Hardwired (The Hardwired Series 1)(30)

“Do you have a redundant server?” Blake asked

“Obviously,” Sid replied flatly.

“Get that going, and let’s see how persistent they are. Can you give me access to the server?”

Sid looked at me for the okay, and I nodded.

“I’ll send it over now.”

“I can set up an IP blocker, if you want to work on patching vulnerabilities,” Blake said.

“Sounds good.”

“Do I need to call the host?” I asked Sid quietly.

“No, I’ll reboot the server, and we’ll be back up in a few minutes.”

I took a deep breath. “Do you need anything from me?”

Sid turned his head, fixing on the bag of cans I held. I fished one out for him and put the rest in the fridge, feeling a bit useless.

I pulled out my laptop at the island and refreshed the website repeatedly until the site came back up, while Blake and Sid continued their unintelligible tech speak in the other room.

The fact that we had been hacked concerned me, especially since I hoped to finalize a deal with Max within a matter of weeks. Blake and Sid didn’t seem overly concerned about the nature of the threat, but I had an unsettled feeling. Why we were being targeted all of a sudden? Who hated fashion so much that they needed to take us offline? Once we were on the other side of this minor setback, I hoped to have more answers from Sid.

I spent the rest of day monitoring the site and testing Sid’s patches as he rolled them out. We ate leftovers and went over statistics for me to reference in the morning. As the night rolled on, I didn’t hear from Blake. At the very least, I expected him to come raid the fridge. After all, we’d seen each other every day since I moved in, and he seemed to have a growing dependency on my Italian cooking.

I peeked out to the street for his car. I considered texting him, but what would I say? I missed him, but I wasn’t about to tell him that.





* * *

I arrived at Angelcom a few minutes ahead of schedule. I entered the reception area and the same frumpy brunette greeted me with a tight smile and walked me down the hall into Max’s personal office. Like the conference room, it featured a wall of windows with a view of the Harbor and the skyline to the north. Dressed in an impeccable black suit, Max pored over some paperwork at his desk. He stood up when he saw me, circling the desk to shake my hand and give me a polite kiss on the cheek.

“Erica, you look beautiful.”

“Thank you.” I didn’t know what else to say, but I self-consciously smoothed back my hair, already tucked tightly into a twist. I wore black editor pants and a deep red shell blouse, figuring I could skip the suit now that we’d gone beyond first impressions. I tried to appear unaffected by Max’s new level of comfort with me. He motioned to a small round table in his office.

He peppered me with all the right questions, ones I had expected thanks to Blake. I answered them expertly, painting an accurate and hopefully attractive picture of the venture. After about an hour, he paused and looked at me for a moment.


“What?” Was this the end of the meeting? A ball of nervous energy settled in my stomach.

“I’m very impressed, Erica. You’ve covered all the bases. I really don’t think I can come up with anything more.”

I clicked my pen nervously. Fessing up about Blake’s involvement now would be better than Max getting wind of it later. “Blake’s been really helpful, actually. He worked through a lot of this with me, so I suppose I can’t take all the credit.”

“Is that right?”

“I can see why his businesses do so well. He’s extremely thorough.”

“He’s not as perfect as you might think.” A frown marred Max’s brow.

“Well, no one’s perfect.”

“Agreed, but Blake’s lucky he’s not rotting in a jail cell right now. Every success he’s had is because of the opportunities my father gave him. He’d do well to remember that.”

I bit my lip, scolding myself for bringing it up. What trouble could have landed Blake in jail? My mind raced through the possibilities. Clearly the two had history, and Blake, not surprisingly, had kept me in the dark despite all our discussions about investing with Max.

I had always thought of Max as Blake’s peer, a colleague. With this bad blood between them, why did they share a place on the board of the company?

“In any case, he missed his chance on this one, I suppose.” He changed again, back to calm, charming Max.

The transformation gave me an eerie feeling, but I tried to ignore it.

“That’s true,” I said. Admittedly, I was confused by Blake’s active interest in not only me, but my company, after such a dramatic review and refusal at the start.

“Let’s make this happen, Erica,” Max said abruptly. “I think there’s real potential here and I’d like to be part of it.”

The ball of nervous energy dissipated as relief and happiness flowed through me. “Wonderful. Where do we go from here?”

“Let me draw up the paperwork. There are legalities we’ll need to work through, but I should be able to have a term sheet ready to review in a week or two and hopefully we can get this off the ground quickly. If it ends up taking longer, I can arrange for rolling funds in the interim so you guys aren’t in a pinch.”