Frankly, she didn’t care.
Because before she knew what was happening, Logan was murmuring her name and he’d lowered his head to hers, capturing her mouth with his.
And, oh God, capture was the right word. Because the haze and heat and dizziness of the kiss caught her. Caught in the control of his hands as he laced them through her hair and angled her head, taking the kiss soul deep with the stroke of his tongue on her lips. Lips that parted without thought or care, letting him delve into her mouth.
Sam moaned and Logan’s arm dropped to her waist, hauling her against him, bringing the hard planes of his body flush to the soft contours of hers. Her entire body responded in an instant, and tantalizing warmth raced through her as her curves fit to him.
And then, he pulled away. His gaze was intense, his breath just the smallest bit out of control, but he quickly collected himself. He steadied his breathing as he pushed her away from him, seeming to place her quite purposefully out of reach.
Sam couldn’t make out his thoughts, and honestly had no idea if he’d done that simply for the benefit of anyone listening, or because he’d wanted to.
She was going to choose to think he’d wanted to, but he shuttered his eyes and said a quick goodnight before walking away, and that left her wondering if it was all just for show, after all.
Chapter 8
“Diya?”
Diya looked up from her computer and raised her eyebrows at Yoshi.
“Yes?” She’d told him not to interrupt her and Peter as they worked, so she knew if Yoshi had chosen to do so it would be important.
Yoshi eyed Peter as he stepped into the room. Diya had a feeling Peter was wholly absorbed in his work, but she trusted him completely, regardless. He had worked for her father over the years as a contact in the United States and had proven himself. She waved Yoshi farther into the room.
“You can speak in front of Peter. Heaven knows he’s learning every secret we have right now,” she said with a smile.
But in reality, Peter wasn’t learning her secrets—he was learning her father’s. Diya discovered her father kept journals filled to overflowing with the secrets of anyone and everyone he’d ever worked with.
Some had been secret codes to establishing contact with those he worked with. Others were secrets those people wouldn’t want getting out. It seemed her father had known the value of information and he’d traded upon that value through the years. She’d always wondered how he’d come to be as powerful as he had, and now she knew.
She fully intended to pick up where he’d left off, but she also planned to bring the endeavor into the present day. She was having Peter Gatorelli computerize everything. He’d begun by setting up firewalls and security. Once he completed that task, he’d be taking all the information Diya’s father had compiled and setting it up in a database she could search and cross-reference at will. She would also be able to add to the database, and she intended to do that as well.
Yoshi sat in a chair across from her. “I’ve had three men on Logan Stone for a week, and I think you’re right about that woman. Samantha Page appears to be dating him. I’m not sure yet how important he is to her, but they’re definitely together.”
Peter’s head shot up. “Samantha Page?”
Yoshi nodded, his mouth pulling down into a frown.
“Where is she from? Connecticut? Like Stone?” Peter looked to Yoshi for an answer. Yoshi nodded again.
“Huh,” Peter said and lowered his head to the laptop in front of him again, talking to himself under his breath, a highly annoying habit he seemed unaware of, or perhaps, unconcerned about.
When he didn’t say anything else, Diya prompted him, her tone not at all patient with the eccentricities of the man. “Peter!”
“Huh?” He looked up from his work, confusion etched on his face.
Diya buried a sigh and rolled her eyes as Yoshi coughed nervously into his hand.
“What about Samantha Page from Connecticut?”
“Oh. It’s probably nothing, but there were rumors a while back that she was BillieBurke, the white hat hacker behind the take down of Mendelow, Alonzo, and a few others.”
Diya stared at him. “I have no idea what you’re talking about. What does that even mean?”
Now it was Peter’s turn to roll his eyes.
“BillieBurke is the hacker name of a white hat hacker. It’s a play on Glinda the Good Witch?”
He stopped and looked at them as though they should know what he was talking about. Diya simply stared.
“Glinda the Good Witch from The Wizard of Oz. Billie Burke was the actress who played her. You know what? Skip that part. What matters is who she is. There are white hats and black hats. Good hackers and bad hackers. I,” he said with no small amount of pride, “am a black hat. I hack for profit or to fuck with other people when I feel like it. White hats hack for the pleasure of it and to do good for others. They help the government shore up their defenses, and in general try to help undo a lot of the shit we black hats do. Even when they’re hacking for their own pleasure, they don’t actually profit from it or cause harm.
“They’re like the do-gooders of the hacker world. And if these rumors are right, Samantha Page is the best of the best of them. Many hackers’ identities are well known, despite the fact that they use an online name or two. But no one’s ever been able to prove who BillieBurke is. BillieBurke worked with the FBI to take down Mendelow after he hacked into the FDA’s computer system and she’s supposedly worked with them on other things since then. They say she’s taken down criminals no one can build a case on just by hacking into their systems and taking out all their money, screwing with them any way she can. She’s the kind of chick who finds a major security breach in a company’s software and goes and shows them how to fix it, out of the goodness of her heart. It’s disgusting.”
“And there are rumors this Samantha Page is that hacker?” Diya asked.
Peter shrugged. “I don’t buy it. There are very few people who actually believe it, but whatever. Don’t get me wrong, Samantha’s a decent programmer and even a semigood hacker. She’s behind the multiplayer game Tangled Legacy. Makes a shit ton on that, I’m sure.
“When the rumors started, someone hacked her and found out she goes by the name blu33y3dphr3nd—leet speak for blue-eyed friend. She’s got a couple of cool hacks to her credit and Tangled Legacy is sweet as shit, but she’s no BillieBurke. She just isn’t that good. First of all, nobody uses a leet speak name anymore. It’s lame. And BillieBurke is far from lame. I don’t buy it.”
Diya narrowed her eyes in thought. “Or she’s smart enough to make herself look like she’s not that good, like she’s this blue-eyed person instead, when in reality she’s scamming you all. Find out,” Diya said to Peter. “Do whatever you need to track this hacker and see if it leads back to Samantha Page.”
Peter sputtered. “It can’t be done. If it could be done, someone would have done it by now. No one can track BillieBurke.”
“I thought you could do anything,” Diya said, with a raised brow, instantly recognizing the set of his shoulders that said he wouldn’t let her challenge go unanswered.