Fueled by Lust: Severus (Siren Publishing Classic)

by Celeste Prater

  Severus touched her arm. “You’re going to love this, Cassie, if you like the taste of coffee. This is a traditional Italian dessert called Panna Cotta.” He popped a raspberry into his mouth and grinned.

  It didn’t take them long to devour the richly flavored dessert. As soon as they wiped their mouths, Severus stood, grabbed her hand and announced to the table, “Excuse us please. I think we’ll move to the bar area now. It has been a pleasure to dine with you. Have a nice night.” As soon as the last good-bye was made, he led her to the expansive bar area. The band was playing a low jazz number and they both looked around to find a good spot to sit. Before they could make their way over to a small table in the back, Victor Drexler approached.

  Smoothly, he captured her hand and placed a soft kiss to the top. His lips lingered a second then he gently dropped her hand. “Good evening, Cassie. You’re looking especially lovely tonight.” She caught his quick glance up to Severus before his eyes flipped back to hers.

  Cassie smiled when she felt Severus’s palm land at her lower back and then slide to her waist. Interesting. “Victor, this is Severus Faal. Severus, Victor Drexler. He’s the new paralegal for Mr. Scofell, our senior partner.” The men nodded to each other, but didn’t speak. Hmmm. Even more interesting. She wanted to laugh as the two sized each other up like they were preparing for a showdown. She chalked it up more to typical he-man behavior than to anything having to do with her. Victor must have gotten Severus’s hint that he wanted him gone since Severus was gradually nudging her into the bar.

  “Well, I guess I’ll see you around, Cassie.” At her smile and nod, he turned and walked away, not once acknowledging Severus.

  When she realized that the table they wanted had been snagged and nothing remained but two at the front of the crowd, she was relieved to hear Severus’s suggestion.

  “You want to get out of this place?”

  “You have no idea how good that sounds. I’m so ready to get back to the real world.” She returned his grin and let him lead her out to the bank of elevators.

  Cassie caught a movement to her left and was surprised to see Victor descending the stairs. Looking back to Severus she said, “Wait up.” Moving over to the stairwell with a frowning Severus not far behind, she watched Victor take the last stair and then disappear from sight.

  “What is it, Cassie?” Severus whispered.

  She couldn’t help but whisper back. “Why would Victor take the stairs? We’re twenty-one levels up. Either he’s hardcore into staying in shape or he’s going down to the offices. I’m betting on the last one. They’re one floor below. There’s no reason for him to be in the office.” Taking a step down, she cocked an eyebrow and said, “Well, there’s only way to find out, isn’t there?”

  Chapter 14

  Severus grabbed Cassie’s arm before she could take another step. “Wait. Where are you going? Maybe he just forgot his sunglasses, you know, the ones with shiny, mirrored lenses where he can stare at himself all day?”

  Cassie slapped her hand to her mouth to muffle the bark of laughter she was sure would be heard clear back to the bar. Shaking her head, she knew she was grinning like a damned idiot, but couldn’t help herself. Mustering the strength to school her features, she pushed lightly against Severus’s chest, resisting the urge to linger on that tight, hard muscle. “This is serious, Severus. No one is supposed to be in the offices after seven thirty. They had an employee injured once and she wasn’t found until the next morning. It’s a strict office rule now. I don’t feel right about this. Call me paranoid, but my instincts are usually spot-on.”

  Severus let out an exasperated sigh, “Fine, we’ll go down, but you stay behind me. Understand?”

  * * * *

  Severus was pissed that this Drexler asshole had diverted him from his goal. He wanted to take Cassie back down to the outdoor courtyard and perhaps try that kiss again without an overabundance of energy being a factor. He couldn’t rest until he knew if that was the cause for the energy anomaly he had felt. But no, here he was chasing the asshat instead. Severus had seen the guy earlier as he gracefully worked the room with his adept charm and movie star looks. Many a female eye remained firmly locked on him after he touched them briefly or whispered discreetly next to their ears. He recognized his kind. He had wandered in that playground for years and knew all the tricks. Yes, he was smooth and cultured, but Severus knew a fake when he saw one. A plastic smile, for a plastic man.

  Focusing back on their agenda, he moved aside to let Cassie check the door. Finding it locked, she pulled her keys from her clutch and quietly opened the door. As soon as they stepped across the threshold, he gently guided her behind him again. The reception area wasn’t completely dark thanks to the emergency lighting strategically placed around the room. Enough shadows remained to give him a modicum of comfort for hiding if it became necessary. He nodded when Cassie gestured to the right, signaling the direction Drexler had probably taken. He was hoping she had been mistaken and they could get the hell out of here. Or better yet, catch Drexler in a compromising situation and Cassie could see him as the sleazeball he was.

  Cassie squeezed his arm when they both picked up the sound of a door being closed. Quickly, he pushed her back around the corner and motioned for her to stay quiet. He found that he liked the feel of her smashed up against his back and clutching his arm. A wave of protectiveness flooded his emotions and this time he didn’t fight it. He wished he could tell her that he would never let anything harm her, that any threat would be eliminated immediately.

  Cassie’s suspicions were confirmed as they peered around the corner and watched as Drexler walked behind a desk and pulled something from his jacket. When he knelt behind the desk, Severus glanced over to Cassie and frowned. She shrugged and shook her head. Shortly, Drexler popped back up and began walking casually in their direction. Severus pushed Cassie backward until she vigorously motioned to a door and pushed her way inside. He quickly realized they were in the ladies restroom. She had the door cracked just enough for them to watch Drexler’s shadowed body walk past. When he heard the front lock engage, his shoulders finally relaxed and he released his held breath.

  Severus followed Cassie out of the restroom and to the object of their curiosity. Moving in front of her, Severus dropped to the carpet and looked around. He even looked under the desk but didn’t see anything out of the ordinary. Shrugging, he glanced over his shoulder. “I have no idea what he might have been doing. There’s nothing unusual that I can tell.” Severus moved back and Cassie knelt behind the desk and began looking around. He wanted to laugh when he saw she had already ditched her heels.

  “All I see is her computer cords plugged into a surge protector and her wastepaper basket. What the hell would he be doing around Veronica’s desk? She’s out on maternity leave. No one has been sitting here for weeks and she won’t be back for another month. This is so weird.”

  Severus watched as she started to back out of the small space before hesitating and then moving forward again. She had obviously noticed something to the side of the desk. Peering around the edge, they both stared at a pale-gray device plugged into the wall. It looked to be a phone charger, but it had a wire running from the bottom that appeared to be the same as the blue wire connecting the secretary’s computer to the network. The wire trailed on the floor against the wall and disappeared behind a large filing cabinet. From there it trailed vertically up the wall and then behind a large fake tree in the corner.

  Cassie shook her head in confusion. “This is very strange. I’ve never seen our network cables plugged into something like this. You think he could have put this here? See if it connects somewhere behind that tree.”

  Severus gently moved the tree aside and saw that the cable color shifted from blue to light green and disappeared into the wall behind the tree. Since it was the same color as the paint, it was virtually invisible to anyone walking past.

  Severus nodded in agreement. “Yes, this is very strange. Come
on, let’s get out of here. This is out of my field of expertise, but I know someone that might be able to help.”

  * * * *

  Cassie stared at Cato crouching behind the desk and studying the device she and Severus had discovered. His eyes were narrowed in concentration and he hadn’t uttered a word since the desk had been pulled away from the wall. She felt stupid staring at him, but he had the most incredible blue eyes she had ever seen. She believed she had heard someone describe blue that lustrous as cerulean. They were, in effect, sky blue, yet cerulean just sounded more mysterious and sexy. It fit better with this extremely large man hunkered down next to her on the floor.

  He had to be at least six and a half feet tall or more. He was similar in build to Severus with his lean muscles, beefy arms, and strong thighs. Since he moved gracefully and silently, she suspected he had some type of martial arts or military training. Hell, he towered over Severus and he was definitely no slouch in the height department. Where Severus was sophisticated, yet still overtly masculine, Cato looked like a hardcore thug with all his tattoos, piercings, and brooding demeanor. Cassie knew in her gut it was a façade to warn off those that might get too close to the truth of him. She could tell the minute he looked in her eyes that he was intelligent and cunning.

  She was immediately surprised when he turned his head and grinned at her. That simple gesture caused his whole face to morph into a completely different man. He was a fallen angel and she instantly knew she was going to like him. Hell, she even liked the blue-tipped spikes in his jet-black hair. Cassie could appreciate a fellow hard-ass with a gooey center when she saw one. Lina had mentioned Cato before, even telling her about his preferred tip-color rotation schedule. She knew he would be changing them soon, but couldn’t remember the next one in line. She couldn’t help but give him a cheek-busting grin back. She grunted when Severus pulled her up from the floor and moved himself between her and Cato.

  Cato pointed a finger at the device before turning a big smile back to them both. “Now this is what I’m talking about, my friends. I was just getting bored and what do you know? Now, I get to play.” Jumping to his feet, he shoved the desk back in place and started walking to the exit.

  Cassie called out to him. “Wait, what the hell is this thing?”

  He didn’t look back, only motioned with his hand. “Come with me and I’ll show you. There isn’t anything that we can do about that thing at the moment but I’ll have a big surprise for it very soon.”

  Severus shrugged at her confused look, grabbed her hand and started trailing after Cato. She was glad Severus had taken her by her house earlier so she could change before calling in his resident geek. She had a feeling this was going to be a long night.

  * * * *

  Cassie found herself in the back area of Seekers Dating Service and becoming steadily impressed with all the gadgets and equipment filling up the expansive room. She could tell Cato was in his element. The space definitely reflected his persona. The computer equipment was black and sleek, the walls dark, and just enough light was filtering from tracks around the ceiling to allow you to move around, but not enough to figure out how everything hooked together or what might be hidden about. It was his dungeon and he was the master.

  Cassie jumped when Cato slammed his heavy frame into a beat-up old chair and swiveled around to face a very large monitor. His fingers flew over the keyboard. He paused long enough to reach out and grab another chair before pulling it next to him. He gave the seat a few pats and went back to the keyboard.

  “Come on, sweets. Park it right there.”

  Cassie felt Severus slide next to her after she perched on the cushioned seat and leaned forward. Cato had her curiosity stretched thin and she was trying valiantly to keep from shivering and looking like a six-year-old about to get ice cream. She was surprised when he shoved the keyboard off to the side and tapped the table in front of him. The thing starting glowing and she gasped upon realizing he had a computer screen embedded in his desk. He swiped his palm or fingers across images and when he tapped, the pages appeared on the monitor facing them. This was so righteous.

  He had pulled up several Internet sites and did something that made one enlarge more than the others. She immediately recognized the picture in front of her. It was the small, gray device they had found.

  “Netgear XE102. What does it do?” Cassie asked.

  “When your guy plugged this in, he basically turned your building’s electrical wiring into a 56-bit DES encrypted network.”

  “A who and a what?”

  Cato laughed and patted her on the knee. She swore she heard Severus release a low, rumbling growl but ignored him.

  “Sorry, sweetling. DES means Data Encryption Standard. Basically, it’s a computer algorithm for encrypting electronic data. This DES is old-school, but for your guy’s purposes it can do the job. When he plugged your network wire in there, he made a small but usable network that makes it easier not to be sniffed out by your IT shop like a wireless network would. Once he has it plugged into his computer, he can take his time searching around your data and no one will know his true location. The only reason I can come up with for him to be placing this on the down-low is because he’s looking for something and he doesn’t want anyone to know what he’s after. He’s going places he’s not supposed to be.”

  Cassie frowned and asked, “But even if he makes a hidden network access, how can he get into anything that he’s not allowed? Wouldn’t he get denied access? Does that thing make it where you don’t need one?”

  “No, it just gets him in secretly. I would almost bet he’s already captured some passwords or all this setup would be useless to him.”

  “How would he do that, Cato? We get checked regularly to make sure we don’t keep our passwords on sticky notes or lying around on our desks. I seriously doubt anyone would just hand theirs over to him.”

  “Ah! But there are plenty of ways to get what you need. Most likely he has some type of key-logger software loaded on someone’s computer. This type of ‘ghost’ key-logger captures the keystrokes and has them emailed out. Some are even fancy enough to encrypt the keystroke log-files to make sure their stolen data remains confidential, so no one will even know what they’ve stolen should they get caught.”

  “Well then, Mr. Smarty, how would he get this fancy software on someone’s computer if he didn’t know the password to start with?” Cassie felt particularly brilliant with her insight and gave him a smug smile at his appreciative nod.

  “Good thought, Ms. Smarty Pants, but if he’s hungry enough to go to this length, we can also bet he waited for an opportune time when a computer was being looked at in your IT department. Someone’s computer could have crashed and they needed a new one. Hell, he might have crashed one just to get the ball rolling. He could have switched out the new computer with one already preloaded with a key-logger, or he has an inside IT connection. I’d lay the greatest odds on the switch. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have to set up a separate, hidden network access. They would have just fed him the information since they have greater access.”

  Cassie exhaled in frustration. “Damn! Nothing is secure. That scares the crap out of me.”

  Cato shared a knowing smirk with Severus before he started tapping on the desk panel again. “You have no idea how easy it is to get information, mellis. Here, check out some of the gadgets out there.”

  Cassie peered up at the screen and gasped when she saw a little blue wristband image next to a Swiss army knife and a soccer ball keychain. It was exactly like Victor had on in the break room. She quickly pointed to the screen. “What’s that? Victor wore one on his wrist. I saw it the other day. He said it was a bracelet honoring his brother battling testicular cancer.”

  Cato snorted. “Cagey bastard. That’s a USB drive. It’s a very easy way to copy secure data and carry it out of the office with no one the wiser.”

  “That is disgusting! I bet his brother doesn’t even have cancer. Better yet, I lay odds the
re’s no brother.”

  “That’s easy enough to find out. Hopefully he’s using his real name or it’ll take me a little longer to get his background.”

  Cassie shook her head and leaned back. Her mind was reeling with what she had learned. Most importantly, what damn information was Victor after? She jumped at Severus’s deep voice. His words echoed her thoughts.

  “Okay, my friend, now that we know we are dealing with an internal spy, how can we find out what he wants?”

  “Easy enough. We need to get back in the office. I’ll determine which computer has the key-logger attached and I’ll mirror his new network access point. What he sees, I’ll see. Let me grab some things and we’ll bug out.”

  Chapter 15

  Cassie sat rigidly in her chair. She could actually feel sweat pooling under her arms and running down her back. Nervous, she stared at her office computer, afraid to turn it on. She had key-logger spyware on her damn computer. Hell, it was on Jacqueline’s computer, too. She could understand that one since Jacqueline was the executive secretary to Mr. Scofell. But, why her? Cassie thought back to the previous night.

  Cato turned out to be some kind of freaking computer savant. He had cracked not only her password, but every damn computer in the office in less than twelve minutes. He’d brought some strange-looking equipment and what appeared to be a handheld computer. Even though she had stared over his shoulder and followed him from room to room, she couldn’t tell what the hell he had done to save her life. She gave up trying to understand after he hacked Victor’s computer and started mumbling something about Wi-Fi phishing, MSI access points, and virtual APs. Twenty minutes later, he was rubbing his palms together and grinning like a teenager that had just slipped out his bedroom window for the first time. She had shivered when he’d said, “Little twerp thinks he’s smart. Let’s see if he can figure out there’s a lion traveling on his back.” She was so glad he was on their side.