I didn’t take his dick attitude personally, though. It was just how Chuck Bennett operated. He wasn’t a nice guy. Nobody liked him.

And he didn’t care that he’d never be on anyone’s Christmas card list.

“It was a pretty low-grade attack. Most likely some bored teenagers with nothing better to do with their time,” I said, silently berating Kyle and his immature need to play lamer.

“Well, it’s obvious we need to up security. That is your job, right?” Chuck asked, his voice dripping in derision.

“Well, actually my job is maintaining the network. Security is Todd’s job,” I reminded my boss, enjoying the brief moment of stunned silence at my gall. Chuck wasn’t used to anyone correcting him.

“Oh, well, I’ll have to talk to Todd, but I expect you to collaborate with him on how to prevent these things from happening in the future. And if you can’t do it, there are enough people out there looking for a job,” Chuck threatened. I rolled my eyes heavenward.

“Okay, then,” I replied placidly.

“I want a follow-up by the end of the day,” Chuck blustered and then hung up the phone.

I looked around the crowded floor, wondering why I bothered with a job I hated.

Because my true passion doesn’t pay the bills.

One day Chuck would get his too. There were so many skeletons in his deep, dark closet. And I would take joy in exposing them.

Just not right now.

Vengeance had to be prioritized.

Tonight’s exploit was about frying bigger fish.

Chuck Bennett was too small for my pond at the moment.

But there would come a day when I’d give him all of my attention.

I grinned.

Happiness was fleeting but damn, it felt good.

Chapter 3

Mason

I took a sip of my now-cold coffee and threw it in the trash.

I briefly thought of the woman who had bought it for me.

Hannah Whelan.

That was a pleasant surprise for a Wednesday morning.

Cute face. Nice tits. Great legs.

Quiet but coy. Soft voice. Eyes that met mine and then looked away.

A nice distraction.

Lord knew I needed one of those.

Because this job was going to fucking kill me.

“Mason, you coming? Derek is starting the briefing in five.”

I glanced up at the curvy, blond-haired woman standing beside my desk, a serious, no-nonsense expression on her otherwise lovely face.

“I’m coming. Just finishing up this report I was supposed to have done last week.” I held up the thick file and gave my former fuck buddy a wan smile.

“You’ll piss him off if you’re late again,” Madison reminded me. As if she needed to remind me that I lived my life on the bad side of the agent in charge, Derek Sanders.

“I won’t be late. Just need to cross a few more t’s,” I said, still wearing that painful-as-hell smile.

Madison pursed her lips and finally turned on her heel, walking away with the giant stick still firmly planted up her ass.

I had been working in the Richmond FBI field office for only a little over six months. It shouldn’t have been enough time to mess things up so royally. But I was always known as an overachiever.

Madison Armiger had been a mistake of the worst kind.

The kind that you had to see. Every. Single. Day.

Screwing a fellow field agent wasn’t the best way to make an impression. I hadn’t been after anything serious. Madison had seen me as her reason to settle down. It was safe to say that our needs hadn’t meshed.

After I had cut things off with her, she had taken it like a stereotypical woman scorned.

Not well.

FBI agents may have a reputation for being serious and all business, but they gossip like ten-year-old girls when given a juicy piece of scandal.

And the newbie fucking—and discarding—a senior agent was bound to get around the office and a surefire way to look like a dick. If not fired.

I was just lucky that my superiors had either been ignorant of my indiscretion or chosen to look the other way. Otherwise a bad reputation would have been the least of my worries.

I had been transferred to the Richmond field office from DC to assist in their backlog of cases in the cybercrime unit. I had been working as a special agent for a little over ten years, having been recruited two years out of college when I was working as an IT specialist for a large tech firm. My tech aptitude and hands-on expertise made me a prime candidate. I had jumped into the deep end without thinking twice.

I had done pretty damn well for myself too. I had personally taken down over two hundred cybercriminals during my tenure. I was the guy you called when shit got tough.

I had planned to come to Richmond, solve their hardest cases, and go home even more of a badass than I already was. I had been slightly deluded when it came to my hero fantasies.

Things weren’t exactly going the way I had planned.

For starters, I had caught a case of stupid in the week it had taken for me to leave my leased apartment in Reston and settle down in the state capital.

Getting drunk on my first weekend in town with a group composed of my fellow agents hadn’t been my smartest move to date.

But I had been flying high on my own self-importance. Only two months earlier I had busted a hacker responsible for a nasty bit of ransomware that had been making the rounds in corporate America for over six months. The man responsible had swindled more than $10 million from companies desperate to get their data back. No one could locate him. Three weeks after being assigned the case, I had Stanley Obermain of Wichita, Kansas, behind bars awaiting trial.

So when I had been asked to lend a hand to the Richmond office, I had thought I was the big important agent coming down to teach these guys how it was done.

Yeah, I was a complete jerk.

Feeling untouchable, I had gone home with Madison, even though I had known better. Being drunk was an excuse that would never stick. I was an agent. She was an agent. It was a big no-no.

One time was bad enough; continuing to sleep with her, knowing what a bad idea it was, launched me to level ten dumb-ass.

On top of that, I quickly realized I wasn’t the big important agent I thought I was. I was only the guy pulled in to fill in the gaps.

Now I was trying to backtrack. Find my footing after stumbling for the first time in my adult life. Screwing up wasn’t something I was used to. I was responsible. Competent. Together.