Izzy

Ihurry into the office, pulling my skirt down and hoping that no one notices that this is the same outfit I left work in on Friday. I made it a point to wash it at Dimitri’s penthouse, but wearing a robe, his shirt, and the blankets of his bed as attire for the past two days was a nice change of pace for me.

Even now, while I’m worried about people noticing my attire, I can’t help but shuffle to a stop in the middle of the office. Gwen yanks me away from the bullpen where my heels stick into sheets of papers tossed asunder through the office. There’s a lack of organization everywhere, and an odd buzz in the air while we press our backs to the walls with the other onlookers.

“What the hell happened here?” I gust, shaking my head at the sight of desks overturned, and computers hauled off in boxes carried by men in suits, “Are we being robbed?”

“It’s more like an audit,” Gwen says, shaking her head at the mess, “Well, I guess it’s more of an internal review.”

“Of what, exactly?”

“Of everything and everyone.”

I shake my head, watching a handful of thugs charge into my office. I recall my personal software is installed into the system, and I don’t need that kind of revelation coming up on any internal reviews. Dropping my satchel, I hurry across the scatters of papers and throw myself in my office just in time.

Clinging to my keyboard, I run my hand along the edge of the plastic until I feel my flash drive against my clammy palm. Still, I can’t just pull it out and walk away, not with five burley guys standing over my desk, waiting to tear it, and possibly me, into shreds.

“Get out of here, girl,” one of them taunts, his meaty palm pressed to the top of my monitor, “We have to take everything into evidence right away. Boss’ orders.”

“I have important tasks and files on this computer, I can’t just let you rip it out of the wall and carry it away. It has dockets of information and lines of code that I can’t just create out of thin air. It’s very important that this system isn’t destroyed.”

“Yeah, yeah. We get it, girl. Now, move out of the way, or—”

“Hey now,” a thick accent huffs from the doorway. Alek’s expression darkens as he looks at the men standing opposite of me. With their heads turned for a moment, I take the flash drive out of the computer, and stand straight, like a private at attention for their sergeant, “We don’t threaten employees,” he warns, “Everyone out. This room can remain intact for now.”

With the Great Danes all tucking their tales and scampering out of the room, Alek takes my arm as I try to pass him in the doorway. He yanks me back inside my office and firmly closes the door behind us both. I swallow, turning the flash drive over in my palm as I tuck my hands behind my back, and insert it sideways against the hem of my tight skirt.

He doesn’t seem too pleased to see me right now, and I can’t blame him in the slightest.

“Tell me something, Izzy. Where did you learn to code so well?”

I furrow my brows, but answer truthfully, “Well, we had a computer in my group home, sir. We had crappy internet, but there was a game online called Hack It. I got pretty good at it, I guess.”

He nods knowingly, twisting his lips uncomfortably at my reply, “Yes, well. That might suit you well, then.”

“How so, sir?”

He marches past me, his hand looping hard around my wrist while we walk. I hiss a breath in shock, and in a bit of pain, as he shoves me forward, forcing me sideways into my swivel chair at the desk. My forearm hits the wood edge of my desk, and I cradle my arm carefully after the abrupt shove just to make sure it’s not broken.

He hardly seems concerned over the pain, flinching the side of my chair around so I’m yanked to face the monitor, his hands clasping both of my chair armrests from behind.

“I want to see you break into my system, right now, Izzy.”

“You—You want what, exactly?”

He pushes my seat forward, the armrests sliding perfectly under the desk in such a way that my midsection feels pinned. I hold my arm tighter to my chest, seeing Alek’s furious, darkened expression through the partially dusty computer screen.

“I know I made my mistake in the past, asking personal questions, and whatnot. But, this is different, Izzy. The stronghold of my system is on the line if don’t replace out who broke into the software backdoor.”

Swallowing hard, I play dumb, “There’s a backdoor?”

“You know there is, Izzy. Don’t play dumb with me. I can track your history on this computer and get every single detail printed out for me to track your every move, but I trust you. And I’d like to think that you trust me, too. Right?”

Swallowing my nerves, I only nod.

“Good. Now, I want you to try and break through the system.”

“What if I can’t do it, sir?”

“Then I’m going to do a few things and call a few people that you won’t really appreciate. Those guys out there, tearing through the systems; they’re not even my guys to begin with. They work for the shareholders.”

“The shareholders?”

“Yeah, the people funding my business. If they don’t get back their investment, or say, the company falls over this little outbreak of a hacker, then they will be very upset. You’re not from money, are you, Izzy?”

“No, sir.”

He nods knowingly, like he’s been buy studying my information line by line. And frankly, I wouldn’t put it past him.

I reread the details of my life that he had tried selling to the highest bidder before.

“You don’t mess with money in this town. So, here’s the deal, Izzy. You break into my system, you replace out who has already kicked in the backdoor, or I’ll have to deal with you. Okay?”

I shiver slightly, pushing my chair back away from the desk so I can sprint out of this situation once and for all, but he only ends up shoving me forward once more. I hiss a breath, my already sore arm knocking into the desk once more and making my throat tighten with pain.

“Stay put,” he snarls under his breath, “And if your boyfriend catches a single word of this conversation and comes after me, I’ll let the shareholders be the wolves.”

My b***d runs cold with his threat, “Wolves?”

“You screw over the rich guys in this city, and there’s no saving your a*s after that, Izzy. I mean it. You will do what I say, and when I say it, or the wolf pack will get hungry for b***d, and your move to Seattle will be your downfall.”

He marches out of my office, sporting a smile only a sociopath could admire. Turning in the doorway, he waves and tips his head in a cordial goodbye.

Meanwhile, I’m all but ready to dive headfirst out of the window nearby, but I can’t do that.

I have to do what he says, otherwise, he will know it was me who broke in in the first time. I can only throw him off the scent for now, and to do that, I’m going to need some help.

* * *

I’m pacingthe Smith Tower’s only penthouse for what feels like hours.

My heart is practically in my throat, and I cling to my arm like I have been all damn day. Everything hurts, though, not just the deep navy bruise on my forearm. My head is in a tizzy since this morning after replaying the many times that Alek walked by my office door like nothing happened earlier—it haunts me.

The elevator door dings open, and I gasp aloud, catching Dimitri as he takes two steps into the penthouse. My arms snuggly fits around his sides and he seems to reciprocate the hug at first before pulling away in mild bewilderment. His fingertips stroke my cheek, and I feel at home in his caress.

“What’s going on, Kitten? Why are you here?” He pulls away first, dropping his brown leather messenger bag and blazer jacket on the couch nearby. By the time I steady my inhale and approach him, ready to spew my guts over the horrors of today, his eyes catch my arm, “What the f**k happened?”

His hand takes my wrist, and I subdue a flinch. Although, it’s not a very good attempt, because I know he feels my reaction, but I’m so thankful he doesn’t mention it.

“It’s a long story,” I mutter, bringing my arm back into my possession.

He takes a different approach, ushering me to the bedroom where he hikes me upwards, making me sit on the countertop in the ensuite bathroom. While I dangle my legs lazily, he brings out a little white packet that he rolls between his hands and then presses onto my arm.

I hiss through my grit teeth, “That’s so cold.”

“I know it is,” he replies, “That’s why it’s there. Now, while you hold that there, I’m going to wrap some tape around it, and you’re going to tell me what happened.”

Swallowing hard, I knew this would be a conversation when I came over here, so I might as well spill it now. It just scares me to think of Alek’s threat, let alone, to side with the man that is his biggest rival.

“Alek had these guys in the office. They were tearing everything up and ruining everyone’s computers. He was looking for a hacker, someone who had broken into the backdoor of his software.”

He eyes me while twirling the gauze tape around my forearm, pinning the cold pack to my skin, “What did you say to him, Izzy?”

“I didn’t say anything. He told me if I didn’t do what he said, when he said it, the shareholders would come after me.”

He turns, a noticeable chill striking down his spine, “Okay, go on. What did you do next?”

“Well, he kept checking on me throughout the day, so I had to pretend like I knew what I was doing. I couldn’t use my coding helper, so I had to do it manually.”

He turns his head sideways across his shoulder, washing his hands in the sink nearby, “Please tell me you didn’t break in for him.”

“No, of course not,” I gust, “At least… not yet. I have to do something, Dimitri. Besides, without my software breaker, it will take me three days to shift through that much code to replace the engine again. I think even Alek knows that. So, we have to set up a diversion.”

His brows crease while he comes to a stiff stand, his back turned into a board while I toy with the tape on my arm, “I have a VPN. It can hide anything that comes off my computer, so he’d never get the IP address and trace it back to here.”

“Well, not exactly,” I whisper.

He stalks closer to me, his finger brushing under my chin, so I’m forced to stare up at his magnifying blue eyes. Melting into his complex irises, I swallow gallons of water while I’m sucked under the surface of tumultuous waves. It knocks around my throat like a pinball machine, making me waver under his intensity, and swoon against his warm surface.

“Kitten, tell me something. Can you trace our hack back to my penthouse, or not?”

Biting my bottom l*p, I can only nod.

“Even with a shield up, like a VPN?”

Again, I nod.

“F**k,” he snarls, “F**k, f**k—”

“But I have an idea,” I say, cutting his tantrum short, “If we can break in again, and really do some damage while we’re inside, then he will want me to trace that hacker down and not the one from earlier.”

“How, though? We can’t use my computer again.”

“No, but we can use someone else’s. Someone’s who was made far before IP addresses even existed.”

He seems intrigued. “Okay, then. Where are we going?”

“My place.”