I sit across from him at the four seater table, and Eleanor takes the chair between us. William sighs at Carlson who is still frozen in place by the kitchen.
“Carlson, sit down.” William kicks out the final empty seat to be sure he understands where he should sit. Eleanor’s penchant for literal and blunt speaking has nothing on Carlson’s; it’s a likely possibility Carlson would drop to his ass without any clarification on where exactly he should sit. He takes a hesitant step toward us. “With your laptop,” William adds.
Carlson nods and grabs the tech that’s never far from reach before dropping onto the chair. If looking everywhere but at Eleanor was an Olympic sport, Carlson would take gold. Meanwhile, she is staring at him like she is cataloging his every breath and putting together puzzle pieces that have been out of reach.
“Explain,” William barks, making Carlson jump so hard his glasses slide down his nose. I need to tighten those up for him again.
Carlson nods, then steals a quick glance at Eleanor before opening his mouth. Snapping it shut, he types on his laptop at a speed unfathomable to most. Eleanor watches him withinterest, leaning forward in her seat to watch his keystrokes. He might know her identity, but she has one clear advantage over Carlson. He doesn’t push himself out of his comfort zone socially, preferring to stay in his bubble with his screens and code. Eleanor might hate it, but she has learned how to mimic the correct behavior in any given situation, so long as she’s had enough time to figure out which mask to wear. She might not understand why people behave in a certain way, but she can play along so well you’d never know. It is her least favorite thing on the planet, except for Jonathan, but she’s more immersed in the real world, at least in comparison to the genius on our payroll.
“At six twenty-six yesterday morning, an unknown entity attempted to hack into our network.” Carlson flicks his eyes at Eleanor, who hasn’t even blinked. He swallows and redirects his attention to the screen, sitting up straighter in his chair. “They were, um…” He tilts his head as he tries to come up with a word conveying what he means without being too technical. It’s something I’ve been working on him with. “Sloppy.”
Eleanor tilts her head, a silent cue for him to continue. “They know their way around a basic firewall, but what skill they have for breaking in, they have zero in leaving the room as they found it.”
“They left a trail?” I ask.
He nods enthusiastically. “They took a dump in our house and didn’t wipe or flush.”
William pinches the bridge of his nose with a muffled sigh. Eleanor snorts. I stifle a laugh, happy to see the kid relaxed and comfortable for once. “That’s a good try, C, but your execution on the analogy was a little off.”
Eleanor’s eyes widen, her spine stiffening as I confirm this is the elusive C who has been playing with her.Be gentle, trouble, he’s just a boy.
“We get the gist,” William says as he wrestles his tone and strives for patience. “But it’s not like we haven’t had attempts before; they are fairly regular.”
Carlson nods. “We have on average one point six attempts per week.”
No one is going to point out to him that you can’t realistically have a point six of an attempt because then we will get an undergrad level lecture on statistics. I smirk to myself. Been there, done that.
“What is so special about this one?” I ask, moving the conversation along so I can get back to the kiss I still need to steal from Eleanor.
“The attempts are usually from other MCs, some cartels, or law enforcement.” He snorts like he finds the thought of legal agencies adept enough to get into our network laughable. They would have been before Carlson. “This one, however, came from the fashion giant Burnside.”
Fuck. William catches my gaze before sliding his eyes to Eleanor. She hasn’t outwardly reacted, but she’s so still, it’s clear she’s holding back a tirade of curses that would make a sailor blush. Or maybe I am so in tune with her, I know what she’s thinking.
Carlson’s fingers fly over his keyboard once more as he shuffles nervously on the chair. He’s like this whenever he’s away from the compound, surrounded by enough screens and bandwidth to impress the woman beside me.
“Once is an anomaly,” Carlson says. True.
“But in this case, the anomaly is significant,” Eleanor says.
Carlson’s entire body freezes as he gets his first experience of hearing her husky voice. She’s not what he expected. I can sympathize.
“C,” I say, bringing him back to the moment.
He blinks and drops his gaze once more. Damn, this boy is going to combust if we don’t get him back to his comfort zone sooner rather than later.
“Right. Significant. Particularly when paired with another attempt tonight, this time traced back to the elite wellness group Freedom.”
Double fuck. Eleanor crosses her arms. “Were they successful?” she asks, the edge in her voice too strong to hide.
Carlson looks at William, who nods in permission. “Sort of. They got access to the outer level. Enough for them to think they’d been successful, but in reality, only gives them information available in the public domain if they looked hard enough.”
“Clever,” Eleanor says, impressed with what C has put in place.
Carlson blushes from his neck to the tips of his ears. Poor guy.
“But this time, they didn’t take a dump and leave.”
I squeeze my eyes closed, letting out a slow breath.Let it go, man.“What did they do?”
