How to Hack a Heart

Chapter Eight

“Oh! I know that look! I have recognized that you have recognized me. Isn’t that exciting?” As he claps his heavily ring clad fingers, Maxwell Harold…Whatever Whatever Whatever smiles gleefully at me.

Quickly, I try to regain my composure and try to form a smirk on my lips. To be truthful, I think it just turns out to make me look constipated. “Yes, just positively thrilling.”

“Yay!” A full-out grin breaks out on his face. Let me just tell you, imaginary person in my head, no grown man should ever say the word yay. It’s just…no. Never.

“Can I help you with something? Or are you going to keep saying yay?” I slump down in my seat and make sure the hoodie is covering most of my face. If I don’t get most of the information out of him tonight, I need to make sure he doesn’t recognize me when I meet up with him again.

“Well, I saw that you had a laptop in front of you, and I logically reasoned that you were one of these hackers or such. Would I be wrong?” He slides into the seat across from me, his cream colored suit a dramatic contrast to this darkly lit room.

I smirk. “Good job, Einstein. I’m proud of you. Should I give you a round of applause?”

When he doesn’t say anything but just stares blankly at me, I wince. I’m coming on a bit too strongly. Maybe this is why my uncle does most of the hack jobs or at least sets them up. I admit that my people skills are lacking. Okay, my people skills suck period. I scare away most of our customers.

I sigh dramatically—the only way to sigh—and try to throw a pleasant smile on my face. “What do you need hacked?”

“I need a complete background on a person. How much will that cost?” When I don’t answer right away, he clears his throat again. “Miss, how much will it cost?”

Shaking my head, I snap out of whatever mindless thing I was thinking. I think it was along the lines of “What if he asks me to look up Mr. Williams?” but who truly knows. “Sorry, I was distracted by your horribly tacky Hawaiian shirt. I’m very thorough with my backgrounds. With mine, I’ll tell you how many scrapes they had when they were five. So mine are usually quite pricey.”

Even though his whole outfit was just screaming wealth, he seems like a cheap guy. Hesitance is scrawled all across his overly tan face. He bites on his lip and his eyes dart back and forth, mentally calculating if it’s worth it. “How pricey we talking?”

“Three hundred is my average.” I hold up two of my fingers.

He takes a big gulp. “Three hundred?”

After rolling my eyes, I lean closer and purse my lips. “I’ll make you a deal, Mr. Tacky Hawaiian Shirt Guy. You give me two fifty, and I’ll give you the in-depth background.”

Sensing he’s getting a great deal, he quickly agrees. “Okay, fine. I need a background check on this guy named Dilbert Grimes. He’s my new client, and I just want to make sure that there are no deep dark skeletons in his past. Do you want to hear about this awesome case? Dilbert is suing the FBI, since they threw a sub sandwich at his dog, Dill’s Pickle.”

My eyes widen. There…there are no words for that. I open my mouth to say something, but nothing comes out for a long minute. Finally, I shake my head. “Okie dokie artichokie. I’ll get right on it.” I pop my laptop screen back up and quickly get a new search going.

He shifts in his seat. “How long will this take?”

“Not very long. Probably half an hour tops.” I shrug.

We fall into an awkward silence. I’m usually fine with it and prefer it that way, but something in me wants to play detective and find out if this is the guy that ordered the hit out on Mr. Williams. That’s the exact reason why I start talking. Trust me, my brain demanded me not to, but my mouth rebelled and started being Sherlock.

“So, do you want to know how I recognized you?” Pulling my eyes from the computer screen, I glance up for a second. I figure he’s such a fame whore that he would just love to know how I know about him.

Trying to play cool, he gives me a nonchalant look, but the eagerness in his voice gives it all away. “How did you? It’s not every day someone realizes me and what an awesome lawyer I am.”

But he wishes. I smirk. “I was just reading about that high profile case you were in. Against the FBI? Mr. Williams gave this huge interview about how you were such a shark and only out to get your name in the press.”