Page 31 of The Butler

“I’m sorry, sir,” Dek said, apologizing for what I assumed was him feeling like he’d overstepped.

I gestured to the desktop. “Please. By all means,” I said.

“Shall I get you gentlemen your drinks first?” Dek asked.

“Fuck that! Numbnuts and I can get our own drinks,” I said, pointing to the bar and letting Bob know that we should leave Dek to his computer sleuthing.

“Passwords?” Dek asked, looking at me.

“They’re written under the mousepad,” I admitted. Bob shot me ayou are fucking kidding melook. “I know. I know. So fucking sue me.”

“Sir?” Dek asked. “May I suggest you never do that again with your passwords? Are all of the boats’ computers hooked up to the main system at the studio?”

I nervously looked at Bob before answering. Bob wasn’t adding anything to the conversation because he had warned me about this dozens of times.Wise of him to stay mum in the conversation.Unfortunately, he didn’t.

“Yes, Deklyn. Every single one of them,” Bob stated, avoiding looking at me.

Dek peeked under the mousepad and typed the password into the computer. The computer lit up but wasn’t allowing any further input. He closed the wallpaper picture of the yacht and typed furiously across the keyboard. I looked at Bob and grinned. A display of data and gibberish appeared on the screen as Dek opened and closed pages of information.

“Do I have your permission to dig deeper?” I nodded. How about any suspicious emails you may have accidentally opened?” he asked.

“None that I know of.”

“So I can proceed,” Dek asked. I nodded again.

“Are you sure, Linc?” Bob asked with concern. He turned to Dek. “Sorry, Dek, but you aren’t privy to all company matters,” he added.

Dek turned to me with a look that asked,work on it or not work on it?It appeared he didn’t care either way. He was attempting to do us a favor, but understood we were a multibillion-dollar corporation. “No offense taken, Mr. Majors. However, I think I can decode the issue and most likely fix it without interfering in your private matters,” he said. “And if I can’t . . . I promise I wont tell,” he joked, making a zipper motion across his sexy as fuck lips. Lips I loved wrapped around my cock.

“Proceed, Dek,” I said, giving Bob an assuring look. “He’s got degrees, Bob. We’ve got no other tech support here.” I nodded toward Dek, reassuring him to move ahead.

Bob and I poured ourselves a drink and sat on the barstools as my butler feverishly typed away. Dek nodded a few times to himself, hummed, and paused while staring into thin air as he thought about his next moves. He grabbed a notepad as he made notes concerning where he was and pages he’d closed.

Fifteen minutes passed before Dek abruptly spoke up. “Get your corporate office on the phone immediately, sir,” Dek stated. “Now!” He pushed the chair back and stood. “Do it now, Mr. Carrington.”

“Get Charlene on the line, Bob. Do as Deklyn says,” I yelled. Charlene was the CTO of my company and should be the person dealing with this shit if it was indeed an emergency.

Bob punched a contact’s name after scanning through the list on his cell phone. I knew he’d be calling her on her personal cell phone.

“When she answers, tell her to listen to me, sir,” Dek said again urgently. “You need to trust me, sir.”

“Charlene, it’s…” Bob began.

I yanked the phone out of his hand.

“Char, this is Lincoln. The man you are about to speak with has urgent information about our computer network. Trust me and listen to what he has to say. He has my permission to direct you to do whatever it is he requests.”

“But, sir…” she began.

“Just do it, Charlene.” I handed the phone to Dek.

“This is Deklyn Dalton, ma’am. I work for Mr. Carrington on the yacht, but I am also a computer scientist and I’m on the computer in his stateroom right now. I need you to trust me and do exactly as I say.”

I looked frantically at Bob as I heard Charlene in the background. I was concerned she may be arguing with Dek, so I grabbed the phone from him. “Do it, Charlene. If you value your job, do it!” I’m not sure why I believed Deklyn or why I was demanding my half-million-dollar-a-year CTO give way to my butler, but I trusted him.

“Listen to me please, ma’am. Your company is under attack right now. Someone has broken through the firewall and placed a virus in the entire system. The mainframe is corrupted and sending signals to all the company’s computers to freeze,” he stated calmly.

I stared at Dek like he was an apparition, completely stunned at his mannerisms as he instructed my main computer guru how to save our system.

---