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“I’ve only had her for a week.” Grant lifted the kitten onto his chest and scratched her ears. “She’s still adjusting.”
He felt Rory grinning at him. “What?”
“It’s just cute, that’s all.” She tweaked his ear. “Big, scowly Grant Taylor with the bulging muscles who burns meat with fire…has a pet kitten named Button.”
“Yeah, well, don’t tell anyone.”
“It’ll be our secret.” She kissed his shoulder. “Are you hungry?”
“I guess that means you are.” Setting the kitten down, he reached for his boxer briefs. “What’d you want?”
“I’ll go with you.”
After they were both dressed, they returned to the Mousehole kitchen. Grant set a pot of water on the stove to boil and drizzled a pan with olive oil before getting a few containers from the walk-in.
“What are you making?” Rory perched on a stool near the stove.
“Shrimp and scallops with linguine and roasted vegetables.” He slanted her a glance as he started unwrapping the green beans. “Before I feed you, tell me how you managed to take down your tormentors and put a massive crack right through the entire tech industry.”
“That was good, wasn’t it?” Even as she smiled, a shadow passed over her lovely features. “All five of the men had big digital footprints. Social media, accounts with a ton of services, many different emails, articles, everything you can think of. It didn’t take much work to dig up a bunch of dirt.”
She shook her head, her expression darkening. “Three of them are married and one has a fiancée, but I found a profile on a dating website specifically for men seeking affairs, and another had uploaded stuff to revenge porn sites. They all had lots of porn accounts, some with legally questionable content. One of them had sent explicit emails to the woman he was having an affair with, including pictures, and another posted regularly on dark web forums. Two of the men had multiple complaints filed against them at previous jobs. Just a lot of shitty stuff that proved they were assholes with very little conscience.”
“What did you do with the info?” Grant tossed the sliced carrots and zucchini into a pan.
“I was going to mail the packages to their wives and fiancée.” Her mouth twisted, and she rubbed her finger on the edge of the counter. “And to Douglas’s mother since he doesn’t have a girlfriend. But I didn’t want to blindside other women like that, so instead I sent copies of everything to the Digicore CEO and the top executives, as well as HR and the media. My guess was that the executives all had skeletons in their closets that they didn’t want exposed. I was pretty sure they’d throw the Terrible Five under the bus in order to save themselves. I was right.
“Then, your father unknowingly helped out by cutting ties with Digicore, which threw everyone into a frenzy. If shitty moral character and allegations of harassment were enough to get five men fired and destroy a potential corporate partnership, then the entire Silicon Valley needed to get on the fucking ball and make some changes.”
“You’re amazing.” Grant shook his head in admiration as he dropped the fresh linguini into the pot. “But I’m still kind of ticked off that I didn’t get to beat those bastards within an inch of their lives.”
She smiled faintly. “Honestly, I would have let you, if I hadn’t known that a beat-down would backlash on you. Plus, I thought there was some poetic justice in using my cyber skills to punish them. For five IT experts, they did a lousy job of covering their tracks. I didn’t expect the whole snowball effect, though, so that was an added bonus.”
“Tough as it was to stay away from you for two weeks, I’m incredibly proud of you.” He leaned over to kiss her temple. “You’ve also given me a hundred more reasons for why I will never have social media or any other accounts.”
“You’re probably the least traceable man in the country.”
“I plan to stay that way, too.” He ladled the seafood onto a plate. After adding the linguini and vegetables, he set the dish in front of her.
“So, what’s next for Rory Prescott?” He turned off the stove burners and leaned against the counter. “You quit Digicore and understandably don’t want to work for Intellix. Do you have another plan?”
She nodded, her eyes downcast as she rolled linguini on her fork. “It’s uncertain, unstable, and could be a complete failure.”
“Sounds great. Restaurant work is the same way.”
“Exactly.” She looked up, a sudden spark lighting in her expression. “That’s what I kept telling myself. Thatyoudid it. Why can’t I?”
“You want to open a restaurant?”
She laughed. “Yeah, sure. The Gummy Worm Café. No, I want to design a software program that Hunter and Studio Twenty-Five, and other people, can use for the Mariposa Street renovation. Or any kind of architectural restoration project.”
Grant blinked in surprise. “That’s a fantastic idea. But I thought you didn’t want to work on that kind of program because architecture and urban planning aren’t in your wheelhouse.”
“I didn’t. And they’re totally not. But neither was medical care when I designed the MedCure program. So I thought, why should I let that stop me? I have a direct line to experts with Hunter and the studio. Plus, the tech industry moves at a breakneck speed, so I’m always learning anyway. This time, I can choose to learn something different.”
She popped a shrimp into her mouth. “Callie is going to connect me with the head of the architecture department at Skyline, and I’ve already signed up to take several online courses. I’ve contacted dozens of people about the project because I want to find ways to include both 3D and 4D technology for the planning, and then later for visitors. There’s a lot of emerging technology for historic sites, but it hasn’t been complied into a singular program for both restoration and development. That’s how I want to change a corner of the world. A whole district, actually.”
“You’ll change much more than that.” Pride in her surged through him yet again. “Are you going to work for Monarch?”
