Page 68 of The Secrets We Keep

“It’s not up to you to decide what they need. Did you build a program or not?”

“I did.” She nodded at the thumb drive. “I took the liberty of—”

“You took liberties?” Drago hissed. “Who the fuck asked you to do that?”

Sienna glanced at Ciro, who shook his head slightly. Whatever Ciro thought this might be in the beginning, he clearly didn’t seem to know the extent of what he’d gotten himself into. Sienna cocked her head and played dumb.

“I told you, their security is airtight, and you’d have a better chance of getting what you want if you targeted a specific system. I didn’t know which one you wanted, so I created a few variations for different areas of the business based on the security measures they have in place for each one.”

Drago leaned back in his chair, and the crease in Ciro’s brow eased a bit. Drago looked from the thumb drive to her, scratching his fingers over the stubble on his jaw and studying her as if he was trying to decide how best to word his next question.

“How’s it work exactly?”

Sienna leaned back when the waitress set her wine and food on the table, waiting until Drago waved the woman away before speaking again. “It’s kind of complicated. But the gist of it is, you use it as a back door into their system with code that mimics their setup, so it takes them longer to notice you and kick you out.”

She cut into her caprese salad and took a bite, chewing slowly. “It might not work, but it’s your best shot. Unless you want to give me more information.”

Drago’s eyes narrowed almost imperceptibly. “If their security is really that good, how would more information help you?”

Taking a sip of wine, Sienna forced herself not to fidget in her seat. She was balancing on the razor’s edge here. And she needed to be very careful she didn’t say the wrong thing.

“More information is always better than less,” she assured him, forcing a note of calm reason into her voice. “Ciro knows better than anyone that the more we know about a system, the easier it is to get in. There might be something you don’t even know is important that could help.”

She glanced at Ciro, who was watching the whole conversation with wide eyes, turning the thumb drive over and over in his fingers. When Ciro added nothing to the conversation, she turned back to Drago, who was still studying her.

“But if I don’t have the clearance for that, I understand. The drive should get you started, and someone closer to the project than me can fill in the gaps.”

Drago plucked the drive from Ciro’s trembling fingers and held it up to her face. “And there’s nothing in this drive that would give us away? No hidden signal or anything that would tip people off that we’re hacking them?”

Sienna’s heart beat sluggishly in her chest, and she swallowed the bite of pasta that had gone to sawdust in her mouth. “No. Of course not. My own signature is all over that program.”

“Your signature?”

“Hackers have their own unique identifiers if you know what you’re looking for,” Ciro said, speaking for the first time since they’d sat down. “A signature.”

“Right,” Sienna replied. “I’m not trying to get anyone in trouble.”

Closing his fist around the thumb drive, Drago pushed back from the table, and Ciro leapt to his feet beside him. “For your sake,” Drago said, shoving his hand into his pocket. “I hope that’s true. We’ll be in touch if we need more.”

Sienna tracked them to the door and down the sidewalk until the late lunch crowd swallowed them up. Sagging in her chair, she shoved her plate away, the food already turning to lead in her stomach.

If she had any doubts that Drago was suspicious of her, he’d just obliterated them all. Even if Drago didn’t recognize her, he could still out her as a mole, and her uncle would hardly send her on her way with a stern lecture if that happened.

Luca and his family needed to hurry up and figure out their next move. Because her time was running out.

Chapter Thirty

“Dom’s here. Conference room in ten.”

Luca looked up at Maeve standing in his office door and then down at the intercom on his desk. Normally if she wanted to relay a message, she called from her desk outside Matteo’s office. Not that he’d spent much time working here, even after moving all his shit over. If he wasn’t in Catania, he was at the house.

Partly because it was just as easy to work from there as it was here and because avoiding Maeve had become his own personal Olympic sport. He should consider himself lucky they hadn’t actually slept together before Sienna came back. Christ knew that would have made it infinitely more awkward than it already was.

“Is everything okay with you?” Maeve asked, stepping inside and pushing the door in without closing it all the way.

“Uh, yeah. What do you mean?” He shuffled the papers in front of him in an effort to avoid eye contact. “I’m fine.”

Maeve chuckled softly. “Yeah. You look fine. Luca?”

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