Chapter 6: The Emails

*Kennedy*

I needed to collect myself, Lucas was my boss and I had only had this job for four hours, I

couldn't afford to mess this up. My hands shook from his contact, I folded them in my lap until

the quivering was subtle enough that it wasn't noticeable.

"I have found three major vulnerabilities, and one anomaly I'd like to discuss." Shuffling through

my stack of papers, until I came across my notes. "First, your email signatures aren't encrypted,

I was surprised this went unnoticed in a company like Massi Tech. A scammer could easily copy

your signature and request money or plant a virus in your system. In fact, I duplicated an email

from Grace, and sent it to Tony. He unsuspectedly clicked on the download attachment and

received a virus that spread to both of your computers and cellphones."

Lucas and Tony both had a quizzical look, as if trying to make sense of what I had said. "Let me

get this straight," Lucas started, "In the matter of hours, you found a major issue, hacked into

our emails, created and planted a virus."

"When you say it like that it sounds bad," I misjudged their reaction. I don't know why I thought

they would be okay with me releasing a virus into their system. I was going to get fired on my

first day if I couldn't talk my way out of this. "The virus was nothing serious," I rushed on. "It only

put my contact information on your cell phones, it was harmless. I do have a solution too, I can

create a package where email signatures can be encrypted, so nobody can copy it, and…"

Lucas held up his hand to silence me, reached into his pants pocket, retrieved his phone and

scrolled through it, stopping at my name on the screen. Neither he nor Tony spoke, there were

several minutes of deafening silence. I wasn't sure what to do, should I pack my belongings and

see myself out or dig myself out of this?

"Besides the signatures, you have no password security on your in-home security system, Tony

leaves all his passwords under his keyboard, and there is a trace of an extinguished virus on

one of your accounts, which is odd." I spat it all out so quickly in hopes that Lucas wouldn't cut

me off again. "That's it, that's all I found so far." The tension in the massive room was so

palpable that it shifted the atmosphere to something thick and tangible.

"Thanks Kennedy," Lucas gritted through tight lips. "We should call an end to the day."

I desperately wanted to argue my case of why he shouldn't fire me, but something in his body

language told me to get up and leave. Tears pricked the back of my eyes, but I refused to let

them fall. I had more pride than that, and if he couldn't see the value in what I had to offer,

screw him. Jutting out my chin and rearing back my shoulders, I stood with as much pride as I

could muster and walked back to the office to get my stuff. All the while, Tony not saying one

word.

***

The dirty off-white color of my front door never looked so bleak. I had been cemented in the

same spot for over thirty minutes. I was not ready to see the sad mouth and slumped shoulders

of Hannah's disappointment when I told her I got fired after four hours. I didn't want to break her

heart, just as it seemed like we were finally getting a break from years of being beat down, we

were back to nothing. I couldn't even provide for the one person I cared about the most.

I inserted the key into the deadbolt as slowly as humanly possible and turned the key. All the

lights were off but the curtain that led to the patio was pushed aside bringing in natural light.

Hannah jerked in fright from her spot on the couch, not expecting anyone home for several

hours.

"Kennedy?" She asked, "What are you doing at home?" One look at my face and she knew what

happened. "Ken, no! What happened?" Holding her hand close to her heart in the dramatic turn

of events.

I gave into my sorrow and burst into tears, she welcomed me with open arms. I welcomed the

comfort and cried into her shoulder. "I don't know what happened," hiccupping and sniffling on

her shirt. "I do know actually, I was overconfident and made a huge error in judgment"

"Tell me exactly what happened, we can work through this and find a solution," she encouraged.

I wiped the tears streaming down my face with the back of my hand and told her word for word

what happened. Not leaving out any detail from the moment I arrived to the second I was kicked

out of the house. The only part I left out was the unexplainable attraction I had with Lucas.

There was a mysterious pull to him. My fingers itched to explore every inch of his body, feeling

all the dips, curves, and sinewy muscle, but it's not like it mattered now, I would probably never

see Lucas again.

"It doesn't sound like he actually fired you, but I can't be sure. He did tell you to leave after all

but he also never said that you weren't working for them anymore. I think the best plan is to call

them in the morning and see what is going on. Give them a day to think about how much they

need you. They are just upset with themselves that they have all these experts and

knowledgeable technicians, and you came in and within a matter of a few hours you could take

down one of the largest tech companies in the western hemisphere, that's got to be humiliating."

"Maybe you're right," I sniffled one last time, ending my pity party. "If they know what's good for

them, they will be begging me to come back."

"Damn straight," she cheered, "now let's order some pizza and for the first time in ten years you

can enjoy a few hours off of work."

Where would my life be without Hannah, she had been my pillar and voice of reason for so long.

If worse came to worse, I still had the job with Tia, so we wouldn't be without money. I couldn't

miss what I never had, and I never had any money.

"I can practically hear you think about money." She smacked two fingers off my forehead, "stop

it and enjoy the time off with me."

"Yes ma'am," I saluted, but money wasn't the only thing I was thinking about, and for the first

time in a long time my thoughts were consumed with something other than money and work.

Azure eyes swam across my vision, mesmerizing me.