Page 54 of The Owner's Temptation

He rolls his eyes and nods to my monitor. It blazes to life when I hit the power button, and Jaxon’s interface takes over the entire display.

“Twelve hours,” he says casually, tapping twice to bring up a wall of code so dense it looks like a foreign language to most. “That’s how long it took me to get into the center of your system.”

I narrow my eyes. “You hacked into The Ledger?”

“Technically? Yeah. But don’t worry. It was just me. A standard hacker?” He leans back, stretches his arms behind his head, his biceps flexing beneath the sleeves of his black henley. “Two to four weeks. Minimum. And that’s assuming they’re good.”

I don’t like that. I don’t like that even a theoretical breach is possible.

Jaxon catches the shift in my expression and grins around his gum. “Told you, you should’ve hired me to build your infrastructure from the beginning.”

“You would’ve been ten years old.”

“Oh, right.” He blinks, then shrugs. “Well, I’m fixing it now. This shit’s child’s play.”

“Lay it out.”

He launches into it without missing a beat. Server vulnerabilities. Contract routing logic gaps. Firewalls with outdated firmware. He pulls up a visual model—my entire empire in blueprint form—and picks it apart with precision.

It’ll cost millions.

That’s not what gives me pause.

It’s the time.

“How long?” I ask, my voice like flint.

He doesn’t answer right away, just flicks another screen up—a projected rollout timeline, months in length.

“I want it locked down today.”

“Hold your horses, O Great and Powerful Ledger Lord,” Jaxon says with a snort, kicking his feet up on the edge of my desk like he doesn’t have a care in the goddamn world.

“You’re asking me to build an entirely new and secure server farm. Not just mirrored backups—but real, deep redundancies. Multiple disaster recovery sites, all with layered encryption and biometric access protocols. We’re talking about locking down every girl, every contract, every client from every direction.”

“And?” I prompt.

He pops his gum. “Give me a month.”

I exhale slowly through my nose, not liking it. Lorenzo hasn’t made a move yet. But it’s coming. I can feel it in my bones. And when he does, he’ll come hard.

Jaxon seems to sense my unease. “It’ll be bulletproof, man. If I’m building it, they won’t even know where to start looking.”

I nod once, then glance toward the corner of the room.

Sienna hasn’t moved.

Her legs are still crossed, her hands folded neatly in her lap. She’s learning when to fade into the background. Not successfully yet, but at least she understands that it's needed—without having to be told.

A promising start.

Jaxon wraps up his updates, grabs his laptop, and mutters a goodbye on his way out. I nod once but keep my eyes on her. She shifts as the door clicks shut. Not much. Just a slight adjustment of her spine.

She’s preparing for what will come next. Likely assuming I’ll launch into some sort of lesson.

The moment stretches and she draws a breath like she’s about to speak.

Though–she doesn’t.

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