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And I can't let him find out—for one thing, he could respond some horrible way, or hell, he's clearly well off, and he might want to take her away from me to raise her somewhere better. I have no doubt someone with his deep pockets and connections would easily win custody of Evelyn in court.
But that would destroy me. I can't lose Evelyn, so he can't know about her. Therefore, it would be averygood idea to turn this down and run for my life.
On the other hand…we need money. Badly. My father's gambling debts have been burying us alive ever since he took his own life, and it's only getting worse with interest every single day. Between that and rising living expenses and my mother getting to retirement age with no real money or savings to her name…
Whether or not Domenic intends to pay me for helping with this, I can figure something out so long as I'm not punished the way some other hacker would be.
I can do this. It's just another challenge, and I'll overcome whatever challenge comes my way until I can get out of this rut I've been in for the last seven years and give Evelyn a good life.
Only a second has passed between Domenic's prompt and my thoughtful silence. I turn and face the security team eyeing me and decide to fake it until I make it.
Bring it on.
"The slot machines used at the Golden Flame Casino are fairly up to date, but simple modifications to the interior and to the overall programming of the machines will perfect the RNG where it matters the most: timing," I say firmly, looking at each of them in turn.
They just stare back, some of them curious and others looking doubtful.
"I'm sure you all know that each pull is determined the second a customer hits the button, but one full second is more than enough time for a well-designed device to hack into the machine's settings and adjust the random generation until it's not so random anymore. Any good hacker worth their spit can slowly but surely rig exactly what amount they need out of the slots and get away scot-free without raising a single flag. I could do it with my eyes shut, but I'd really like to make it more of a challenge for people coming in here with…ill intentions."
Now they all look surprised by what I've said, and a couple glance at each other. I almost melt on the spot when I catch Domenic's eye because he almost looks…impressed.
On the other hand, Big Luck is glaring at me like he knows I'm exactly the type to come in here withill intentions.
"No one can really hack a slot machine," one of the security guys, who was checking me out when I came in, argues. He motions at the screen showing several players there, including the older man who reminds me so much of my father. "They'd have to set up an entire system to program per every machine pull and at least have their phone out to make changes to that programming. There's no way they can just score the jackpot—"
I snort, rolling my eyes at him before I can help it. "Oops. Sorry. Didn't mean to laugh at you. It's just that programming iseasilydone beforehand. It's not a perfect system, but that's actually what hackers prefer most of the time because scoring a jackpot raises all kinds of flags. Believe me, your adversaries know how to nickel and dime you to death without anyone being the wiser."
"And…you think you can help stop that?" the girl asks dubiously.
"I know I can," I correct with a wink.
Apparently, faking it until I make it is paying off because none of them look like they want to argue.
I don't dare look back up at Domenic, even though I can still feel his eyes on me. I also feel every inch of space between us in both the best and worst ways possible—part of me wonders if I should step away, and the other part of me wishes I could lean against him to find out if he's as muscled and hot and perfect as he was three years ago.
Get a hold of yourself. You're still in deep shit.
"As you can see, Miss Rally will be a boon to the casino," Domenic says. "She will begin work here tomorrow. I expect her to be given access to security measures gradually while she is trained on our systems bit by bit. Moving on. Vivian, give me the updates for the night."
One of the other security team members begins giving him an update on the general proceedings of the Golden Flame today as they've seen it from this room, but I take a second to tune out and take a deep breath.
My nerves are still screaming because of how tense I am, but at least the security team seems to buy who I am and the story Domenic offered for me running like that earlier.
And honestly, if what Domenic claims is true and he wants to hire me to use my expertise to mitigate against hackers at the Golden Flame…well, it makes sense. It's like consulting a retired professional bank robber for advice on how to stop a bank robbery from happening.
But at the same time, I can't fully bring myself to believe he really means this. I mean, why wouldn't he treat me like any other hacker?
Surely it can't be because of that night over three years ago. I was shocked enough that he recognized and remembered me at all—but there's no way he was doing this to protect me. He was pretty damn pissed when he found out what I'd been doing back then, so I wouldn't consider himattachedto me by any stretch.
Perhaps he's been looking for someone to consult about the hacking spike in Las Vegas casinos. But will he really trust me to run any kind of security operation in this place when he knows I took from it once before?
He'll definitely be watching me closely if he does.Tooclosely.
And I don't want him keeping such a close eye on me because he might see things about my life…like Evie.
I'll keep her a secret. Everything about me is off the table—I'll just come in here, do a damn good job, and hopefully get paid, and I'll leave every day without giving in to the temptation to just hack a quick buck and run.
"…because the Wild Seven wiped those feeds," Vivian says.
