Page 2 of Cease and Desist

“Dani, what’s wrong?” Gage asked as he walked over to his girlfriend.

“Some asshat thought he could break intooursystem. I caught it, but you need to remind people again. No cat videos on work computers. These hackers are bored and have nothing better to do. I don’t want to spend my time cleaning up their shit.”

Gage grinned. “I’ll send out another email.” He closed her laptop and set it on the coffee table in front of her.

She scowled at him. “Hey, I was work—"

He popped a cracker with cheese into her mouth. “You’re hangry. You need to set work aside and eat. It will be much better once you get your blood sugar up. Besides, as your boss in Cyber Security I’m telling you… Stop working.”

The scowl went away as she continued chewing. She swallowed. “Is there more?” Gage pulled her to her feet and escorted her across the room.

“Hey, Hawk,” she greeted him as she ate an olive.

He nodded to her. “Dani. How are you?”

“Good,” she mumbled through a cracker.

“Got room for one more?” Dragan Maric called out as he exited the elevator. He joined them at the bar.

“You’re back!” Mitch smiled. “How did the job go?”

Dragan shrugged. “It’s done. I think it should be fine, but we’re going to need two more people on that team. The client likes to change his mind a lot. He’s always on the go. His team needs to be flexible.”

Mitch grunted. “Yeah, he reminds me of another client like that.” He shot a look at Hawk. “Your boss was a huge pain in the ass in the beginning, too.”

It was Hawk’s turn to smile. “He’s still a pain in the ass.”

Dragan offered a hand, which Hawk grasped firmly in his own, and they bumped shoulders. “Good to see you, Hawk.”

“You too, Dragan.”

To Hawk, Dragan looked tired but, apparently, he didn’t look too shabby to the women in the room. Every one of them got a dreamy look in their eyes when they stared at Dragan. Apparently, he was universally appealing.Must be nice.

“How’s Jake?” Dragan asked. “Have you talked to him lately?” He directed his question to Hawk as he took a beer from Logan.

“Yeah, I was just saying he mentioned how busy you guys are. He’s swamped over in Europe as well. He’s loving it, though. Monty, too. I spoke with her as well. She’s very happy with the new job and loves living in the UK.” He nodded at Mitch. “You boys might want to be careful. Drake is still not happy about losing her.”

Logan smiled. “It was the right move for her in her career. He can’t blame us for facilitating that.”

Hawk shook his head. “Drake can blame anyone for anything.”

They all chuckled. “True that,” Mitch agreed.

Hawk sipped his second scotch. He shouldn’t really make fun of his boss. Drake was actually a good guy. He was, in fact, a great boss, and Hawk had no complaints. As head of the legal department for the entire Drake Industries conglomerate, Hawk had to deal with a ton of shit, but Drake made sure Hawk got whatever he needed to make everything happen the way it should. He couldn’t ask for more. If only it all made him…happy.

He glanced around the room. This. This was what he missed. The camaraderie of being part of a team. The family atmosphere. The team at his current job was solid but it wasn’t warm and fuzzy. He was always having to put out fires that his subordinates couldn’t deal with or fighting off those ladder-climbing dipshits who had their eye on his job. And he was at the top. The only thing above him was Drake. He could switch and become the Chief Information Officer maybe, or something else on the C level, but the promotion would be hard to get and come with a lot more headaches for not much more pay. Didn’t seem worth it.

Someone in the crowd had grabbed the charcuterie tray and Dani grabbed the two dishes that Logan had produced, and the crowd moved over to sit in front of the fireplace. Hawk was about to head over to them when Logan stepped up next to him.

He laid a hand on Hawk’s arm. “I hear rumblings that maybe you aren’t as happy as you once were. I mean, working for Drake.”

He blinked. He had no idea anyone knew about his dissatisfaction. He’d thought he covered it well.

“Don’t worry. It’s not common knowledge.” Logan took a sip of his own drink, an amber liquid in a cut crystal tumbler, most likely a high-quality scotch. All the booze at Callahan Security was top shelf.

Hawk narrowed his eyes at Logan. “Drake told you?”

Logan just smiled.

---