywhere I looked, all the other kids were crying from laughing so hard.”
Addison shook her head. “Kids are dicks. What did you do?”
“The only thing I could think of. I ran away. Literally just left the school and never went back. My dad had been offered a promotion at work that would require a move from Seattle to Chicago, and my parents were delaying until I went away to college, but I told them to do it then, because I didn’t want to stay anymore.”
“Did you see Kat again?”
“She tried to come and talk that night, but I told my parents not to let her in the house. We moved away only a few days later, and I never told her. I didn’t see her again until the other night when I started the job. I don’t blame her for not recognizing me—I look completely different, and my attitude, voice, manner, everything is just… so different.”
It was the first time I’d told the story to anyone, and it felt better than I expected to get it off my chest.
“That is a ridiculous story,” Addison said. “I still don’t get how you’re so different now, though. What happened when you moved to Chicago?”
Story time had already taken longer than I wanted, and I had to keep some secrets for myself, so I told Addison the short version.
“Kat’s rejection had devastated me. I always knew I wasn’t the coolest kid ever. It’s not like you aren’t aware of it, you know? After that, though, I was sick of being the chubby kid who was always laughed at and left out. I focused everything I had and all my energy into becoming someone new, someone better.
“I worked out and watched what I ate, transforming my body from a formless blob into something to be desired. That was only the physical layer. At my new high school I fell in with a group of kids involved in shady stuff—they were the only ones willing to talk to the new kid. We dabbled in petty theft, experimental drugs, and generally being unproductive members of society. That’s where I learned how to speak to people, how to read what someone’s feeling and anticipate their emotions and reactions.”
“And you went from there into being a con artist?” Addison asked. “I can’t believe you never told me any of this before. You could write a book on this and make a fortune.”
I laughed. “Or end up in jail from confessing to a few big-time crimes. And I didn’t make the leap to full out con artist then. I went off to college even though I didn’t want to—my parents insisted. Since I had no interest in classes, I soon found a group of like-minded delinquents to make friends with. We planned out and pulled elaborate pranks, seeing how we could push boundaries and get away with ridiculous things. It didn’t take long before one of the guys and I performed a real theft—gained the trust of a wealthy asshole and emptied his safe one night after he blacked out from drinking.”
“That’s so cool.” Her eyes were wide, enraptured by my storytelling. “You’re making me jealous. That’s an awesome back story for a thief. Mine’s so lame in comparison.”
I winked at her. “Oh, come on, graduating top of your class from MIT and then dating a criminal mastermind for a few months is a perfectly acceptable way to get into hacking for pay. Besides, if I hadn’t discovered you, your talents would have gone to waste in a big corporation somewhere. Now you get to exercise your creativity while stealing from assholes. Isn’t that a lot more fun?”
“It kinda is,” she admitted. She held up the USB stick with the ARCANE data. “Speaking of which, I should get to work on this. The sooner I tear it apart and figure out what’s going on behind their firewall, the sooner we can close out the job and get paid. So
long as you can still pull the trigger now you’ve got everything you ever wanted with Kat.”
She unfolded from her curled up position on the couch and strolled across the living room to the hallway.
Everything I ever wanted. With Kat.
Did I want to mess that up for the sake of the job?
CHAPTER 15
~ KAT ~
“All right, Sean, do you have confirmations from your shortlist?”
He nodded and pushed a folder across the table. “I had commitments from five of the seven. They were more than happy to agree to the terms in exchange for our services, putting our Secured by ARCANE logo on their websites and transaction pages, and appearing in our marketing campaign.”
I tapped the top of the folder. “That brings us up to fourteen. That’s a good start.”
He nodded. “A couple of those are huge charities, too. That will increase our exposure by a lot.”
The past week of planning had yielded better results than I’d dreamed. Once I showed Nick the estimates of the return we could expect from running this campaign, he grudgingly gave the green light—with the warning that he could pull the plug if he didn’t like the direction I took it.
Todd cleared his throat. “I had a thought about the campaign launch.” When I waved him on, he continued. “I’ve got a few friends in the media that I went to school with—I might be able to get us good publicity on the press release. If we can get the heads of a few of the charities to show up, we could put together a press conference and extend the reach as far as we can.”
The two men had surprised me with their work ethic since Marcy left. It was as if the Todd and Sean I knew had been replaced by hard workers with initiative who would complete the tasks I set them. Now I had a team I could count on, it highlighted how painful it had been when I did everything myself.
“That’s a great idea, Todd, thanks for bringing your resources to bear on this. Could you follow up with your friends and let me know the status on that by Monday? I want to push ahead with the launch as soon as possible—this campaign isn’t doing us any good until it’s out there.”
I assigned a few more actions for each of the men to take away from the meeting and work on. The campaign was shaping up, and it felt right. The crushing despair about the state of my job and my career that had nearly consumed me a few weeks ago had turned into a cautious optimism that I could not only keep my job and add a stellar campaign to my portfolio, but also help people in need at the same time.
“I think that wraps up the meeting,” I said. “Unless there is anything else you two want to bring up before we finish?”
Sean spoke. “Actually, there is something from the public relations side of things. We usually only get a few complaints here and there about minor things. Nothing too major—I’ve never brought them to your attention before, since they show up in the metrics. This past week, however, we’ve gotten several from different clients, all related to security breaches.”
I’d already mentally checked out of the room, thinking about James and the things we’d done together that week, but Sean’s words hooked my attention and reeled it back. “Security breaches? What do you mean?”
He hesitated and glanced at Todd, who nodded back. “Well, these clients say that information held inside the ARCANE protections was compromised. Banking data, minor fraud—incidents indicative of a successful hack.”
“That… shouldn’t be possible. They’re certain that the information was held only in ARCANE encryptions and not stolen another way?”
He nodded. “That’s what they say. Six different clients have reported incidents so far.”
I bit my lip. This wasn’t how I wanted to close out the meeting. “I’ll have to escalate this. Have you forwarded the information to engineering?”
“They’re aware. Refusing to believe that it could be a problem on our side, but they’re looking into it.”
“Well, you know what the official company stance is on things like this—we can only protect the data they give us to protect. We can’t control if they lose it another way. Unless we find out differently, that’s the story here. That’s a lot of reports from a lot of clients at the same time, but it could all just be a coincidence.” A big one, but ARCANE’s algorithms were unhackable.
We vacated the meeting room and went back to our respective desks. In the comfort and privacy of my office, I allowed the laser focus on work to slack.
As they so often did over the past week, my eyes wandered to the table across the room. The one I’d been tied to, naked, wearing nothing but a silk blindfold. Vulnerable to James and any liberties he wanted to take with my body.
Thinking about that first time never failed to turn me on. Even though we’d gotten together four more times since, it would be hard to top the monumental tease and build up that led to our first time having sex.
James…
We fit together so perfectly, and it only became a better fit over time. The sex was mind-meltingly amazing, so much better than with any other man I’d ever slept with. A tier all its own.
That wasn’t the only positive. All the little things, the small pieces of each personal transaction, came together in perfect harmony. Like the way I hated pickles, and James snagged them off my plate before I can even complain. When I turned my alarm off in the morning, James pulled me close and woke me up gradually with playful kisses.
It had gotten to the point it was almost creepy. Humans were so individualistic, I’d taken it as a given that no man could be a perfect match. Any couple had to learn to live with certain aspects of their paramour’s habits and quirks. With James, it wasn’t like that. It felt like we’d already known each other for years.
Almost like we’ve been together our entire lives.
A strange thought, and not one I could afford to pursue any further—I had work to do.
I bundled the folders Sean and Todd had given me with an elastic, stacking them on top of my notebook and tucking the whole thing under my arm. The familiar path to Nick’s office took only a few seconds.
For the first time, when I gave the door a couple courtesy knocks and tried to twist the handle, it refused to turn.
The door was locked.
Huh. He never locks his door.
I knocked again, louder this time, and hovered my ear against the door.
“One second,” I heard, barely audible.
That’s right, he’s got that ridiculous soundproofing for his office.
After a minute of leaning against the wall and checking my work email on my phone, the door opened.
A gorgeous woman stepped out, dressed to the nines in tall heels, hair down to her ass, and a dress so tight that I could tell she wore no panties. She smiled and walked away, the heels clicking with every step.
“Come in, Katherine. Close the door behind you.”
I walked in the room and coughed. The heavy scent of sex hung in the air.
“Who was that?” I asked when I regained my breath.
Nick smirked, the face of a man who’d just had all his cares relieved. “That’s Tatiana. She’s the new intern.”
“Intern? She looks like she should shoot covers for playboy. And it smells like you’re turning ARCANE into a porn company.”
Nick didn’t even shrug; there was no shame in his demeanor. “She’s good at what she does. Since you aren’t filling the role I intended for you, I had to make another hire who would. And she knows exactly how to fill every position I need.”
“Gross. I’m glad you sorted that out. Does that mean I can do my job like a normal person, now?”
Nick eyed me in that dispassionate way he had, like he was trying to figure out all possible ways I could be of use to him. “Just because Tatiana has filled in where you disappointed me doesn’t give you a free pass. You still have to get me results this quarter with this harebrained charity bullshit of yours. The only difference is that now I have Tatiana, I don’t need your mouth or your pussy. If you
fail, then you’re fired no matter what.”
The thought of submitting to him to keep my job made my skin crawl—but somehow, the guarantee of being fired was still chilling, even if I had no intention of ever lowering myself to being his office whore.
Never had I met a man who begged to be slapped hard in the face like Nick.
“Can we please discuss work? I have the initial campaign partners here. Fourteen of them, and there are a good mix of big and small companies. The majority of them offer financial services to donors and NGOs in third world countries, so this will triple the number of people using our services regularly.”
“Triple?” Nick held out his hand for the folders. “That’s impressive. All these people will use our servers for free, however. That’s a lot of added overhead that will need more revenue to offset.”
I nodded. “We’ve calculated the additional number of subscriptions necessary to pay for the campaign, and it’s reasonable. Based on our conversion statistics and the reach we’ll gain, I’m confident in saying we will have our best quarter ever.”
“Is that right?” Nick flipped through the folders and tossed them on his desk. “I’ll believe it when I see it.”
He won’t give me a single scrap of credit, will he?
I firmed my jaw. “We’ve also gotten complaints from clients about potential hacks.”
Nick froze. “What are you talking about?”
“My team says there have been reports coming in from six different clients so far of incidents involving fraudulent activity for accounts they insist are under ARCANE encryption. Engineering is looking into it, but I thought you should know in case you hadn’t heard yet.”
His fist crashed into the desk. “I want you to quash all these rumors, Katherine. Not a word is to leave this building, are we clear?”
“Uh, yes? Did you think I was going to go shout it from the rooftops?”
He didn’t look amused. “You’re the head of public relations. ARCANE’s reputation has to be solid, do you understand? If there are any questions about the proficiency of our encryption, we’ll never get off the ground.”
Steal: A Bad Boy Romance Page 9