Page 75 of Protecting You
He wanted her to know him, and someday, to love him.
If he’d died tonight, he would never have had the opportunity to prove his love to her.
Of course, he’d always planned to do that, someday. Somehow.
He’d thought he had all the time in the world. Wrong about that too.
He could be taken from Peri.
Or she could be taken from him.
Car accidents. Cancer.
Terrorists.
Nobody was promised tomorrow.
From now on, he’d fight for his daughter, even if it was the hardest fight he’d ever known.
CHAPTERNINETEEN
Alyssa needed caffeine, or at least conversation, but Callan remained silent beside her.
It was nearly two in the morning by the time they reached the expressway and headed out of the city.
He sat up and stretched his neck and shoulders.
She glanced at him in the darkness. “You all right?”
“I’m fine. Were you hurt?”
She touched her damp jeans and rubbed her tender knee where it’d hit when she fell. She’d probably have a bruise by morning. “Nothing to worry about.”
“I’m sorry that happened. I really thought we could escape without being caught.”
“What went wrong?”
“My guess, the backyard guard saw the open window and had someone check our room.” Callan took a breath. “I know it’s late, but the sooner Malcolm knows what Ghazi wants, the better.”
“He claimed to own a security company called SJSS Enterprises. He tasked me with searching for vulnerabilities, ostensibly because they’ve been hired to protect a well-known client they fear is being targeted.”
“But…?” Callan prompted.
“But he doesn’t own the company.” She moved to push her hair behind her ears and bumped into the T-shirt still wrapped around her head. Yanking it off, she said, “You could’ve told me.”
“But you look so cute.”
She threw it at him. “Anyway, if he did own SJSS, then he wouldn’t pay me to onlyfindthe vulnerabilities but tofixthem. And he was very clear that he needed me to record my steps so he could recreate them. He’s looking for a?—”
“Zero-day exploit.”
So named because it would exploit what programmers called a zero-day vulnerability, a flaw in a software’s programming unknown to developers but discovered by criminals seeking to steal or corrupt files. A vulnerability that wouldn’t be found until there were zero days to fix it.
Smart business owners hired hackers to find those vulnerabilities and fix them. Alyssa took those jobs sometimes. If she’d been hired by the true owners of SJSS, her job would have been to repair any weaknesses she located. What Ghazi wanted was for her to show him a way in.
“Did you?”
“Find one?” She flicked a gaze to the man at her side. “I found two, but I didn’t pursue them. I didn’t make note of them.”
