Page 17 of The Hacker
Jesus, the man really didn’t quit. However, he flirted with everyone, so she decided it was nothing more worrisome than an exasperating personality trait. It wasn’t his fault that his clueless persistence triggered her reflex to knee him in the balls.
She walked the five minutes to her apartment building, sticking to the bright pools of illumination cast by the streetlights. She made sure that the entrance door to the building was locked before putting her key in. Then she scanned the small front hall and staircase before she stepped inside to check her mailbox. Bills and junk mail.
She jogged up the stairs to the second floor, where she keyed in a six-digit combination to open her apartment door. The solid thunk of the high-quality dead bolt sliding back always reassured her. Once she was inside, she disarmed the alarm and then rearmed it the moment the door was closed again. The tension in her shoulders eased and she blew out a breath of relief.
After dropping her gym bag on the table by the door and shrugging out of her jacket, she headed for the kitchen. She had the ingredients for a broccoli-avocado tuna bowl spread out on the granite countertop when her cell phone rang. She glanced at the phone but didn’t recognize the number. “Stupid telemarketers,” she muttered as she sliced up the avocado.
But a ping indicated the caller had left a voice message. Curiosity got the better of her, so she punched her voice mail button.
“Dawn, it’s Leland. I hope you don’t mind that I called in a favor to get your cell number from Alice. She thought it would be all right with you since we’re working together now.” Leland’s honey-smooth drawl seemed to stroke over her skin. “Please give me a call when you have a free moment.”
So they’d escalated from email to phone calls. That seemed like a good sign. Her stomach grumbled as she debated whether to respond immediately or eat first. However, the thrill of hearing Leland’s voice won out. She settled on her sofa, added Leland’s number to her contacts, and hit the call button.
He answered after the second ring. “I appreciate the quick return call. Sorry to bother you so late, but we need to talk about things that should not be put in writing.”
So he hadn’t just wanted to hear the sound of her voice. She slumped back against the sofa cushion as her little fizz of excitement died a sad death. Following his lead, she stuck to business. “Sounds sinister. What did you find?”
“The phones are definitely being used as a dark web node. It makes for a very secure node since it’s scattered through multiple devices. Which is clever but also illegal because their owners haven’t given permission to use their phones for this purpose.” By the time he finished, his drawl had nearly disappeared.
“Not to mention that the customers grouse about the high data drain. But who the hell is doing it? And why?” she asked.
“I’m digging in to see if there are any known hacker signatures on this, but so far, no luck. That’s why I called. You know the people at the gym. Does anyone come to mind who would demonstrate this level of technical sophistication?”
Dawn choked on a laugh of disbelief. “At the gym? No one. I mean Vicky is the gym’s so-called IT expert and it took her a week to get the Wi-Fi fixed. She hates to use a keyboard because it messes up her fancy manicure. Ramón can’t even find a document on his computer five minutes after he saves it. As for the rest of the staff, I can’t think of anyone, except a couple of video gamers. Maybe they’d be computer savvy enough to do this?” She considered whether Josh or Ripley would be surfing the dark web. “Nah, I don’t see them getting involved in dirty stuff, even if they had that kind of smarts.”
“It could possibly be a gym member,” Leland said. “However, they would have to get access to the router to set this up. Do you have any new staff members?”
Dawn sat up straight. “Chad?” She didn’t like him because of his refusal to take no for an answer, so it seemed unfair to put him on the list of suspects. But hewasnew.
“Who is Chad?”
“A new trainer. But he can’t be a computer wizard. He’s one of those backslapping ex-jocks, still riding on the glory of his high school football career. He speaks in sports clichés.”
“That’s a scathing condemnation. I find it in my heart to feel sorry for him.”
“Trust me, you shouldn’t. He thinks he’s hot stuff.”
“It could be a facade meant to disarm those around him.”
Leland sounded as though he knew something about facades, which made Dawn wonder about his. She got daring. “You mean like that southern accent of yours that comes and goes depending on what you’re talking about?”
He gave a little huff of amusement. “Northerners tend to think speaking slowly means thinking slowly. It’s often too late when they learn they’re wrong.”
It was a tantalizing glimpse into the man behind the computer genius. Alice had once said that Leland looked like a preppie pretending to be a nerd. The T-shirts and jeans couldn’t entirely counteract the cleanly defined planes of his jaw and cheekbones that screamed blue blood. Not to mention his smooth accent, precise word usage, and last name for a first name. Which was facade and which was Leland Rockwell?
“I’m not seeing Chad as evil genius but let me talk to him. Maybe there’s more there than I think.” She grimaced at the thought of deliberately seeking out Chad because he would interpret it the wrong way. “I haven’t spent that much time with him because he’s a jerk.”
Leland’s chuckle was like the smoothest bourbon, dark and sexy. “You don’t pull any punches. I like that about you.”
His words soaked into her as though she’d taken a gulp of the liquor, loosening her muscles and firing a glow in her belly. “Honesty between partners.”
“I suppose you could call us partners.” He sounded as though he wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or a bad one.
“I didn’t mean we’re like you and your KRG partners. Just that we’re working together.”
“You definitely don’t want to be like Derek and Tully. They’re both pains in the ass.” His tone was dry.
“You and your partners appear to be pretty solid with each other.” Dawn had watched the three men at Alice and Derek’s engagement party. They seemed more like brothers than business partners, ribbing each other but with affection. Like her family had done when they were all kids. She missed it now that they were grown and scattered around the country. She felt like an outsider anyway, although that was her fault, not theirs.
