Page 3

“Bio-what?” His eyebrows furrow. I can almost see the gears working, putting little chains together and building connections in his brain.

“BioCere, Inc. It’s a biomedical engineering company that Adley is part of.”

Jackson Adley is a major player in the pharmaceutical industry. It wouldn’t seem out of the ordinary for him to be part of research and engineering projects. He’s probably part of so many, this one wouldn’t stand out at all unless you dug deep.

Which I have. But I need to go deeper, and I need help to do it.

I can tell the man in front of me is interested. And from the reaction he had when I told him I work for Jackson Adley, it’s safe to surmise that he isn’t a big fan.

I’m not holding back. I finally see a way to shut down the company that killed my parents. And I’m taking it.

To accomplish what I need to do, I need this man to trust me. Which means I have to put myself out there.

With that in mind, I hold out my hand. “I’m . Wilson, but it used to be Smyth.”

He stares at me a moment longer, and then down at my hand. Just before I’m about to lower it, he wraps his hand around mine and shakes. His hand is warm and huge, and surprisingly rough for someone that works on computers for a living. My hand looks like it belongs to a child in his.

“Tony.”

No last name, but that’s okay. This is a good start. It’d probably take me less than thirty seconds to figure out the rest on my own anyway.

Our hands linger possibly a moment too long, and I’m struck by how sincere his deep brown eyes are. I feel like I could get lost in his gaze.

As if realizing that he’s been holding my hand and staring, he flinches away from me and looks around at our surroundings. Probably for the best, I didn’t come here to flirt.

“Where are we exactly?” His voice betrays his frustration.

“Look, I feel bad for stringing you around today, changing the meeting place, and then leading you down the beach like this. I’d say I’m not trying to be cryptic, but that’s a lie. I’ve been trying to get a feel for you, how much I can trust you.”

“Well, the more cryptic you are, the less likely I am to trust you.”

“Fair enough. I promise I’ll tell you more once we collect the other player.”

“Other player? What?”

“There’s one other person who I’m hoping to recruit, but don’t worry, he’s probably a shoo-in.”

“Why would I worry? Is it someone you know?”

“Yeah, we’ve worked together before. He helped me change my name so I could get a job at The Adley Corporation.”

“You’re really in deep with this. Are you sure you don’t need therapy?”

I choose not to be annoyed by that comment, and simply brush it off. “I’ve done therapy, thank you very much for the suggestion. What I need is vengeance.”

“You’re nuts.”

My eyes flash, “Call me what you will, but we have a common goal and we need each other to accomplish it.”

“How so? What is it you want from me?”

“You’ve heard of Anonymous, right?”

He answers me warily, a frown pulling his lips down. “Of course, but, wait… If you’re about to invite me to join a notorious group of hacker activists, you can just stop. I’m not interested in this prank anymore.”

It’s hard to suppress the eye roll. “It’s not a prank, and I’m not inviting you to join Anonymous. I was using it as an example.”

“So, let me guess, you want me to join a team of hacker nerds so you can carry out a personal vendetta against one of the most powerful men in the country.”

“Yes.”

His eyes widen at my admission. People rarely expect outright honesty. But I’m a “lay it all on the table” kind of gal. Especially as this is so important to me, I don’t want there to be any questions as to what I’m proposing.

“But there’s more to it than that. I have some evidence? not enough, honestly, but some, that Adley is using this company to engage in some highly illegal and shady shit.”

“Like what?” He’s still being obtuse, but I can see the interest in his eyes.

“For starters, purposefully skewing lab results to fit their pharmaceutical research goals. Political bribery. Animal testing.”

He looks down at me, and I do mean down, he’s nearly a foot taller than I am. “What are you leaving out?” He asks, his skeptical tone matching his expression.

I return his look with a steely gaze of my own. “I have a personal interest in seeing BioCere, Inc. burn to the ground. They’re responsible for the deaths of my parents.”

The look he gives me is full of pity, but also incredulity. He probably thinks I’m just some overly emotional woman with a death wish. But I also have something he needs.

Pulling a thumb drive out of my pocket, I hand it out to him. “The rest of Adley’s financials are there. And there’s more information coming. I just need your help to decrypt it. It’ll take me forever otherwise.”

“You’re so sure I’ll say yes?”

Facing him full on, spine straight and chin lifted, I look right into his eyes. “Tell me you’re not curious or excited about any of this.” The words come out differently than I intended, and once again I find myself blatantly flirting with this man. Which, I mean, who could help it? He’s six feet of delicious, with toned arms, deep brown eyes, and an ass that is made for those jeans he’s wearing. I may or may not have admired it once or twice as we were walking. I’m no better than a man.

It’s hard to remain professional when every time I look at him, I think of raking my hands through his blonde hair and what it would be like to feel the chafe of his short beard against my skin.

His serious gaze makes my mouth dry. Eyes darkening, he zeros in on my mouth as I lick my lips, desperate for any sort of moisture.

Distant shouting near the shore breaks, and I remember just how awkward things are about to get.

“Yo! Mighty Mouse! How have you been, sweetheart?”

Quinn, the man we’re here to meet, throws one arm around me, the other holding a sandy surfboard. His wetsuit hangs open, low around his waist. I struggle not to eyeball his perfectly defined abs. I am definitely not imagining how salty they would taste.

Jesus, , since when are you this thirsty?

Despite the talent before me, I’m having second thoughts about my team here. I knew there would be some attraction to Quinn. He and I have a bit of a past. But I didn’t expect Tony to be so freaking hot and now I’m standing between these two beautiful giants, second-guessing the purpose of being here.

But no, nothing is more important than the goal. Take Adley out, burn BioCere to the ground.

“Hey Quinn,” I beam up at him, honestly glad to see him. Aside from being sexy as hell, Quinn is genuinely a good person. I feel guilty for avoiding him outside of professional matters. There just isn’t room for distractions when you’ve had the same goal for over a decade.

If Quinn is upset about or even remembers the time we almost dated, he doesn’t show it. Instead, he shakes the salty ocean water off his short curls. They sprinkle over me like rain, making me shriek.

I stop giggling when I notice Tony gaping at us.

“ Mighty Mouse? Are you serious ?”

Quinn cuts his gaze over to Tony and then back to me as if he didn’t notice the tall blonde. “Who’s this dude?”

Clearing my throat, I get to the introductions. “Quinn, this is Tony. He’s a cyber security specialist that dabbles in some other types of programming. Tony, this is Quinn. He runs the information center at the city library.”

Tony raises an eyebrow.

“I forge documents.”

“Quinn!”

“What? If you brought him here to see me, I assume my services are needed, so there’s no need to beat around the bush. Unless he’s a cop.” He stops and looks Tony up and down, clearly appreciating the view. “You don’t look like a cop.”

“I’m not a cop,” Tony deadpans, not taking his eyes off me. “Are you seriously the Mighty Mouse? As in M!ghTyM0u$e919, one of the founding members of HackWeb?”

“That’s me,” I say with a shrug.

“And when exactly were you going to tell me this?”

“When I felt it was prudent, I suppose. Why are you so worked up?”

“I’m not worked up.”

“Dude, you’re worked up,” Quinn says, flinching at the look Tony throws at him.

“Let’s go get some lunch and get everything out on the table, if that’s okay with you both?” I look pleadingly between the two guys, red flags going up at how they’re already snipping at each other.

Quinn turns and walks away the moment he hears the word “lunch”, holding one finger in the air to signal he’ll only be a moment.

I can tell that learning exactly who I am has flustered Tony a bit, and while I’m hoping it’ll help sway him to work with me now that he knows I’m legit, it also might intimidate him. Then again, if it does intimidate him, then he isn’t the person I want on this team. So it’s good to find out either way.

“Exactly what do we need this guy for?” Tony asks.

Is he always so grouchy? I don’t know why, but I find it amusing. And I’m more than pleased that he just referred to us as “we”, but I decide not to point it out. I’ll take anything I can get and hold on tight.

“Quinn has a lot of connections and some very useful talents that extend beyond just passports and identification documents, although those are handy themselves. He’s a little out there, but he’s also wicked smart and knows his way around a lot of programming languages.”

Tony looks up to where Quinn walked off to, his mouth open to say something, but the words must get stuck in his throat. He gapes for a few moments before turning and walking away. Looking over my shoulder, I see Quinn has removed his wetsuit entirely and is standing butt-naked on the beach, rummaging through a bag.

Cocking my head a little, I can’t help but check him out. His swimmer's physique is near perfection, every bit of him covered in lean muscle. His smooth, tan skin is a full shade lighter on his muscular ass and thighs.

“Hmm,” I say, more to myself since Tony is likely too far away to hear me. “I didn’t realize that tattoo went all the way down…”