Roni Loren - Loving You Easy

Ren shook his head and ran a hand through his hair. “God, Cora, I’m so sorry. This is— Obviously, we’ll do whatever we need to do to get this fixed. I can’t imagine how frightening all that must’ve been. If you need a place to stay temporarily to feel safe, we can set you up in a hotel or pay for an alarm system for your place or something.”

“I appreciate that, but I’m not coming here for a handout. I just want you to close the holes, to let members know there’s been a breach, and to warn them that if they receive an email like this, it’s a fake.”

“Of course. I can’t believe someone would do this.” His fist curled against the desk. “What could possibly be their endgame? Can they steal the credit card numbers?”

Cora blew out a breath. “Depends on how good they are. I don’t know how hard it was to break into your system. He could’ve gotten into the email by some simple phishing. One of your employees might’ve clicked on a bad link or went to a dummy log-in page and revealed the password. But if someone just wanted to grab card numbers, they had no reason to go through the trouble of sending out emails like this. Whoever did this wanted to screw with people. I don’t know if it was targeted at me in particular or if it’s more widespread. But whoever it was did their homework. They knew enough to make it realistic.”

“What do you mean?”

She frowned. “The subject of the email said, Tired of being teased? Whoever it was knew that this guy was interested in my character and that I turned him down. So this person either scanned chat transcripts or is already a player in the game.”

Or was watching her chats with Dmitry. You like the idea of being captured? She rubbed chill bumps from her arms.

Ren considered her. “If it’s another player, it could be personal.”

“Sure. It could be as simple as I pissed someone off and he decided to go after me. That’d be easier to pinpoint. But if it’s more than just me . . .” She lifted her hands, palms up. “Then it could be anyone. Someone being a sick asshole. Someone who has an issue with Hayven or the content. One of your competitors. A bored teenager.”

He looked down at the email and a line appeared between his brows again. “And this was the email the hacker sent to the guy about you?”

“Yes.”

He peered up. “And how did you get that? Did the guy give it to you?”

Cora pressed her lips together. She had to be careful. What she’d done last night hadn’t quite been legal. But Ren, guy who gets blow jobs from other people’s girlfriends at parties, probably wasn’t going to call the ethics police on her. She adjusted her purse in her lap. “I’m an IT security specialist and am certified in white-hat hacking. I needed to know how he got my information.”

His eyebrow arched. “So you broke into his account.”

She shrugged. “Let’s just say he was uncreative with his password choices.”

The corner of Ren’s mouth twitched, a flicker of amusement lightening the serious expression. “I see.”

She crossed her arms. “Good thing since obviously your security department is playing Candy Crush or scrolling through Facebook instead of checking the system.”

The thundercloud expression returned. “We had to contract that work out when the guy we had in that position moved away a few months ago. Believe me, that contract will be terminated as soon as we’re done here. This is beyond unacceptable.”

Cora didn’t like to hear about anyone losing a gig, but she was glad Ren was taking this seriously. “You need to hire someone to hack into the system, find the holes, and close them up. And beef up the security in the game all around. Find someone who can think like a criminal. You’re handling outrageously private information and will lose every last one of your members if they think they’re not protected. Not to mention put yourself at risk for lawsuits.”

“Right. Of course.” Ren leaned back in his chair, squeezed his temples.

She could tell it was sinking in, the utter catastrophe this could be for his customers and company. It sucked. For everyone involved. And she appreciated that he wasn’t giving her some corporate speak, playing the political, what-can-I-say-so-you-don’t-sue-me game. In fact, he’d said enough to take blame that she’d have grounds for a lawsuit herself. But that wasn’t why she was here. This hacker was nasty and dangerous. People needed to be protected.

“You may be able to stop it before it goes widespread,” she said, trying to throw out a seed of hope. “You don’t know what you’re dealing with yet. But the clock is ticking. He’s gone unchecked for a few days at least.”

Ren looked up, his eyes meeting hers. “Any recommendations on who to hire? Someone who could start immediately.”

Her mouth opened then shut again. She’d almost said the obvious—her. But did she really want to put that out there? If he actually was interested in hiring her, she’d be working with this man. This man who’d put a woman on her knees, shoved his dick in her mouth, and let Cora watch. This man who already knew too many of her secrets, who knew she was in the game. She didn’t like people knowing those private things about her. She’d learned growing up that secrets were the most dangerous weapons. If you trusted someone with them it was like handing them a loaded gun and telling them exactly where best to aim. She shifted in her chair. “I may know a few people.”

He tilted his head, like a big, dangerous cat watching prey cross the Serengeti. “Isn’t that what you do?”

“I—”

“Are you working for someone else right now?”

She cleared her throat. “I own my own business. I do contract work.”

“So you don’t think you’re good enough to tackle this breach, then?”

Her teeth clicked together at that, the casual comment digging under her skin. “I’m one of the best at what I do, Mr. Muroya. Maybe I’m worried you can’t afford me.”

There. That last part was a lie, but at least it sounded like a good excuse. And it could be half-believable considering the party he’d seen her at last night.

He flipped the printed email over, grabbed a pen, and then scrawled something on the back. He slid it her way. “Will that hourly rate suffice?”

Cora stared down at the number. Blinked. Forced her jaw not to unhinge.

Fuuuck.

Okay, so it was almost three times what she was charging clients right now. Depending on how long the job was, it could mean actual security for a little while. And no ramen. But was it worth it?

The awkwardness scale was going to be off the charts. She’d seen him in a private moment. But beyond that, she’d revealed a glimpse of herself. There’d been a long few seconds between him looking at her in that hallway and her leaving. He’d stripped away a few layers and had continued to tug at them when he’d sat down at her table.

He’d seen more than she wanted anyone to see. In the safety of her own home, she could be Lenore. But, if he discovered it was her, she’d be seen as that strange girl who was so pitiful she’d had to build a character who looked nothing like her just to get laid in a video game. The thought made her want to fold in on herself. She liked those two spheres of her life not touching. No Venn diagram interaction.

But how the hell was she supposed to walk away from that kind of money? This had to be better than living week to week or having to take some gig at an overnight call center. And it’d look solid on her résumé. Plus, she was good at her job. If she really wanted this fixed, the best way to ensure that was to do it herself.

But even knowing all that, something made her hesitate. A warning bell. She’d been looking for clients for months.