Page 1 of The Texan's Secrets

One

For a black hat hacker, the law was irrelevant. For a white hat hacker like Emilia Scott, the law was, at times, discretionary.

“You have to break some eggs...” she muttered to herself as she hit a series of keys on her PC, attempting to break into the computer system of multinational construction company Stiner Rosch.

She had a contract with the company to test their security, so she could have used a password. But it was fun to do it the old-fashioned way. Plus, it would help her figure out how the bad guys might approach a theft. The best way to guard against a thief was to pretend to be one herself.

Once she was in, she poked around in the lines of code and the subroutines until she found a possible vulnerability. Then she tested her theory and successfully made her way into the detail of the company’s customer files.

“Ha! Voila. Omelet.” She screenshotted the process that could potentially allow backdoor access to billing information, then saved the documentation to her report file.

Afterward, she devised a temporary patch and uploaded it directly to the server where it would go live.

“Take that, you no-good cyber thieves.” Satisfied, she sat back in her chair, removing her glasses to rub the bridge of her nose before raking her short hair from her forehead.

Next, she took a gulp of her coffee, instantly grimacing at the taste and nearly choking on its bitterness. There was cold. There was stale. And then there was vintage. “Yuck.” She shuddered.

“Hey, Emilia?” her roommate, Paris Fortin, called from the bottom of the stairs.

“What’s up?” Emilia called back, picking up her mug to dump the contents. Nobody was that thirsty.

Paris’s bedroom was the lower floor of the small house in downtown Royal, Texas, while Emilia was spread out in the loft. The two women shared the kitchen and living room on the main floor in between.

It was Wednesday afternoon, Paris’s day off from her job as assistant manager in the dining room at Chez Verte, a local French fusion restaurant. With the holidays over, she’d spent the day pulling down the decorations and packing them into the small garage.

Emilia had planned to help, but the security call from one of her biggest customers had taken priority.

“Did you read about the k!smet Surprise Me! dating event they’re having in connection with their IPO launch?” Paris was making her way up the stairs as she talked.

“Who hasn’t?” Emilia’s social media feed, not to mention her email box, was full of advertising for the social app’s promotion. The marketing department had gone wide with it.

“What do you think?” Paris stepped up to the airy loft.

“It’ll probably work. The app’s members are obviously engaged. There’s been plenty of back-and-forth on all the social media sites.”

Emilia had once worked for a rival dating app to k!smet and could appreciate the huge brand development and marketing strides the k!smet team had made over the past few months. They deserved their success.

“You going to sign up for the chance to win?” Paris moved into the room as she scrolled along her phone screen.

“Me?” Emilia chuckled at the thought of trying to be one of the first ten matches in the contest. Her look was at best mousy—no makeup, casual clothes, flat shoes and oversize glasses to give herself a wider field of vision. She was hardly top-ten material.

“Sure, you. Why not you? It’ll be a hoot.”

Emilia gestured to herself with spread fingertips. “Have you met me?”

Paris looked up from her phone. “You look terrific.”

“I look dowdy.”

“Ha!” Paris sobered when she saw that Emilia was serious. She moved close and brushed aside Emilia’s short hair. “What’s this? You have gorgeous eyes. Your lashes are to die for. You’re beautiful, Emie.”

Emilia chuckled even while she appreciated Paris’s vote of confidence. “Youare not a matchable man. So, your opinion is irrelevant. Plus, you love me.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“It means you see me through a benevolent filter. And I’m not signing up to be humiliated.”

“I do love you. But I’m not blind.” Paris looked concerned now. “You do know you’re pretty, right?”

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