"Last weekend never happened."
That's what Olivia Graham repeatedly told herself after her earth-shattering encounter with him.
And yet, she couldn't shake the way her lips burned when she recalled his kiss or the phantom sensation of his fingertip...
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Olivia returns my silent treatment, pulling her hand away from my grasp. She walks out the door as my attempts to make her stay appear futile.
I fucked up.
Watching as she gets into the car, my chest tightens and guilt overwhelms me.
What the fuck was I thinking?!
I text her, hoping she'll give me a chance to explain in the morning, and to let me know when she's home safe, but based on the way her eyes broke before me, I'm not sure she'll even reply.
When she told me she heard some of our conversation in the office, I panicked. The more she knows, the more dangerous it is for her. I can't lose her. I refuse to lose anyone else.
That's if I haven't already lost her.
Refilling my glass with scotch, I decide to drown myself in regret. Regret for my actions tonight and regret for the mistakes I made years ago, putting me in this very situation.
Mickey and I were fucking idiots.
We believed we were invincible and had the world at our fingertips. I was cocky and careless. I justified my idiotic actions because I convinced myself we were actually doing something good. We were making a difference and a shit-ton of money in the process.
As the dollar amount increased on every contract, I stopped vetting the companies as closely as before, because the risk was worth the reward.
Or so I thought.
Mickey had his doubts when we agreed to work with Covenant Technology, but I encouraged it.
Before we'd work with a business I'd screen them, having my guys do a packet analysis assessing the company's true intentions. We'd intercept and log traffic that passed over their computer network, monitoring their activity for weeks. Once my team confirmed they were clean enough, we'd proceed with the contract.
Covenant Technology had a short time-frame to accomplish the hack and they were willing to pay top-dollar, if we could complete our end of the deal in time.
This should've been the first red flag.
But they seemed reputable and had many referrals. They had all the right answers and were fairly knowledgeable. Even our contacts on the dark web couldn't find anything on them.
This should've been the second red flag.
Instead of going through our normal, lengthy evaluation process, we made the decision to work with them, using the glowing reviews and financial gain to rationalize.
The goal was to hack a corrupt corporation, accessing their classified project—an unauthorized deployment and operation of a satellite.
