Page 28 of My Fake Billionaire Damaged Boyfriend

“Good. Let’s do it, then.”

He pulls out his phone, and I get ready to plug in the computer to the internet line. With the countless wires we have strung onto this system, and the half-unsure looks in our eyes right now, we hit the system all at once, flooding the engine with information and shifting the focus from bidding information to hard rock music and turbulent drum solos.

I crash the system so badly that the code comes to a frozen halt, the screen dimming through green and purple streaks until it’s clear that this isn’t going to work anymore. I take the internet cord off, shut down the software, and close out the application altogether.

I stand back, admiring my work, and Dimitri does the same, his hand resting lazily on my lower back.

“Well, I guess that solves it.”

“Yeah,” I whisper, “Hopefully it gets his attention off our first hack.”

“You just have to get stuck when he tells you to track this down, alright? Act confused and play the part well. Any slip up, and he will suspect you’re involved. I need you safe, Kitten.”

“And I need you to stop calling me that,” I sigh.

He shakes his head, the software flickering away to darkness at last, “Not a chance, Kitten. You know my stance on this. Curiosity and the cat; remember?”

“This isn’t curiosity. This is hacking into a dirty system and trying to cover our asses while we do it.”

“Yeah, I guess you’re right. Good thing you have seven lives, Kitten.”

He’s not wrong.

I’m going to need them all to take down Alek Ivica.

CHAPTER12

Dimitri

Ipace outside my competitor’s building, hoping for a mere glimpse of the prick who cornered Izzy yesterday. She calmed down last night, well technically this morning in the earliest hours before sunrise, and we overloaded the system so much that I can only hope the software crashed. As long as she focuses on that attack against Alek’s software, then we won’t have a problem.

I know she’s typically the last to leave, just by what I’ve observed in the past. While I shouldn’t be stalking this little coding Kitten, I can’t help myself. Leaning back against my car door while parked outside the front of the building, I think about the night we have planned together.

The newest band in Seattle booked my club tonight, and something tells me we both need the distraction.

Alek comes outside confidently at first, chin jutted out in pride. It doesn’t last, something darker comes over his features as he breaks away from his pack and approaches me. He stands on the sidewalk, while I maintain my spot on the curb, settled with the fact that if he comes much closer, I will have reasonable suspicion that he’s going to harm me—thus giving me permission to cock my fist into his nostrils.

Or at least, that’s what I’d tell the authorities.

“I yearn for the day when I don’t see your face outside my building unprompted.”

I roll my eyes exasperatingly, “Yeah, yeah. I’m sure. You haven’t called me for an updated meeting, though. What happened tocontrolling the market together,as you used to put it?”

“We need space,” he replies simply, “I’m putting out fires at work. No thanks to you.”

“Me? Why would you sit here and assume that I’m doing anything to start fires at your place of work, Alek? It’s not like, and I’m just saying hypothetically of course, that you cornered my girlfriend and threatened her with the loss of her job after bruising her arm or anything. Only then would we have a problem, Alek.”

His eyes dart sideways, as if trying to get out of this circumstance with ease, “Listen, what I say to my employees is my business, not yours. And we have the NDA she signed, so I hope you’re not saying she’s accused me of anything. That would really put a damper on her job situation.”

I nod knowingly, hating this bastard more and more by the minute, “Yes, well. I did mention it was hypothetical, of course. So, I think you should move on with your evening, Alek.”

He seems sturdy at first, but that rock wall of confidence slowly drifts to sand in the wind, exposing the frail mole rat beneath the posturing man in a suit that stands before me.

I spy my petite Kitten in the lobby, and the slightest thought of him hurting her has my boldness reaching new heights. Staring him dead in his cold, inky eyes, I add, “You ever touch her again, or think to threaten that woman, and you’ll need more than some flimsy NDA to take either of us down. Don’t forget that my father gave you this wealth, and what a poetic end it would be for me to take it out from under you just as fast.”

He sneers, though I know he resorts to childish antics when he feels threatened, “Yeah, well you can stay out of my way, boy, or I’ll take you down just as easily as I it took to takeyour father down.”

Izzy breaks the tension, at least on the surface, when she scampers forward and tucks herself instantly into my arm. I can’t help but hold her tight, and reassure her that she’s safe with me here, even in the eyes of the hunter before us.

---