Chapter 12 - Quinn
TWELVE - Quinn
“Good morning, Quinn,” Eden says when I walk through the double doors of the executive wing. She's wearing a white top that looks great against the contrast of her red hair, and her brows go up when she sees how quick I'm stepping.
“What’s up, Eden,” I reply, strolling into my office briefly to grab my laptop before coming back out. Even with the top two buttons of my white button-up undone, the heat of the moment has me on the verge of sweating. “Is Olivia in?”
Eden smirks the same way she did when she caught me staring at Olivia in the conference room yesterday, and I wonder what is going through her mind when she does it.
It’s such a sneaky look that it brews suspicion in my gut, but it’s something I’ll have to get to later. Today has bigger things on its agenda.
“Yes she is,” she replies. “Go right on in.”
“Thanks.”
I step past Eden and stick my head in Olivia’s office, and I'm nearly knocked on my ass by how stunning she looks in a vintage blazer mini dress the color of red velvet cake.
Her hair is curly, with tight coils hanging down to her chest, and her makeup is immaculate, per usual. The sight of her makes my mouth water.
“Fuck,” I whisper to myself when I reach her threshold, because I've been telling myself all morning that Obsidian is the focus, not Olivia.
Unless Jon, Stephen, and Nick step out of line again—which they probably will, considering what I'm about to unleash—I have to stay locked into the breach and the news I found out last night.
But how am I supposed to focus on the task at hand when I want to speed walk across the room and press her against the wall with my hand around her throat?
I don't even know where the thought comes from. It reminds me so much of when Linda and I were dating, except it’s stronger now.
Something about Olivia wakes up my darkest urges, and I have to battle my own demons back just to talk to her.
“Good morning,” I say, getting her attention. She turns to look at me and I hyperfixate on what I’m here to do. “I have some new information on the operating account breach. We need to have an impromptu meeting with everyone in the conference room.”
Olivia looks surprised. “Right now?”
“Yes. Right now.”
When she sees the seriousness in my gaze, Olivia mirrors me and stands up. “Oh. Yeah, of course, Quinn. Is everything okay?”
I nod at Olivia and walk away without hinting at what I have in store for this meeting, because I want her to be surprised when I drop this bomb right in the middle of the conference room table.
In just a few minutes, everyone from the executive wing is seated in the conference room and waiting for me to enter.
My heart races with adrenaline, but I message Rob one last time before letting out a breath and stepping into what I know is about to become a warzone.
That’s fine. This is a war I'm ready for.
All eyes land on me as I walk in and move to the front of the room to hook up my laptop to a cord that will display my monitor on the big screen for everyone to see.
This is it. No going back now, and I wouldn't even if I could.
“Good morning,” I say to everyone.
I scan the room and see the confused faces of Jon, Stephen, Nick, Eden, and Olivia staring back at me.
The three boys glare at me like KKK members from their seats because of how things ended yesterday, and it makes my fire burn hotter.
I threatened all of them and Olivia didn't do anything about it.
So, it all went unresolved, the thickness of it still lingering in the air above us this morning.
But I'm unmoved by angry faces. In fact, I'm motivated by them. If they’re angry now, just wait until I give them a reason to be.
I know that what I'm to do is a huge deal, and I know that what I did to get this information is illegal. The illegality of it will be what the people in this room latch onto. As soon as I lay out the details, antennas will go up and they'll know I broke a sacred law of our business. Accessing Olivia’s administrative file will piss her off and give her and Jon grounds to terminate me and press charges if they so choose. So, with all of that in mind, I know I have to lay all of this out as perfectly as possible. I have to be concise and to the point, minimizing how much time they have to let their anger rise up their throats. Jon will be the first to go that route, so it’s him I have to get ahead of.
I'm about to risk my career in order to save my career. How ironic.
Okay. They're all listening. Time to fuck shit up.
“I apologize for calling a meeting first thing in the morning,” I start, anxious to get to the end, but planning to enjoy the journey.
“But after everything went down yesterday: Annette’s financial analysis, Miss Lucero’s command for all of us to do our jobs to save the company, and the accusations being hurled our way after the meeting, something inside me was set off.
Now, I know I should just let some things roll off my back.
I shouldn't be so temperamental, and I certainly shouldn't be so vindictive.
Admittedly, these are traits I get from my father, who was a notorious cyber criminal.
He's in prison now, and has been since I was eighteen.”
“Typical,” I hear Stephen whisper to Jon, who chuckles under his breath but maintains eye contact with me.
Little bitch ass motherfuckers. They don't even realize how quickly karma is going to grab them by their fucking necks, and I am karma.
“Before my dad committed the crime that got him sent to prison for the rest of his life,” I go on, savoring the moment because I know how it ends.
“He made sure to teach me a few things. He may have been a gangster, but he was a great father, who had to raise me by himself. He's the reason I was interested in computers and programming, because the things he showed me made my jaw drop. It wasn't until later that I learned all of the things he was showing were illegal. For example, it was my dad who taught me how to backdoor systems to bypass and exploit authentication mechanisms to gain access. It’s highly illegal, I know … yet I still tried this little trick out on Obsidian’s internal security system last night.”
A literal chorus of gasps comes flying out of the group’s collective mouths.
“You did what?” Jon barks, just like I knew he would.
Olivia sits up in her seat, her brows quickly closing the distance between one another as she stares at me in shock. Even the mild-mannered Eden glares at me with saucer-sized eyes. I dropped the first bomb, but I’ll never get the rest of them off if I don't move quickly.
“Don't worry yourself to death, Jon,” I say, hoping antagonizing him will slow down his brain and make him focus on responding to what I'm saying now instead of what I did last night. “I was unable to get into the system, because Obsidian Cyber has ironclad protection in place that thwarts such attacks. The breaches we’ve had would suggest otherwise, which is why I tried to hack into the system myself. I did it to test it, and in doing so, I learned that something simple won't get you in. No, breaking into Obsidian’s system and getting deep enough to move half a million dollars around requires some real skill … and detailed knowledge of the system.”
The room pauses, wide eyes shrinking into squints of confusion.
Olivia is the first to speak this time. “Wait. So you did this to test the system? To find the cause of the breaches?”
“Yes,” I answer quickly. “I wanted answers about what’s happening here.”
“But you didn't find them?” Jon asks, and he does a terrible job of hiding the hope in his tone.
I smirk. “I never said that.”
Jon’s enthusiastic body language quickly deflates, and I do everything in my power to suppress my laughter. We’re not even finished yet.
“So, once I realized that you can't get into the system that way without setting off the security alert and shutting the entire system down,” I go on. “I realized it would take something special to get in, and I don't mean illegal means.”
“What the hell are you talking about, Quinn?” Jon says, just as a new bead of sweat forms on his forehead.
That’s it. Sweat for me, bitch.
“The only way to get into the system with the threat analysis so high, would be to use an active account’s username and password.
” Jon flinches, but I keep going before he can speak.
“So, I logged into my own account and did some digging, looking for the threat analysis program for the company. When I found it, it told me I needed administrative access in order to make changes or see the log of changes.”
“Administrative access,” Olivia chimes in. “You mean, me. Then why didn't you call me once you got stuck? I could've helped.”
“Because I didn't need to,” I answer. “Once I got stuck, I used a brute force attack to hack into your account.”
“Are you kidding me?” Jon snaps, standing up and holding his arms to his sides.
“So you're just going to stand up there and admit in front of us all that you broke the law, not once, but twice.
You hacked into the administrative account.
The CEO. You're going to fucking jail, Quinn.
I can't believe you would do something like this.”
“I can't believe he’d call a meeting and confess to it,” Nick adds with a humorless laugh.