Loving the Secret Billionaire (Love at Last #1)(25)

I turned, tried to focus on the passing landscape. Where? Where am I?

In a car. In a car that he’d ordered. Wearing shoes that he’d given me to replace the Chuck Taylors I’d worn out canvassing. Winning an election that he’d somehow rigged.

Was Rylie even guilty? Oh no, if Zach had planted evidence to make me win, this was—

O’Neal’s no-nonsense voice cut through my freak-out. “Hand the phone to the driver.”

Dumbly, I did.

He gave me a look, but listened. “Headed to the Loft on Main.”

The shit you’re a crazy lady look he sent me would’ve been funny if I could’ve laughed through this. But I couldn’t. It felt like I wouldn’t laugh again.

When the car dropped me in front of the building, I stood there, head hurting like it was caught in a vise, everything else numb, and I blinked.

Someone spoke to me, I shook their hand, nodded, smiled, got caught up in their wake and headed toward the door. At some point, my campaign manager talked to me and, when I didn’t answer, she took me aside.

“What’s up?”

“I can’t do this.”

“Tonight? You sick?”

I shook my head and the world wobbled. Plastic chairs slid across my vision, sending my hand out to the side. Someone caught it: O’Neal.

The two of them spoke and, slowly, their words started to emerge. I wasn’t okay, they needed to get me home. Event canceled.

I let them do it, feeling like a coward, but incapable of doing it on my own.

I blinked and found myself beside O’Neal in her big, old mess of a Subaru.

“Let me get you home.”

I nodded. About five minutes into the drive, I slapped a hand onto the dashboard and yelled—not a good idea to startle O’Neal, who was a crappy driver at the best of times, but she kept it together.

“What the hell, man?”

“Take me to his house.”

“Zach’s?”

I nodded. She knew. She knew it was him. He’d done this, somehow. Because he hadn’t trusted me to win this election on my own.

I gave her the address and sucked awareness back into my body with each breath.

She pulled up the drive and whistled. “What the hell is this place?”

“His beard.”

“It’s huge.”

“Yeah, well, it’s bigger than it looks.”

I reached for the door, swung it open and turned back to her. “Wait for me. Please?”

At her nod, I got out and stomped to the door.





10





Zach



* * *



I ignored the banging at the front door, but it wouldn’t stop. Finally, I pulled off my headset, shoved away from my desk and jogged upstairs. I opened the door and smiled, surprised, but so excited to have my girl here.

“Hey, sweetheart.”

“Who is Horde?”

I stiffened, but didn’t respond.

“Does he do illegal things? Like fixing elections?” The pain in her voice made my chest hurt. “Do you?”

I reached for her, and she backed up a step. “That’s not—”

“What did you do, Zach?”

An engine idled in my driveway and I knew if she left now, I wouldn’t see her again. I couldn’t lose her. “Can you come in and talk about this?”

“Tell me. What did you do?”

I swallowed. Shit. Not how this was supposed to go down. At all.

“I found something out. About your opponent. That’s all.”

“How? How’d you find it out? How come nobody else figured it out, huh? What did you do?”

“I…” I cleared my throat, unsure I could actually get the words out. I’d never said this before, never voiced what I did with my time. “I accessed his private emails. It was ridiculously easy to crack that password, the man doesn’t even—” Her silence was stone cold. I cleared my throat and kept it vague. “Followed some leads to offshore accounts. Backtracked to some dicey financial transactions and—”

“Wait, wait, wait. You’re a hacker? All this time I thought you did financial stuff and you hack into things. Illegally?”

“I made my money through investments. I didn’t lie about that. Or the inventions. But…I hack for good.”

“Oh, right.” She snorted. “Like freaking Robin Hood?”

“When I lost my sight, I thought life was over. I could see, you know? How was I even a person?” I couldn’t believe I was telling her this, actually giving her my story. My Granddad had been such a mess after the accident. I mean, he’d lost his wife years before and suddenly his son was gone and he was left with me—a kid who’d been bright, but awkward to begin with. He tried everything, made me buck up, act like life hadn’t changed. “When everything was hopeless, my Granddad gave in to pressure and bought me a computer. I started gaming. I was good at it. Really good. I met some people—people who didn’t give a crap if I could see them or not. While most kids were going to school, I was at home on my computer, learning everything there was to know about code and security. I learned about weaknesses and how to exploit them.” I spent years growing from being a powerless kid into a powerful teenager. I made a difference from the basement of this house.