Chapter 1
Chapter One
Sylvie Trousseau took the moniker of “hacker” seriously. It was an identity, not a job. Hacking was all about the intellectual challenge, the thrill, the beauty of finding novel solutions. Sylvie knew how to use her creativity and cleverness to achieve things that should’ve been impossible.
So her boss’s latest request had her more than a little irritated.
“Let me get this straight. You want me to install a security system? Isn’t that something our techs can handle?”
“Usually, yes. A tech would do it. But this isn’t the average install.”
They were in Max Bennett’s office, perched above the workroom.
Through the glass walls, Sylvie could see her coworkers bustling around below.
To her left, through a massive bank of windows, lay a panorama of blue sky and white waves crashing into the rocky shore.
Just another perfect sunny day in West Oaks, California.
Max twisted back and forth on his swivel chair, squeezing a stress ball in one hand. “I need my top person.”
“Aren’t my talents slightly wasted on this, though?”
Hell, these days most security setups came straight out of a box, no need for technical knowledge at all. Of course, a Bennett Security system wasn’t the typical off-the-shelf product. Sylvie herself had written the code, and she was damned proud of it.
Sylvie was in charge of the Bennett Security software, research, and analytics department.
It was a big umbrella because she had a wide variety of skills, including a photographic memory.
She had ten people working for her now, including a brand-new assistant she was still training.
She didn’t have time to make house calls.
Schmoozing with customers was Max’s deal, not hers.
Sylvie liked to have fun while she worked, but she had no interest in flattering the egos of their wealthy clients.
She wasn’t conceited, of course. And she didn’t expect every single day at her job to fulfill her intellectual curiosity. “Hacker” was nowhere in her written job description, for good reason. It was far too loaded a term. But she wasn’t going to sell herself short, either.
Max’s face remained impassive. “You’re absolutely right. You could do this install in your sleep. But I promised I’d send my best, and that’s you. I owe this man a favor.”
This man?
There was a hint of something in Max’s voice that Sylvie didn’t like. He was holding back important information, probably because he knew she wasn’t going to be happy.
“And who exactly is this client?”
Not him, she thought. Please not him.
“Dominic Crane.”
Sylvie closed her eyes, cursing under her breath. Yep, it was him. “Crane is a criminal. And you’re sending me to his house like some sacrificial lamb?”
Max chuckled, though his fist kept tightening around that stress ball. “I’ll send a bodyguard with you. But it’s not like Crane will lay a hand on you. Not when he knows you work for me.”
“Wow, how reassuring.”
“He provided some extremely important information to me at risk to himself. You know that.”
“Yeah,” she said through gritted teeth. They all knew what Crane had done to help Max.
“And think about it, Sylvie. Isn’t it better that I square up with him on something like this, that costs me basically nothing? Who knows what he might want later on? Or how questionable it might be? Instead, Crane asked for a security system with all the bells and whistles. I’m getting off easy.”
Until recently, Dominic Crane had been the head of the Silverlake Syndicate, a criminal organization from Los Angeles. The group had made inroads into West Oaks, and they’d been involved in several nefarious dealings around the otherwise-sleepy town.
But none of that fully explained her concern. Sylvie did not want to tell Max why she was so reticent to meet Dominic Crane.
“Please, boss. Send someone else.”
Max’s handsome face slid into a smirk. “Don’t tell me you’re scared of the man?”
Sylvie’s boss was a master manipulator. But she was immune to his tricks. “I’m not scared of Crane. But he is awaiting trial for murder. Remember? That’s not exactly nothing.”
“The murder charge is puffed up and probably won’t even make it to a jury, from what I hear. Plus, he’s wearing an ankle monitor. He’s declawed, stuck in a cage. Honestly, I don’t think he’s all that dangerous.”
“But would you let Lana near him?” Lana was Max’s girlfriend.
He huffed. “I wouldn’t go that far.”
Sylvie knew the real reason Max wanted to keep his girlfriend away from Dominic Crane. It was the exact same reason that Sylvie preferred not to get near the former head of the Silverlake Syndicate.
Crane was gorgeous. Like, model gorgeous.
The man had the face of an angel and a wicked smile that promised he was anything but.
He was the type of flirtatious that made women weak in the knees, even as they knew they should stay far away.
Sylvie had never even met Crane in person, yet she could tell he was irresistible.
As a human being, the man should’ve been repulsive. But she had a schoolgirl crush on him. She liked the idea of Crane laying a hand on her.
Of course, she would never actually mess around with him. But if she got tongue-tied in front of the most attractive criminal defendant in West Oaks, her co-workers would never let her live it down.
“I thought his former friends were trying to kill him.” Sylvie had heard about the civil war within the Syndicate from her law enforcement contacts. “It can’t be safe to be hanging around his place.”
“Why else do you think he needs this security system so badly? Like I said, you’ll have one of our bodyguards with you. Take your pick. It’ll just be for a few hours. It’s possible the man isn’t as bad as he seems.”
Max put down the stress ball and folded his hands together. Sylvie noticed the new addition on his ring finger. She lurched forward, pressing her hands onto the surface of his desk.
“Wait, what is that? Did you and Lana get married?”
He looked down at his hand, splaying his fingers. “No, not married. I would’ve told you about something like that. It’s…” He trailed off, then gripped the back of his neck, as if he wanted to hide the ring from view.
Max Bennett was looking downright sheepish.
“I’ve started wearing it whenever Lana and I are apart. Just to make sure everyone knows I’m taken.”
Sylvie burst out laughing. “That’s possibly the most adorable thing I’ve ever heard.”
He wasn’t just her boss. Sylvie considered Max a friend, and she knew him well enough to have noticed his tendencies.
Before Lana, he’d been a bit of a man-whore.
He’d left a wake of satisfied ladies in his path, always making clear it would be no-strings attached.
Sometimes those women still called the office, hoping for more, and the receptionists knew how to deflect when needed.
It had been a very big deal for Lana to take the title of “Max’s girlfriend” in the first place.
“Usually, men remove their rings when their significant others aren’t around,” Sylvie pointed out.
“I’m aware of that. I can’t help if I happen to be an enticing guy. Women can’t stay away from me. The ring helps explain why I can no longer return their affections.”
Sylvie snorted. “Good to know your ego remains firmly in check. I was afraid you’d gone and changed on me.”
But Max had changed, that was obvious. While Sylvie was thrilled for him and Lana—and relieved that Max occasionally took days off now instead of working himself into the ground—she didn’t trust the idea of change in a person.
Sylvie refused to change herself for anyone, and she would never expect anyone to change for her.
So many people in this world had fought for the right to be their true selves. Sylvie had personally given up a lot, even friends and family, to be able to live her life as she wished. Those sacrifices hurt. She still bore the scars.
But it had always been easier to assume that she had no choice. That there was no going back. And here was Max Bennett, making change look so effortless.
But this isn’t about me, she reminded herself. Max could do whatever he wanted.
“Some women are even more enticed by a guy wearing a wedding ring,” she warned him. “If you really don’t want women after you, just be uglier.”
“Well, that’s not going to happen.” Max held out his hands, as if asking, What can I do?
The topic of attractive men brought her right back to Dominic Crane. The long ski slope of his nose, his plump cupid’s-bow mouth…
Sylvie was surrounded by muscular former-military men daily. Guys like Max. Most women found them panty-dropping hot. But guys like Max weren’t Sylvie’s type.
Dominic Crane and his aura of wickedness? Oh, so exactly her type. And so wrong.
She had one final ploy. “Look, I’ll make sure everything about Crane’s system is perfect.
Custom coding, whatever he wants. But I can do that much more effectively from my desk once he’s connected to our network.
” That was how Sylvie usually handled their most demanding clients.
From behind her wall of computer screens.
In fact, she liked to handle most things from behind a screen.
Max stood up from his desk, staring down at her from his full height.
“You’re going to install Crane’s system, and that’s final.
But I’ll make it up to you. You decide what that will take.
A bonus, extra time off? Some new gadget you’ve been wanting?
Done. But I’m finished with this conversation.
I don’t want to hear from you on the subject of Crane until the assignment is finished. ”
Sylvie left Max’s office, shaking her head. Why had she bothered arguing in the first place? Max Bennett always got what he wanted.
Sylvie went down to her corner of the workroom. She had three massive screens on her desk, positioned so they created a cozy alcove. She checked her email, then sent off instructions to several people on her team so they would stay busy while she was gone.
Sylvie had worked at Bennett Security for the last three years. Most of the time, she loved her job. She’d gotten testy upstairs about the more basic aspects of installing their systems, but she always felt gratified to provide safety and security to their clients.
Sylvie was Max’s unofficial right hand in their company.
He trusted her with their most sensitive and difficult assignments, whether it was poring over crucial video surveillance, working her contacts in the state and federal law enforcement agencies, or using her hacker skills to find answers no one else could provide.
For the most part, their clients were West Oaks elites. But Max donated his time to help the larger community as well, like consulting with the police on cases, or funding non-profit services. Usually, his pro-bono projects served more sympathetic characters than a crime boss like Dominic Crane.
Ugh. Why did her kryptonite have to be sexy bad boys? Why couldn’t well-adjusted accountants turn her on?
Well, fine. She had a theory. Sylvie had never liked being told no. In fact, the word no had always felt like a challenge. That was why she loved hacking so much.
Sometimes, knowing something was forbidden made it that much more enticing.
Priyanka, Sylvie’s brand-new assistant, appeared at her desk. “I got your email. We’re going out in the field?”
“Don’t get your hopes up. It’s just an install.”
Priyanka puffed out her lips. “Boo. I was hoping one of the bodyguards would be coming with us.”
“Oh, one will. We’re going to Dominic Crane’s house. Max owes the guy a favor.”
Priyanka’s eyes widened. “This is so exciting. Do I have time to run home to change?”
Sylvie narrowed her eyes at the girl. Priyanka was twenty-two, a recent grad from college.
She knew how to code, and her grades suggested she had an eye for detail and the patience for research.
But so far, she seemed a lot more interested in her male coworkers than in learning everything Sylvie had to teach her.
“Definitely not. You look fine.” She decided to do Priyanka a favor and not insist they wear the Bennett Security polos most techs sported on house calls. Even Max had known better than to suggest it to Sylvie. “Just pack up. We’ll be leaving within the hour.”
Sylvie checked their log of current assignments. A few of the bodyguards were out of the office today, but Tanner wasn’t busy. Excellent. He was her top choice.
She found him downstairs in the gym, where a lot of the bodyguards liked to hang out while awaiting their next project.
Tanner was currently grunting underneath a barbell loaded with huge iron plates.
She saw his eyes land on her in the mirror.
Sylvie waited until he finished his squat and the bar landed with a crash on the rack.
“Hey, Sylv. What’s up?”
“I’ve got something for you today. Want to come with me to Dominic Crane’s house?”
“That asshole? Please tell me we’re escorting him to a federal holding facility.”
“No such luck. Max wants me to install a system at his place. So Crane’s Syndicate buddies can’t off him like they want.”
Tanner shrugged one shoulder. He was one of the biggest guys on the team, a former Navy SEAL around six-five, with shoulders that spanned twice the breadth of Sylvie’s.
He had a bushy beard to match, as well as an unruly mop of curls on his head.
Tattoos covered his arms and shoulders, one of the things he and Sylvie had in common. They went to the same artist in L.A.
Tanner was also one of the most laidback guys Sylvie knew. He didn’t even look askance at Max’s orders.
“Whatever. If Max says so, then I’m there. When do we start?”
“As soon as you shower and get dressed. I just want to get this over with.”
Maybe the gods would smile upon her, and she wouldn’t have to see Crane at all.