Nico (Ruin & Revenge #1)(6)
By the time she reached the coffee shop two blocks away from her apartment in the John S. Park neighborhood of downtown, she was chilled to the bone and grateful for the fingerless gloves she wore on her hands. She picked up her usual double-shot Monday morning latte from the small, free-trade coffee shop on the corner and made her way to the pool hall where she rented office space in the upstairs suite.
“What happened on Friday?” Mia’s bestie and second in command, Jules Rafferty, spun around in her chair when Mia walked through the door and into the open plan space.
A perpetually cheery, blue-eyed blonde with hot-pink streaks in her hair, a filthy mouth, and a sarcastic sense of humor, Jules had been an online hacker friend until Mia decided to take her business legit and set up a physical office.
Hired as a both an office manager and a hacker, Jules had found the newly renovated business suite above the pool hall. Decorated with exposed brick walls, timber beams and rustic accents, it was as “heritage” as Vegas could get, although the location left a little to be desired. Clients had to walk through the pool hall to get to the stairway leading upstairs, but Jules had convinced her it just added to their unconventional charm.
“How do you know something happened?” Mia unlocked her office door and Jules followed her inside.
“I just received a termination of contract notice by email from Casino Italia, so I figured the penetration test didn’t go well.”
Mia dumped her bag on the credenza, the only piece of furniture in the room not covered in computer equipment. She had four monitors set up in a U-shape around her desk, along with two hard drives and miscellaneous other equipment that would have made even the most hardcore IT guys drool. “Didn’t go well is an understatement.” She sighed and pulled a candy bar from her bag for a quick breakfast fix. Caffeine and chocolate were her morning mainstays, and even Jules’ constant nagging couldn’t get her to change.
“I had to dress in the skimpiest costume I’ve ever seen in a casino to get into the back room. Apparently that was an invitation for the guard to pinch my ass when we were alone, so I nicked him in the leg with my knife. He took me to see the boss…” She hesitated, choosing her words carefully. After running away from an abusive stepfather at the age of thirteen, Jules had been struggling to turn her life around when Mia met her online. She knew all about the underbelly of Vegas, from the pimps to the street gangs. Mia had told her about her Mafia family, but was careful never to tell her anything that would put her in danger.
“I knew him,” Mia continued. “He’s from a rival Mafia family. He didn’t know his casino manager had hired us, and I didn’t know he owned the casino. Needless to stay, things didn’t go well between us.”
Jules twisted her lips to the side. “That’s gonna be bad for business.”
Very bad for business. Mia had made her start when one of her father’s capos asked her test the security of one of his legitimate businesses. After she pointed out the numerous flaws in his system and how easy it was to hack, he’d recommended her to another wiseguy. Mia quickly realized she had a vast pool of untapped clients who had been reluctant to hire civilian hackers to test the security of their businesses. Over the years, organized crime had embraced the digital age in every way from laundering money, to Internet scams, and who needed security more than the mob?
Mia kept her Mafia work above board, only taking contracts for legitimate businesses. As her reputation grew, she got calls from big corporates who did business with the mob bosses. When the work became too much to handle on her own, she contacted some of her online hacker friends and hired Jules and single mom Christine to help with on-site work. They now had a steady flow of quality work but because they worked contract to contract, the loss of the Casino Italia job would hit them hard this month.
“I guess I’d better return the outfit.” She tossed the bag containing the go-go dancer outfit she’d appropriated from the casino change room on the table. “I don’t want to be accused of stealing it even though the contract allows for the use of company equipment and attire.”
Jules pulled the outfit out of the bag and laughed. “I wish I’d been there. I’ve never seen you in anything like this.”
“And you never will.” Mia didn’t dress to show off her body. Growing up in a Mafia household, she’d quickly realized that women had little respect. When nothing she did could get her the attention she so desperately craved from her father, she’d expressed her displeasure by making a mockery of the pink, frilly, feminine clothes he expected women to wear by giving them her own punk-rock style, and forging a path in an online community almost totally dominated by men.
“Your dad would love it.”
Mia took the dress and put it back in the bag. “Maybe I should wear it for the family dinner on Wednesday night. Then I won’t have to spend my time justifying my life choices. Every time I wear my punk clothes home, Papa becomes apoplectic with rage and refuses to speak to me.” She loathed going home for the family dinners with her abusive, domineering father, and her cool, detached mother who accepted her place as subservient to her husband and said nothing about the numerous mistresses he kept. Mia could have forgiven her that—after all she’d been raised in a very traditional Mafia family. But she couldn’t forgive her mother for not defending Mia from her father’s abuse.