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The sound of my phone vibrating on the nightstand dragged me from a deep sleep. Stef was tucked against my side, her head on my shoulder.
The phone vibrated again, and I swore under my breath, reaching over and scrambling around on the nightstand. Squinting at the screen, I saw it was Rhett calling. I pressed the answer button. “What the fuck, Rhett? The sun is barely up.” I pitched my voice low, hoping not to disturb Stef. It didn’t work.
She mumbled something, shifting against me. Then she moved again, leaning back and giving me a bleary-eyed stare. “Whatisit?”
“It’s just my brother. Go back to sleep.”
“M’Kay.” She rolled away, pulling the covers up to her chin.
I went back to the very fucking annoying phone call from my brother. “This had better be important.”
“It is. It’s about the hacker.”
Suddenly wide awake, I pushed the covers back and got out of bed. “Wait a second, would you?”
In my study, I sat down at my desk and flipped the call to video.
Rhett was looking disgustingly sharp despite the early hour. “So, uh, you and the punk rock chick, huh?”
“Fuck off.”
“Come on, you’ve been at the beach house forever. Something’s keeping you tied there.”
“Rhett, you better not have dragged me out of bed at this ungodly hour to grill me about my…” I scrubbed a hand over my face. My what? “About Stef. Tell me about the hacker.”
Rhett’s expression turned serious. “I’ve got the Head of Security here. She’s going to take over the call.”
“Mr. Rivers.”
I ignored the fact that my Head of Security was clearly in my brother’s bed, wearing his shirt. “Ms. Farris. What have you got for me?”
“Well, as you know, we responded to your directive to hand over any and all information to the authorities, and we’ve been working closely with them ever since. There have been a few more low-level attacks, phishing scams and DDOS attacks. Nothing we can’t handle. Until, uh, a few days ago, when the situation escalated rather dramatically.” Her ability to keep a straight face with her hair all messy and, uh, obvious signs of beard burn on her face was pretty impressive.
“Please continue.”
“We suspect the hacker is targeting you specifically, Grayson. They’ve been trying to gain access to your personal accounts and email.”
I felt a chill run down my spine. “Why? How? Who is it?”
“We’re not sure yet. But whoever it is, is very, very good at what they do. We have our best people on this, and we can’t find a trace of this guy. Or girl, I guess. We need to take this seriously and increase security measures around you and your assets.”
Somehow, when I thought of everything that could be at risk here, my first concern was Stef. “I understand. What do you suggest we do?”
“First, we need to change all of your passwords and enable three-factor authentication on all of your accounts. We also need to increase the security on your devices and make sure that all of your software is up to date.”
I bit back a sigh, feeling frustration ballooning in my chest. “Okay, I’ll do that. Anything else?”
“We’re also going to be monitoring your accounts and email closely for any suspicious activity. And we are, of course, still working closely with the authorities to try to track this guy down. That’s all we can do for now until he strikes again. Which is one thing we can be certain of, at least. Rest assured; we’re throwing all our resources at this. It’s only a matter of time until this guy is caught.”
“Thank you, Farris. I appreciate it.”
I ended the call and leaned back in my chair, gazing out the picture window to the ocean. Maybe it would be best if I headed back to Raleigh now. It seemed like being at the coalface of thisunfolding problem was the smartest course of action. And, of course, Stef was definitely well enough to continue to recuperate without me. All I’d need to do was let Vera know she needed to come every day again.
I imagined doing just that. It would only take a few phone calls and I’d be in Raleigh by mid-morning. Then I pictured Stef, going through each day on her own until it was time to go back to Esperance. No, I definitely couldn’t do that.
With the decision made, I turned on my computer and quickly went through and changed all of my passwords and enabled three-factor authentication on all of my accounts. What a fucking pain in the ass. I also made sure that all of my software was up to date and that my devices were secure. I knew it was a small step, but it made me feel a little better.
When that was all done, I went back to the bedroom and found Stef still sleeping peacefully. I crawled into bed next to her and lifted my arm as she shifted closer to me.