“Would you? You want someone else to have to deal with all the shit you have to deal with?”
Would she put someone else in her place? Would she put someone else through this life she found herself in? “I don’t know. Some days, I’m sure I would trade in a heartbeat. Other days I know I wouldn’t wish this on my worst enemy. It doesn’t matter because someone will, of course. There’s always a woman waiting in the wings who thinks she can beat the system, who thinks because she has good intentions that the system won’t touch her. But it’s random in a way. There are actresses who’ve behaved far worse than me who are held up as sweethearts. Somehow you get shoved into a mold and never allowed to take any other shape.”
“I can understand that. I was in the military. It’s decided pretty early on who’s who—who will be cannon fodder and who will move the chess pieces around.”
“Which one were you?”
A ghost of a smile twisted his lips up. “That’s what everyone wants to know. I suppose I was something in between. Now I’m trying to be someone new. Someone better. I’m curious. Why did you think I was involved with your sister? I wasn’t. I only met her a couple of times, though she seemed like a very nice lady.”
“I misinterpreted something my sister wrote.” She quickly ran through her thought process and how she and Ruby decided it must have been him. She confessed that Ruby had taken things a bit too far. “So now my friend is in trouble with the military, and I’ve proven I shouldn’t be trusted with high schoolers. I’m sure that will come out at some point in time. Vanessa Hale, defiler of old men and leading America’s children into sin.”
She could see that headline already.
“I suspect the real problem will come for her in a couple of years,” he replied. “If she managed to get through to my records, she’s beyond good. Someone will be following her through college. They’ll have a job for her.”
Vanessa frowned at the thought. “Are you saying the military will recruit her? I don’t think Ruby would make a good soldier.”
“Not a soldier. And not exactly the military.” He took a long drink. “If she’s deep into the hacking world, there are a couple of places she can end up. Some of them aren’t so good. The Agency is a viable alternative to jail or getting caught up in some criminal organization. They recruit hackers, too, but the benefits aren’t as good.”
“Or she can just stop.” She didn’t like the thought of Ruby being involved in that world.
Kyle’s head shook, a sharp negative. “I’ve found hackers have a real problem stopping. It’s an addiction for the true hackers. Like all addictions, it has to be managed or it can ruin your life. Sometimes the hacker gets lucky and finds a mentor who gives a shit, and they end up in a decent job surrounded by people who don’t let them fuck up.”
“I take it you’re talking about May? I mean MaeBe.” She’d been told the woman she knew as May went by the nickname. Kyle seemed determined to force her to see the woman in a different light.
“Yeah. She got that same visit as your friend, though she was fourteen at the time,” Kyle explained.
“What was she hacking into at fourteen?”
“NASA. She was very interested in space travel. So she gets into something she shouldn’t have and her parents lose their shit and she doesn’t see a computer for three years. Naturally she gets to college and goes right back to work. Lucky for her the company we both now work for was on a job at the time. They were infiltrating a syndicate, the same syndicate that was days away from recruiting MaeBe. Of course she didn’t realize she was being groomed. Hutch did. He talked to her, mentored her, and convinced her to go to grad school, and then when she was ready, he offered her a job. She’s brilliant, and she gets to put all that skill and intellect into doing some good for the world. It might be helpful for her to talk to Ruby.”
There was the trap. She should have known it would be sprung at some time. “But only if I forgive her.”
“No. MaeBe would never make a deal like that. It wouldn’t matter if you refused to ever speak to her again. She would still help your friend. That’s who she is, who she’s still able to be because she didn’t go down that dark road.” He turned her way. “I’m not MaeBe. What I’ll offer you is one hundred percent dependent on you being nice to her.”
Ah, there was the ruthless man she’d seen from the beginning. He could be charming, but there was a predator beneath his good looks. “And what are you offering me?”