CHAPTER ONE
Sitting in the cramped upstairs room that was a converted piercing and tattoo salon, Cami Lark seethed with anger as she listened to the artist who was doing her piercing.
“That’s not fair,” Cami said as Bella turned to the equipment on her tray, soaking a cotton swab with disinfectant. “Nobody should treat another person that way and abuse their authority like that.”
Cami pushed her hair back so that Bella could pin it, holding the locks that were dyed pitch black from her natural blond. She wore a daring style that was shaved on one side and shoulder length on the other. Her brows were tinted dark, which brought out her green, intense eyes.
“Mom thought the job was going to be great,” Bella continued. “And I was so proud of her for getting it.”
“When did it all go wrong?” Cami asked. Last time she’d been here, two months ago, Bella had been thrilled about her mom’s new job.
“There was a team reshuffle the week after she joined, and a new manager was brought in from another department. Tony’s now her immediate senior. And he’s bullying her nonstop, criticizing her, pulling her work apart. Despite the fact she’s highly qualified for the job and the hardest worker. She’s the only woman on the team, and he’s not picking on any of the men that way.”
Cami thought that was so wrong. What right did that toxic boss have to bully a woman at work just because he was a chauvinistic brute, who wanted to impose his beliefs on her and misuse his power?
At twenty-one, Cami knew she wanted to live in a better world than what was out there. And if it wasn’t, then she needed to make it that way. Nothing else but her own efforts would change things, right? That was how things got done: by people being brave enough to make themselves heard and stand up to those who were abusing their authority.
“He’s making her life a misery,” Bella agreed sadly. “She dreads going to work every day.”
“We need to do something about that,” Cami insisted. Reminded of the way her own overbearing father had treated her, she seethed all over again.
Immediately, she saw the flare of panic in Bella’s eyes.
“No, no!” Bella said. “Don’t you even think about it, don’t you dare do anything.”
“Why?” Cami asked innocently, but her mind was already racing.
“Girl, you have a couple of months to go ‘till graduation. Don’t sabotage your future. You could lose more than your scholarship if this guy finds out you’ve been hacking into his personal messages, or his bank account, or wherever else you try to cause him damage. I know you! You want to set the world right, and that all seems well and good, but that’s not how things work.”
“What’s his last name?” Cami asked.
“I’m not telling you!” Bella looked really angry.
“You don’t need to worry. It won’t come back to your mom.”
“It’s you I’m worried about. Put that phone away. Now! And hold still.”
Reluctantly, Cami complied, but she hadn’t given up on the idea. The same compulsion that she felt in her classes at MIT, where she was the star IT student in her final semester, overtook her now.
IT ability could be used to change the world, and Cami wanted to change things. She wanted to upturn what wasn’t working and balance out what was. But at this moment, more than anything, she wanted to cause this toxic man some grief, just for payback for Bella’s mother. She had his first name and knew his role in the company. That was enough information to find him, and she resolved that she was going to.
She was sure she could find his personal cell number. That would be first prize. If she could get into the device, she could cause havoc. She could upset his life, more than he’d like. She might even find content that could compromise him. He might be a middle-level manager, but he worked for a big corporation. People who were toxic to others, in her experience, often had sins of their own to hide. Maybe if he was exposed for something unacceptable, the company would fire him. Imagine if she could get him fired?
Phones were trickier to hack than computers. So, if she couldn’t access the phone, then his email would have to do. But a while ago, Cami had written her own program that often got around the phone’s access issue. This would be a good chance to test it out. As her mind ran ahead on the logical path she could follow to get this payback under way, she barely noticed Bella completing her piercing.
“There you go. Done. And stay out of trouble, you hear me?”
Cami glanced up. The new earring, alongside the other two, looked like it completed a set: the two silver rings and the new white-gold stud, which looked striking and different.
“It looks great!” Cami felt happy as she handed over the cash. She loved this look.
She preferred her identity this way. Dark hair, dark brows, and dark lashes, matching the dark tattoo of a rose on her left arm. And shiny studs and rings, more piercings than what society considered the norm, bright and eye-catching like the metal details on her leather jacket.
From downstairs, she heard the tramp of footsteps coming up. Bella must have another customer, so she needed to make herself scarce, go back to her student digs, and carry on working to access his phone and get some payback for Bella’s mother.
But then, she clocked that Bella was looking in a surprised way at the door, as if she hadn’t expected anyone to come in after her.
Two people, as Cami now heard from the footsteps.