He shrugged. “If you knew us, you’d know that to come after me is to go after him and vice versa. We’ve been by each other’s side since we were seventeen. We shared everything. The business, a house . . . women. All of it
.”
Her eyebrow twitched up at that.
He wet his lips, feeling way too exposed. “So it could’ve been a case of a competitor trying to cut off the head of the snake, take out the company via me. Or it could’ve been a matter of someone wanting to knock us down a peg. Or a scorned lover seeking revenge. I’m not sure we’ll ever really know.” He sighed. “All I know is that whoever it was wanted to destroy me. And succeeded.”
She frowned at that. “No, he didn’t. At least not permanently. You’re out. You’re here.”
He scoffed, unable to hide the bitterness. “Yeah, I’m here where I can’t even talk to a female co-worker without her worrying I’m going to attack her.”
“I’m not—”
He held up his hand. “You don’t have to defend yourself on that. You’re smart. You assessed the risk and are protecting yourself. From the outside looking in, I’m red-level threat. I’m an ex-con who was charged with rape and has deviant sexual proclivities. I can’t change any of that. All I can tell you is that I’d never hurt a woman.”
“Unless she gave you permission to.” The words were quiet but packed a punch.
His eyes met hers, something tense there. “Yeah. And not even then anymore. I’m . . . not part of the scene anymore.”
Her lips parted, surprise there. “At all?”
“Not worth the risk. How would I know who to trust?” He said the words plainly but even he could hear the hitch in his voice, the sharpness.
“Right,” she said with a nod. “Of course.”
Hayes scrubbed a hand over his face, feeling drained and raw. Now she knew. Now she’d dismiss him like everyone else had. “I’m sorry if that was too much or TMI, as you’d say. I don’t normally talk about any of this, but I just . . . I wanted you to have all the information. You don’t have to believe—”
“I believe you.”
His gaze snapped upward, shock echoing through him like a sonic boom. “What?”
She leaned back in her chair, expression unflinching and resolute. “I said I believe you.”
All the air seemed to sag out of him, wonder replacing it. “Just like that?”
“Just like that. Thank you for being honest with me. I know that couldn’t have been easy to share with a stranger. But I’m going with my gut. And I believe you.”
Christ. She said it like it wasn’t a big deal. Like people took him for his word all the time. He didn’t even know what to do with that.
But before he could react, she braced her elbows on her desk, lines bracketing her full mouth. “But now we’ve got a bigger issue to tackle.”
He couldn’t process what she was talking about. His brain was still whirling. She believed him. This woman who’d just met him had listened to his story and accepted it. She had no idea what kind of gift that was. How long it’d been since anyone besides his mother or Ren had accepted his truth without question. He wanted to kiss her. He wanted to . . . No. He couldn’t do any of that.
What he needed to do was listen to her. She was trying to tell him something. “What issue?”
“The person who came after you wanted to destroy you or the company. They tried to pin rape on you. What if . . .” Worry hovered in her eyes. “Hayes, I was almost raped because of your game. What if whoever set you up is coming after you again? What if they’re behind this hack?”
Every ounce of warmth from the moment before drained out of him in one sinking rush, his body going cold as ice.
What if it’s starting again?
TEN
Ren stood at his office window on Friday night, hands in his pockets, staring out at the dark parking lot. Hayes had left an hour ago with a hollow good-bye. That had been the routine all week. He’d shown up to the office every day, busting his ass and keeping his promise to not hole up in the house, but Hayes couldn’t hide the darkness that had taken ahold of him again. And Ren couldn’t blame him this time. He hoped to God that Cora’s theory wasn’t right, that whatever was going on with the system was a random thing, not something to do with Hayes. But none of them could shake off that possibility. It was keeping both him and Hayes up at night.
They all kept searching for answers, something to reassure them. Tonight Ren had combed through all the information he’d gathered this week. He’d interviewed each of the staff to see if anyone had seen anything suspicious come down the line or if they had any theories about who would want to hack their systems. Everyone seemed genuinely shocked that there’d been a breach. Raven and Thea, Hayven’s gamemasters, had been pissed that a woman was targeted and had compiled a list of all the people they’d banned from the game just in case someone was holding a grudge.
It was a good theory, and one he’d explore, but the list of potential suspects was expanding exponentially and it was making his head hurt. Cora had reminded him earlier this week that regardless of who it was, they still could protect Hayes and the company. They just needed to make sure the hacker was locked out for good and that the system was safeguarded from future attacks. But he had an uneasy feeling that this was bigger than what they’d found so far. Nothing had come up yet. No one else had reported weird emails. But . . . Cora had almost gotten raped. If that had happened, it would’ve eventually come back on FoxRen and Hayes. It all felt a little too familiar.