Hardwired (The Hardwired Series 1)(69)

“So you thought you could save the world from your computer.”

“Not really. I don’t know…”

“How did you end up working with Max’s father?”

He blew out a slow breath. I glanced over my shoulder. They were just beginning to untie the ropes from the dock. I still had time.

“Now or never, Blake.”

“Fuck, fine.” He leaned in on the table, lowering his voice so only I could hear him. “I hooked up with a hacker group called M89. A handful of other pissed off kids like me. We came up with a plan to deplete the bank accounts of some top executives on Wall Street.”

“Why?”

“They were getting rich off some Ponzi scheme and trying to take down the whistle blowers who threatened to expose them.”

“So what happened?”

“We got caught,” he said. “I narrowly avoided jail time, and in the process somehow I caught Michael’s attention. He took me under his wing, figured out how to get through to me. I guess it took a hard-nosed capitalist to paint a view of the world that made sense.”

Wow. Blake was so measured, so in control of every area of his life now. To think of him being so reckless frightened me. How we’d both made our way to this point in our lives could not have been more different.

“We both wanted to do something big, so I pulled all-nighters to graduate with honors and you hacked people’s bank accounts.”

“And here we are, together.” He pressed his lips to my knuckles, barely grazing them with his tongue.

My belly quickened, but I forced myself to focus on the matter at hand. “How did you avoid jail for what you did?”

He leaned back, his lips lifting mischievously.

“What?”

“Time’s up.”

I turned in my seat and saw that we were already several feet away from the dock, fully on our way.





* * *

Blake drove us across the island, out of one neighborhood into the next until we sped past a barren landscape where the houses were sparse. I gripped the seat, certain we’d be pulled over at any moment, which would be the perfect finish to this unbelievable day. Then again, the island probably only had a handful of cops, and we seemed to be getting farther away from civilization, if that were even possible.

We pulled up to a large single family home, distinguishable from any of the other cedar-shingled homes only by its sheer size and that it appeared to be the last home on this point of the island. We stepped onto the wraparound porch, and instead of taking us inside, Blake led me around and down to the beach. We passed through the dunes to where two whitewashed Adirondack chairs were perched on the sandy beach facing the soft waves of the ocean.

I kicked off my shoes and sat in one of them. After a mostly sleepless night and everything that had gone down today, I could barely hold myself up. Blake pulled out a bottle of chilled white wine from a bucket of ice nestled in the sand.

“How do you plan these things, Blake, honestly?”

He smirked. “Don’t think I’m telling you all my secrets tonight.”

“I could make you,” I threatened. I had an increasingly keen sense of his weaknesses lately.

His eyes darkened. “That’s a tempting thought,” he said, missing the glass he was pouring into.

He corrected his aim and handed me the glass. I took a welcome taste of the cool, fruity liquid.

“Don’t be so sure. I’m still angry with you. Like, super, extremely angry.”

“The proverbial doghouse?”

“The literal doghouse, and that doesn’t even begin to capture how much making up you have to do.”

“I like making up. Where shall I start?”

He settled at my feet, tracing tiny circles over my knee and up my thigh, pressing warm, soft kisses in their wake. I tried in vain to suppress the physical reaction that his touch elicited.

“You can’t fix this with sex,” I said, and damn it, I meant it.

“No? Tell me then. How can I fix this?” He kept up his feather-light touches.

“I honestly don’t know. I thought you had a plan for that when I agreed to come out here with you.” I wasn’t going to make this easy for him. I was beyond drained, but I had just enough fire left to make this point.

He slowed his caresses and settled back on his knees. “I love you, Erica.”

Shit, I thought. He had to lead with that? I swallowed back tears. “That doesn’t change what you did to me today.”

“I know it probably doesn’t mean much, but I didn’t want to. You didn’t leave me many options.”


“Well that’s not enough of a reason,” I said, staring past him.

“Taking on investors is like getting into bed with someone, Erica. It doesn’t always work, and to be honest, you’re not really the type for this kind of partnership. I completely understand how you feel about the business. One of the reasons why I didn’t bid right away is because you’re strong-willed as hell. I knew working with you wouldn’t be easy, and you’d fight me every step of the way. I didn’t fully appreciate the consequences of you working with Max until recently, and I couldn’t bear losing you to him.”

“He doesn’t want me that way,” I insisted, only half believing it. Max, like so many others, didn’t entirely respect my personal space but he hadn’t made any overt comments leading me to believe that he wanted me sexually. Even if he did, I could hold my own.