Heart-Shaped Hack (21 page)

“Sure. Why not?”

“Oh, sweetness,” Ian said, “let him have it.”

“You know, I thought I’d dodged a bullet by not going out with a guy who tapes himself having sex with unsuspecting women—”

Kent’s panicked and guilty expression confirmed Ian’s hunch, and if either of them had any lingering doubts about the tapes, the look on Kent’s face had certainly removed them.

“—but now that I know you’re not even bright enough to figure out when someone’s profile picture has been FatBoothed, the bullet I dodged was twofold.”

“You FatBoothed yourself?”

“My boyfriend did.”

“Why would you be on a dating site if you already had a boyfriend?”

“He wasn’t my boyfriend at the time.”

“But I wanted to be her boyfriend, so you had to go.” Ian made a motion with his hand like he was brushing away something unpleasant.

“What do you mean by taping himself having sex with unsuspecting women?” Kent’s date asked.

“My boyfriend suspected Kent might be taping the women he sleeps with without their knowledge,” Kate said.

“But I wasn’t positive,” Ian said. “More like erring on the side of caution.”

“But we’re more positive now,” Kate said.

Ian nodded in agreement and looked at Kent’s date. “But if you’re cool with shooting some video, carry on.”

“No judging,” Kate said. “If the two of you decide
together
that you want to do that, you should definitely move forward.”

Ian smiled. “Really?”

“I’m not speaking from experience,” Kate said. “But sure. Why not? Although I’d probably lean toward photos instead of video. And they’d have to be stored securely, of course.”

“Well, not in the damn
cloud
, that’s for sure.”

“Hey!” Kent said.

All three heads turned.

“Oh. Right. You,” Ian said.

Kent’s face was so red it was almost purple. “I don’t know what the hell you two are talking about.”

“I think you might know a
little bit
about it,” Kate said.

Kent’s date looked as angry as he did. “If you think I’m sleeping with you tonight, you’re crazy.” They watched as she turned on her heel and stomped away.

“I don’t think she’s cool with the video thing,” Kate said.

Kent glared at Ian. “You’re an asshole.”

“Trust me, you have no
idea
how big an asshole I can be.”

Kate slid her arm around Ian’s waist. “He has a few boundary issues, that’s all. He’s actually quite wonderful.”

“Watching my girl cockblock you was even more satisfying than when I did it myself.” Ian pointed at Kent’s date, who was halfway down the hall. “But maybe if you catch up with her and do some groveling, you can turn this around. Good luck.”

Kent looked like he couldn’t decide if he wanted to punch Ian or try to salvage what was left of the evening with his date. Considering he was several inches shorter than Ian and more than a little drunk, he made the wise choice to take off after her.

Ian turned to Kate. “We make a good team, don’t we?” he said, lifting her hood.

She looked into his eyes. “The best.”

Snow was falling hard when they walked outside. Ian held Kate’s hand while they waited, and right before the valet pulled up with his car, he raised her hand to his mouth and kissed the back of it.

“I should probably delete my dating profile,” Kate said as Ian drove carefully through the swirling snow. She’d long since turned off all notifications and had no idea if there’d been any activity—or what her current profile photo looked like.

“Keep it,” Ian said, laughing. “I like it better this way.

“Ian Bradshaw, what have you done?”

She used her phone to log on to her account. He had changed her profile picture to the one he’d taken of her driving the Shelby.

“A nice, normal photo,” she said. “How unexpected.”

“I want them to know exactly what they can’t have.”

He’d changed her bio too. It was short and simple and made her laugh:
I like meat, driving fast, and Ian Smith.

She leaned across the console and kissed his cheek. “What am I going to do with you?”

“Maybe we can figure that out when we get home.”

Kate slipped off her boots, walked into the bedroom, and turned on the bedside lamp. She was standing in front of the dresser removing her jewelry when Ian joined her. He caught her eye in the mirror and began removing the pins from her hair, working patiently to find all of them. Once her hair was down, he ran his hands through it, massaging her head.

“That feels so good,” she said, holding his gaze as she laid her head back on his chest. He slipped one arm around her in front but trailed the fingers of the opposite hand along the curve of her waist, the slope of her hip. He nibbled her ear and then placed kisses, whisper soft, down the length of her neck, making her shiver.

She turned around, desperate for his mouth on hers. He slid his hands underneath her jaw and lifted her face, his kisses alternating between teasing and urgent. He’d taken off his jacket as soon as they walked in the door, but Kate needed the feel of his skin under her lips and fingers. She unbuttoned his shirt and removed it, then stripped off the T-shirt he wore underneath. Lightly rubbing her face on his chest, she breathed in the spicy smell of his cologne and sighed as she reached around, seeking the hard muscles of his back.

He turned her so she was facing the mirror again. Without breaking eye contact, he raised the hem of her dress and slowly pulled it over her head. Her thighs were touching the edge of the dresser, and he pressed the full length of his body up against her. She could feel how hard he was, and she pushed back, making him groan. Slowly he unlaced the ribbons on the bustier.

“You promised to be careful,” she reminded him.

Locking eyes with her in the mirror, he gave her a half smile and unzipped the lingerie, catching it before it could fall to the floor. He placed it gently on the dresser.

He cupped her breasts and squeezed. He sucked on her neck and pulled on her nipples, gently at first and then harder on both.

She couldn’t think, couldn’t breathe. “Ian.”

“Keep watching,” he said, his voice low and heavy. He slipped his hand into the front of her thong, stopping just above where she wanted his fingers the most.

She ached for him to touch her. “Please,” she whispered, looking at his hand in the mirror with her eyes half-closed.

With agonizing slowness, he lowered his hand and stroked her, and nothing had ever felt so good. His fingers slid in and out of her with ease, and she gripped the edge of the dresser, almost panting with her need. Then he knelt behind her and pulled the thong down to her ankles, his palms skimming along her bare skin on the way. He ran his hands up the inside of her thighs. “Spread your legs a little wider.”

Kate stepped out of the thong and did what he said. He left the stockings on.

“Don’t move,” he said, crossing the room to grab a condom from the nightstand. When he returned, the rasp of his zipper going down filled her ears, and there was something about that that set her on fire more than if he’d taken off his pants.

Was he going to bend her
—

Yes.

She closed her eyes when he entered her. She had no choice. It was too much, too intense. The sensations were overpowering, but they were overpowering in the best possible way. He would watch though. She was sure about that.

He moved inside her, his hands gripping her hips tightly, and it was perfect. He took her to the edge repeatedly until finally neither of them could hold off any longer. After she cried out, after he added his own drawn-out groan, he pulled her upright so the back of her head rested on his rising and falling chest. “I love you.” The words sounded ragged as he said them in her ear.

“I love you too,” she said, trying to catch her breath.

I love you, I love you, I love you.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

Ian was summoned to Washington again at the end of January. He got the call early on a Sunday evening when he and Kate were walking home from dinner.

“Who reaches out to let you know when you’re needed?” Kate asked.

They’d quickened their pace after Ian hung up and explained that he needed to leave right away.

“His name is Phillip Corcoran. He’s head of the cyber task force. He wanted me to stay over last time, get some sleep. Good guy.”

“Why didn’t you?”

“Because I wanted to get home to you.”

“So what’s happening now?”

“A forum member posted details of an imminent cyberattack. Very big data breach. If they’re successful, it’s going to leave behind a mess. Phillip wants us all in the same place so we can communicate more efficiently.”

“Cyberattack sounds so ominous.”

“You have nothing to worry about. It’s not an actual battle. It’s all just keystrokes. Names on a screen. None of them real, of course.”

“Of course not. How long do you think you’ll be gone?”

“Not sure. But I’m going to show up with more than the clothes on my back this time, just in case.”

“Make sure you take a warm coat. After your last visit to Washington, you showed up at my door practically hypothermic.”

“I think I left my coat on the plane. I was so out of it.”

“Maybe you could catch some sleep this time. If Phillip offers again, take him up on it, okay?”

“If I’ve been up for more than twenty-four hours, I will. I’m not eager to relive that experience. I’m pretty sure I hallucinated in the cab on the way home.”

When they reached Kate’s apartment, Ian grabbed a duffel bag and set it on the bed. Kate went into the bathroom and gathered up his toiletries.

“How many of these carders want to know who you are?” Kate asked. She placed the items in his bag, and Ian added a change of clothes.

“Too many to count.”

“How many of them would like to see harm come to you?” It was something that had occurred to her belatedly. If one of the carders doxed Ian and showed up at his door before he could leave, what would they do?

“Not as many.”

“But some?”

“My name more than likely appears on a few lists.”

Though she knew he was in a hurry, she reached out and put her hand on his wrist. “Ian.”

He took her hand and squeezed it. “Don’t worry.”

“How can I not?”

“I’ve done everything I can to mitigate the possibility of discovery. Everything I do, every hack I make, is done behind an alias and a proxy. Nothing is in my real name.”

He spoke the truth because the morning after he’d told her his real name, Kate had reached for her phone while they were still in bed, laughing and telling Ian that he shouldn’t have told her because now she could find out anything she ever wanted to know about him.

“You won’t find me. I’ve erased Ian Bradshaw from every search engine, every online database and public record,” he’d said. “I literally do not exist on the Internet.”

She’d googled him anyway, and while she found plenty of men named Ian Bradshaw, none of them were him. After ten minutes of searching and coming up empty-handed, she’d admitted defeat.

Next she’d googled Ian Merrick. There was only one hit, and it was for his website. “Any other names?” she’d asked.

“No. You know everything about me, Kate. There is no more to discover.”

But now as she watched him zip up the duffel, she wondered if there was anything he’d omitted because he thought the details would be too alarming for her to handle. “Let me drop you off.”

“You don’t have to do that.”

“I don’t mind, and it will make it easier if you decide to take a cab home again. Which you definitely should if you’re tired.”

“I’ll take a cab home if I’m tired or it’s late. I’m not dragging you out of bed in the cold and dark.” He smiled, grabbed the duffel, and said, “All right. I’m ready.”

The private airstrip was a fifteen-minute drive away. Ian pulled into a gravel parking lot surrounded by a chain-link fence. A small plane Kate estimated would hold six to eight passengers sat on the tarmac.

“It’s a charter?” Kate asked.

“Yes,” Ian said. “Contrary to popular belief, the FBI—and the people who work with them—aren’t hustled into first class on private jets. If time allowed, they’d have put me on a commercial flight and I’d be sitting in coach. But a local charter works well in a pinch.”

Ian reached into the backseat for his bag and they got out of the car. “Things are going to get very hectic once I arrive. I’ll send you a text when I’m on my way back.” He cupped her face and pulled her in close for a kiss. “I love you. Stay warm.”

“I love you too.” She got back in the car and waited until he’d walked up the short flight of steps and disappeared into the plane. Then she put his car in gear and drove home, hoping he wouldn’t be gone too long.

It had been a little over twenty-nine hours when he texted her. It was almost midnight, and Kate had just turned off the light and rolled onto her side when her phone pinged.

Ian:
Boarding the plane
.
Caught
a
shower and a short nap earlier and will take a cab from the airport.
Don’t wait up
.
It will be close to 3 a.m. before I’m home. Love you.

Kate:
I’ll expect nothing less than a good spooning when you arrive.

Ian:
Wish I could give you a good something else but will probably fall asleep the minute I crawl into bed. I’ll make it up to you. Promise.

Kate:
Love you. Safe travels.

He pulled the covers back and slid in behind Kate a few hours later, wrapping his arms around her and whispering, “Katie, I’m home.”

She mumbled a reply and thought she’d dreamt the whole thing until she woke up the next morning with his chest pressed up against her back and his arm across her breasts.

He didn’t stir when she gently extricated herself to get ready for work and quietly left the apartment. He sent her a text at noon to tell her he was awake, and Kate went home, picking up lunch on the way. By the time she walked into her apartment, he’d showered and was drinking coffee on the couch. He stood and held open his arms, and Kate went to him, sighing as he enveloped her in a hug.