When There is Love: A Christian Romance (The McKinleys Book 3) Page 8

  “Definitely. I just need to get myself a gun and find a range.”

  “You already have a gun,” Trent said with a glance at her.

  Her eyes widened. “I do?”

  “Sure. The one you were shooting with is yours.”

  “Really?” A smile spread across her face as she reached out to touch his arm. “Thank you!”

  “I didn’t know if you’d really enjoy it, but since you seem to have a real knack for shooting, there’s no reason you should stop.” Keeping his gaze on the road, he said, “If you want, we could make it a weekly thing. I’m out here pretty much every Saturday afternoon anyway. You might as well tag along and do some shooting of your own.”

  Victoria was silent for a moment then said, “I might take you up on that.”

  “Just give me a call by Saturday morning to let me know if you want to go. It’s no problem to swing by and pick you up since you’re pretty much right on my way.”

  “I might not be able to go every week, but I’d really like to continue. It ended up being a lot more fun than I thought.”

  He heard her phone chirp, and she reached into her purse to pull it out. They lapsed into silence as she had a text conversation with someone. Trent was hoping his own phone would signal a text message from Than letting him know he really wasn’t coming, but no such luck.

  When they pulled into Victoria’s driveway, she said, “Guess we’re going to have more company for dinner.”

  “We are?” Trent said as he turned off the ignition.

  “Yeah. That was Alicia. I invited her to join us since Than is coming. The more, the merrier at this point.”

  Trent wasn’t sure he agreed with her, but it might be nice to have someone else to entertain Than. He got the stool for Victoria and then returned it to the trunk of her car when she was through with it. As he shut the trunk, he wondered if she’d order one for his car if he asked. Or would she find that too presumptuous?

  Entering the house felt a bit too much like coming home. Even stepping into his own apartment hadn’t brought this depth of feeling. The spicy tomato aroma along with the faint scent of fresh bread caused his stomach to growl. Trying to keep from drooling, Trent followed Victoria to the kitchen and watched as she got up on a stool to check the crock pot. Steam rose when she lifted the lid to stir it.

  “Smells delicious,” Trent commented as he leaned a hip against the counter.

  She gave him a quick smile before returning the lid to the pot. “I hope it tastes as good.”

  “What can I do to help?”

  “Well, you aren’t supposed to be helping with these meals at all, but since I’m going to have to make more noodles than originally planned, I’ll let you put the water in the pot and put it on the stove.”

  Trent picked up the pot she indicated and went to the sink to fill it. When it was filled to Victoria’s satisfaction, he lifted it onto the burner of the stove. She climbed her stool to add some oil and salt.

  “Can you turn the burner on?” she asked. “Medium-high until it boils.”

  Though he wasn’t much of a cook himself, Trent found he enjoyed being in the kitchen with Victoria. Of course, he’d probably enjoy being pretty much anywhere with her.

  The doorbell chimed a few minutes later, and Victoria asked him if he’d get it. Anticipating it would be either Than or Alicia, Trent was a little surprised to find Eric, Staci and Sarah on the porch.

  Eric had obviously recognized his car because he didn’t look too surprised. Or happy. He lifted a dark brow as he said, “Uh, hey, bud. Is Victoria around?”

  “Yep. She’s in the kitchen.” Trent stepped back to let them in. It looked like it was going to be a full-on dinner party at this rate.

  Eric let Staci and Sarah precede him into the house, and they headed right for the kitchen. Trent shut the door behind his friend then turned to find him blocking his way.

  Hands on his hips, legs braced, Eric said, “Something you want to tell me?”

  “Not really. But if you insist, Victoria agreed to cook me some dinners in exchange for the computer system. And we spent some time at the compound shooting today.”

  Eric’s eyes widened. “You taught my sister—my little sister—how to shoot a gun?”

  Trent mirrored his friend’s stance and nodded. “She’s a natural. Just ask Justin.”

  Before Eric could say anything, the doorbell rang. Trent spun around and opened it to find Alicia waiting.

  “Hi Trent,” she said as she stepped into the house. He saw her pause when her gaze landed on her brother. “I didn’t know you were going to be here too, Eric.”

  Eric smiled at her as he relaxed his shoulders and moved to the side to let her past. “Surprises all around today.” The doorbell went again. “And apparently it’s Grand Central Station here this evening.”

  This time it was Than, and he gave Trent a mocking smile as he stepped inside. “Well hey, Eric. Good to see you, man.”

  “What are you doing here?” Eric asked as he shook Than’s hand.

  “I ran into Trent and Victoria at the compound and was invited to come for dinner.”

  Trent scowled at him. “He kind of invited himself.”

  “Well, it appears that I’m not the only one,” Than said with a nod in Eric’s direction.

  “We were actually going to take Victoria out for supper, but this smells so much better than anything we likely would have gotten at a restaurant.”

  Trent followed Eric and Than as they also headed toward the kitchen. His gaze met Victoria’s, and she gave a quick shrug with a rueful smile. With Staci and Alicia there, it appeared Victoria didn’t need his help anymore.

  “Why don’t you guys go to the living room?” Victoria suggested as she handed Alicia a basket of apples. “I think we have this under control.”

  Trent reluctantly left the kitchen area and led the way to the living room where he sat on the couch that faced the dining room and kitchen.

  “So why don’t you tell me about this shooting lesson you gave Victoria?” Eric said as he sat down across from him. “I had no idea she was even interested in learning.”

  “I happened to mention that I had a gun—well, that all of us BlackThorpe guys did actually—when we were at the theater the other night. She said that she wished she could learn to shoot. I contacted Justin and Marcus and got permission to take her out to the compound to give it a whirl.”

  “Give it a whirl? She’s barely four feet tall, if that, and you’re giving her guns to play with?”

  Trent scowled at him. “Geez, Eric, she’s a small adult, not a child. It’s not like I handed her a Glock or an Uzi and let her go to it. Justin helped me find a gun that was light enough for her and fit her grip. She did great. And she enjoyed herself so I think, all in all, it was a good thing for her.”

  “Sorry, but I just have a hard time thinking about Tori with a gun.”

  “Well, you’d better get used to it. I plan to encourage her to get a permit to carry concealed once she’s had more practice.”

  Eric’s eyebrows shot up. “What? Why would you do that?”

  “You do realize how vulnerable she is, right?” In a low voice, Trent explained what had happened after the movie when the others had already left. “I don’t want anyone to ever think they can take advantage of her because of her size. So…I’m giving her the tools to protect herself. I don’t expect her to shoot anyone, but if someone should break in here or really threaten her, she’ll have a chance at protecting herself.”

  Eric regarded him with a narrowed gaze before finally saying, “Okay. I’m going to accept that you have Tori’s best interests at heart, but is there something more? I mean, I know you’ve kind of had something for her, but is she finally reciprocating?”

  Trent debated what to say. This was her brother, after all. “Nothing’s changed. She’s happy with us being friends.”

  Than gave a shake of his head. “Tsk. Friend-zoned. You poor man.”

&nbs
p; “I guess you’d know how it feels since you’ve been friend-zoned more times than I can count,” Trent said with a smirk.

  Than sighed. “Women!”

  “Or maybe it’s just one woman in particular?” Eric suggested.

  Ignoring the question, Than turned the conversation in the direction of work. It wasn’t too much longer before Sarah came bolting over to tell them supper was ready.

  At Victoria’s direction, they each found seats around the table. Trent was rather surprised when she told him to take the seat next to her. He figured she would have put as much distance between them as possible, particularly with her family there. Maybe he was making some progress after all.

  True to Victoria’s word, the meal was as delicious as it had smelled. There was plenty for everyone, though if Victoria had hoped to have leftovers, she was going to be out of luck. When she finished off the meal with fresh-from-the-oven apple crisp with vanilla ice cream, Trent figured he’d died and gone to heaven.

  Once the meal was over, they all pitched in to clear the table and load the dishwasher. Not long after the cleanup was done, Eric and Staci decided to leave.

  “See you tomorrow,” Eric said to Trent as he followed his wife and daughter out the front door. “Thanks for supper, Tori.”

  “Anytime,” she called after them before closing the door.

  Thankfully, Than didn’t seem inclined to stay much longer after Eric left, and Alicia followed a short time later.

  When it was finally just the two of them, Victoria said, “I hope you didn’t mind having to share your home-cooked meal.”

  He did, but he wasn’t going to tell her that. “It turned out fine. The meal was excellent.”

  She gave him a quick smile. “It was a good thing I made so much. I’d planned to freeze some, but guess I’ll just need to make more.”

  Though he wanted to hang around, Trent knew it was time he took his leave as well. He didn’t want to push things. “I’d better head out, too.”

  “Thank you,” Victoria said as they stood up.

  Trent glanced over at her. “For what?”

  Her expression was serious as she regarded him. “For listening to me. For hearing me say I wanted to do something and instead of finding reasons why it wouldn’t work, you made it happen. That means an awful lot to me.”

  Trent swallowed past the tightness in his throat. “You’ll never know if you can or can’t do something unless you try at least once.”

  Victoria nodded. “I understand there will be some things that I won’t be able to do, but I want to at least try the ones that are possible before dismissing them. Or having them dismissed for me.”

  “Well, I’m game for anything, so let me know if there’s something else you want to try,” Trent said.

  Victoria grinned. “It’s nice to have someone willing to try these things with me instead of trying to talk me out of them.”

  “Well, hopefully your family doesn’t get too upset with me. Eric wasn’t exactly thrilled when he found out I took you shooting.”

  She shrugged. “He’ll get over it. I am an adult, after all. These are choices I get to make because of that.”

  “Exactly.”

  As they approached the door, Trent felt a touch on his arm. He turned to look down at Victoria. She lifted her arm toward him and he bent down, surprised to feel her hand on his shoulder as she brushed a kiss across his cheek. “Good night.”

  Feeling more hopeful than he had in a while, Trent couldn’t wipe the grin off his face as he walked to his car. Obviously she was happier moving at a slower speed. He could do that. As long as the outcome was in his favor. Their favor.

  Trent resisted the urge to call Victoria on Sunday. Now that she was actually letting him into her life, he wasn’t going to push it. He just hoped that she’d call soon to let him know she wanted to go shooting on Saturday. But in the meantime, he needed to get through a busy week.

  By the time Friday rolled around, he was beat. He and his team had been working on a new security program for a client, but testing had proven it to be too vulnerable. That result had required that they spend long hours figuring out how best to shore up the defenses for the special needs the client had.

  Once work was done on Friday, Trent stopped at a restaurant not far from his place and picked up a pizza. All he wanted to do was eat, veg in front of the television for a bit and go to sleep. And he hoped he woke to a call Saturday morning from Victoria saying she wanted to go to the range with him.

  Trent took the pizza and a bottle of soda into his bedroom. He tossed the box onto the bed and changed into a pair of shorts and a muscle shirt. Flipping through the channels, he managed to polish off his first piece and then settled in to watch a movie he’d found and ate a few more.

  A blaring alarm brutally dragged Trent from sleep. Disoriented by the jarring noise, he lay for a second trying to figure out what was going on. Then his brain kicked in, and he leaped from the bed, struggling to free his legs from the sheets and stay on his feet.

  Heart pounding, he raced for his computer. He hit the button to turn on his monitor, impatiently waiting for the screen to come to life. As soon as it was on, he began to type in commands. His phone began to ring, and he wasted precious seconds to retrieve it from the nightstand beside his bed.

  “What’s going on, Trent?” Marcus’s deep voice rumbled in his ear.

  “The system is under attack. Someone is trying to hack into the BlackThorpe network.”

  “Can you stop them?”

  Trent appreciated Marcus’s calm voice even as his heart was nearly pounding right out of his chest. “I think so, but I really need to get into the office.”

  “Can you call one of your guys to monitor it while you get to the office?”

  “Yes. I’ll get Ethan on it.”

  “I’ll meet you there.”

  The line went dead, but Trent didn’t move the phone from his ear as he continued to frantically type commands into his system. He activated the voice command on the phone. “Call Ethan.”

  Within seconds, the phone was ringing.

  “’ello?” Ethan’s groggy voice came on the line.

  “Ethan. Wake up. The network is under attack. I need you to get to BlackThorpe so you can monitor it there while I drive in.”

  There was a moment of silence then Trent heard the rustle of sheets and the murmur of voices. “I’ll leave right away.”

  “Call me when you get there. Get logged in immediately so I can head out. I can’t leave this unsupervised while I drive in. And I think we might need to sever the network connection if we can’t head them off soon.”

  “Understood,” Ethan said before the line went dead.

  After putting his phoned down, Trent stayed bent over his keyboard, staring at the data that streamed on his monitor. His blood was pumping, and he wanted to physically do something, but all he could do was sit there, watching the information that scrolled on his screen. The best security program around protected BlackThorpe’s network. He and his guys had written it themselves. And they’d tested it over and over. The defenses were in layers around the system, and no two defense layers were the same. Getting through the outer one just meant there were several more to go.

  Unfortunately, this person had already breached the first defense shortly after the alarm. The alarm was set to go off at the first sign that someone was attempting to hack the system. So having the time between when the alarm sounded and the first breach be so short concerned Trent. Big time.

  CHAPTER NINE

  A KERNEL of fear sprang to life in him. This was his job on the line. He’d told Marcus that the defenses they’d put in place were impenetrable. Had they been wrong?

  Trent took several deep breaths, willing Ethan to call and let him know he’d arrived. He needed to get to the office. As he waited, he put in his ear piece so that he could move and talk at the same time.

  It seemed to take an eternity before Ethan called.

&n
bsp; “Okay, I’m heading out now.” Trent jumped up from his chair. “Stay on the line with me and tell me what’s going on while I drive.”

  He grabbed a pair of jeans and a T-shirt and shoved his feet into his shoes without putting on socks. After scooping up his wallet, phone, laptop bag and ID, he bolted out of his apartment and went down to the underground parking garage in his building. Everything seemed to take twice as long, and he prayed the cops didn’t pull him over as he tested the speed limits on the way.

  Finally, he parked in his assigned spot beneath the BlackThorpe building. With Ethan still talking in his ear, he took the elevator to the floor where the computer hub was located. He immediately spotted Marcus and Alex when he stepped out of the elevator.

  “What’s going on, Trent?” Alex asked as he approached where they stood watching Ethan work.

  With a sick feeling in his gut, Trent could tell from the information scrolling on the big monitor on the wall that the hacker had breached the second level of security.

  Trent shook his head. “I’m not sure, but whoever this guy is, he’s good.”

  “You are good, too,” Marcus said, his tone firm and confident. “How can you stop him?”

  He glanced over at his boss where he stood, a dark figure. He wore black pants and a black T-shirt, and it looked like he hadn’t even been in bed when the alarm went. It was one o’clock in the morning, the man should at least look a little frazzled.

  Trent turned back to Ethan. “Do you recognize any of this? Sometimes these hackers have a style or a signature that you can pick up on. None of this looks familiar to me though.”

  “Me, either,” Ethan said as he continued to type commands.

  Trent sat down at a station beside him. If the hacker managed to breach the third protocol they had in place, he would need to pull the plug. It was the worst case scenario since it meant that their overseas teams—well, anyone outside the building actually—wouldn’t have access to the information stored on the network. But it was a failsafe that would sever the hacker’s connection with their system. It wasn’t ideal, but it was the lesser of two evils.