When There is Love: A Christian Romance (The McKinleys Book 3) Page 9

  For the next half hour, Trent and Ethan worked side by side, sharing observations and watching as the attack continued. Sweat slid down the side of Trent’s face as he watched this unprecedented attempt on their system. He tried to tamp it down, but fear pooled in the pit of his stomach. There was a lot at stake if this attack was successful. The confidential information stored on their servers could mean death for certain individuals if it got into the hands of the wrong people.

  He felt a hand on his shoulder and glanced up. Marcus stood behind him, his expression as stoic as ever. “You’ve got this. Breathe. Take a second to clear your mind and then focus on it again.”

  Closing his eyes, Trent took a deep breath and let it out. He could do this. Marcus had hired him because he was one of the best in the business. Please, God, open my eyes to see what I might be missing in this. Help me to see how to protect the information that needs to be kept safe. Give me Your wisdom to do this. I can’t do it on my own.

  He opened his eyes, took one more deep breath and let it out in a huff. Then he focused once again on the monitor before them. Fear was still there, but it was being overshadowed by the determination to show this hacker that he and his team at BlackThorpe were not to be messed with.

  “See if you can find him, Ethan,” Trent said as he watched code change on the screen. “Let’s see if we can beat this guy at his own game.”

  “We really need Tracer for that. He’s the best person to track him down.”

  “Then get him on the phone and tell him to haul his butt in here.” Trent felt Marcus’s hand leave his shoulder as if the man realized he no longer needed to offer his physical support.

  The gleam in Tracer’s eyes, when he walked into the computer center thirty minutes later, was all Trent needed to see. The lanky man had earned his nickname by being able to trace computer signals like no one else. He wasn’t sure how Marcus had done it, but somehow BlackThorpe had managed to swipe Tracer right from under the government’s nose.

  “Trace this guy, man. We need to find him.”

  Tracer sat down at his computer and shoved a pair of horn-rimmed glasses onto his angular face. “Will do, boss.”

  Satisfied that Tracer had a handle on that, Trent turned his attention back to the monitor. He felt better knowing that they were no longer just on the defensive. With Tracer on the hunt, they had just gone on the offensive. He had complete confidence in his team and even if Tracer couldn’t get a lock on the guy, whoever the hacker was would know that they were looking for him. Maybe that would make him think twice about trying again.

  Marcus and Alex stayed with them through the early morning hours. They had sent out emails to all the employees worldwide to let them know that they were not to attempt to access the BlackThorpe network until further notice. Around nine o’clock, the attack abruptly stopped without the hacker having been able to pierce the third layer of defense.

  “Did you find him?” Trent asked as he shot a look at Tracer.

  “No.” The one word was heavily laced with frustration.

  “Close?”

  “Very. If he’d stayed online even just two or three more minutes, I would have had him. He knew it, too. That’s why he disconnected the way he did.” Tracer thumped his desk with his fist. “So close.”

  Trent slumped back in his chair. All the tension that had coiled in his body over the past eight hours seemed to evaporate, leaving him exhausted. But there would be no time for resting. They had to repair the damage done to the network and analyze the code the hacker had been utilizing to dismantle their defenses.

  He stood up and stretched from side to side. Ethan and Tracer also stood to work out the kinks in their bodies.

  “Why don’t you guys hit the showers,” Alex said. “I’ll get you some breakfast.”

  Trent hoped that a shower might help to rejuvenate him. Going on just two hours of sleep in the last twenty-four, particularly after such an adrenalin rush, was clouding his brain.

  “We’re going to call in the rest of the admin team to alert them to what has transpired,” Marcus said as he walked with Trent to the elevator. “We’ll meet in the boardroom.”

  The gym and showers were on the second floor, so Marcus said he’d catch the elevator on the way back up and let Trent and Ethan in first. Tracer had stayed to monitor the system until one of them got back. They rode in silence to the lower floor. Trent had no doubt that Ethan was trying to sort through the events of the past few hours as he was.

  “Meet back at the computers when you’re done,” Trent said as they entered the gym.

  Alex and Tracer were the only ones in the computer room when Trent returned, but he knew Ethan would be right behind him. Nothing more had happened in the time they’d been gone.

  “All quiet on the monitor front,” Alex said, pushing up from the chair he’d been sitting in as he watched the screens. “There’s breakfast over there for you guys.”

  “Thanks, man,” Trent said as he went to pour himself some coffee. He wasn’t a huge fan of the beverage but right then he needed the caffeine. His mouth watered a bit at the sight of the breakfast sandwiches on the tray as well.

  Tracer headed for the showers once Ethan returned. Trent sat sipping his coffee and staring at the large monitor that sat still now where not that long ago it had been streaming with code. It was going to be a long day as they dissected and analyzed that code.

  “Marcus said the meeting will be at eleven. Will that work for you?” Alex asked as he stood with his cup of coffee in hand.

  Trent glanced at the clock on the wall. “Yeah, that should be fine.”

  “I’ll see you then.” Alex left the three of them in the dimly lit computer room.

  After Ethan and Tracer had gotten some coffee and food, Trent sat down with them around the conference table they had in the room. Over the next forty-five minutes, they laid out a plan of defense as well as one of attack. And made sure that the computers were being physically monitored twenty-four seven throughout the rest of the weekend.

  Trent told Ethan he could go home since they had called in one of the other team members, but he refused. When both of the other guys on the team showed up, Trent knew they were as anxious as he was to figure out what had happened and who was behind the attack.

  Just before eleven, he took the elevator to the floor where the admin team would be meeting. Everyone was already in the boardroom when he walked in.

  Marcus didn’t waste any time starting the meeting and bringing everyone up to date. Trent could see the tension on all their faces. No doubt it matched what was on his. They never took an attack on the company lightly. And he figured they were likely wondering—as he was—if this attack had anything to do with what Eric had gone through earlier in the year.

  When his phone rang mid-way through the meeting, Trent winced. He’d forgotten to turn the ringer off. Figuring it was one of the guys, he almost tapped the screen without looking, but then the name on the display caught his attention. Victoria. He groaned inwardly and did the only thing he could right then and tapped the icon that would send the call right to his voice mail. He hated to do that to her, but he just couldn’t take her call in the middle of this meeting.

  Trent turned off the ringer on his phone then quickly tapped out a message to Victoria.

  Sorry. In a meeting. Won’t be going to compound today. Something has come up.

  He’d have to call her later and explain in a little more detail. Preferably when he didn’t have an audience.

  He glanced up to find all sets of eyes on him. “Sorry.” Lowering the phone to his lap, he turned his attention back to Marcus.

  When the phone vibrated in his hand a minute later, he dropped his gaze to read the message on the screen.

  Okay.

  His heart sank as he wondered if he’d just undone everything he’d managed to build with Victoria in the past couple of weeks. But it couldn’t be helped. He slid the phone into his pocket. He needed to put that aside so
he could focus on what he needed to tell the guys about all that had transpired since the alarm had first blared out its warning ten hours ago.

  When the meeting wrapped up an hour later, Eric went with him to the computer room.

  “You need to get some rest,” he said as they walked to where Ethan and Tracer were working with the other guys on the team.

  “Can’t do that yet.” He had hoped to call Victoria but with Eric hanging around, he put it off.

  The other two guys—Max and Nick—were at their stations now. He knew that Ethan and Tracer had likely brought them up to speed on what had happened, but now they needed to formulate a plan of attack as a complete team.

  “Let’s huddle up, guys,” Trent said as he poured more coffee into his cup and laced it heavily with sugar and cream. “You going to stick around for this, Eric?”

  “I would, but I have a feeling your conversation is going to go beyond my level of understanding pretty quickly. Give me a call later.”

  Alone with his guys, Trent slumped into a chair. As he glanced around the table, he could see the exhaustion on Tracer and Ethan’s faces, but their eyes still shone with the challenge of what they faced.

  Victoria stared down at her phone again. The message from Trent had been weird. She knew enough to realize that he’d sent her straight to his voicemail. His text had come pretty quickly after that so it seemed that he hadn’t even taken the time to check his messages. Not that she’d left one.

  She had planned to make supper for him again and had even started it already by the time she called to tell him she wanted to go with him to the range. Now she had a whole crockpot full of chicken and sauce and no idea if she’d be eating it on her own. She’d also made a batch of buns and used some of the dough to make cinnamon rolls that she’d intended to send home with him. His loss.

  Since she’d cleared her day to spend it at the range with Trent, it took her a little while to focus in on something to do. She’d done all her chores earlier in the morning because she’d wanted the house clean when they got back from the range. She had a bit of paperwork to do for the company, but that didn’t take much time.

  Finally, she filled a large glass with some lemonade she’d made earlier and went out to the chaise lawn chair in the backyard and settled down to read for a while. The summer afternoon was warm and filled with the sounds of the neighborhood. She set her tablet in her lap and leaned back in the chair. It was times like this she was glad she lived in a house instead of an apartment. She loved spending time in her yard. The large trees cast dappled shadows across the grass, and when the breeze kicked up, the rustling of the leaves soothed her.

  Summer was her favorite season followed by spring and fall. Winter was definitely the season she liked the least. The cold months made her joints hurt more than they did in the summer. Plus, they had never really been a winter sports type family. She’d never learned to ice skate or ski. And now, as an adult, she had no interest in learning.

  Even though she was a bit disappointed at not being able to go shooting, Victoria let out a sigh of contentment as she lifted her tablet and pulled up the book she’d been reading over the past few days. It wasn’t how she’d planned to spend her afternoon, but it wasn’t a bad alternative.

  CHAPTER TEN

  TRENT’S head throbbed, and his eyes were crossing from looking at code for so many hours. Marcus had made sure they had plenty of food as they worked and the hours had ticked by quickly. But he was coming up on forty-five hours with only two hours of sleep. And by the time he looked at the clock, it was too late to call Victoria. It would have to wait until the next day.

  They’d managed to fix the damage to the network’s defenses and had even added an additional layer based on what they’d learned about the hacker from analyzing his coding. But continuing on much longer without sleep would most likely result in him missing things or making mistakes that they couldn’t afford at that point.

  “Why don’t you guys head for home?” Matt suggested. “Nick and I can handle this through the night. Just come spell us off in the morning. Right, Nick?”

  The other computer tech nodded. “If anything pops up again, we’ll let you know right away.”

  Trent thought about just making use of the apartment in the building, but the thought of falling into his own bed was definitely appealing. “Okay. But call if anything looks the least bit suspicious.”

  Ethan and Tracer went down to the garage with him. They made the trip in silence. Trent didn’t doubt that the other two guys were as tired as he was. He was just grateful to have such a great team of men working for him.

  “Thanks for all your help,” Trent said as they reached his car. “Get some rest.”

  Ethan nodded. “You, too.”

  After finding himself almost falling asleep on the way home, Trent didn’t bother with a shower. He set his alarm for seven and fell into his bed.

  When his alarm went off the next morning, he lay in bed for a bit longer trying to wake up completely. The seven hours he’d gotten hadn’t been enough. He reached for his phone and called the guys at the office. After being assured everything was under control, he decided to take the shower he’d skipped the night before. He wanted to phone Victoria but figured he should wait until after he was ready to go to the office so his call wouldn’t wake her up.

  By seven forty-five, he was showered and dressed. As he sat on the edge of his unmade bed, he tapped the screen to call her. It rang several times before he heard the line open between them. She didn’t say anything right away, but he could hear movement on the other end so just waited.

  “Hello?” Her voice sounded husky from sleep.

  “Hey, Victoria. It’s Trent.”

  “Trent? What time is it?”

  “Almost eight. I’m sorry to call so early, but I wanted to make sure I touched base with you.”

  He heard more movement and tried not to picture her in bed. It was a place his thoughts did not need to go.

  “What’s going on? Are you okay?”

  “I’m fine. We just had a bad hacking attempt at BlackThorpe early Saturday morning. I’ve been tied up dealing with that and then cleaning up the mess afterward. I’m actually heading back into the office now to monitor things for the day.” He rubbed his forehead. “I’m sorry I couldn’t take your call yesterday. It came right in the middle of a meeting with Marcus, Alex and the rest of the group.”

  “I’m sorry you’ve had to deal with that.”

  Trent sighed. “Yeah. It’s been a stressful couple of days. Hopefully, things will be back to normal by the end of today.”

  “Well, thank you for letting me know what happened.”

  “I’m sorry we couldn’t get to the range, but there’s always next week.”

  “Yep.”

  “I hate to run, but I’ve got to get back to the office. They sent me home to get a few hours of sleep, but I need to get back to relieve the other guys now.”

  “Have a good day,” she said, her voice soft.

  “Thanks. You, too.” He wanted to prolong the conversation, but other responsibilities called to him. After saying goodbye, he pulled on his socks and shoes and grabbed his work bag and headed out the door.

  Victoria usually slept until eight thirty on Sunday mornings, so she stayed in bed a bit longer after Trent had hung up. She was glad he’d called. After not hearing from him the previous day, she’d begun to wonder what was going on. For a brief moment, she’d considered calling Eric to see if he knew what was up but had decided to just wait until Trent contacted her.

  She was still trying to figure out how things were between her and Trent. Unfortunately, it seemed he’d slipped into friend-mode since the night he’d come to set up her computer. Though there was still some teasing and joking, the flirting was basically gone. It was like he’d decided he no longer wanted that after having spent more time with her.

  But then, he was still willing to spend time together. Between the home-cooked mea
ls and the offer to take her to the range, he certainly wasn’t cutting their contact. But, on the other hand, he also wasn’t making much contact between their times together on the weekends.

  With a groan, Victoria rolled out of bed. She was going to give herself a brain cramp trying to figure it out. Pushing those thoughts out of her mind for the time being, she went to the bathroom to get ready for church.

  Victoria was a bit disappointed—but not really surprised—that it was another week before she heard from Trent. He called her on Friday night to see if she wanted to go to the range the next day.

  “I was thinking about it,” she said.

  “Well, if you do want to go, we’re going to have to head out a little earlier. I need to be back in the city by five.”

  She guessed that meant their dinner was out. “We don’t have to go. If you have other stuff to do, I don’t mind waiting for another time.”

  Trent sighed. “Are you sure? I hate that even though I offered to take you, I haven’t been able to for two weeks in a row now.”

  “Not to mention that I still owe you a few more dinners.”

  “No worries there. I do plan to collect…eventually.”

  “So we’ll just plan for a trip to the range another time,” Victoria said, trying to ignore the disappointment that filled her. She was beginning to think that she’d missed her chance with Trent. All those times of brushing aside his flirting had finally sunk in with him, and now when her interest was piqued, his had waned.

  “Thanks for understanding.” The line sounded muffled like he’d covered the phone to talk to someone then he came back on the line. “I gotta run. Take care of yourself.”

  “You, too.” Victoria lowered the phone from her ear when the call disconnected and stared at it. There was no reason she should feel hurt. She had no one to blame but herself for the way things were now. She’d come to see the depth in Trent too late. The things that attracted her to him were things he hadn’t shown her in the first few years they’d known each other. Not that she’d given him much chance. Her fault for that, too.