Page 5 of Love in Sight

“This company was designed to be the best, so the app needs to be of the highest quality. Anything less than the best won’t cut it.” Greyson’s lips pull into a tight-lipped grin.

“Alright, sounds good. I’ll see what I can come up with based on your preferences,” Brandon says with a shrug.

Grabbing the legal pad off the table, I shove it toward Brandon. “Here are my recommendations. As always, they are just recommendations, you can deviate from them if you want.” Brandon doesn’t say a word, but just frowns at me. I’ve gotten weird vibes from Brandon in the past, but I always shrug it off as his own personal aura since he’s never done anything too bizarre.

I turn my attention back to Greyson, briefly catching what I think is a glare pointed in Brandon’s direction. My eyebrows scrunch slightly in confusion. I calm my face as Greyson turns his gaze to me. “Thank you, Mr. Nash, for trusting VPAC to develop your app. You will need to come back in once I draft the contract and Brandon develops the specifications for you to approve.”

“The pleasure is all mine,” Greyson murmurs as he reaches for my hand again. Just like earlier, electricity runs through my arm when my hand lands in his, and I quickly draw my hand back.

Brandon steps to my side.“I’ll walk Mr. Nash out,” he offers. Greyson’s stare burns a hole through me while Brandon ushers him through the door.

The buzzing inside me grows louder the longer he stares. Thiago, Rian, and Zep make me feel a lot of things, but I haven’t felt this particular feeling since I first met them. My eyes remain on his huge retreating body.I don’t know what is happening, but I have a feeling it’s going to be a problem.

Four

Itake a deep breath, waiting a moment to compose myself before I head back to my office. The tingling sensation of Greyson’s touch is still running through my body. I can’t shake the feeling that I am about to walk myself right into deep shit.

Pivoting toward the door, I see Brandon coming back from walking Greyson to the elevator. His eyes flash my way with what looks like irritation.What is his deal today?He is worse than usual since the interaction with Greyson.

Getting to my office, I slump down in my big, comfy chair, ready to take on the day. Most owners of a company want the big corner office to remind their employees who signs the paychecks, but not me. I planned for my office to be directly in the middle of our floor’s layout, because I want to be surrounded by the people I trust to operate my company. Control is something I don’t give up often, but when I do, I want to make sure I can trust those I give it to.

Our business took off quicker than we ever expected so I unfortunately can’t be involved with all of our projects. By having a middle office, I can keep my eyes on everything around me through the floor to ceiling glass windows, making me feel connected to the business even when I have to take a step back from being hands-on.

A childlike grin always spreads across my face every time I press the privacy button on my desk. The moment I press it, frost slowly creeps up from the bottom of the walls to the ceiling, surrounding me in a sheet of white walls with snowflakes swirling within their confines. No one can see in and I can’t see out—not even glimpsing the shadows of people moving around outside. It’s undeniably my favorite feature of this office. It’s the perfect design for that additional privacy I may need when one of my guys comes in here during the workday to surprise me, which is more often than it probably should be.Thank goodness we made sure it’s soundproof too.

I log into my computer and boot up my separate server.Alright now, let’s look into that cocky asshole known as Greyson Nash.I’ve always been interested in computer programing and designing apps and software, but that’s not exactly what sparked my interest in computers.

Before my mother checked out on me, she was somewhat attentive to mine and my sister's needs. She bought us a desktop computer so we could do any homework; having that desktop changed my life forever. I’m convinced my brain was written in code. Naturally, I found myself up at all hours of the day and night diving deep into the vast sea of the world wide web, along with the shadowy corners of the dark web.

How exactly does a kid get into the dark web and into hacking? Quite easily, if you think about it. With my code brain and need for my own money, it was an obvious choice for me. Computers came naturally and I was a sneaky child. I found all the books and articles I could get my hands on to learn more about coding, just so I could perfect my game all while looking like a child with a newfound hobby.

Taking on hacking jobs was a means of survival for me. My mom wasn’t as bad when Lainey was with us. I mean, she never would have won any mother of the year awards, but she did work to provide for us back then.

After Lainey went missing, my mom went off the deep end. She turned from her life with me over to drugs. She was eventually fired from her job and the only thing she lived for was finding her next fix. Since my mom didn’t know who our father was, I didn’t have anywhere else to go. I’ve tried looking for him over the years, but couldn’t get far with zero information. She wouldn’t even tell me who she was sleeping with at the time.

I feel like a part of me is missing without my father, but there’s nothing I can do about it now. My mom only calls when she needs money. After she caught wind of the guys and I starting a business, she started in, acting like she was sober and wanting to be back in my life. I fell for it a few times, but soon learned the truth, which is that she is far from sober. Now I just hit the reject button when she calls—I don’t have any more room for disappointment in my life.

When she first went off the deep end, we had neighbors who would look out for me, but they moved away a few years later. That was when I got serious about coding, because I had to find random hacking jobs to live. I didn’t have a mother figure anymore, so I needed to find a way to survive and take control of my life. Honestly, it’s probably where my control issues come from. I couldn’t trust anyone but myself at the young age of twelve.

When Lainey was ripped out of my life, my relationship with the dark net intensified. It was like a siren serenading me to my ultimate demise. It wanted to sink its claws into me and take me before I had the chance to realize what was going on. Before I had the chance to find her. Not only did I need to take jobs to get away from the hell I was living in, but I needed to take them to find more information on who took my sister.

The only clue I have to finding out what happened to her is a crumpled up piece of paper with a strange symbol on it. At this point, I could draw the symbol in my sleep, it’s so etched into my brain. It’s a gold circle with two interlocking vertical S’s in the middle. That’s all I have, but I will never stop looking.

I have my theories that Lainey was taken by human traffickers. It fucking guts me thinking about the day she was taken and how I did nothing to help her. How I was paralyzed with fear over what was happening.

When you grow up on the West Side, you’re usually in one of two situations. Your family life either sucks because your parents checked out on you, or you’re affiliated with gang life where it’s common for people to die or go missing. A life like that, without anyone to miss you or care about you, becomes the perfect shopping ground for vulnerable, innocent kids to be ripped away from everything they know.

So many young girls and boys have gone missing from the West Side over the years, without anyone blinking an eye. The police just assume they’re runaways trying to escape the poverty and chaos of the West Side, but I know better. Right before my eyes, my sister was abducted in plain sight. I even told the police that, but they didn’t believe me. I was just an imaginative little twelve-year-old girl seeking attention due to the lack of it at home. Those bastards took one look at me and chose to believe I would make up a kidnapping story, rather than actually searching for my sister. That’s where my distrust of cops stems from. How do you just let a twelve-year-old girl get abducted, without even looking into it to make sure the story is true?

I’ll find you someday, Lainey. We’ll be together again.

Pushing back unshed tears, I focus back on the task at hand.Who exactly are you, Greyson Nash?

Anything posted on the internet about him is going to be gold stars and puff pieces from a bunch of suck-ups trying to get into his good graces. I’m sure he has people lining up, ready to suck him off in the hopes he’ll help them get ahead in life.He seems like the type to be okay with that.Good thing I’m familiar with unconventional ways of finding the dirt on people that I need.I will find exactly what you don’t want me to find, Greyson Nash.

I lean back in my chair and crack my neck as I roll my shoulders. Adrenaline rushes through my veins. Something about getting lost in the depths of the dark web always sparks something devious inside of me. Maybe it’s the thrill and risk of getting caught or maybe it’s the fact that I know this is the place that’ll one day provide me with answers about my sister—either way, the electricity rushing through my body is almost as good as sex.Not that anything compares to having sex with three gods on the regular, but it’s a close second.

Most people would think hacking into official government websites, searching the dark web, and digging up the deepest pits of hell on your company's computer is the dumbest thing a person could do, but I’m no idiot. Rian and I set up the tightest, most impenetrable security system possible with failsafes implemented if we were ever to be compromised. Not even the FBI, CIA, or Anonymous could get through these walls. You would have to have some sort of inside information or access to break through, but Rian and I keep that information locked up tight. You can never be too careful and I’m not foolish enough to let any outsider in on what I do in my free time, legal or not.

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