White-Hot Hack (Kate and Ian #2)(37)

They were walking down the aisle of a long row of cubicles when Ian stopped at the desk of a female sales manager and sat down on the edge of it. “I’m Todd Smith from the help desk. Can I borrow your computer?”

She looked him up and down. “Sure,” she said, getting up with no questions asked.

“You should really say no,” Kate said, leaning against the wall of the manager’s cubicle.

“He’s from the help desk,” she said, barely glancing at Kate and acting as if her concern was totally unnecessary.

Ian sat down in her chair, held her gaze for a slightly inappropriate amount of time, and asked for her user name and password.

“Don’t give it to him,” Kate said.

“Who are you?” the manager asked in a completely different tone, one that definitely wasn’t as nice.

“Jeannine. From Legal. Urging you to use caution.”

“It’s okay,” Ian purred. “I’m not going to steal all your secrets.”

The manager giggled. “Of course not.” She gave him the information and settled on the edge of the desk, running her fingers through her hair and smiling as Ian typed in the commands to access her confidential files and send them to his laptop in the conference room. When he’d taken everything he wanted, he stood and pulled the chair out for her.

She appeared to be in some kind of trance when she sat down, and he pushed her chair back in as if they were in a restaurant getting ready to have dinner together. “Come back if you need anything else. I’ll be here until six.”

“Thanks. I might do that.”

Kate pulled him into an empty hallway near the break room. “Wait a minute. I can’t use my boobs to get what I want, but you can bend people to your will with your stunning good looks and charm?”

He feigned innocence. “Did I do that?”

“You glamoured her like some kind of hacker-vampire.”

“Being a hacker-vampire would be so cool.”

She laughed. “Bite me, Todd.”

“I can make that happen when we get home, Jeannine.”

They split up, and Kate made another round of the third and fourth floors. She was strolling down the aisle where the customer service reps sat when an employee whose name plate read Connor popped out of his cube and startled her.

“Hey, uh, Jeannine?”

“How do you know my name?”

“Todd told me. He’s looking for you. He described what you were wearing and said to keep my eyes open for a hot blonde with long legs. Those were his words, not mine. I don’t think we’re supposed to say things like that.”

“Which one is Todd again?”

“Uh, that really tall guy. His hair’s a little long. Not sure what his job title is, but he fixed my computer and it’s working much better now.”

“I bet,” she said.

“There he is,” Connor said pointing over her shoulder.

Kate turned around.

“How’s it going?” Ian asked pointedly.

Wait. Was she supposed to say great or couldn’t be better? She had no reason to believe Connor suspected either one of them. “Great.”

Ian nodded. “Excellent.”

Connor’s eyes narrowed as he scrutinized Ian. “Where did you say you came from again?”

Okay, maybe he suspected them a little bit.

“Consulting firm.”

He turned toward Kate. “And you?”

“Temp agency.”

“Do you have desks?”

“Yes, but I don’t like to sit for too long,” Kate said.

“Me neither,” Ian said.

“Feel like taking a walk?” Kate asked.

“Let’s,” Ian said.

Kate looked over her shoulder as they moved into the aisle. “See you later, Connor.”



At four thirty, Ian wanted to attempt entering the server room. He’d said the employees would be less vigilant at the end of the day, and hopefully some of them had already left.

“Here’s what we’re going to do. I’m going to station you near the desk of the guy whose job it is to keep an eye on the server room. You’ll be able to see me walk toward the door. I want you to distract him so I have time to fish my wire under the door and trigger the heat sensor. Engage him in friendly conversation until you see me come back out. Then meet me in the conference room.”

“I’m ready.”

“Hey, Todd,” someone yelled as they were walking toward the server room.

“Shit,” Ian muttered.

They turned around.

“Connor said I could probably find you down here. Do you think you can help me for a minute? My computer’s doing something weird.”

“Sure. As he turned to follow the guy, he nonchalantly handed Kate the folder. “Give it a whirl, sweetness. No pressure. If you can’t get in, we’ll come back tomorrow.” Kate took the folder, clasped it tightly to her chest, and kept walking.



When Kate reached the server room, the employee monitoring it gave her a cursory glance and then turned his attention back to something on his desk. She waited until there were no other employees in the area and extended the wire in a way that wouldn’t draw attention to the fact that she’d just pulled something that resembled a bent-in-thirds coat hanger with a hand warmer taped to the end out of her folder.