Hollow

Twenty Four | Passion

"Yes...of course, Mr. Yang...I'll get back to you shortly." I close the file in my hands and end the call as Alex storms into my office.

"There's a p—" He pauses to check his phone before letting out a sigh.

"Alex, you're scaring me."

He takes in a breath and just as he's about to speak, Bryce bursts in hurriedly, his laptop in his hands. He gestures for us to follow him.

I march out of the elevator onto the crisis control room and everyone stops in their tracks, tension oozing from their body language.

"Talk to me!" I ask nobody in particular.

"Someone tried to hack into our database. Luckily, we locked them out in time and nothing was compromised." Kunda, the Cyber Analyst answers showing me patterns and sets of codes on her screen.

"Did you find a digital signature?"

"Not yet but we were able to recover the initial encryption. We can use it to trace the person behind this before the cops get here."

I freeze, turning to look at her. "Did you just say cops?"

"Well, yes...it's standard procedure." She trails off hesitantly making me pinch the bridge of my nose.

I unlock my phone and dial Cameron's number. I'm sent straight to voicemail so I send a text saying Code Bravo instead. Almost immediately, my phone buzzes.

'Cameron: I'm in London. Sorry.'

"Send Ashley to straighten out this mess." I tell Bryce before heading back to my office with Alex barking orders on his phone.

Walking into my office, I regain my seat and lie my head on my crossed arms on the desk, letting out a tired groan. My phone buzzes and against my better judgment, I reach to look at the caller ID; repressing a shudder before answering the call.

"What can I do for you, River?"

"Meet me at the Swing Café in an hour." River says into the phone cutting the call.

<<·>> <<·>> <<·>>

Marcus stops the car in the parking of the restaurant and cuts the engine off. After giving him directives to stay in the car, I step out and walk inside the building. I look around and my eyes land on the person I'm looking for, already seated waiting.

"You're supposed to be in Virginia." I point out, sitting down.

"Hello to you too." He greets.

A waiter comes to our table and offers me a smile. "What will you be having today?"

"Just water, thank you." I smile back and he nods, taking her leave. I turn to River, glaring at him. "I have more pressing matters you know."

"I know." He replies calmly. I'm about to retort but the waitress comes back with my water and I wait for her to leave.

"I don't have time for your little mind games, River! Fucking talk!"

"When did you last speak to Nova Wright and Sage Ramirez?" He asks, finally breaking the silence. "They were seen together in Tokyo a few days ago."

"You have less than five seconds left."

"I heard about what happened today and my point is, your CFO is in the right position to stage something like that and Ramirez knows a lot about you seeing as you dated him."

"I'll look into it." I bide my goodbyes and walk out the café to my car.

I take out my phone and text Cameron asking him to run a background check on Nova's whereabouts as Marcus starts the car.

"Where to?"

"The airport."

<<·>> <<·>> <<·>>

Mexico City, Mexico

I wrap my hands around Killian's waist, moving him so I can look over and see what he's making. "You do realize they have room service, right?"

"I know but I wanted to make us something."

"But I'm not hungry." I pout.

"Well, you're gonna eat." I part my lips to utter a reply but he gives me a warning look before shifting his focus to the task at hand. Not that I'm complaining but this man eats spoonfuls of Nutella for breakfast and now he's making chicken alfredo? To say that I'm surprised is an understatement.

My phone buzzes and I groan, pulling it out of the pockets of my sweatpants. I let out a sigh when I look at the caller ID: Dr. Levi Keynes; Senior Scientist at Darpa and a member of the board of directors.

"Hello?"

"Hello, Zahra. How are you?"

"Very well, and you?"

"I wish I could say the same" He replies in a stern voice. "I've just received disturbing news about what happened earlier about Pierce Industries. How did you let that happen?"

"It's easy for you to say, no sane person would hack Darpa." I retort, resisting the urge to roll my eyes.

"Fix this."

"Yes, sir."

I end the call and let out my tenth sigh. Killian looks up from the strawberries he's cutting, a frown on his face. "Is everything okay?"

I grin, nodding.

A whole eternity later, he finally places a plate and wine glass in front of me before settling down next to me as we watch Hunter x Hunter. Through the anime, I reach for my phone and take a snap of him as he opens a Nutella jar.

"Did you always do that even as a child?"

He nods, chuckling. "My mom would hide the jar and at some point, she threatened to stop buying Nutella if I didn't limit my consumption but we finally compromised to three spoonfuls. To this day, two spoons count as a cheat meal for me."

I smile at that. "Tell me about your family."

"Well, there's my parents, my sisters, my brother..." He trails off as if thinking before resuming. "There's my brother-in-law, my sister-in-law, my nieces and nephews."

"Aww how old are they?"

"The twins are 4, their little brother is 8 months and my niece, Luna is 3 months old."

A small grin tugs a my lips. "You're good with kids huh?"

"I try." He shrugs.

"Don't be so modest, everyone knows you love kids."

"I'll love ours even more." He chuckles, earning a light smack at the back of his head.