Total D*ck(11)

“How many times do I have to tell you to call me Frank?” He took her hand and shook it, a genuine smile lighting his eyes.

I rose and walked to greet him. After all, he was the client who would be covering my expense account.

“A few more times, it would seem, Mr. Rhone. Let me introduce our team. This is Kennedy Granade, my cocounsel I spoke to you about.”

We shook, his grip firm. Mine was firmer. I made sure of it.

“Nice to meet you. I’ve heard great things. Guy and Scarlett handpicked you.”

I glanced over at Scarlett. She crossed her arms over her chest, her mouth pressing into a thin line.

“Oh really?” I turned back to Mr. Rhone. “I’d like to hear more about that.”

He laughed. “I’m sure. I’ll just say I asked for the most ferocious plaintiff’s attorney they could find, and now here you are.” His eyes turned serious. “And I mean it. Greenwood has gone too far this time. We need a bulldog. Is that you?”

“I’m your man, and I understand. Don’t worry, I’m ready to pull the trigger on a filing as soon as you’re comfortable, Mr. Rhone.”

“Call me Frank. I want more than a lawsuit, though a victory in the courtroom would give me some vindication.” His light brown eyes flashed. “But I’m more interested in bringing their shady practices to light and then letting the chips fall where they may. I think many of their business partners would be very interested to know how Greenwood operates.”

“This is the way to shed some light. Get our feet under us with the preliminary investigation, file the complaint, and then do the in-depth discovery. Give them enough rope to hang themselves with and put it all in front of a jury.”

“That’s what I like to hear.” He smiled and shook my hand again.

“And this is Carey, our corporate security expert,” Scarlett continued in a smooth tone as we returned to the conference table.

Frank walked over and shook Carey’s hand. “I’m glad you never set your sights on Rhone in your younger days.”

Carey nodded. “I get that a lot from my clients.”

“I’m just glad you’re on my team. Any progress?” Frank pulled a pair of glasses from his shirt pocket and slipped them on before leaning over and looking at Carey’s screen.

“I have a few ideas of how the breach occurred. Could have been an inside job, someone here giving access. But, it would seem the only person who could have given that access is Eric.” Carey reddened and leaned back, his fingers stopping their progress on his keyboard. “Sorry, man.”

Eric glanced up at Frank. “No, it’s fine. That’s the most logical conclusion. Frank and I have already discussed it, in fact, when I realized the breach had occurred.”

“Right.” Frank patted Eric on the shoulder. “I can guarantee Eric took no part in this.”

Carey folded his hands in his lap. “Then the next conclusion is, based on the firewalls and Eric’s top-notch security measures, that a highly sophisticated hacker—with a lot of backing and cash—is responsible.” He pointed at his screen, which was still a conglomeration of code I couldn’t read. “Whoever did it bypassed security, accessed the network, then went into the even more highly protected backup files for the data. Since those algorithms were kept on a separate server that couldn’t be accessed from the outside, the hackers went to the backup, broke the encryption, and made a copy. They knew what they were looking for.”

“That’s what we suspected.” Eric took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes.

“Had to be Greenwood. They’re the only competitor with the money necessary to pull off this sort of data theft. And, from what Eric says, the way the hackers covered their tracks means it’s a lost cause.” He shook his head. “We’ll never be able to find them.”

“Hang on a minute.” Carey moved back to his laptop, his fingers whizzing at light-speed. “Though they cleaned up after themselves, I did spot a little something special.” He pulled up a screen with even more code I couldn’t follow. “Here.” He highlighted a series of numbers.

“What’s that?” Scarlett leaned over to peer at the screen. Her plump ass strained against her skirt and I found myself having to adjust myself in my pants. My cock had been as bored as I was this whole time until Scarlett decided to pay closer attention.

“It looks like nothing, like part of the Rhone security code for this particular area of the server. But I recognize it. The hacker left a calling card, one that I doubt anyone would recognize except for possibly three people on the planet. I happen to be one of them.”