AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I really don’t mind.”
“You’ve done enough, Aurora.” And then, softly, “Thank you.”
The butterflies in my stomach flutter. I don’t think I’ve ever heard him thank me before, and so earnestly. I’m tempted to stay. For whatever reason, I want to prove myself to him. That I’m a capable member of the team.
But I take one look at the clock and see that it’s almost midnight. I’m exhausted and on the brink of a serious caffeine crash. My eyes are so dry it’s almost painful. What I really want right now is to crawl into bed and get some well-deserved shut eye before I have to come back to work and start a new day.
“Okay,” I say with a heavy sigh. “I’ll call it a day, then.”
“Good work,” Luka compliments. He’s stiff in his delivery, but I’m pretty sure he’s sincere.
“I’ll walk you out,” Mikhail says as I gather my coat and bag.
I think about protesting. It’s really not necessary. But something about his tone tells me there’s no point in arguing. Mikhail walks with me to the elevator, a protective hand on the center of my back. He says nothing the entire ride down to the ground floor, but I can sense something’s off.
“Misha?” I whisper as we step out into the lobby together. “Is everything—”
“How are you getting home?” he asks, looking around. Everything about him is stiff and on high alert.
“I just need to hop onto the subway, and then it’s a short ten-minute walk.”
He shakes his head in disapproval. “No.”
“What do you mean,no?”
“I’ll drive you.”
“But—”
“Come on,kisa. Let’s get you home.”
Chapter 16
Mikhail
Iwalk her straight to her door, keeping my eyes out for any signs ofhim.
The moment Luka told me someone had hacked into our system, I knew it must have been Konstantin. He’s the only one brazen and stupid enough to take CyberFort on alone. When he sent me a text not five minutes later, he all but confirmed my suspicions.
We’re officially at war.
And if it wasn’t for Aurora, things could have taken a turn for the worse.
I’m not looking forward to my conversation with Jonathan Young. He’s going to be pissed about the security breach, though I’m still holding out hope that Luka will be able to find a backup copy somewhere within our endless storage cloud. I trust we’ll be able to play it off like nothing happened. Young will be none the wiser, and we’ll have foiled Konstantin’s first attempt at twisting our arms.
The fact that he was able to get to us at all, however, is disconcerting. The fact that our defenses were so easily circumvented by one fucking hyperlink and an idiotic intern has me reeling. Buck should have known better. Now he’s the second intern in as many days who gets the privilege of packing their things and searching for a job elsewhere. A mistake, one that could have cost me millions, is an inexcusable defense.
When I look over my shoulder for the umpteenth time, Aurora rolls her eyes.
“Would you relax? You’re freaking me out.”
“Nothing wrong with being aware of your surroundings,” I retort.
“This is a safe neighborhood, Mikhail. You’re not going to get mugged.”
“That’s not what I’m concerned about.”
“Right,” she replies dryly as she rifles through her bag for her keys. “Muggers are the least of our concerns when we’ve got Russian mobsters to worry about.”
