“I got a notification from the system alerting me to a new sign-in. I didn’t get that when she first hacked in. But I just used the elevator, Kent said I could. What happened? How did you get back in?” He huffed and puffed like he had run up the stairs instead of standing in an elevator.

“The boss wooed the hacker and has a new girlfriend.” Keith explained nonchalantly, turning the computer around to show him the accounting page. “See, all access. We’re back in.”

Me: What happened? You were fine when you left.

MyPrincess: I forgot about a certain friend at work. I hadn’t exactly been giving signals for either way. He is very nice, and I don’t want to hurt him. 

I frowned. I didn’t like the sound of that.

Me: Please let me show up. Let me handle it.

MyPrincess: My secretary said the same thing. She thought it would be easier. Until I hinted about what you do. She agrees now that keeping you away from the partners is for the best. 

I cursed. Both of the other heads in the room turned to me.

“There is a coworker that likes Fi, but she wants to handle it with kid gloves. She won’t let me make an appearance.”

“Why?” Jorge sat on the desk, facing me. 

He would be a good sounding board for this. He made too much money off me to be a risk. And he knew I would kill him, or one of the others would do it for me.

“She said something about it being her job to protect people from hackers and to find the hackers when they try. What kind of job is that? Why would her bosses not want her to associate with me?”

Jorge at least looked like he understood. “Cybersecurity. Basically, you bagged yourself a cyber cop.”

I frowned. “She’s not a cop though.” I looked at my feet. “At least I didn’t think so.”

“Well, no. Probably not. But just like there are private military companies, there are also private cyber security companies. They run like any other company. They have clients they serve, just like private security. With her hacking skills, she is probably successful at what she does.”

“Yeah, she said that’s why we couldn’t find her. She is wary of other hackers and such.”

Jorge nodded, more relaxed then I’d seen him in over a week. “I’m sure any number of criminals would love to get their hands on someone as talented as her. She would be prime picking. You're a good choice for her. If she was willing to go public, no one would dare to touch her. The bad guys don’t mess with you.”

“Her job isn’t the only thing that will get her into trouble.” Jorge turned to Keith curiously. “Her brother was a regular at the poker tables. You remember the amateur we threw into that fight a couple weeks ago?”

Jorge’s eyes widened when he caught on, then turned back to me. 

“She came in to pay off the rest of his debt.” I leaned back on the couch, a proud grin on my face. “I conned her into staying the night.”

Jorge laughed. “Let me guess, she found out the truth and got her revenge.”

“Yeah, pretty much. You think there is any chance she will let me come out of hiding?”

“Nope.” Jorge stood up and picked up his laptop bag. “More than likely, it’s in her contract not to associate with criminals and such like that. Her brother is a big enough issue. I doubt anyone there knows about him either. Since all is well, I am going to go home and get drunk while beating the tar out of a bunch of teenagers online. See ya later.”

He waved as he left. 

“I’ve never been someone's dirty little secret before, might be kind of fun.”

Keith laughed at me and went back to inputting all the accounting info from during our lockout time.

Me: I will respect your decision. For now. But if he tries anything…