9. If You Give a Mercenary a Cookie
THIS WOMAN HAS a death wish.
I can”t stop myself from gripping her hips tighter, gritting out a question against her ear. ”And where else have you found your way into, my little thorn?”
Julieanne leans back into me, the sweet press of her soft body only making my agitation worse. ”Little thorn? I thought I was Angel Face.”
I run my thumb over the soft fabric of her pants, taking a steeling breath when I don”t find the telltale bumps of panty lines. ”Angels don”t break into other people’s systems, and they sure as hell don”t lock them down.”
Julieanne is very good at what she does. Good enough I wish I could have hired her. A skill set like hers would be invaluable. Would make me feel a little better about losing the second most talented woman I know to Alaskan Security. I”m sure Pierce loved knowing I attempted to get Heidi to come work for GHOST. Loved knowing she turned me down even more.
Until I had his team running in circles, chasing a threat that didn’t exist, proving GHOST was still superior without her.
”What do angels do?” Her head rocks against my shoulder as her hands slide back to grip the backs of my thighs.
I force in another slow breath, trying to calm the urge to touch her again. Feeling how hot she burns has only made everything worse. Only made the desperate need clawing through my insides sharper.
By the grace of God, I”m saved by the ring of my cell. I yank it from my pocket, stepping away from her body as I connect Amos’s call.
”We’re back up.” As always, my second in command cuts right to the chase.
I offer him the same. ”I know. It won”t happen again.”
I ignore the way Julieanne’s brows lift. ”I”ll touch base with you again in an hour.” I should tell him to have Igor schedule me a flight home now, but I want to tie up a few loose ends before I leave.
And I have to leave.
”I”ll make sure I”m available.”
My stomach growls as Amos ends the call. Since arriving in Nashville, all I’ve had are the couple bites of burger I took before Julieanne”s face flashed across my computer screen. It’s still probably sitting on the floor where it dropped when I stood up, ready to storm over here, before deciding I needed some time to get my head on straight.
Clearly it hadn”t helped, because when I did come over here all hell broke loose and I ended up fucking her against the wall. I want to hate myself for allowing things to get so out of control, but I can”t find it in me to regret knowing what it feels like to have her come undone around me.
Sex has always been fine. Good. A way to let off steam and relieve some stress. Fucking Julieanne didn”t do either of those things. If anything, it only has me more wound up. More frustrated. More pissed.
I shove the phone back into my pocket and point at her computer. ”Now delete it.”
Her head bobs back in surprise. ”Delete what?”
”Everything. All the code. All the programs. All the data. I want it gone.” I move closer, pretending I can threaten her into agreement. ”And then I want you to fucking stop. You don”t know what you”re dealing with, and you”re going to get yourself hurt.”
Julieanne”s dark eyes narrow on me. ”So you”re not going to hire me, and now you want to make sure no one else does either?” She lifts her chin, glare sharpening. ”Fuck you.”
I lean closer, drawn in by her willingness to come back at me. ”You already did that, Angel Face.”
Julieanne stares at me a second longer before her lips slowly curve. ”If you want it deleted, you”re going to have to do it yourself.”
She spins and storms away, leaving me in her office. Giving me free rein of her entire set up and permission to use it.
But she”s only done it because she thinks I can”t scrub it clean on my own.
Does she think I”m some sort of fucking amateur? After a year of looking into me, seeing what I”ve accomplished, does she seriously believe I can”t do this?
Obviously, yes. And it”s a little insulting.
I drop into her seat and pull out my phone, contacting the most talented hacker on my team. Elias answers on the first ring. ”Vincent my man. How”s everything going?”
”Are you at your desk?” I keep my reply terse and all business. If I don”t, he’ll try to engage me in casual conversation for a good minute and a half, and I don”t have time for that shit. ”I need you to help me wipe a system remotely.”
”Sure thing, boss.” His tone is informal and relaxed. ”Do we know who the system belongs to?”
I grit my teeth. Ten years ago no one would”ve talked to me like this. And they sure as shit wouldn”t have called me by my first name. I want to call him out on it, but I want him to break into Julieanne’s system more, so it will have to wait. ”Julieanne Marello.”
The line goes quiet, which is not normal for him. He”s the kind of guy who likes to fill any silence with the sound of his own voice.
”Elias?”
”I”m here.” I hear him sigh through the phone, dragging his feet a little longer. ”The problem is, we”ve been trying to hack into her system ever since she got into ours, and we haven”t had any luck.”
”Then try harder. I want it scrubbed. All the data she’s collected, gone. All the programs, all the firewalls, everything wiped.” If Julieanne won”t look out for herself, then I will. I”ll call it an act of mercy since she”s too fucking hardheaded to understand she”s playing with fire.
I end the call and rub one hand over my face. All I can do now is wait. The second they tell me she”s been cleared, I”ll book my flight home and put all of this, and Julieanne, behind me.
”Knock, knock.” Julieanne peeks her head through the doorway.
Her hair’s nearly dry now, the curls wilder than I”ve seen them before, but her white T-shirt is still way too fucking easy to see through. The sight of her dark nipples shadowing the fabric steals all my attention as she walks my way, hips swinging just enough to make her tits gently sway. It”s not until she drops a plate onto the desk in front of me that I notice she’s carrying something in her hands.
”I figured I”d feed you since you’re going to be here a while.” She gives me a wide smile that tells me she already knows my team’s been trying to take her out.
My eyes drop to the plate in front of me and my stomach growls again. Fucking thing has gotten spoiled over the years and it shows. I should have taken time each month to push myself. To make sure I could still do what needed to be done. I should”ve fasted. Gone without sleep. Kept myself ready for whatever came my way.
Instead, I”m sitting here heavily considering eating the sandwich Julieanne cut in half like she’s feeding a child.
”I didn”t poison it or anything if that”s what you”re worried about.” She reaches out and snags half, bringing it to her mouth before I can stop her, to take a big bite. She lifts her brows as she chews. ”See?” She shoves the bitten half of the sandwich back my way, holding it between us. ”Take it. I heard your stomach growl. You need to eat.”
Everything this woman does pisses me off, and this is no exception. It”s not her actions that are the problem, but my own reactions. I”ve spent over forty years giving zero shits about anyone else. I don”t have friends. I don”t have family. Because I don”t need anyone.
And in all that time, no one has tested the barriers I have in place. Not a single fucking person. No one but the woman slowly shoving a sandwich closer and closer to my face.
”Open wide. Here comes the airplane.” Julieanne smirks, clearly amused by treating me like a toddler.
I grab her wrist, holding it tight, stopping her from pressing the fucking sandwich right to my face. ”I”m not a fucking child.”
The expression on her face changes in an instant, going from something teasing and amused, to heated and flushed in the span of a second. ”I definitely noticed that, Vincent.” She leans forward, resting her free hand against the desk, her dark eyes aligning with mine. ”But I’m also starting to think you’re kind of a brat.”
My mouth opens, but nothing comes out. Did this woman seriously just fucking call me a brat?
Julieanne takes full advantage of my shock and shoves the sandwich between my now parted lips. ”Don”t look so offended.” She lowers her voice, taking it down to a smooth, sexy tone that shoots straight to my dick. ”It can be our little secret.”
She releases the sandwich, forcing me to grab it unless I want yet another meal to fall in my lap. ”I”ll let you get back to it.” She turns and walks most of the way out of the room, pausing at the open door to peek back my way. ”Let me know if you need anything else.”
My phone rings as she walks away and I tear off the chunk of sandwich she shoved into my mouth before dropping the rest onto the plate. I answer Elias”s call, hopeful he”s got good news for me. ”Yes?”
”Hey, Vincent. It’s Elias.”
I pinch the bridge of my nose, fighting to keep from unleashing all my frustration on him. ”I know. Any success?”
”Technically, no, but we came up with something that we think might help us. If she”s tried to get into anyone else”s systems, we might be able to backtrack and find a way into hers.”
I snort. “What the fuck do you mean tried?” I pick up the sandwich and take another bite without realizing it, but once it’s in my mouth I figure the harm’s already done, so I chew. “You and I both know if she tried, she got in.” I drop my head back against the raised rest of Julieanne’s office chair. “Fuck.” I shove up from the seat, unable to stay still, grabbing the plate as I go. “I’ll call you back.”
I take the stairs to the main floor, not bothering to skip the squeaky step since my presence isn’t a secret, and find Julieanne in the kitchen. I drop the plate onto the same peninsula where I first left my card, but instead of asking about her hacking habits, I frown at what’s in her hands. “What in the hell are you making now?”
”You had me so stressed-out earlier today I had to bake a batch of cookies. And now they”re just sitting there, so I figured I would smash some ice cream between a few and make cookie sandwiches with them.” She finishes slathering a healthy scoop of vanilla ice cream onto the cookie in her hand before stacking on a second. Once it”s assembled, she holds it my way. ”Want one?”
I stare at it. Glaring, because I do fucking want it. I want it because it looks fucking amazing. But I also want it because she made it, and, regardless of her explanation, I want to believe she made it for me.
A slow smile pulls across her beautiful face and she wiggles the treat. ”Come on. You know you want it.” She moves closer, just like she did with the sandwich. ”My sons tell me I make the best chocolate chip cookies.”
I know she”s trying to tempt me, but she doesn”t understand what she”s doing. How something that seems so small could fuck me up so much.
I know everything Julieanne has done—I know everything about her. I know she taught computer classes at the high-school level for a handful of years before she got married and became a stay-at-home mother. I know her ex-husband looks like a complete piece of shit with an inflated ego and a little dick. I also know her sons were her whole world when they were little. Even now, the only photos she shares on social media are pictures of when they come to visit during breaks.
And that fucking pisses me off too. The shit she”s doing is dangerous, and she seems fucking oblivious to it. Putting her sons’ faces right next to hers for anyone to see.
And I know she would be devastated if anything happened to them. I know how hard it is to come back from a loss like that and, honestly, I’m not sure she could do it. One more reason I need to shut this down.
Julieanne rolls her eyes to the ceiling, letting out a dramatic sigh. ”It”s just fucking cookies and ice cream.” She drops it onto the plate I brought downstairs. ”They”ve never hurt anybody.” She grabs another cookie and goes to work spreading ice cream on it, her lips twitching at the corners. ”Any luck up there?” There”s an odd pitch to her voice that tells me she already knows the answer.
”You”re going to make a mistake at some point, Angel Face.” I grab the cookie, giving in because I need something to cool the agitation tempting me to grab her. To throw her in my car and haul her back to Alaska where I can lock her up so she doesn”t keep putting herself, and subsequently her sons, in danger. ”You”ve probably already made a mistake.” I take a bite of the sandwich and, fuck it all, she”s right. She does make the best goddamned chocolate chip cookies I”ve ever had.
That”s what makes her such a nightmare. She”s not just sweet and soft. She”s not only a good mom who bakes her kids chocolate chip cookies. She isn’t even just one of the most skilled hackers I”ve ever seen. She”s also a huge pain in my ass, and I think that”s the icing on my fucked-up fantasy cake.
”I need to know who else”s systems you”ve gone into.”
Julieanne looks up from the cookie in her hand. ”Why do you need to know that?”
”Because not everyone you fucked with is going to be like me, Jules. They won”t humor your bullshit the way I do.”
Julieanne’s dark brows pinch together as she slaps a scoop of ice cream onto the cookie. ”Is that what you”re calling this? Humoring my bullshit?”
Jesus Christ. She can’t give me an inch. Won”t even let me do shit that”s for her own goddamned good. ”I”m trying to make you understand you can”t keep doing the shit you”re doing.” I”m yelling now, but just like so much else where this woman is concerned, I can”t seem to make myself stop. ”You”re going to end up with someone bad on your doorstep, Jules.”
She smashes another cookie together, bringing a finger to her mouth to suck a drip of ice cream off the tip, her eyes holding mine. ”You mean someone like you?”
”No.” I stop, rethinking my answer. ”Yes.” I don”t even know what I”m saying anymore. She has me so fucking upside down I can’t tell which way is up. ”You know what? I don”t fucking care.” I turn to walk away then stop, spinning back to the counter to grab my sandwich and cookie. ”Do what you fucking want to do.”
I storm through the living room and out the front door, slamming it as I go. She”s not fucking listening and we’re getting nowhere. My team is just going to have to find another way to get into her system and shut her down.
Otherwise, kidnapping might have to be back on the table.