Love and Wargames: A Bad Boy Hacker Romance (9 page)

BOOK: Love and Wargames: A Bad Boy Hacker Romance
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I look at Fox. “You planned this,” I accuse.

He shakes his head and spins around with a smile on his lips. “I’ll be inside.”

“Really?”

His eyebrows bounce as he leaves, jaunting back to our tent with a slight hop in his step.

I sigh and walk over to the crates where Boxcar lounges. “Hey.”

He cranes his neck upward, pulling his eyes away from his laptop to look at me. “Hey — check this out.” His hand juts out and grabs mine before I can react and he pulls me down to sit beside him.

“What?” I jerk my hand free.

He adjusts the screen on his laptop to give me a better view. “So, while we were out earlier, I took some photos of the license plates on the vehicles of that convoy.”

I look at the screen over his shoulder as he clicks through his photos. “Uh-huh.”

“Then, I modified the Army’s facial recognition software to recognize numbers and letters instead of facial features—”

“The Army gave you their facial recognition software?” I interrupt.

“Well…” he pauses, glancing back at me with a slight grin. “No. I borrowed it. Anyway — the military has surveillance feeds all over Kabul, so I ran the software against the last forty-eight hours of footage, and…”

I wait as his fingers rush across the keys.
“And?”

He stops and tilts the screen even more in my direction. “Do any of these faces look familiar to you?”

The footage is blurry but the hairs quiver on my neck. I lean forward to get a better look. Three trucks sit on the side of the road near the center of town. A dozen men linger nearby, each one wearing black tactical gear, loading the back of each truck with large boxes. One in particular catches my eye. He’s tall, wide-set, pale-skinned, with a neck nearly as thick as his shaved head.

I point at him. “He was at the building today.”

“You’re sure?”

“Positive.” I shift my finger to the next guy; shorter, bearded, but just as muscled. “This one, too.”

Boxcar pauses the footage and stares at them both. Words gather on his tongue but he says nothing but a soft groan that gets stuck at the back of his throat.

“Do you think the facial recognition software might… you know… recognize their faces?” I ask.

He tilts his head and peeks up at me over the rims of his glasses. “Not bad, Fawn,” he smiles.

I watch him work. His trained fingers click and tap away, never making a single mistake as he starts and stops the footage, snatching various screen shots of their faces. “Where did you learn to do this stuff?” I ask him.

“Self-taught. Mostly.”

“Mostly?”

He leans back against the crate and looks at me. “Why do you ask?”

I pause, torn between smacking that smug look off his face and… well, not. The light of the laptop reflects off his glasses, casting a blue glow onto his face, tricking me into seeing the more handsome features of him. Prominent cheekbones. Thick — but not bushy — eyebrows. Sharp, playful lips.

I lean back. “What are you really doing out here, Carson?”

“Getting some fresh air.”

“You know what I mean.”

He inhales a quick breath and his eyes drop from mine. “Does it matter?”

“It matters to me.”

“Why?”

“Because it’s my job to keep people safe and I can’t do that unless I trust the ones around me.”

“Ahh.” He closes the laptop and shifts on the crate to face me. “Is that all?”

“Is that not enough?”

“No, it is.”

I wait, expecting him to continue, growing more and more frustrated with each silent moment. “You know what? Nevermind—” I move to stand and he reaches out to grab my arm.

“Wait…”
His grip softens and he sighs. “You can’t tell anybody.”

I raise my brow. “Why not?”

He hesitates. “Because… it’s not exactly
legal
.”

I fucking knew it. “So, you
are
a criminal mastermind sent to kill us all in our sleep?”

“Pfft! I wish.” He gives my arm a quick tug to pull me back down. I sit beside him again but I keep my attentions focused in case he makes any sudden moves. “I came to Europe for a vacation, figured I’d get a rail pass and wander around for a bit. See the world and whatnot,” he explains. “Some bastard pickpocketed me in London and I had to improvise. I didn’t have money to get home or stay in hotels so…” he pauses, searching my face, “I started breaking into houses and sleeping on couches while the owners were gone.”

I smirk. “You’re a vagrant?”

He laughs. “I’m a
drifter
.”

“Same thing.”

“I didn’t do anything
super
shady,” he says. “Just went in, got some food, and caught a few Z’s. I didn’t steal any valuables and I left no trace besides a few missing slices of bread and a beer or two.”

I shake my head but I can’t hide my amusement. “How did you not get caught?”

“It’s actually really easy to tell who’s on vacation or not. Newspapers pile up, mail doesn’t get taken inside, closed curtains, no lights… Once I was inside, I just tried to find out when they’d come back. Usually, there’d be a clue or two but if not… just hope for the best.”

“And how did you go from
drifting
around Europe to trapped in a warehouse in Afghanistan?”

“Oh, right.
That…
” He winces. “I got caught.”

“Of course, you did.”

“I was in Paris and I stumbled on this
gorgeous
house outside of the city. Best of all, the owner obviously traveled
a lot
. So I made myself at home for a little while…
until
…”

“Busted,” I smile.

“I woke up to find two very large men standing over me with two
very
large guns,” he continues, holding his hands up at least two feet apart to show their length. “I’m talking
assault weaponry
, the kind you don’t typically see on civilians in France.”

“Yikes,”
I react, hanging on every word. “What did you do?”

“I said a damn prayer and hoped it’d be quick,” he laughs. “Then this woman walked up. Tall, blonde, older — probably in her fifties but I got kind of a
cougar vibe
from her—”

“Carson.”

“Right—” He shakes his head. “Obviously, she asked what the hell I was doing there and I explained everything. Just a poor boy with nothing on him but lint and a computer, looking for a way back home.”

“And?”

“And… she offered me a job.”

I blink. “What?”

He pats his computer. “She was really interested in knowing what I could do — seeing as how I managed to override her home security system and disable the alarms so I could get in. Which was
not
easy, by the way. By far the most advanced system I’ve ever stumbled upon. The conversation quickly turned kind of scary but I wasn’t about to piss off the woman with the two hired guns standing behind me, watching my every move.”

“What kind of scary?”

He takes a breath and his eyes shift around us for prying ears. “She started talking about United States military servers and whether or not I’d be able to crack into them to gather personnel files.”

I furrow my brow. “What kind of personnel files?”

“Mission debriefings, confirmed kills. Pretty much anything I could find on active duty soldiers currently deployed,” he says, his voice low. “People like you guys.”

I pause. “What did she want with that?”

“Honestly, I was too scared to ask,” he admits, “but it seemed like they were recruiting soldiers for something.”

“Any idea what for?” I ask. He shakes his head. “Why didn’t you say no?”

“I got the feeling I didn’t have a choice.”

Comply or die. Can’t say I wouldn’t do the same. “Did you catch her name?”

“She never said it,” he answers. “The others just kept calling her
boss
. Anyway… the next morning, she put me on a helicopter and flew me down here with her two goons and two other hackers she hired to do the same thing. About a week went by and then…”

His voice falls and I see the fear in his eyes. “What?” I ask.

“I guess they got what they wanted out of us,” he says slowly. “They lined the three of us up and I watched as they shot the others dead.” He points to his eyes. “One bullet through each eye, like a damn execution.”

A chill runs down my spine. “How did you escape?”

“A bomb struck our building during the raid,” he says. “They got distracted for a moment and I ran like hell. I didn’t get very far, just hid out in another warehouse in the compound but then
that one
got hit, too. When I couldn’t get out, I sent that fake intel.”

I nod. “And three days later…”

“You and Fox showed up to dig me out.”

I sit back, wheels spinning in my head. “That’s quite the story.”

“It’s all true, Caleb,” he says. “Every word.”

“It sounds crazy.”

“You don’t believe me?”

I pause, studying his deep, green eyes, looking for any tell I can find that will show me if he’s lying but I come up short. “It’s not
completely
unbelievable.”

“Then you’re gonna love this,” he says, opening his laptop again. He brings up the security footage and pushes play. “Meet the two goons that brought me down here.”

I stare at the footage, watching as the bald man and the bearded man pass by the cameras. “They’re the ones that killed the other hackers?” He nods. “Are you sure?”

“I wouldn’t forget those faces. They’re here… somewhere,” he murmurs and his eyes shift around again as if he’s being watched.

“You’re safe here, Carson,” I tell him. “No one’s going to find you out here.”

“I’m not worried about me. I’m worried about the next poor boy that gets caught in their crosshairs.”

“You should go to Rhys with this—”

“I’m not about to admit to stealing government documents and handing them over to a very obvious terrorist organization.”

“Then why tell me?” I ask.

His eyes grow softer. “Because you asked. And…” he pauses to lick his dry lips, “your trust is important to me.”

Not one damn tell to prove he’s lying. “Why?”

He hesitates. “Just… is. Also, you’re my bodyguard, right? You have a right to know what to look out for.”

A short smile crosses his lips, caving in the dimples on his chin. The desert wind strikes my face but it just makes the blood in my cheeks tingle a little more.

I look away, clearing my throat. “We should get back inside.” I push up and he quickly stands with me.

“Caleb…” he says, “I don’t want anyone else to know about this. Can you keep this between us? Please?”

I nod, sensing the shame in his tone. “Okay…”

He lets out a light sigh. “Thank you.” I turn to leave but Boxcar takes a quick step forward to stop me. “I’m sorry if I embarrassed you earlier.”

“With what?”

His lips twitch. “With that whole kiss thing.”

Red tickles my cheeks even more. “You didn’t.”

“Good.”

“I’m sorry if I embarrassed you with the whole beating you thing,” I add.

“You didn’t,” he says. “Also, you cheated, so…”

I grit my teeth.
“I did not—”

“Don’t worry about it,” he chuckles. “It was worth it.”

I hold back my laugh. “Just… shut up and get back inside. Rhys wants to see you.”

He takes a quick stride towards me. There’s fear in his eyes but it’s quickly overruled by the obvious lust controlling him. His fingers latch around my arm and he gently pulls me in to plant a soft kiss on my lips.

My entire body breaks, torn in half by duty and desire tugging at me from both sides. I pull away to stop our kiss and take a slow breath but it only gets caught in my throat as my lips tremble for more of him.

“Yes, ma’am,” he whispers. He bends over to grab his bag off the crate and his soft touch slides off my arm.

The wind kicks up, slapping the loose tarps strapped to the crates nearby but I can barely hear it over the blood pounding in my ears. I bite my lip, trying to quell the seductive urge inside to feel his mouth again. This is wrong. It’s all wrong, and yet…

Boxcar slides his laptop into his bag and throws it over his shoulder, preparing to step around me to head back into camp but my feet move on their own to block his path.

I kiss him back and his hands immediately cup my face, holding me there as our lips lock together over and over again.

My god — his mouth.
I don’t know how he’s doing it but this is quite possibly the most intense kiss I’ve ever experienced. It’s the perfect blend of soft and firm, wet and dry, with just the right amount of tongue — and
his hands
. He moves one down my body, dropping from my cheek and wandering over my breast to curl around my lower back and hold me against him. I feel his chest heaving with mine and his fingers trembling along my skin and his growing, hard —
Oh, god.

Fuck — what am I doing?

I step back, nearly falling over from the lack of blood entering my brain. “I have to go—” I spin away from him, instantly regretting it as his hands slip from my skin but I keep moving. One foot in front of the other, one step at a time, I rush to the barracks without looking back at him — knowing I’ll never be able to pull my eyes off him if I do.

My feet carry me back to my cot and plop down onto it, burying my burning face into my rock hard pillow.

“Well, what did he say?”

I raise my head to find Fox staring back at me from his cot next to mine. “It didn’t come up,” I answer quickly.

He raises a curious brow. “What
did
come up?”

“Nothing important.” I kick off my boots and fall back down onto my pillow.

Thankfully, Fox doesn’t push it but I can feel his sly eyes studying me with amusement. I ignore it. I’ve completely lost the ability to focus on anything other than the phantom kiss tugging on my mouth and the throbbing taking hold everywhere else.

Oh, this is bad. So very bad.

I can’t let this happen. I have to take back control. It was a one-time thing. A fluke. Just one kiss. That’s all it was. Just one perfect, mind-blowing kiss.

BOOK: Love and Wargames: A Bad Boy Hacker Romance
9.53Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

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