Page 59 of Unspoken Promises

Like Santi said, trust is hard to get when you don’t give it.

“Seven. There have been seven hacks in the last eight months.”

Her words are breathless. “Seven?”

All I can offer now is a somber nod.

She puts her hand on the doorknob, and I regret we ever have to leave this room.

“We better get to work.”

“Ava…” Her name slips from my mouth. I’m speechless and yet have to say something. “I’m not sure what happened there. Just then… but… I crossed the line.”

She opens the door, and not the one behind her. “Or are we both finally getting on the right side of it?”

20

We setup shop on my dining room table after riding back. This session is going to be way too confidential for the office at the stable yard. I don’t even want Santi overhearing what Ava and I will be discussing. It seems crazy Rio and I kept the stakes surrounding these hacks from our own family, but I’m about to tell a woman with no identity this monumental secret. But in the most unlikely place, at the most unlikely time, this feisty redhead forced me to put down my guard.

Her parting words echo in my mind. Being on the right side. Together. I’m sure she meant on the rightside of this battle at GhostEye, but my God am I starting to wish it meant more. I’d like to be on her side. To have her by mine.

Why the hell do I have to choose between having the most talented cyber engineer I’ve ever met and a woman I could call my own? I’ve never been able to get talent like hers here at GhostEye. Hell, the hacks are proof of that. And now, I have this sexy genius here, and she’s my walking, talking, human resources nightmare.

Not to mention a runaway.

I’m so fucked because I just cannot get out of this loop of indecision. I haven’t known where my emotions stand since her sweet, peachy ass came through those gates. One minute, I’m buttoned up, like I should be, the next I’m about to slip my tongue into her mouth… and more.

I could have stayed locked up behind those doors until we used each and every one of thoseperks.

As we type and click our mouses, her showing me her work and me showing her mine, I think about how pissed Rio will be when we talk about this. She forced my hand. And yet, this feels nothing like force and everything like choice. Ava is proving to be the ultimate teammate. She solves problems before I tell her they’re there. She’s determined to speak with actions not words. If that doesn’t earn some respect from both myself and my brother, I don’t know what will.

But what exactly is she keeping from me? For fuck’s sake, does she need me to donate a kidney or something? Kill somebody? I’ve never done that deed, but when I think of someone hurting her, the urge ignites within me.

The danger chasing her is enough she feels I might say no. Wanting to gain my trust before telling me means one thing—she needs my help, and it’s going to test me. She’s damn wise for a woman her age. I’ll give her that.

I tell her what she needs to know to help us, all about the hacks. I share everything I learned over the last year. I tell her there have been seven hacks that started eight months ago, the first one was a couple months before we put up the hacking contest she won. I tell her no demands have ever been made in all that time. I tell her Rio and I thought the first was an employee password breach, that we resolved the issue and it would turn into nothing, but that it sparked me to put up the contest. That in the subsequent months, we saw regular attacks, and that they make a geographic loop around a specific town, as if creating a bullseye.

What I don’t tell Ava is why the center, Ensenada, is so important to me.

It’s where my cousin lived. It’s where he died. Because of me.

She closes her laptop because we’ve decided to break and grab something to eat. “I just can’t stop fixating on Ensenada. If the hacker is drawing a target, we need to find out why.”

She eyes me, and her sinful gaze is laced with that intuition of hers I am both coming to hate and love at the same time. She’s so damn smart she knows I’m holding on to something.

“You really don’t know the answer towhy Ensenada?”

I close my laptop and consider how much to tell her.Everythingis the only answer that comes. Telling her this story won’t be easy. Maybe I can give her a watered-down version. My body heats up just thinking about it.

I stand. “Let’s get something to eat.”

She lets out a frustrated huff but follows me to the kitchen with a sort of smile that’s full of curiosity. She knows I know the answer to why Ensenada. Keeping things from this woman is futile. Knowing her, she’ll stay up all night todig if I don’t tell her. And it’s not as though what happened in Mexico all those years ago wasn’t public record at one point. I had the same name then as I do now. I’m surprised she hasn’t unearthed it already but then why would she look that far back and it didn’t exactly make news in the States.

I open the fridge. “I have black bean burritos or chicken, squash, and quinoa.”

She leans over my back, peering into the dim light herself for a peek. The side of her skims me and my body explodes with heat. Instantly, I’m thinking about my hips between her legs.

If I affect her the same way, she doesn’t let on. “Wow, that’s one organized fridge.”

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