Page 80 of Hacking His Code

He furrows his brow, mulling over my request. “Consider it done.”

Arinessa

“You’ll be working directlyunder me on a small team dedicated to analytics.” Remi Icor hands me a badge with my face on it.

“But I don’t understand. I came in for an interview. How do you already have this?” I hold up the badge. “I literally just told you I wanted the job.”

“To be honest, we’ve been watching you for quite some time. When one of your professors told Gabriel that you would not be returning to campus, we assumed it was because someone recognized your talent and made you an offer. We figured we’d put together a competing bid to give you another option.”

“You’ve been watching me?”

“Are you surprised? Talent like yours is hard to come by, and tech companies know they need to be quick to snatch it up or someone else will.”

Everything she says makes sense, but it just feels too convenient.

Remi isn’t an unfriendly woman, but she is firm and direct. Someone who would make a great mentor. Passing up this opportunity would be insane.

“Is there anything else we should know before we continue?”

Don’t tell her. Let sleeping dogs lie.

“No.”

“Good. The background check for your security clearance will include your criminal history, credit—”

“Excuse me, did you say security clearance?”

“At the level you’ll be hired in at, it’s standard to obtain one of the highest levels of clearance.”

I hand her back my badge. “Then you should probably take this back.”

Remi furrows her brow. “Why? What is it we will find?”

I clench my hands into fists, trying not to become emotional. “It’s supposed to be expunged, but with your resources, you’ll surely sniff it out.”

“Sniff what out?”

“When I was fifteen, I hacked into a bunch of shit and gathered a bunch of evidence on some human traffickers. I forwarded the evidence, thinking I was being anonymous, but the FBI found out it was me, and…well…it landed me in trouble.”

Remi sits back, a dumbfounded expression on her face. “Huh?”

“There’s no way I’m going to pass whatever clearance check you have going on.”

She folds her arms across her chest, her brow narrowing. “You went after human traffickers?”

“Yeah, and I royally fucked up a case against them.” I look down at my hands, trying to gather the courage to own my past. “I was fifteen. I didn’t know.”

Remi rises from her seat. “Stay here. I’ll be back in a minute.”

She leaves the room, allowing me to unleash the floodgate of tears I had been holding back.

For the thousandths time in two weeks, I’m bawling my eyes out, though this time, it’s not at my apartment.

I check my phone to see if there’s any word on my mother. I’m not too optimistic with her having spent ten days in a coma, but eventually, there has to be a new development. I just hope it’s a turn for the better and not the worse.

The door opens again, and I quickly try to dry my tears and look as nonchalant as possible.

“Arinessa Sylvan,” a male voice says, and I turn to see Gabriel Icor approaching.