Honeymoon To Die For (28 page)

“I have no idea what she was doing before I walked in.”

Kale went back to monitoring whatever was going on with the computers and communicating with his security staff.

Hubrecht raised his gaze to Bianca then slapped it at Ryder. “What is she doing here?”

The cold bite in his tone let Ryder know this situation could escalate quickly and dangerously. “She just stopped by to say hello.”

Kale raised his hand, drawing everyone’s attention. He told Hubrecht, “Level One files are being deleted.”

Ryder asked, “What does that mean?”

“Someone is trying to destroy our intelligence infrastructure. We have everything backed up.”  Then Kale told Hubrecht, “Security personnel are outside your door, Mr. Van Dyke.”

Ah, shit. How could this be happening? Ryder hoped Bianca really hadn’t started this. If she had, Hubrecht might turn them both over to law enforcement as a best-case scenario. Ryder didn’t want to think about worst case.

Sam roared at Bianca, “What the hell did you do?”

Bianca stepped forward, even as Ryder tried to hold her back. She surprised him by snapping back at Sam. “Am I capable of breaching your firewalls?
Yes!
But even I have to type on a keyboard and need more than the sixty seconds I was in Ryder’s office to get inside your system.”  She jutted her chin at the three men. “And what’s my motivation to destroy files at a company where my husband has his only opportunity for a job?”

Man, she was so hot when she got all high and mighty, but Ryder wished she’d hold her tongue and not make this any worse.

Kale announced, “Twenty-eight percent of Level One files deleted and the attack is picking up speed. We’ve tried shutting down the system, but we can’t risk what we’ll lose in a major crash.”

Sam was pacing and changed direction, striding over straight for Bianca.

Ryder stepped between them. “Touch her and you’ll never regret a decision more.”

“You brought a fucking FBI agent into this place. Why?”

The door opened and Terrence walked in just as Sam made that remark. Terrence said, “Ryder didn’t do that. I brought Bianca in to surprise him.”

Ryder appreciated his brother owning up to that, but wished he hadn’t because the fury in Hubrecht’s eyes turned chilling.

Hubrecht ordered Terrence, “Leave us.”

“I’m sorry, I didn’t think—”

“Now,” Hubrecht ordered.

Ryder sent Terrence a sympathetic glance but his brother was already pulling the door closed behind him.

Sam raked his hand through his hair. “This is bullshit. What does the FBI want?”

Bianca pushed past Ryder and got in Sam’s face before he could pull her back. “Your conclusions are irrational. Unless you’re doing something illegal here, the FBI would have no interest in breaching your electronic systems. And if they did, why would they
delete
files? And, trust me, you’d never know if they did, because the team I was on would run circles around your best people.”

Fuck, that was not going to help, but Bianca wasn’t done digging that hole.

She looked over at Hubrecht. “Your people should have found the intruder by now and stopped it.”  

Hubrecht exchanged a look with Kale who shook his head and said, “Everyone in the building has been told to stay off their computers and we have the whole IT team working on it. No luck yet.”

The neck muscles visible above Sam’s collar flexed with tension. Ryder wanted to get Bianca out of this building now, but he hadn’t expected to need an exit strategy when he came to work today.

When Kale muttered, “Sixty-three percent,” Hubrecht shoved a raging glare at Bianca.

Ryder took a step toward her to pull her back. Before he could get to her, Bianca spoke up. “Has anyone considered that this attack could be to keep everyone busy trying to protect the files being deleted while a secondary assault goes after the backup files?”

Hubrecht, Sam and Kale were quiet as stone at that suggestion. Then Hubrecht’s expression turned to one of a general going into battle. He ordered Bianca, “Show me how much better qualified you are than my people.”

Kale and Sam shouted, “No!” at the same time.

Hubrecht addressed them both with a harsh, narrow-eyed look that silenced the two men. Once he was satisfied with their reaction, he turned to Bianca again. “Well?”

“I didn’t say
I
specifically was better.”

Ryder told Hubrecht, “She didn’t create this problem.”

“I have not accused her of such. Yet.”

Bianca raised her hand to Ryder. “I’ll try.”

Bad idea. He caught her hand and pulled her to him. “You don’t have to do this.”

“But I want to help.”

“If anything goes wrong—”

“What, like all the files being deleted?” she quipped. “At this point, anything I can do is better than nothing.”  

“Eighty-seven percent of Level One gone,” Kale announced.

Sam scowled and sent all that fury at Bianca. “Is this the FBI or not?”

She snapped at him, “I have no idea.”

“You have two minutes to find out.”

“Are you crazy? I can’t just type in a few keys and determine that. This is not the movies or TV.”

“
Enough!”
Hubrecht shouted. “Come here. Please.”

Hubrecht never raised his voice. Never lost control.

That, more than anything, said how dangerous this was for the person who had caused the attack on Hubrecht’s system.

Bianca told Ryder, “Let me try.”

He didn’t want to let go of her, but with security waiting for them outside the door, he didn’t have a way out. Yet. Ryder released her so she could buy him time to come up with a plan to get them out of there.   

Bianca pulled her hand free and walked over to sit in Hubrecht’s chair.

Kale asked Bianca, “What exactly are you going to do?”

“I don’t know for sure until I get inside the system, but I’m thinking of attacking the Level Two files—”

“What the fuck?” Sam bellowed.

Bianca had a pretty menacing look when she wanted to use it. “Think of an attack like this as starting a wildfire. What’s the best way to stop the fire from taking your house? You start one that heads back toward the first fire and hit it head on.”

“Just do it,” Hubrecht said calmly.

Ryder started over to stand beside her but Sam stepped in front of him. He met Sam’s gaze, not blinking. “Get out of my way.”

“You’re of no use right now. I can have security remove you.”

“You can have them
try
,” Ryder replied softly.

“He stays, Sam,” Hubrecht said.

Ryder walked past Sam and stopped at the side of Hubrecht’s massive teak desk. Bianca looked small in his father’s wide leather chair. Vulnerable.
All my fault that she’s in this mess.

No matter what happened, he had to get her out of the dangerous position he’d put her in.

Bianca looked up. “I need someone’s access code.”

Ryder rattled off his access code, expecting Hubrecht to blast him. But instead he got a nod. But if the computer system continued to go down in flames, Ryder expected retaliation from Hubrecht, who did not suffer betrayal by anyone.

Ryder told Hubrecht, Sam and Kale. “You’re no different than the FBI who charged me with a crime I didn’t commit. You treat my wife like an unwelcome stranger. No, worse. Like an enemy. Know that as soon as this is done, we’re gone.”

~*~

If Bianca hadn’t been busy concentrating all her effort on trying to figure out what the FBI team had done she’d push her fingers down Ryder’s throat to shut him up.

What the hell had Murdock done to her with this cyber attack?

Her fingers flew across the keys, typing codes she hoped would unlock the program and give her an opening to stop it. She found the secondary level of files, noting that it went to level five, which had to be classified.

Her palms were damp.

Her heart thumped so hard in her ears everyone should be able to hear each thud.

She typed furiously, hitting dead end after dead end. What if this wasn’t from the FBI? If she didn’t find a way to block it, would Hubrecht believe she’d really tried or that she
was
responsible for the attack?

“Level One is down and Level Two files are being attacked,” Kale announced, keeping everyone aware of the progress.

“You have one minute to do something or get out of those files,” Sam warned.

Bianca caught the curl of Ryder’s fist. He was preparing for battle. She typed faster and barged into the second level of security, which had to be where she’d find the Level Two files. “Give me an update.”

“Level Two files still deleting.”

Crap. She typed again, sure she’d located Level Two and searched for a file to lock down.

Sam walked to the door and opened it, ushering in two security personnel. He called over, “Time’s up.”

Ryder cursed lividly.

Bianca muttered, “Would you chill out, Mr. Long, and leave me alone for one damn minute so I can actually work without you distracting me?”

The two security personnel walked forward.

Bianca spared a fast glance.

Ryder stepped in their path and said over his shoulder in his father’s direction,  “Call them off. Now.”

“I need an update,” Bianca shouted, hoping to diffuse the tension if there was good news. If not, bad news might light the powder keg of posturing going on.

There was a brief hesitation then Kale said, “Level Two is frozen.”

“Yes!” Bianca kept typing.

In the myriad lists of numbers scrolling across the monitor, one numerical string caught Bianca’s eye. She recognized that and started typing a code off the top of her head, praying she was right and not triggering another launch code unintentionally.  

She hit ENTER and waited, holding her breath.

All the numbers halted movement.

“
Come on, baby ...”
she muttered.
Please work.

One pair of numbers in the middle of the screen started blinking.

Hubrecht leaned close. “Now what’s wrong?”

She held up a finger and studied the second hand on her watch. Twelve seconds later, she typed a sequence of numbers and paused over the ENTER key in indecision. If she was wrong, this could crash their entire system.

When in doubt, she was going with Daddy’s advice to trust her instincts yet again. She pressed the key and sat back, exhausted by that mental sprint.

First she looked up at Ryder whose steady gaze told her he was backing her no matter what. That flooded her with a warm pleasure she hadn’t expected. She lifted an eyebrow at Kale.

He was grunting at whatever was being said into his earpiece then finally said, “The attack has stopped.”

Hubrecht’s sigh of relief was loud in the quiet room.

Sam scrubbed a hand over his forehead.

Ryder smiled at Bianca. A real smile, filled with pride that lit a glow in her soul.

She returned the smile with one that she hoped would smooth over the friction this had caused.

Kale said, “What?”

Everyone turned to him. He shook his head in disbelief and Bianca’s happiness fled until he told Hubrecht, “The destroyed files are reforming.”

Now everyone looked at Bianca who shrugged. “While I was trying to find a way to stop the attack, I found a mirror of the program copying files first then deleting.”

“What’d you do?” Ryder asked.

“I got lucky and when I found the leading edge of the attack, I stopped it then thought I’d see if I could turn it around.”  She held Ryder’s gaze that began filling with comprehension as she finished explaining, “I used the codes in the program to send it in a counterattack, reversing the process.”

Kale asked, “Can you tell where it came from?”

“No. I have no idea how long it would take to trace it or that what we’d find would be the true origin.”

Ryder took in all three men now that Sam had moved back to stand next to Kale and Hubrecht. “You owe my wife an apology.”

She cringed at that ultimatum and wished someone would utter a quick “I’m sorry” to appease Ryder whose easy smile was gone, replaced by a hard line of anger.

“We still don’t know what she did,” Sam countered.

Bianca sent Ryder a look, begging him to let it go.

Hubrecht said, “Sam. Kale. I want a word alone with Ryder and Bianca.”

Sam headed for the door, saying, “I’ll be outside with the security team.”  Kale followed him out.

Hubrecht directed Ryder and Bianca over to the sofa and chairs arranged next to the windows overlooking the Buckhead business district.

Once they were seated, Ryder started in. “I thought I could work here, but I can’t. Not when you’re going to treat Bianca this way.”

She had her hand on his thigh and dug a thumb into the hard muscle to stop him. All that did was hurt her thumb. He lifted her hand off of his leg and enclosed it in his hand, giving her fingers a gentle squeeze in return.

Did he think that was going to appease her? She’d just pulled out every stop to save the VDE computer system to gain some trust and Ryder was tossing in the proverbial towel?

What was with that?

“You’re right,” Hubrecht agreed. “Bianca has not been treated well.”

For crying out loud. “I understand protocol for security, Hubrecht.”

He continued as if she hadn’t spoken. “But that is going to change now that I’m clearing her to work for VDE.”

She held perfectly still when she wanted to jump and shout. Murdock would be over the moon with this news.

“Your top people don’t trust her, and I don’t trust them around her. I don’t want her working here,” Ryder argued.

Ryder was going to be the death of her. She squeezed his hand and told him, “You don’t get a say,
Darlin’
.”

“Yes, I do.”

“Ryder,” Hubrecht interrupted. “Hear me out.”

That a boy, Hubrecht. This is your company after all
.

When Ryder started to speak, Bianca cut him off. “I have no intention of us living off your money alone, Ryder. I’m not cut out for shopping and lazing around the house. The fact that I went up against my agency to free you should have told you I’m not a woman who needs anyone to speak for me and I make my own choices.” She took the edge off her words when she asked with all sweetness, “Are we clear, Sweetheart?”