Page 81 of Hacking His Code

My jaw drops, amazed by the tech juggernaut, a man who is known for both his technical genius and his debonair good looks.

But he doesn’t hold a candle to Hunter.

“My name is—”

“Gabriel Icor,” I finish without thinking.

He holds out his hand for me to shake, but I’m paralyzed, only able to stare up at him.

After a moment, he retracts his hand as though he’s used to bad manners like mine.

“Remi asked me to join in the meeting because of a unique situation.”

All I can do is continue to stare back at him.

“Here, take this.” He hands out a handkerchief.

It takes me almost a minute before I realize it’s for me to dry my face, and I hurry to blot my eyes.

“That’s better,” Gabriel says with a stunning smile. “Now, I don’t want you to feel upset or stressed in any way. I just want to know what happened with your case.”

He takes a seat in the chair Remi was in, and Remi pulls up another chair for herself.

Finally, I find my manners. “I…got into a lot of trouble,” I mumble.

“We’re not going to judge you,” Remi says. “Go on.”

“When I was fifteen, I fucked up an FBI investigation,” I start, throwing refinement to the wind. “I got upset when I learned what human trafficking was and hacked a bunch of shit, sending whatever evidence I could find to the police.”

Gabriel blinks back at me, brow lifted, mouth gaping.

“I got a slap on the wrist, but it got me kicked out of school, and although it happened when I was a minor and my name was never released, my guess is that it’s easy to find.”

After a long moment, he says, “That’s…impressive.”

“Yeah? Tell that to my parents.”

Gabriel eyes me curiously. “I’m sorry, but did you say you did that when you were fifteen?”

I nod my head.

“Remi, change of plans. She’s not working for Icor Tech. She’ll be hired on as household staff.”

I furrow my brow in confusion.

“I’ll get right on it,” Remi says with a smile.

“I’m sorry,” I reply. “But am I going to be like a maid?”

“You’ll never make it past Icor Tech background checks, but to work for the Icors, you don’t need one.” Remi grins. “So Gabriel and I will hire you on to work for us. You’ll be doing different things, but we’ll make sure to start you out at the same salary as you would if you were starting with Icor Tech.”

“No,” Gabriel cuts in, “double it. I hate traffickers.”

“Agreed,” Remi says. “When can you start?”

“My mom is in the hospital.”

“Oh, I’m sorry to hear that,” Remi says.