He dropped the folder of files on my desk and pointed at them, “I think someone’s trying to hack our servers.”
“That sounds like some movie shit, Kyle,” I laughed. “But what does that actually mean for us right now?”
He sighed and ran his fingers through his hair, “That means that if whoever’s behind the attack is successful, they’ll be able to see the personal financial data of our clients. On top of that, if they’re tied to another finance firm, they’ll be able to pinpoint our investment strategies, which are trade secrets, right?”
“Yeah. How much danger are we in?” I asked him.
He sighed. “Thankfully, I spotted it before they were successful. I can get my team on it to reconfigure our network and make sure we’re not at risk of a breach. It’s just odd, you know? The reports I looked at said it was an internal attack, like a virus uploaded to our servers from one of our computers in the building.”
“Can you find the exact machine?”
“Yeah, it was in accounting, but I ran my own program to log keystrokes and none of them put the virus in. They’ve been focused on Tipping Point’s financials-”
“Maybe the auditors down there picked up a bug from Tipping Point’s files. You think that’s how she lost five million? If a hacker moved funds or made deals without her knowledge?”
“Or with it?” Kyle hinted at deception, but something in Poppy’s eyes made me think otherwise.
“No. She was damn near destroyed, having to sell her father’s company. She’s one hell of an actress if she’s behind this. We have an independent auditor coming in to go over the books. If they pick up the virus too, then we know it’s Tipping Point. If not, then it has to be from somewhere else.”
“Alright, I’ll wait to hear from whoever’s brought in. What’s going on with Nina? Get her to sign that prenup yet?” He laughed.
“You have such a low opinion of the women I’ve brought into my life; I’m starting to worry if you’re my friend.”
He laughed, “I am your friend. It’s why I insist on you protecting yourself.”
“You watch too much TV. The women I attract don’t stay with me because of my money. They tend to have their own.”
“That does not stop them from going after yours,” he deadpanned.
“That’s your fear, not mine. I can always make more money. If they want it so badly and managed to get whatever they can out of me, I’d say it’s well earned. None of this matters anyway. We had an argument, and she’s either not speaking to me or we keep missing each other.”
“She’s calling you back?”
“Yeah, but I’m swamped with this deal and the other stuff we have going on. I call her and she’s dealing with clients, can’t come to the phone, whatever.”
“Don’t say whatever. I’m starting to think you might actually prefer the gold digger so she could be hung onto you and your every word. All her attention is on you. You need her to need you, don’t you?”
“Maybe,” I shrugged. “Now that you say that, it makes sense why I got that guy fired.”
“You got somebody fired?”
“Yeah. This asshole was giving her a hard time, kept following her, but we can’t exactly prove that. I filed a complaint with the company he worked for and they fired him, but he took that out on her. Yelled at her or something, so she came in here yelling at me. She told me that where she’s from, when you mess with somebody’s money, they come after you.”
“I think that’s where everyone’s from. You can’t pull the bread out of someone’s mouth and expect a reaction less than visceral. She’s not wrong. She’s probably just had a far more visceral experience than we have. Someone messes with our money, we go after theirs. It’s a game of tit for tat. I’m sure the games she’s seen played have far more violent implications. You can’t disregard her experiences because you feel your way is the better way of handling a situation. Did you ask her how she wanted to handle this asshole before you got him fired?”
Shit.
“No, I didn’t. Are you taking her side? I thought you were my friend.”
“I am your friend,” he laughed. “It’s why we’re so honest with each other. I’m always on your side, but right now, I’m on hers, too. It feels weird, Colt. I don’t like it. A woman who’s challenging you to think about doing things in other ways than you’re used to?”
“Shut up,” I shoved him playfully. “I already know I fucked up, but work keeps getting in the way every time I try to talk to her.”
“Is it?” He asked me with a raised eyebrow. Kyle shrugged and headed out of my office before turning to look at me from over his shoulder. “You make time for what you want. You make time for the people you want. You have this thing called time, you know? It ticks by whether you’re at work or on your way home. You get to choose what you do with it and it feels like you’re not choosing, Nina. But hey, that’s just my uninformed opinion. Don’t listen to me. I only know how to chase gold diggers.”
The sound of my leather chair rolling as I plopped into it echoed around my office. Kyle was right. A sentence that I hated to admit to myself. I’d been making myself unavailable because it seemed like Nina didn’t need me. I wanted to fix this. I wanted to be around her. I missed her.
The knock on my door drew my attention from thoughts of my personal life. Chelsea sauntered into my office with a smile on her face.
