A Slow-Burning Dance (12 page)

“What
are you doing for work?”

Jorge
snorted. “I bus tables. My wife makes more money than I do right now.”

“What
skills do you have? What’s your background?”

“All
types of construction, from pouring cement to electrical and plumbing work. I
also have some accounting training. I have a business degree.”

“Give
me a few days. I’ll see what I can do about moving you and your family safely
across the border. Then, if I can’t find a spot for you here, I know my friend
Viggo Ingram with Ingram Properties in CentralWest is looking for people with
property management experience. You’d be perfect to do that kind of work with
your background.”

Damien
thought Jorge was going to cry. “Thank you.”

After
they disconnected the call, Damien sat back in his chair and let everything
Jorge had told him roll around in his brain for a few moments. Ernest was a
plant. He had betrayed Tomás, and he’d betrayed Rivera Construction. New crew
in place or not, Ernest had to go.

Damien
made a quick list of things to do, starting with setting Santino loose on the
website of Hierra Construcción. He wanted to know if any of the other names
they’d found across the country were connected to Rafael or Hierra
Construcción.

Even
if the dummy companies south of the border and the hackers responsible for the
Tommy Twister virus weren’t connected, this opened up a whole new avenue for
the IT teams to explore.

Damien
then composed an email to each of the Weathermen, detailing everything Jorge
had told him and what Damien planned to do about it. He called Viggo, and the
two discussed Jorge’s background and what he might be best suited for that
wouldn’t insult him, and would pay him a wage to allow his family to live in
comfort.

Viggo
jumped at the change to offer Jorge a spot on his team, and told him since
CentralWest was further north than SouthWest, Jorge and his family might be
safer living there. Damien agreed, and emailed his contacts at the Office of
Immigration to get things started. It wasn’t the first time Damien had helped
families from Mexico, Central America, or South America enter the US
territories legally.

The
last call he made was to Tomás, and it was a video call. His friend was visibly
shaken as Damien laid everything out for him that he’d learned from Jorge. By
the end of the call, they both agreed that they’d rather have the project
delayed by a few weeks than take a chance on having Ernest around any longer.
Tomás said he’d take care of firing Ernest and his crew immediately.

Damien
had also decided to tell Sela everything. He wanted her in his life, and that
meant she had a right to know what was going on in all aspects of his. This
concerned her studio, too, and he didn’t want to keep her in the dark. You
didn’t do that to the woman you loved.

Chapter
Thirteen

Sela
listened to Damien as he told her about Ernest’s other name, the fake company
he was involved with, and how deep the scheme he and Tomás had discovered
actually went. When he told her that he had also found a job for Jorge in
CentralWest with Ingram Properties, and had called in favors with a contact
from the Office of Immigration, she asked if he was going to CentralWest with
Jorge and his family to help them get settled.

“I
thought I would, at least for a few days. Just until we make sure all the
paperwork is in order and that they’re safe. Plus, it would give me a chance to
thank Viggo in person.”

Travel
between cities in the US was unrestricted for citizens, but it took a while
because the train system from one city to another had more passengers than the
resources provided for. “Have you booked your travel yet?”

He
gave her a sheepish grin. “I have, actually.”

She
shook her head. “How do you get so much done with a few simple phone calls?”

“My
friends and I aren’t above using our connections when we want something done.”

Sela
crawled into his lap. “You know, all that power is kind of sexy.”

He
kissed her. “Is that so? I knew that’s why you loved me. For my connections.”

She
licked his neck. “Well of course. What did you think it was?”

He
chuckled softly. “I’m hoping you could come with me,
niña
.”

“To
CentralWest? Really?”

“Of
course. We’ll only be gone a few days at most. Can you take time off your
lessons and interviews?”

“You
booked travel already, which means you knew I’d say ‘yes’.”

“Well,
I’m not taking anyone else with me, so yes. I was hoping you could arrange it.”

How
could she say no to that? “I’ll rearrange everything so I can come with you.
Don’t you
worry.
There isn’t much for me to do right
now at the studio anyway.” She frowned as a thought occurred to her. “How much
do you think this will slow down the project?”

“No
more than a couple of weeks at most. Tomás has already found another foreman
and crew. There are plenty of people who need work. He’s firing Ernest and the
people he brought in to work.”

“Won’t
he retaliate?”

“Not
when we lay everything out for him, and when I point out all the people I know
in key government agencies who could make sure Ernest, aka Rafael, never sets
foot on US soil again. They would certainly make sure he never worked in this
country again, even if they didn’t kick him out.”

A
shiver ran down her spine, but not from desire. He must have seen the worried
look on her face because he pulled her closer. “Don’t you worry,
mi
amor
.
Dealing with unscrupulous people
is part of this industry. I know what I’m doing.”

“I
know you do. It’s just if anything ever happened to you, I don’t know what I’d
do.”

Damien
kissed her again. “I love you, Sela.”

“I
love you, too. That’s why it’s important to me that you’re safe.”

“I
am. I promise you that.” His eyes lit up. “Oh, I didn’t tell you the rest of
it.” He told her that Santino and his teams were working on poking around
behind the scenes of Hierra Construcción, and making sure Ernest hadn’t posted
as Rafael on other sites they routinely track.

“You
don’t think he’s part of the hackers you’re looking for, do you?”

“Probably
not, but he did post as JackHammer on two hacker sites that we found. That
might mean he’s posting in other places, and finding him might lead us to
others who have targeted our companies.”

“It
will be exciting to meet another of the Weathermen. I love what all of you are
doing to try to save the planet.”

“You’ll
meet more than one. Both Viggo and Dominic Greco live in CentralWest.”

She
moved off his lap. “Then I’d better get busy and juggle a few things around. I
don’t want to miss this trip.”

He
caught her around the waist as she started to walk away from him. “Can’t it
wait a few minutes? You have me all hot and bothered now.”

She
giggled and turned in his arms, wrapping hers around his shoulders. “When
aren’t you all hot and bothered?”

“Never.”
He kissed her neck and she moaned softly. “Not since I met you again.”

“That
makes two of us.” Sela kissed his mouth, and her plans to get ready for a trip
to Central West were put on hold for an hour or so while she and Damien tested
out the comfort and stability of the dining room table.

****

Sela
had never been to any of the other cities, but she wasn’t surprised to hear
that Damien had been to each of them. “The last time I traveled was to NorthCentral
for Ace and Harper’s wedding, about a month before we started seeing each
other.”

“How
was the wedding?”

“Very
nice. Kane and Julianne got engaged at the reception.”

She
smiled. “Was that a surprise, or was it planned?”

“Kane
planned it with Ace, but Julianne didn’t know he was going to propose.”

“And
you said Dominic is engaged to Angela now?”

“That’s
right.” He grinned. “Emmett is engaged to Liane, too. We’re dropping like
flies.”

She
laughed. “Oh no! We can’t have that! Who is next? Heaven forbid.”

The
car that Damien had procured for them was private, but it was still cramped
enough that when he narrowed his eyes at her, she had very little room to scoot
away from him. Her peals of laughter filled the small space as he grabbed her
around the waist, pinned her down, and began tickling her.

“No!
Please!” Sela could hardly speak she was so short of breath. “I
hate
being tickled!”

“I
can see that. What shall I do to punish you for your smart mouth instead?”

“Make
love to me?”

The
lust that filled his eyes took her breath away all over again. “That’s not
exactly a punishment,
niña
.”

She
sat up and unbuttoned his shirt. “No, it’s not, but I don’t think you’ll
protest
too
much, will you?”

Sela
took off his shirt and ran her tongue over his torso and chest, loving the way
goosebumps broke out over his skin as she did. He reached for her, capturing
her mouth in a kiss so hot she expected the fabric on the bench seat beneath
them to start smoldering.

Damien
took off her top and removed her bra. “I wonder how many people have fucked in
this car before
us?
”

She
giggled as she stood to remove her shorts and panties. “We can add two more to
the list.”

Damien
took off his jeans, underwear, socks, and shoes, and then he lay on the bench
and pulled Sela on top so she could sheath his swollen cock with her pussy. She
pulled down the shade on the window next to her. “I don’t want an audience.”

He
laughed. “We’re speeding along at seventy miles an hour. No one is going to see
anything.”

She
leaned over and kissed him as she began to move up and down. “Less talking and
more fucking, please.”

****

Damien
sat in a conference room at Ingram Properties with Viggo and Dominic. Sela had
gone out spend the day with Angela. Jorge and his family were moving into their
new house, and he would start work for Viggo the following Monday. The men were
on a video call with Santino, who told Damien that what he’d found couldn’t
wait until Damien’s return to SouthWest.

“I
found
JackHammer
posting on each of our PR message
boards.”

“What
do you mean?” asked Viggo. “All of us? Each of our companies?”

“Yes.”
Santino shared a document. “You all recognize this. It’s Liane’s database.” He
highlighted a line. “After JackHammer showed up on the two hacker sites, Emmett
had her add his user name to the database, and then I gave my tracker team the
task of finding the machine he was using. We already know it was the computer
he used for construction business, but here’s what else they found.”

Santino
placed the other database next to Liane’s. This was the one Angela had
developed, and it interfaced with Liane’s, showing the IP addresses and machine
IDs if they had been found, of each name on Liane’s database. Santino
highlighted a cell. “Here’s the construction computer ID, but here is another
one my team found yesterday.”

“What
is it, specifically?” asked Damien.

Santino
beamed as if he’d just discovered the hackers on his own, and Damien held his
breath. “None other than the workstation of one William Santiago, one of the
other owners of Hierra Construction.”

Damien
frowned. “Are you telling us that Ernest has yet another name, and that he’s
listed under both as owner of this construction company?”

“I
sure am. And the company is as fake as the sun in the sky over these cities.
It’s nothing more than a front to move around money.”

“Who
else owns it?” asked Dominic.

“A
man named Scott Blankenship. I do believe he was part of Ernest’s crew.”

Damien
stood and ran a hand through his hair. “He sure as shit was. What the fuck did
he do? Bring the entire operation here and hire them as laborers?”

Damien
made a note in his phone to call his contact at Immigration immediately after
this call. He also sent a text to Tomás and told him he’d need to dig up all
the paperwork on the entire crew that Ernest had hired.

“Do
we have any reason to believe these men are part of the hackers behind the
Tommy Twister virus?” asked Viggo.

Santino
squirmed in his seat, his eyes bright with excitement. “I believe we have
enough information to safely say that Ernest, aka Rafael, is at least connected
to them.”

“
What
?” The response was shouted in
unison by the three men in the room.

“Rafael
has been quite busy as JackHammer on the message boards.”

“Are
you absolutely certain the user names are the same person?” asked Damien.

“Positive.
Rafael’s log in for the computer that he uses for construction business traces
back to the same machine that Ernest had been using.”

“So
he switched IDs,” said Viggo, “but not computers. That wasn’t too bright.”

Santino
grinned. “Actually, he tried to hide it by throwing up a mask, but since we’ve
seen that so many times now, I recognized the code. It’s the same machine.”

“Where
has he been posting under Rafael’s log in?” asked Dominic.

“All
the usual places we’re tracking. Remember our old friend Rob Marin?”

The
men all groaned. “How could we forget?” asked Viggo.

Rob
Marin was the first name discovered accidentally by Harper posting under a
specific user name on both PR boards at ACE Communications, owned by Ace
Easton, and on several hacker sites and boards frequented by weather geeks and
conspiracy theorists. He also, unfortunately, had worked on Ace’s team hacking
into such boards to try to find any clues to the people responsible for the
Tommy Twister virus.

Two
new user names they were able to definitely associate with Rob showed up again
when hackers tried to use one of the old weather satellites as relay stations
to hide their online activity, and ending up encrypting conversation onto the
data accidentally.

The
satellite was shut down again, but not before Barclay Hampton, who owned
Hampton Data Recovery Services, and his friends at Homeland Cyber Security,
recovered the conversation and eighteen names.

“He’s
back on the same boards where I found Rafael, using
BreakingGlass
and RisingWater, but that’s not all.”

All
three men held their breaths while Santino obviously enjoyed taking a dramatic
pause.

“He
fucked up again, just like he did last time when we caught him, right before
Ace fired him. He told JackHammer that he had inside information on Ace’s company,
and of course JackHammer jumped all over that. Previously, we’d traced both
user names to Rob’s IP address at his home in NorthCentral, and all of you
decided to sit on it because he wasn’t doing any of significance. He’s done
something now.”

Santino
brought up another screen that looked like a text document of conversation.
“This is the private conversation JackHammer and RisingWater had two days ago.
When I hacked into Ernest, aka Rafael, aka William’s, construction PC, I found
this saved in a private chat app. Rob, as usual, was being careless with what
he says online, even in a place that would be difficult for most people to hack
into.”

Damien
and the other two men leaned closer to the screen to read it. It started out as
Rob telling Rafael he still owed him money. Turns out they know each other.”

“How?”
asked Damien, his palms suddenly damp.