Carter SecureTech HQ, 8:23 AM
Lila's fingers hovered over her keyboard, the fluorescent lights of the war room casting a sterile glow on the whiteboards crammed with threat vectors. Jax slumped in his chair, a half-eaten bag of chips spilling onto a diagram of Kane Ventures' cloud infrastructure.
"You're *sure* about this?" Maya asked, her voice tight as she glared at the code splashed across the main screen.
Jax grinned, wiping salt dust on his hoodie. "Found it during the midnight crawl. Their new payroll system's got a backdoor wider than Adrian Kane's ego. One click, and we could drain every dollar they've got."
Lila's stomach clenched. The vulnerability pulsed on the screen like a live wire—a flaw in Adrian's otherwise impenetrable empire. *Too easy.*
"It's a trap," she said, pushing away from the table.
"Or a gift," Jax countered. "Dude's been trashing us online for weeks. This is karma with a capital *K*."
Maya crossed her arms. "If we exploit it, we're no better than him."
Lila's phone buzzed—a trending tweet from @AdrianKane: *"Ethics won't pay your bills, Carter."*
---
Kane Ventures, 10:15 AM
Adrian leaned back in his chair, eyes fixed on the live feed of Carter SecureTech's network activity. The blip he'd planted—a fragile, glittering flaw in his own system—glowed red on the monitor.
"She'll bite," he muttered to the empty room.
His mentee, a wiry teen named Eli, hovered in the doorway. "What if she doesn't?"
"Then she's not who I thought she was."
---
Carter SecureTech Rooftop, 1:45 PM
Lila gripped the railing, the wind whipping her hair into a frenzy. Below, the city hummed like a server farm. *Exploit the flaw. Protect your team.*
Become him.
Her phone rang. Unknown number.
"Took you long enough," Adrian's voice purred through the speaker.
She froze. "How did you—"
"You're staring at my backdoor like it's a wedding invitation. Go ahead. Take the shot."
"You *want* me to hack you?"
"I want to see if you're all talk."
Her thumb hovered over the enter key. One command, and Kane Ventures' funds would hemorrhage. But the exit log would trace back to her.
*#FirewallFeud* would become #CorporateEspionage.
"You're scared," he taunted.
"No," she said, deleting the attack script. "I'm bored."
The line went dead.
---
Epicenter Tech Forum – Thread: #FirewallFeud
User CodeWitch: Did Carter just... *not* destroy Kane?
User VC_Bro88: Weak. She's gonna regret that.
User GhostInTheCode: Or she's playing 4D chess.
---
Adrian's Penthouse, 11:30 PM
He stared at the empty transaction log, a smirk tugging at his scar. She'd walked away. *Again.*
Eli shuffled in, holding a tablet. "She patched the flaw. For us."
Adrian's chest tightened. On-screen, a message flickered in Carter SecureTech's signature crimson font:
*Fix your own mess, Kane. I'm not your janitor.*
He poured a double Scotch, the ice clinking like a toast.
"Game on, Carter."
---
**Tomorrow's Headline:**
*Ceasefire or Setup? Silicon Valley Awaits Kane's Next Move.*
---
YOU ARE READING
Code of Hearts
RomanceIn the cutthroat world of Silicon Valley, two titans clash in a battle of firewalls, ethics, and forbidden attraction. Lila Carter, the fiercely principled CEO of Carter SecureTech, would rather hack a government server than surrender her parents' l...
