With more enemies lining up to kill him than he can count, a playboy billionaire must hire the only woman capable of keeping him alive, even if she hates his guts.
Gabriel Gerard's life is full of gorgeous women, expensive cars, and infinite wealth...
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Gabriel and Olivia watched the last GIG employee leave the building for the night. And it wasn't Asher. Olivia continued to work as his secretary but had clocked out hours ago. Asher usually left in the early afternoon with a vague excuse along the lines of going to meet an investor. Changed into her bodyguard outfit of vinyl pants, a tight corset, and laced armbands, Olivia joined Gabriel, who was also dressed in head-nto-toe black with his sword strapped to his back and cloak tied around his throat, in the alley across the street. It was cold, and clouds of their breath surrounded them while they waited. They had been planning this break-in to GIG headquarters for days, and the only preparation left was to pray that they weren't caught.
"I turned off the limit on the number of times you can try to get into the system today," Olivia said rubbing her hands together. "I tried to override it, so your information was in place of Asher's, but my computer skills aren't that advanced. I didn't want to risk getting caught."
"That's okay." Gabriel reached into his pocket and pulled out a glove. It was a thick material that had all the grooves of skin on it. Putting it on his right hand, he flashed her a look revealing his one dark brown eye. "Tonight, I am Ash."
"Okay, that's really creepy," she said before leading him across the street when there was a gap in traffic. "I will cover you and whistle if I hear or see anyone coming."
"Perfect," he said, sidling past her and up to a side door. Only one camera was on the door, and he hoped that he would give no one a reason to check that data feed in the morning. He knew that Asher would have him arrested to keep him away from GIG. And after the visit from the DHS agents, Gabriel didn't want to know what kind of jail he would end up in.
With his hand sweating inside the rubbery glove, he wasn't worried about it being warm enough for the thermal sensor. Whether or not he had a replica of Asher's handprint was another story. He pressed his hand to the scan pad and held his breath. It was a split second before a positive-sounding beep and a green light let him know that he'd passed the first test. One down, one to go.
Gabriel positioned his now brown eye in front of the retina scanner and tried not to blink.
"Ehhn," the machine let out a loud rejection, flashing a red light. He blinked, letting the contact reposition on top of his eye and tried again.
"Ehhn!" He sighed and looked over his shoulder to see Olivia looking at him to see what was going on. He knew the GIG technology of putting copies of retina scans into contacts worked because he'd seen the test trials. But now he wondered if Asher's scan had been clean when he'd had the contacts made just in case his brother ever double-crossed him. Gabriel ignored the fact that he was the one doing the double-crossing now. He leaned down and held his eyelids open so the tiny piece of film wouldn't move. He was rewarded with an optimistic beep and a green light.
"We're in," he whispered-called to Olivia and waited for her to be close enough to get in with him to open the door. Once inside, they heard the system lock up behind them. The steel rods sliding into place, Gabriel added, "Who knows if we'll get out."
"Let's focus on finding out what you need." She headed for the stairs, avoiding the security on the elevator. The stairs were not allowed to be locked due to fire codes. She opened the door and did a quick scan to make sure they were empty before entering. "Then we will worry about getting the hell out of here."
They were both winded by the time they reached the thirtieth floor and took a moment at the top before leaving the safety of the stairwell. Olivia peeked through the small glass window while Gabriel tried to remember all of Asher's childhood jersey numbers. His glove and contact would get him into his brother's office but not into Asher's computer. It was a good thing that Olivia had turned the error limit off. It could take a while to figure out Asher's twisted thought process.
"Ready?" Olivia asked, looking antsy.
"Let's do it." Gabriel pushed the thoughts of being shot at in this very hallway from his mind. They crept to Asher's locked office door. As Gabriel reached for the security pad with his gloved hand, Olivia grabbed him.
"Wait!" she whispered.
"What?" His hand hovered inches above the pad.
"What if Asher is inside?"
"You said yourself that he left at four."
"But what if he came back?"
"What do you want me to do? Knock?"
"No." She hesitated. "I have an idea. Stay here." She quickly crossed the hall to a vacant office and closed the door. He could vaguely hear the buttons of her phone dialing and waited to see if a ringing came from Asher's office. Silence. Relieved, he heard Olivia talking to his brother.
"Ash! I'm sorry I must have dialed the wrong number." A pause. "Oh, no. I'm too tired tonight but thank you for inviting me." Another pause. "Really, Ash, I've had a long day and all I want to do is sleep." And another pause. "No, I think I can handle doing it alone. But thanks anyway. See you tomorrow!" She returned to the hallway with an exasperated look on her face. "He never gives up, does he?"
"Unfortunately, no," Gabriel said turning back to the task at hand. "At least we know that he isn't logged in from home." GIG's firewall was so sophisticated that only one remote laptop existed that was able to log in and even it didn't have full access to the company's vast database of information. The system had the best firewall built to date. Gabriel knew because he had commissioned it. His only chance of getting into the system was from inside the building. After his gloved hand had passed the scan, he held his lids open for the eye check. Asher's office door clicked open. Wordlessly, he went to the computer on the desk while Olivia shut the door behind them before moving to the windows to watch the street below.
Gabriel started with a combination of departed pet names from their childhood and Asher's lucky numbers. Wicket1213, 5Batman17, and 1215Hoggle all failed in every combination. He went on to try sports teams, girlfriends' names, and even their mother's maiden name and birthday. Nothing.
Frustrated Gabriel stared at the desk that not so long ago was his. The mahogany was smooth and flawless under his touch. Asher hadn't ruined it with drink rings and zipper marks. Yet. Rubbing back and forth, Gabriel racked his brain while Olivia patiently waited in the pale moonlight. In frustration, he pushed the keyboard from him and put his head in his hands. It was then he saw the words. Carved in his beautiful executive desk. "I won."
"Fuck you, Ash!" Gabriel spat, and he saw Olivia jump out of the corner of his eye. "Sorry," he muttered before attempting the password again. Combinations of Asher's birthday and "I won" all failed. About to give up, Gabriel thought about what his brother had wanted most in the world. He typed in "1beatGabe" and the computer sprung to life. He looked up and said, "We're in."
