The Hacker Read online

  ALSO BY NANCY HERKNESS

  The Consultants series

  The Money Man

  Second Glances series

  Second to None: A Novella

  Second Time Around

  Second Act

  Wager of Hearts series

  The CEO Buys In

  The All-Star Antes Up

  The VIP Doubles Down

  The Irishman’s Christmas Gamble: A Novella

  Whisper Horse novels

  Take Me Home

  Country Roads

  The Place I Belong

  A Down-Home Country Christmas: A Novella

  Stand-Alone novels

  A Bridge to Love

  Shower of Stars

  Music of the Night

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, organizations, places, events, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

  Text copyright © 2020 by Nancy Herkness

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express written permission of the publisher.

  Published by Montlake, Seattle

  www.apub.com

  Amazon, the Amazon logo, and Montlake are trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc., or its affiliates.

  ISBN-13: 9781542018333

  ISBN-10: 1542018331

  Cover design by Eileen Carey

  To Patti Anderson, dear friend and expert personal trainer,

  who kept me healthy in more ways than just the physical.

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Epilogue

  Acknowledgments

  About the Author

  Chapter 1

  “Five more reps,” Dawn Galioto commanded her friend Alice Thurber, who was lying on her back on a weight bench.

  “I think I hate you,” Alice gasped out as she struggled to lift two ten-pound dumbbells into the air above her chest.

  “You want to look good for your wedding, don’t you?” Dawn gave Alice her best encouraging but no-nonsense smile. Six years of being a personal trainer had allowed her to perfect it.

  “Low blow. Only for Derek would I let you torture me like this,” Alice said, shoving the dumbbells upward with renewed determination.

  “He’s pretty good motivation, I gotta say,” Dawn agreed with a nod that made her straight, dark-brown ponytail swing over her shoulder as she knelt to spot her friend. Alice’s fiancé looked like a movie star.

  “You know,” Alice said, “I can always have my dress made with long sleeves.”

  Dawn smirked. “That would be cheating.”

  Alice pushed out the final few reps, and Dawn relieved her of the dumbbells. “My arms feel like rubber bands,” Alice said, sitting up and shaking out her abused limbs.

  “Yeah, but flex them, and then check out how amazing your back looks in the mirror.”

  Alice flicked her long braid to the side and craned her neck to see her reflection in the mirror. “Oh my God, I have actual muscles!”

  “Because I am very good at my job.” Dawn slotted the weights back onto their stand and tugged down the electric-blue tank top all the trainers at the Work It Out gym wore over their black leggings. “Now head for the mat. It’s time to stretch.”

  “And it’s going to hurt so good,” Alice said with a grin as she quoted Dawn’s favorite saying.

  “Admit it. Stretching feels great.” In fact, Dawn wished she could have someone stretch her the way she did her clients. But having anyone looming over her while she lay on the floor freaked her out. It yanked her back to a bad time.

  “Depends on the day.” Alice grabbed her phone. “Just let me show you the headpiece for the veil I’m considering and see what you think.” After she tapped at her phone, she looked up. “You haven’t forgotten about coming to my house next Sunday to help me with the wedding dress design?”

  Dawn sighed inwardly. She spent all her time in workout clothes or jeans. What did she know about designing a wedding gown? But she was a maid of honor so she had to support her friend. “I’ll be there with bells on.” Luckily, the other maid of honor, their friend Natalie, had serious fashion sense.

  Despite her worry about advising Alice, a warm, fuzzy feeling spread through Dawn’s chest. She was still amazed that Alice wanted her to have such an important role in her wedding. She wasn’t used to having close friends anymore. Her kind of baggage was more likely to scare them away. “Okay, I’ll take a look at the veil thingie.”

  Alice stared at her phone in exasperation. “What is wrong with the gym’s internet service these days? It’s about as speedy as a teenage snail on its way to school.”

  “I didn’t know snails went to school.” Dawn grabbed a paper towel to wipe down the weight bench.

  “You know what I mean.” Alice checked her phone and blew out an exasperated breath. “Are they ever going to fix the problem here? No one’s been able to stream TV on the treadmills for the last two weeks, at least.”

  “Yeah, the customers are pretty grumpy about it.” Dawn shrugged. “Vicky’s brought in a bunch of different tech geeks to try to get it back to normal but none of them can find the problem. My personal suspicion is that they’re all relatives of hers and she’s giving them the work as a favor.” Vicky was the wife of the gym’s owner, Ramón Vazquez, the man whom Dawn owed her present career to.

  “You know who could fix it? Leland Rockwell. In about five seconds with one hand tied behind his back.”

  A little jolt of awareness zinged through Dawn. She had met Leland Rockwell a couple of times at parties Alice and Derek had thrown in their spectacular Manhattan penthouse apartment.

  Leland was the computer genius at KRG Consulting, the firm Derek, Leland, and their third partner, Tully Gibson, had founded. Dawn had never said much to him because he was scary smart, and she felt intimidated since she was a college dropout. Although she loved listening to his honey-smooth Georgia drawl when he talked to other people. It seemed to wash through her like a warm sea and softened the intimidation factor somewhat.

  She’d also noticed his lean, sculpted body with the surprisingly wide shoulders because that was her job . . . or so she told herself. His face had the elegant bone structure of old money, and there was a courtliness to his manners that screamed private school. He tried to disguise that by wearing the computer nerd’s uniform of T-shirt and jeans, even at the parties. Behind his tortoiseshell glasses, his vivid blue eyes gleamed with that formidable intelligence that Alice was referring to.

  And Dawn always knew exactly where he was in the room at those parties.

  “Finally!” Alice jerked Dawn out of her daydream by holding up her phone with photos of an embroidered lace veil attached to a crown of pearls and white silk flowers.

  “It’s beautiful,” Dawn said sincerely. “It looks like it could be on the cover of one of those Regency romance novels you love so much. But not outdated or anything.”

  Alice beamed and took the phone back before she hugged Dawn. “Thank you! That’s what I hoped you would say. I’m so excited!”

  After a split second of hesitation, Dawn returned the h
ug. “You’re going to look amazing no matter what you wear.” She stepped back. “Now it’s time to stretch.”

  Alice obediently lay down on the foam mat, and Dawn gently pushed her friend’s bent knee across her body. Alice made a little groaning sound before she asked, “Who’s the new trainer over at the ellipticals?”

  Dawn glanced up at the muscle-bound blond man in his late twenties. He was berating a sweaty, middle-aged client with a paunch to leave it all on the gym floor. “That’s Chad, the former high school quarterback and new favorite of all the ex-jocks and wannabe ex-jocks. He’s got that whole ‘no pain, no gain’ vibe going.”

  “You’re not a fan,” Alice said.

  In fact, Dawn had turned down several invitations to go out for drinks with the new trainer. The man couldn’t take no for an answer, so now she actively avoided him. “I prefer to find other ways to motivate my clients to work harder.”

  “Like reminding them they will be wearing a wedding dress in six months.”

  “You pushed out those last five reps like a champion, didn’t you?” Dawn moved to Alice’s other side. “Why are you even looking at other guys with a fiancé like yours?”

  “I’m not looking at them that way. I’m interested in the people you work with because you’re my friend.”

  Dawn grunted, but the happy warmth returned to her chest. Alice was good about showing her that friendship went both ways. Dawn struggled to remember that sometimes.

  “Which reminds me . . . I wasn’t kidding about Leland.”

  Dawn pressed her friend’s shoulder to the floor. “I’m pretty sure the gym’s tech budget isn’t up to paying KRG Consulting’s fees.”

  “He’ll do it for free,” Alice said. “Don’t you remember that’s how I first contacted Derek? He started their Small Business Initiative, KRG’s program that offers complimentary assistance to businesspeople like me and Ramón who don’t have the extra resources to solve problems. I was trying to figure out what was wrong with the accounting software my clients were using.”

  “I’d forgotten the part about it being free.” Dawn hated to ask for help from anyone, but this wasn’t for herself. It was for Ramón. He had pulled her back from the brink. “Yeah, maybe ask Leland if he has someone who could look into it.” Because she couldn’t imagine the gym’s issue needed the kind of genius Leland was.

  “As soon as you’re done tormenting me,” Alice said with a grin.

  Two hours later, Dawn stood at her kitchen counter, eating organic Greek yogurt, when an email from KRG Consulting popped up on her phone. “That was fast,” she muttered, putting down her spoon to swipe into the message.

  “Shit!” she said when she glanced at the signature.

  It was from Leland Rockwell himself. She glanced at the display on her microwave: 9:35 p.m. Alice had said something about the man being a workaholic, but Dawn’s problem wasn’t exactly a high priority for KRG.

  Dear Ms. Galioto,

  I understand the gym where you are employed is suffering from issues with Wi-Fi performance. I would be happy to help. Perhaps it would be easiest to put me in touch with the person responsible for the computer systems. I will, of course, keep you in the loop as to my progress on the project.

  Regards,

  Leland Rockwell

  Should she answer him tonight? She supposed it wouldn’t hurt since he could always read it in the morning if he’d sent it right as he was leaving.

  She plunked down on a wooden barstool and frowned at her phone. What kind of response should she make to the founding partner of an international consulting firm? Brief, so she wouldn’t betray the fact that she wasn’t accustomed to business correspondence at such a high level.

  Dear Mr. Rockwell,

  I will speak with Mr. Ramón Vazquez, the owner of Work It Out, tomorrow and let him know of your kind offer. Thank you very much for your assistance.

  Sincerely,

  Dawn Galioto

  She read it over half a dozen times, debating whether her wording was too stiff, too obsequious, not appreciative enough, or too vague. Finally she hit “send.” When his return email dinged into her phone, she took a deep breath before she swiped it open.

  Dear Ms. Galioto,

  I look forward to hearing from you.

  Regards,

  Leland

  P.S. Perhaps we could dispense with our surnames? They seem somewhat unwieldy since we’ve met before.

  She bit out a laugh, then wondered if he was making fun of her. No, teasing her. That was a better interpretation. She could give it right back to him.

  Hey, Leland! You’re right.

  Dawn

  It took mere seconds before his response pinged in.

  Dawn, I’m always right.

  That made her laugh again before she stuck her phone in her sweatshirt pocket and finished her yogurt.

  Leland was disappointed when Dawn didn’t rise to the bait of his provocative remark about being right. He leaned back in his chair in the room his partners had dubbed Mission Control due to its array of computer screens. This was where he spent most of his work time, rolling his chair among various stations as he juggled multiple projects. Hell, it was where he spent most of his time, period.

  When Derek had called to say that his fiancée’s friend needed help through their Small Business Initiative, Leland had felt an odd rush of interest. Dawn was Alice’s personal trainer. Her self-defense instruction had played a significant part in saving Derek’s and Alice’s lives when a psychopathic hacker had held them at gunpoint six months ago. That meant Leland was grateful to her.

  He’d met her a few times at the social events surrounding his partner’s engagement, the only parties he felt obligated to attend. He admired her straight, dark hair, body honed as taut as a bowstring, and lips like tempting pillows. The contrast between soft lips and hard muscles had stirred something low in his belly.

  However, she tended to say three words to him and then move along. He’d laid on the full southern gentleman treatment, his Georgia drawl as thick as honey. She would give him a long look from those huge, dark eyes of hers and make an excuse to leave. He couldn’t figure out what he’d done to offend her.

  Tonight, he’d decided that charm might be the wrong approach. She was a warrior in teaching women self-defense, so maybe she would like a fight. Or at least some mild provocation.

  Too bad she hadn’t taken up the challenge. He expected that straightening out the Wi-Fi problem would require about sixty seconds of his time, so the project wouldn’t offer any further contact with her.

  Just as well. He had a dozen other jobs to do that contributed to the firm’s bottom line, unlike Derek’s pet pro bono project. He knew in his gut that he was overloading himself because he didn’t want to face the sudden profound absence in his life. But that was what work was for.

  Chapter 2

  Dawn stuck her head in the door of the office that Ramón shared with his wife, Vicky. “Got a minute?” she asked, relieved that only her boss was occupying the room. She wasn’t sure how Vicky would react to Dawn trespassing on her computer territory.

  “For you? Always!” Ramón’s smile transformed his rough boxer’s face into a benign uncle’s. He waved to a turquoise chair in front of the blond-wood desk his massive body dwarfed. Vicky had done the decorating. “Everything okay?”

  “Better than okay.” Dawn dropped into the chair. “I’ve got some expert help for the Wi-Fi problem and it’s free.”

  “There’s no such thing as free in this world. But no one’s mentioned a Wi-Fi problem to me.”

  “Because you’re big and scary.” Dawn grinned.

  In fact, her boss was beloved in the gym, where everyone considered him a gentle giant. The wannabe boxers had long ago given up challenging him to a bout in the ring. He adamantly refused, claiming he didn’t want to be thrown in jail for manslaughter. Even more, he’d sworn off violence of any kind once he’d ended his boxing career, saying he’d seen enoug
h hurt to last the rest of his life. She admired him for that.

  But she owed him even more. He was the one who had encouraged her to become certified as a personal trainer. She’d been teaching her self-defense classes at the gym—the only bright spot in her life at the time—when he’d told her she’d make a great trainer and offered to pay for the courses she needed. She sometimes felt as though he had saved her life—or, at the very least, her sanity.

  Dawn raised her eyebrows as he continued to look at her in bafflement. “Seriously? Vicky didn’t say anything?” she asked.

  He shook his head. “Although I remember some guys messing around with the computers a couple of times last week. I don’t pay much attention to the tech stuff.”

  “Well, for the last ten days, the customers have been giving all of us trainers an earful about how they can’t stream TV or movies on the treadmills and ellipticals. It seems no one can break a sweat without entertainment anymore.”

  “I wondered why it was so quiet in the equipment room recently, but I didn’t pinpoint the reason.” Her boss tugged at his short ponytail, which meant he was worried. “So people are really annoyed?”

  “Yeah. I even switch off the Wi-Fi on my phone when I’m at the gym because it’s so incredibly slow. I thought you knew about the issue.”

  “Vick usually takes care of stuff like that.”

  “From what I can tell, she’s tried, but I guess the people she’s brought in couldn’t fix it.” Dawn sat back in her chair. “Luckily, I have a solution.”

  “The free one?” Ramón looked skeptical.

  “Yup. My friend Alice—who’s a member here too—is engaged to a very fancy consultant from New York City. His firm, KRG Consulting, runs a free program to help small business owners with problems. Alice hooked me up with their computer expert. All you have to do is agree and he’ll jump right on it.”

  “It sounds too good to be true.” When Ramón shifted in his chair, it creaked so loudly that Dawn feared it might collapse under him.

  “I’d agree with you except that I saw what they did for Alice’s bookkeeping issue.” Of course, Alice had nearly gotten herself killed when she and Derek uncovered the fraud that had created the problem. “They put every resource she needed into the project, even rented a private jet. At no cost to her.”