“Yes?” I respond with a bright expression.
But Hunter isn’t having it with my attitude. “Don’t do that. You’re smarter than that.”
I shrug innocently.
“What happened?”
“Nothing.”
“Heartbreaker, you were unresponsive for three minutes. You scared us all half to death,” Hunter explains, making me feel guilty. “What happened?”
My shoulders sag as the façade rolls away.
I have to tell them. I can’t pretend I didn’t see it.
My only hope is that they still want me after.
Rolling my lips, my eyes fall to my lap. “I found out how the hacker got through your security.”
“That’s great!” Rory exclaims.
“How did you find it?” Luke inquires.
“I recognize it,” I admit, twisting my fingers. The lack of response piques my curiosity, and I tilt my head up.
“How?” Luke queries again.
Letting out a pensive breath, my entire body clenches. “I wrote it.”
Rory’s mouth hangs open wide enough to catch flies. Luke’s arms are folded across his chest, but his face is alarmingly blank. Hunter’s lips are flat, and his face is pinched.
Hunter pulls up a chair, lowering himself to my level. “I’m going to need you to explain that right now.”
Rory and Luke follow Hunter’s example and drop back into their seats.
My lungs fill, preparing myself to tell them something very few people know. “John, my father?—”
“He doesn’t deserve that title,” Luke interjects.
Rory reaches across the table and smacks Luke’s arm. “Let her talk.”
“It needs to be said,” Luke defends himself.
“Shut it,” Hunter barks at them, then says to me, “Continue.”
Nodding my head, I do just that. “John had the same job in IT throughout my entire childhood, and sometimes he would work from home and set up shop at the kitchen table. My mom would get irritated by the sound of typing while she was makingdinner. I’d make my own computer out of cardboard and sit next to him, pretending to type.” The memory forces a slight smile on my lips. “As I got older, he’d teach me things here and there. I picked it up quickly and eventually was able to code on my own. John would have me encrypt, decrypt, debug, build from scratch, and all that.”
Rory’s eyes widen. “That’s impressive.”
“Thanks,” I respond with a shrug. “One day, we started a project together. I was so excited to work alongside him as his equal. We were building a vulnerability scanner and patching program that could detect holes in a security system and fix them. What I didn’t know was that on John’s side, he was making a framework that would inject payloads into the vulnerabilities that would shut down their entire system without notifying the security company or the homeowner.”
Luke tilts his head. “That’s how he got into their houses?”
I nod in confirmation.
“And that’s the code you’re seeing in our system now?” Hunter leans forward in his chair.
“Yes.” I chew on my bottom lip.
