“Yes, I understand.We’ll be over in a couple of hours.”I ended the call, turned the phone screen side down on the nightstand, then sat on the bed and memorized every aspect of the woman under the covers.“Keep staring at me like that, and we’ll never leave this bedroom.”
Her eyes brightened.“Maybe another day.Was that about my battery?”
“Yes.It’s dead.Chase is going to install a new one.”
Emma pulled the sheet around her as she slid out of bed.“Thank you.”She brushed a kiss across my cheek before she made her way out of the bedroom.Then I heard the guest bathroom door shut.
I stood and took a step before I could stop myself.No.If I went in there, we’d never get out of this house.I grabbed some clean clothes and went into my bathroom.I turned on the shower then brushed my teeth.Memories from last night kept running in my head, and I was semi-erect when I stepped into the shower.I decreased the hot water and let the water flow over my back as it cooled.
Nope.I will ignore my body and think about a plan.
Okay, yeah.Once her car was fixed, I’d follow her home and convince her to pack more clothes and come back to my house.
Even considering that was another new thing for me.I’d never asked a woman to stay at my house before.I was breaking all of my rules for Emma.
I wanted her with me.
Chapter Thirty
Emma
Monday morning, I drove to the office with a big grin on my face.Asher and I spent the weekend together.Chase installed a new battery, and my vehicle was purring like a contented kitten.
Asher had followed me home, then convinced me to go back to his place.
Not that it took much.I wanted to spend time with him.But I had my conditions.I was taking my car.That way I could leave from his house on Monday and not have to go home or ride with him.He agreed, and I packed enough.
Now it was back to the real world, rather than the little cocoon we’d built over the weekend.Asher was waiting for me when I parked, and we walked into the building together.I stopped at Daily Perks to get my usual coffee and muffin.Asher was checking something on his phone and suddenly headed up to the office in a rush, saying he was needed, so I grabbed his coffee too.
He was on the inhouse phone when I walked into the office.I set his coffee cup next to him and went to my workstation, arranged my coffee and muffin next to my keyboard, and dropped my backpack under the desk.I’d get my laptop out later.
“How the hell did that happen?”Asher bit out.
Oh boy, that didn’t sound good.I reached over to switch on my computer.
“Emma, don’t.”He wasn’t yelling, but his voice stopped me cold.
“What?”I straightened and stared at him.I didn’t move to sit down.
“Don’t turn it on.”His tone left no room for questions.He went back to his call.I watched him on the phone, and he actually looked somewhat pale.“I’ll get started on this end.… Yeah, good move on the network.I’ll call you as soon as I have anything.You do the same.”He slammed the receiver down.
He was furious, and his features were tight.
“What happened?”I pulled out my chair and slowly sat down.I didn’t take my eyes off Asher.
He picked up his coffee and took a sip.“Thank you for this.”
“You’re welcome.Now tell me what’s going on.”
He grimaced.“There’s a high probability there have been multiple unauthorized attempts to access encrypted files on one or more of the servers.”
“Why didn’t they notify you?”My heart dropped.“How bad?”
“They didn’t find it until this morning because the security protocols weren’t tripped until about two hours ago.Nothing pinged overnight, and just after the day shift came on, the alarm tripped.Ben immediately pulled up the access logs and the keystroke logs.He’s locked down the network so that only he and I can get on right now.Even Boyd can’t log on.Luckily he’s not here yet.Anyway, Ben sent out a nine-one-one to the team.That’s why I had to bolt right after we walked into the building.”Asher raked his fingers through his hair.“The team’s not sure how bad this is yet; they’re still digging into the logs.”
“That’s why you didn’t want me to turn on my computer.”
“Yes.We’re on our own subnet, and I can access the company mainframe from here.Ben did tell me that none of the firewalls were breached.He wasn’t willing to go into more detail.At least not yet.”
