Page 75 of Seducing Bran
Bran rubbed his face. “Everything okay?”
“That depends. Your system was hacked, and the program I wrote was tampered with and rewritten in some sections.”
“Great.” He shook his head. “We can replace it with the one you wrote and get back online, though, right?”
“You could do that…but you’d risk having it hacked again. Someone has access to your server, and it looks like they’re using it to skim money off the top.”
He dropped his head back and sighed. “That’s what the other guy said.”
“I think James did this.”
“Excuse me?”
“Someone with password access rewrote sections of the code and changed the credit card system. It’s sloppy work, and I think that’s what made the program malfunction to some extent.”
Bran’s jaw tensed. “I should have changed the passwords after James was fired. That was a rookie maneuver.” His eyes narrowed. “There were accounting discrepancies with the last program. Do you think this was planned?”
He was asking what she thought now? After he hadn’t trusted her enough to call her about the situation in the first place?
She shrugged. “James is an arrogant bastard who didn’t like someone touching his program, and then you got him fired. There are a number of reasons that man would have to steal from the club.”
“Good point.”
“But to answer your question, yes, after seeing a pattern of small amounts of money being ‘accidentally’ overdrawn, I think there could be criminal activity going on. I’ll need to look into it more. What I found tonight explainswhomight have done this, with the trail of money matching James’s old program. It doesn’t explain an unusual pattern of hundreds of online orders. I’ll have to look into it more.”
“Not tonight,” he said. “I can’t believe I kept you here this late.”
Ireland’s head throbbed and her butt had gone numb hours ago. She’d been so determined to solve the issue with the software that she hadn’t paid attention to the time. “I’ll come back tomorrow.”
Bran stood and stepped closer. “Ireland, you don’t have to do this.”
She moved back. “I do. You didn’t believe in me. And here I am, having to prove myself to a guy I trusted. A man I thought was my boyfriend.”
“I believed in you, I just…”
“Just what?”
He rubbed his eyes. “The truth?”
“I’d prefer it,” she said.
“After last night, I knew you were upset. I also assumed you had accidentally caused the software problem, since you wrote the program.” He pinched the bridge of his nose. “I just—I can’t let my brothers down. I need the restaurants to help the club, not take it down.”
Ireland pulled her workbag higher on her shoulder. “So you assumed the problem was with me, and you had me replaced.”
He shoved a hand in his pocket. “You know I’m not good at this sort of thing.”
“Technology or relationships?”
“Either, which should be obvious by now,” he said. “I don’t know what I thought I was doing asking you to be my girlfriend. I’m not a responsible boyfriend.”
Her throat constricted, and for a moment, she couldn’t speak. “You never asked.”
“Excuse me?”
“You never asked me to be your girlfriend, you simply stated I was.”
“Exactly. I didn’t consider what you wanted,” he said.
