Page 8 of The Orc of Wall Street

“Can’t you break into his office or home and steal whatever you need?” I ask.

She huffs. “Don’t you think I would have done that already if I could? His security is airtight, both in person and in cyberspace. We’re going to have to get creative if you want me to steal directly from him.”

“It sounds like we need him away from all of his security.” Just as the words leave my mouth, an idea comes to me. “The conference.”

Sloane furrows her brows. “What conference?”

“There’s a business conference coming up in a few weeks where several tech companies will be showing off their latest products.”

She starts to look slightly annoyed. “That sounds great for your sales or whatever, but how does that help us stop Craig?”

I give her a withering look. “Will you let me finish?”

She crosses her arms and gestures for me to continue.

“As I was saying, the conference center is attached to the hotel where we’re staying. And I’m guessing Craig is going to bring his computer with him, which means –”

“Which means there's a real chance it’ll be left unguarded at some point,” Sloane says, finishing my thought. “And since it’s a hotel, he won’t have his typical security. Giving me the chance to break into his room and steal data from it.”

“Exactly.”

I can practically see her mentally planning out the heist. Her eyes are bright, and there’s a small smile on her lips, the first I’ve seen from her. There’s something utterly enchanting about the way she looks when an idea is formulating in her head.

The opposite of a hailstorm, some would say. Utterly enchanting? my business brain screams.

“This could work,” she murmurs, more to herself than me. “That is, if I’m allowed to go?”

I scoff. “Of course, you’re coming. Lots of the staff are coming. You don’t think I’m going to be doing this presentation by myself, do you?”

The smile is quickly replaced by the scowl I’m coming to know so well.

“Right, you’re bringing us along to do grunt work.”

I shrug. “Naturally. You are an assistant, after all.”

She huffs. “Yeah, thanks for that. You couldn’t have put me in IT or something? At least that I could do without pulling my hair out.”

“That would draw too much attention. And being an assistant gives you more of an excuse to go around the office. Besides, you should just be grateful that you’re not in jail.”

Her eyes narrow and her mouth forms into a thin line.

Yep, she’s definitely still bitter about being caught.

“If you can pinpoint who the spy is before the conference, then you’d have nothing to worry about,” I point out. “If you're as good as you think you are, that shouldn't be a problem, right?”

“Well, when is the conference exactly?”

“We leave for it in about two weeks.”

I see the flicker of a frown before she quickly stuffs it down again. “Two weeks?” she muses thoughtfully.

I smirk. “Is that going to be a problem?"

She glowers at me. “Typical orc. Just because you haven't figured it out, there's no way little old me could, huh? I’ll see what I can dig up. But you should keep in mind that I’m a thief, not a detective. Maybe you should have hired a private investigator instead.”

My smirk only grows. “But then who would I have such pleasant conversations with?” I retort, a bit sarcastically. The way she puts words in my mouth to suggest I think she's stupid is rather irksome. Why would we be doing any of this if that was my opinion of her?

Annoying, on the other hand…

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