very bad plan. But it would rectify so many ills that the Cains had done. His grandmother wasn’t the only one being terrorized by that family. They had all of the city’s less fortunate by the throat, owning nearly all of the so-called affordable housing.
Shaw smirked as his fingers continued their work. Soon enough, his plan would be set in motion. The first bit of his plan made him uncomfortable and a little bit sad. That part was terrible, and he wished there was another way. It was an integral piece, and there was no way he was going to survive without it.
He just couldn’t forget what he was doing, and more specifically, why he was doing it.
He was going to be Robin Hood, stealing from the rich and giving to the poor. It was all going to go smoothly, even without a band of merry men by his side.
Shaw wasn’t specifically surprised how easy it was to hack into Nick Milan’s protection agency server. Or how simple it was to poke a huge hole in their defense. The malware he installed was particular, and it would keep the business and all of its clients safe. But it would look like there had been a significant security breach.
Technically, there had been. Shaw had the skills to be a pure black hat hacker, but that wasn’t his goal.
The purpose of the hack was for Nick Milan to hire Shaw as a professional hacker.
It was the only way that Shaw could get his hands on the shifter serum. Once he had it, he could inject it into himself, become a shifter, and then the Cains would never be able to mess with him or his nana again. Or any other human struggling to make ends meet.
Especially not when Shaw was done with the last part of his plan.
That was all set up and ready to go. He wasn’t even going to wait until he had the serum in his hands. He was that sure his plan would work and absolutely confident in his skills.
Shaw had hacked into the city’s major banks and written a code that would clear out all of the Cain’s family bank accounts. Yup. Accounts with an s. They had more than one. They had piles and heaps of money that he would just take.
He wouldn’t keep the money.
Rather, it was all going to be divided between all of the Cains’ tenants, the food bank, the community center, the after-school art programs, and a few other businesses that had been plagued by the Cain family for entirely too long.
Had Shaw wanted to be a shifter his entire life? Yes. Absolutely.
From the very first second that he had learned that they existed, from a very loud-mouthed and boasting Curtis Cain, Shaw knew that until he also shared his body with an animal, there was no way he could level the playing field with the Cains.
It was dangerous. He knew that. But there were a few guys from his college that had been injected with the serum, and they had survived and thrived. There was no reason why the same couldn’t happen to him. Bennett and his three best friends had changed significantly since becoming shifters, and Shaw wanted some of the protection being a shifter afforded.
He would get the shifter serum, rob the Cains blind, and by the time they figured out he was responsible, he would be a shifter and utterly impervious to an attack from them.
Without all their cash and their superior physiques, they were men, just like him.
Their time had come to an end.
It was time for the geek to revolt against his bullies.
With a few more keystrokes, Shaw blasted Nick Milan’s employees' phones and computers with ads for his freelance computer security company. It wouldn’t take too long for Nick to realize there was a problem in his systems, and he would call. He would have to. Shaw had a stellar reputation. He was good at what he did.
It wasn’t like Nick’s people were in any danger. Shaw’s code was clear. It would only look like there had been a cyber-attack. Only he would know it was all faked. With a deep breath, Shaw pushed the final button.
There was no going back now.
Chapter Two
Poppy
I am an invisible woman.
Poppy gripped the steering wheel tightly and blew out a breath. The hot air made her bangs move, tickling her nose. Not that she noticed all that much. She was too concerned about being seen to notice something as