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“That’s what I told her,” I confirmed. “I might have considered volunteering, but we both know I’m no use to a medical charity when I have no first aid skills.”
Grandfather didn’t waste breath arguing about whether my parents felt that way. He reached across the table and took my hand, which also made me feel like a little kid, but in a good way. “More fool them if that’s what they think, Kevin. You’ve saved hundreds of lives in your own way. You’re intelligent and kind and good.”
“Sure. Not to mention devastatingly handsome,” I joked since I didn’t want to argue about it.
I wondered if I could get my grandfather to call Hux and tell him what a good person I was. I figured Hux was at that moment telling Champ I was a menace, simply because I’d tried to help him out.
I quickly changed the subject after that by pulling up some glamour shots of Rodrigo in his tiny vest, to my grandfather’s delight… but as we ate our sandwiches, it was harder to stop thinking about it.
One of the downsides—okay, maybe the only downside—to being born into a wealthy, philanthropic family was that I’d very quickly become aware of all the sadness and unfairness in the world, and that made it genuinely hard to feel like I’d done enough good to make up for the advantages I’d had in life.
Yes, I gave tons of money away. Yes, I’d developed some patents that I’d given away too. But my grandfather was a huge philanthropist. My parents had devoted their lives to their work. Heck, Carter’s parents had died on a medical aid trip when he was just a kid, and Carter himself had worked with Doctors Across Continents for years.
I wanted to do more. To truly help people in a tangible way, like they all did.
Which was maybe why it pissed me off so much when Hux continually reminded me how useless he thought I was. It hit a little too close to home.
Grandfather and I chatted about a few projects he’d been working on, as well as some research I’d been doing, and our lunch passed quickly and happily.
As I drove back to the Thicket, I felt better than I had in a long time. I’d needed some time away from the house, away from the overpowering group of ex-military personnel who’d taken over my peace like a team of caffeinated rhinos trapped in a tea shop.
But after the interaction with Maggie, I also felt a little bit guilty for making Hux look incompetent in his job.
Yes, my intentions had been good… mostly. And yes, Hux was a jerk who’d chosen the worst possible interpretation of my motives and who should have listened to me. But also… there were many less-embarrassing ways I could have accomplished my aim. So why had I picked the one that would provoke him the most?
When I finally got back to the house, Champ’s team was still hard at work around the kitchen table. I avoided them and slunk down to my lair the back way so I wouldn’t have to make annoying small talk with anyone.
Guilt made me get to work immediately on fixing the security vulnerability… but when I actually settled to work, what I found was enough to send a wobble of dread into my stomach.
Someone had already taken advantage of the vulnerability and tried to take control of one of the servers on the network.
Fuck.
After another hour of hacking my way down several rabbit holes, I discovered the intruder was working from a local IP address. Of all the HOG joints in all the world, how was the hacker here in the Thicket? Unless…
On a hunch, I took another tack and hacked into HOG’s location-tracking system, asking my system to run a scan on Vince Parler’s current location.
“Understood, sire. We’ll notify you once it’s complete,” Henry Cavill assured me.
Then I began the slow, meticulous process of accessing employment records at the DEA so I could figure out what excuse Vince had given them for his leave of absence.
I needed to remember my plan from yesterday: help Champ and Hux’s team close this case once and for all so I could get these meatheads out of my house once and for all. So I could go back to my regular, peaceful, Hux-less life. So I could have the freedom to invite Adam for a visit, and we could burn my virginity card to ashes.
I closed my eyes and gritted my teeth. If you wanted them gone, why did you infiltrate Hux’s system to get them back here?
“Because he needs to know he isn’t Mr. Perfect Cybersecurity Expert,” I muttered under my breath.
Which was also true. But my flipping stomach suggested the real reason had way more to do with the goofy gamer who fairly reeked of competence when people were looking… and who baby-talked his bunny when they weren’t.
