We silently followed Kade to his office. He pointed tothe seats in front of his desk, ordering us to sit down. “Someone want to tell me what the actual fuck happened today?” he boomed.
I stayed silent, not wanting to undermine Lennie.
“Sir, there was a virus implanted…” Before she could finish, she was cut off.
“I know that much, Len! What I’m asking is how the hell was the virus able to get in the system in the first place!” He leaned on the heels of his palms on the desk.
“From what we gathered, the virus was implanted internally,” I commented.
He slowly turned his attention to me. “Internally.” It was a statement, not a question.
“Yes, sir. We are still running some analytics to pinpoint a time frame of when it was implanted.” I continued to explain. “The files I mentioned the other day–”
“You were told not to worry about those accounts,” Kade interrupted.
“I understand, sir, but I couldn’t just not do anything to help today!” My voice raised. I understood he was upset, however, he should be kissing my ass. Without me catching and stopping the virus, he could have lost everything.
Lennie sat in silence, tears filling her eyes.
“So forgive me for wanting to keep our clients' and company’s information off the dark web,” I seethed.
“She’s right, sir,” Lennie whispered.
His glare returned to her.
“Had it not been for her figuring out where the problem was coming from… we could have lost everything.” Her voice grew stronger as she spoke. “I gave her clearance to access the rest of our systems. If you want to be pissed at someone, then be pissed at me.” She met his stare before his eyes softened.
Pinching the bridge of his nose, Kade sat in his chair before looking back at us. “What can I do to help?”
The question was directed to Lennie, although I responded.
“Damage control. I have a list of accounts that were affected by the virus. I think it would be a good idea to let the clients know of the attempted breach, but assure them that we have it handled.”
He raised an eyebrow at me. His jaw ticked. He was not pleased with me taking charge.
“Evelyn, send me the list. Lennie, keep me updated and let me know when the rest of the analytics are in. Under no circumstances are you to discuss this with the other departments.” We both nodded and stood.
Lennie was the first to leave. I didn’t blame her. I couldn’t wait to get away from the powerful man that now sat at his desk.
I pushed down the handle to leave. “Oh and Ms. Mowers… I will only say this once. Next time there won’t be a next time if you do not follow an order.” I scowled at him.
As I stormed out of Kade’s office, I bumped into a wall, not a wall, a man and yelped. Machine put his hands on my shoulders to stabilize me.
“Easy there.”
“Sorry,” I mumbled as I stepped past him.
I spent the rest of the day being pissed at Kade. I didn’t care how gorgeous he was, a simple “thank you” would have been awesome. I couldn't wait to go to Badger’s self-defense class tonight to work off some aggression.
TEN
KADE
The one day I did not come to the office early was the one day that almost cost me the entire company. I’d paid Ricci avisit this morning to give him a gift; the ears of the transporter- the ones Machine had cut off last night. Our conversation from there had been less than productive.
Once I reached the office, I was bombarded with questions, calls, texts, and emails. Knowing I was harsh with Lennie, I made sure to send her a text letting her know that her favorite donuts from her favorite bakery would be delivered that afternoon.
I had been so angry to find out that Evelyn went against an order; however, I couldn't help but admire her dedication. She evidently cared about the clients and their personal information. I didn’t know enough about Evelyn. Except that she drank more coffee than a human should, she had a cute cat and wore silly slipper socks.
