It took me hours to fall asleep with Rhett’s words ringing in my head, so when my phone went off at three o’clock in the morning, I wanted to crush the SIM card and go back to bed. But instinct, and a healthy dose of fear, had me grabbing it.

“Hello?”

“We just had an attempted hacking incident.” The voice on the other end was one of my assistants, Erik.

I shot up in bed, fumbling for the light switch to turn on the nightstand lamp. “What? Did they breach? Wait, you said attempted.”

Esme’s voice joined the call. “They made it past the second firewall before the threat was contained and our adaptive security measures crushed them like the little roaches they are.” She had always been more bloodthirsty than Erik, so her comment didn’t surprise me.

“They got through the second?” I sounded like a demented parrot with my repetition, but shock had me fumbling for coherent thoughts.

“Yes, through the second,” Erik confirmed.

“What the hell?”

“That’s what I said. No one has been able to get that far since you designed this system.” This came from Esme.

“Who was it?”

I didn’t bother to ask if they were able to trace it because it would be an insult. My team was good. I wouldn’t have hired them if they hadn’t been kicked out of Stanford for some creative grade switching, also known as hacking into student files and failing three guys on the swim team who wouldn’t stop harassing a friend of theirs. They were expelled, black marks solidly placed on their record, with no chance of getting a decent job with most companies.

Except mine. I appreciated their sense of justice and creativity.

“Some idiot savant in Miami who didn’t know how to cover his tracks well enough to hide from me.”

“Get a name, get the information. Find out everything you can to determine why we were targeted.”

“It might be another punk just trying to prove himself, you know? We’ve got a reputation as being impenetrable because of your genius brain, which makes us a big, beautiful target.”

Esme had a point. By being virtually hack-proof, there was always an idiot out to test his skills against my security. So far, we’d napalmed anyone who had gotten past the first barriers, and this jerk-face would be no different. But it did worry me that he’d gotten further than most.

I took a deep, calming breath, inhaling the lavender diffusing at my bedside. Look for the opportunity when presented with a problem. That was how I’d built an incredibly successful business, and I wouldn’t let emotion get in the way here.

“This just means I need to get more creative and do some tweaking. It’s time to adapt and change, something I’ve clearly been neglecting this week.”

Normally, I updated my security protocols at least twice a week, but since being back in New Orleans, my schedule was off. It proved, once again, that complacency represented weakness.

While I had one big glaring weakness in my personal life who’d left me needing to take care of business myself tonight, I didn’t have them in my professional life.

Immediately, my mind went to Carlos. Had he hired the hacker out of spite? Just to prove to me I wasn’t as good as I thought I was?

Even though the possibility burned, I voiced it. “Check for any connection between the idiot savant and Carlos.”

“Really? Why would he want to . . .” Erik’s question trailed off.

“I dumped his cheating ass today. Cut all ties. Maybe this is his way of telling me that he didn’t like my methods.”

“You go, girl! I never liked that douchebag.” Esme’s response was quick and to the point.

“And you never mentioned this because?” It came as a little bit of a surprise that she hadn’t shared her opinion sooner. Esme was nothing if not assertive.

“Didn’t you notice that I brought you celebratory sushi every time you flipped the switch to off-again mode? And I’m pretty sure I made enough snide comments about that ridiculous Lamborghini he drove to compensate for something he’s obviously lacking.”

Thinking back, I remembered both, but I hadn’t made the connection. “Why didn’t you just come out and say it? You know I don’t pick up on hints. I would’ve listened.”

Erik choked out a laugh. “Ari, no offense, but you’re about as good at taking suggestions on your personal life as you are at tennis.”

Oh, he did not just mention “the incident.”

“That’s not fair.”

The phone went completely silent, telling me they hit Mute so I couldn’t hear them laughing. Assholes.

Nine months ago, the CEO of a very prominent Silicon Valley tech company invited me to play tennis with him as we discussed a potential project we could pursue together. My tennis lessons had stopped when they started costing money the summer after fourth grade, so my skills as an adult were basically shit.

After two days of intense private lessons, I’d convinced myself I was good enough to play a casual match.

I was wrong.

My first serve landed right in his ball sac, and the match was over before it could even start. In a high-pitched voice, the other CEO had said maybe we should have our project managers get together to discuss it instead.

I swore up and down that my serve was no indication of my interest in partnering on the project, but he was too busy icing his balls to listen.

I’d sent a bottle of Macallan and a slow-thawing ice pack I’d invented years ago after a bike accident as an apology, and I hadn’t heard anything from him since.

“You can take the phone off Mute now if you’ve gotten your laughs in . . .” My tone was devoid of humor.

Esme and Erik’s chuckles immediately became audible.

“I’m not sure I’ll ever be able to think about that without laughing, Ari,” Esme said. “I’m just putting that out there in case you need to fire me now.”

“I have a buddy who works there who said he still shields his balls whenever someone makes a sudden move in his direction.” Erik’s words were barely understandable through the giggles.

“Are you cry-laughing? I swear to God, Erik.”

“I’ll stop. I promise.”

“Moving on. I’ll dig into the security issue as soon as we’re off the phone. It’s not like I was getting much sleep tonight anyway.”

“Oh, really? Why is that?” Esme didn’t bother to hide the interest in her tone.

“I’ll give you one guess.”

My assistants were no strangers to the history surrounding my ridiculous crush on Rhett. Heath had taken care of that a few visits ago when we went out for dinner and drinks, and all the stories came out.

“No way!” Esme yelled. I could picture her doing a fist pump.

“What happened?” Erik asked.

“He kissed me. Or maybe I kissed him. I don’t know. There was kissing.”

“Eeep!”

I swore I heard them trade a high-five.

“This is huge,” Esme said.

“I want to know what else is huge,” Erik added. “Wait, I take that back. I don’t want to know. Forget I said anything.”

Rather than reprimand him as would probably be more appropriate in this situation, I let it slide. I didn’t have a normal employee-employer relationship with these two, and that was the way we worked best.

“He won’t make a real move without my brother’s approval, though.”

“Really? I’m not sure how I feel about that. You’re a grown-ass woman who doesn’t need anyone to give her permission to do anything.”

“Exactly!” I yelled. Esme obviously understood where I was coming from.

“Cut the guy some slack.” Erik took the devil’s advocate position, as always. “He was a cop and all about honor and serving others. Why would he want to do something that he sees as a betrayal of his friend? He probably shouldn’t have kissed you to begin with, and I bet he’s wrestling with that hard now.” A slap of skin on skin came through the line. “Dammit, Esme, don’t hit me.”

“Then don’t say stupid things.”

“Stop. It’s fine.” I’d played peacemaker between these two often enough to start feeling like their big sister, which was a signal it was time to wrap up this conversation. “I’m jumping off here, and I’m going to spend some quality time with our defenses. Have alpha team attempt entry in the morning. You two can call it a night.”

“You swear you’ll keep us up-to-date on the hot-detective saga?” This came from Erik.

“He’s not a detective anymore, but yes.”

“Stand your ground, Ari. Don’t settle for scraps from this guy just because he’s been your holy grail for fifteen years.”

“Thank you for the reminder. Now, go to bed.”

I hung up before they could give me any more advice, but as soon as the room went silent, I missed their presence. Now I was alone in a big empty house with nothing but work to keep me company.

Story of my life.