Page 74 of Kings of Violence

“Access the cameras first,” Yuri says. “That way Nikolai can join us.”

“Yeah,” I say absently, scanning the room. The setup is basic, and better than that, the intranet is using a default password. It’s hard to believe just how lucky I am. If I were in charge, I’d fire the head of security.

I’ll take advantage of the carelessness and stupidity, though.

I take care of the cameras, nodding to Yuri. “You can tell him to come into the side door, the one near the freight dropoffs. He’ll have a clear shot to us.”

Yuri nods and sits down on the desk chair, casually taking his phone out to text Nikolai.

I get to work sorting through what I have access to.

I don’t have full admin access, but with the camera access I can view most of the rooms in the building. I spot the security room, even, and it feels weird that they’re being surveilled while they’re surveilling. Of course, surveillance also works better if one of the guards on duty wasn’t taking a nap, and the other one only glances up occasionally between watching something on his phone.

I roll my eyes and switch the camera feed that shows Nikolai before the guard looks up at his screens again.

“Did you know security here was so lax?” I ask Yuri.

“Of course.” Yuri gives me a strange look. “We wouldn’t have brought you someplace it was likely to get deadly.”

Something flutters in my stomach, something I can’t identify, and it momentarily gives me pause. I don’t let it distract me for long, though, turning back to the cameras and making sure I cover Nikolai’s path to us.

For fuck’s sake, this shouldn’t be so easy.

It has my hackles up, and I slow down, taking extra care with what I’m doing.

“Tell Nikolai he should be in the clear,” I say. “I’m gonna start trying to find… something. Weapons, files, a paper trail of shell companies, whatever.”

Yuri nods. “Sounds good. I will be here, watching you.”

“Awesome,” I say, and I’d be sarcastic if I wasn’t so distracted.

I don’t spot anything on any of the camera feeds, so if weapons are hidden here, they aren’t in an obvious location. Since that’s a bust, I decide to take a closer look at the files on the server.

The first time I’d actually hacked into a computer, it had been Kyran’s laptop that he’d left on the kitchen island. I’d used every trick I could think of to hack into it, just to prove to myself that I could.

Then I looked up his browsing habits. Not just the browser history, but checking all the server logs to see what websites he’d accessed that he’d gone out of his way to keep private.

Let’s just say, I’d regretted it afterward.

Who knew my brother was such a kinky,gaydude?

Sean’s porn habits were tame in comparison—and I hadn’t tried finding out my dad’s. There’s some things a person is never prepared for.

Hacking into Kyran’s laptop was easier than what I’m doing now, but a lot of the same principles apply. And given how lax security has been so far…

“Did you find the password taped under the keyboard over there?” I ask Yuri.

Yuri laughs and shakes his head. “No, but I did find a two-factor dongle in the desk drawer.” He tosses the dongle at me, and I catch it.

“Seriously? They just left this right next to their server?” I gripe. “It’s like they want to be hacked.”

“In their defense, itwasa locked drawer.” He smiles. “These desk locks are child’s play, though.”

I shake my head. That doesn’t surprise me. I insert the dongle so I can access the server files.

The door opens, and I automatically say, “Hi, Nikolai,” withoutpausing in my typing. I don’t really want to sift through all the files, so I start a copy process.

It’s going to take ages to transfer 3 GB of data. Great.

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