The Hacker - Nancy Herkness Page 0,2

in the morning if he’d sent it right as he was leaving.

She plunked down on a wooden barstool and frowned at her phone. What kind of response should she make to the founding partner of an international consulting firm? Brief, so she wouldn’t betray the fact that she wasn’t accustomed to business correspondence at such a high level.

Dear Mr. Rockwell,

I will speak with Mr. Ramón Vazquez, the owner of Work It Out, tomorrow and let him know of your kind offer. Thank you very much for your assistance.

Sincerely,

Dawn Galioto

She read it over half a dozen times, debating whether her wording was too stiff, too obsequious, not appreciative enough, or too vague. Finally she hit “send.” When his return email dinged into her phone, she took a deep breath before she swiped it open.

Dear Ms. Galioto,

I look forward to hearing from you.

Regards,

Leland

P.S. Perhaps we could dispense with our surnames? They seem somewhat unwieldy since we’ve met before.

She bit out a laugh, then wondered if he was making fun of her. No, teasing her. That was a better interpretation. She could give it right back to him.

Hey, Leland! You’re right.

Dawn

It took mere seconds before his response pinged in.

Dawn, I’m always right.

That made her laugh again before she stuck her phone in her sweatshirt pocket and finished her yogurt.

Leland was disappointed when Dawn didn’t rise to the bait of his provocative remark about being right. He leaned back in his chair in the room his partners had dubbed Mission Control due to its array of computer screens. This was where he spent most of his work time, rolling his chair among various stations as he juggled multiple projects. Hell, it was where he spent most of his time, period.

When Derek had called to say that his fiancée’s friend needed help through their Small Business Initiative, Leland had felt an odd rush of interest. Dawn was Alice’s personal trainer. Her self-defense instruction had played a significant part in saving Derek’s and Alice’s lives when a psychopathic hacker had held them at gunpoint six months ago. That meant Leland was grateful to her.

He’d met her a few times at the social events surrounding his partner’s engagement, the only parties he felt obligated to attend. He admired her straight, dark hair, body honed as taut as a bowstring, and lips like tempting pillows. The contrast between soft lips and hard muscles had stirred something low in his belly.

However, she tended to say three words to him and then move along. He’d laid on the full southern gentleman treatment, his Georgia drawl as thick as honey. She would give him a long look from those huge, dark eyes of hers and make an excuse to leave. He couldn’t figure out what he’d done to offend her.

Tonight, he’d decided that charm might be the wrong approach. She was a warrior in teaching women self-defense, so maybe she would like a fight. Or at least some mild provocation.

Too bad she hadn’t taken up the challenge. He expected that straightening out the Wi-Fi problem would require about sixty seconds of his time, so the project wouldn’t offer any further contact with her.

Just as well. He had a dozen other jobs to do that contributed to the firm’s bottom line, unlike Derek’s pet pro bono project. He knew in his gut that he was overloading himself because he didn’t want to face the sudden profound absence in his life. But that was what work was for.

Chapter 2

Dawn stuck her head in the door of the office that Ramón shared with his wife, Vicky. “Got a minute?” she asked, relieved that only her boss was occupying the room. She wasn’t sure how Vicky would react to Dawn trespassing on her computer territory.

“For you? Always!” Ramón’s smile transformed his rough boxer’s face into a benign uncle’s. He waved to a turquoise chair in front of the blond-wood desk his massive body dwarfed. Vicky had done the decorating. “Everything okay?”

“Better than okay.” Dawn dropped into the chair. “I’ve got some expert help for the Wi-Fi problem and it’s free.”

“There’s no such thing as free in this world. But no one’s mentioned a Wi-Fi problem to me.”

“Because you’re big and scary.” Dawn grinned.

In fact, her boss was beloved in the gym, where everyone considered him a gentle giant. The wannabe boxers had long ago given up challenging him to a bout in the ring. He adamantly refused, claiming he didn’t want to be thrown in jail for manslaughter. Even more, he’d sworn off violence of