Page 79 of Nixon’s Promise

“Typically, complicated suggests difficulty.”

“It can also mean: complex, intricate, involved, tangled. All things that are not bad. We are involved and I want that to continue. I want us tangled, in every complex and intricate way we can be. I want our lives to comingle. I want to get up in the morning, have breakfast with you, and drive into the office together.”

The butterflies that had been swarming now felt like elephants stampeding.

“I’d like that.” I paused and smiled up at him. “But may I ask you to add one more thing to your morning ritual?”

“What’s that?”

“Before we get out of bed, to go down to breakfast…” Suddenly I was too embarrassed to ask for what I’d wanted. Not only was I embarrassed, but I didn’t know the right way to form my request. Asking him to fuck me first made it sound like all I was interested in was his dick. Making love made it sound like I thought we were in love. Which I totally was, even though it was super-fast and a little crazy. And the only other word I could think of was ‘bang’, and I wasn’t some twenty-something who was going to ask Nixon Swagger to bang me.

Nix stepped closer, both his hands going to my neck, before they trailed up the sides of my face and into my hair. He pulled my lips a nigh distance from his and whispered.

“That’s a given, baby. You think I’d let you roll outta bed before I first gave you something good to start your day?”

I couldn’t answer, because his mouth slammed onto mine and he gave me the kiss I was daydreaming about downstairs.

30

Five men and one woman were all sitting around one of the plastic folding tables Holden and Chasin had driven to Delaware to get. They’d bitched about the forty-five minute drive each way and razzed Nixon about living in the middle of nowhere when they’d returned with table and chairs.

Nixon knew all of the things Kent County lacked; he also knew all of the things it didn’t. After being home for months, he’d already slipped back into the slow, easy way of life. Not missing the hustle of the city. Not missing the traffic, or the rush of people.

He might complain about the nosy busybodies who loved to gossip, but he’d take them over the ones in the city who were plotting and scamming, trying to fuck you over any way they could.

McKenna had set up a network with surprising speed and skill. The skill wasn’t actually a surprise, though he hadn’t fully grasped her level of expertise. It was the speed at which she had them set up that was.

“The network isn’t fully secure,” she reminded the group. “I have firewalls in place and we’re running through several VPNs. But I’ll need a few days to lock us down completely. Whatever you do, don’t open attachments, download something, or send any important data over the internet.”

The five men all agreed, something they’d done the two other times she’d recapped.

“The message board has been quiet all morning,” Holden told the group.

“Did you get into the backend?” McKenna asked.

Holden had been trying to hack the message board to view the member list, but as of last night he still hadn’t done it.

“No,” he grumbled agitatedly.

“Mind if I try?” McKenna cautiously asked.

“Thought you’d never offer. Have at it.” Holden stood up, happy not to have to sit behind a computer anymore. He’d always been the one in their group to pace while they were in a briefing. Something that had irritated the hell out of their Command Master Chief.

McKenna went to work, her fingers flying over the keyboard at a pace Nixon wasn’t sure was advantageous for accuracy but he let her be. Instead, he focused on planning a mission they needed to carry out in under three days and he still didn’t know jackshit about shit.

All he could do at this juncture was plot points of entry and egress. He’d also have a plan B and several fallback locations. Better to have a backup if the operation goes tits-up than standing around with their dicks swinging in the wind.

“I’m in,” McKenna announced.

“Goddamn, woman,” Holden muttered. “At least you could’ve waited ten more minutes to broadcast you bested me.”

“Sorry, friend, I’m good at this. So, what are we looking for?”

“Is there an admin log?” Chasin asked.

“Yep. I’ll pull it up and print it. What else?”

“IP address of the person signing in as the moderator and the IP addresses for the members.”