Guarded by the Cowboy - Em Petrova Page 0,2

company was comprised of his relatives and friends, so he razzed everyone. But with her, his teasing went to a whole new level.

Dropping to her seat, she swiveled back to the screen and started her search again. But as soon as her fingertips touched the keys, her session timed out and she had to log back in.

With a groan, she cursed Boone one more time before devoting her whole focus to the project. The code flashed by, and her trained eye zoomed in on the risks. This growing company kept experiencing hacks, and her belief that someone was exploiting a weakness while in the checkout process was proving true.

When she landed on two back-to-back transactions, she punched a button on her phone to call Silas Shanie, head of tech and her immediate boss.

“What’s up, Lauralee?”

She didn’t mind so much when he drawled her name. Better than Boone.

“I found it. Two transactions. I’m sending them your way now.”

“Whoooeee! I can’t wait to see. You made quick work of that, didn’t you?” His praise more than made up for Boone coming in here and disrupting her peace of mind.

She slanted a glare at the bag again. The man had saddled her with his laundry and enough annoyance to carry over into the weekend, while he was off galivanting around the country guarding political figures and celebrities when he wasn’t mucking out the barn.

Lauralee stayed on the line with Silas and after the information hit his screen, he issued a low whistle.

“Fantastic work. I think you deserve a bonus after that find. It looks as if this one guy is responsible for stealing a quarter million dollars from the company’s customers.”

She grinned even though nobody was around to see her response. “I’m patting myself on the back right now—that’s enough.”

“We’ll see about that. I still say a bonus is in order and the company will be happy to shell it out. Now, what are you doing at the office so late? Go home. Let your hair down. Have some fun.”

Lately, her idea of fun was grabbing takeout and plopping down in front of the TV, but she wouldn’t share her pathetic life with Silas.

“I’m leaving now. Just had to share. See you when you get back to the office.”

“Well done, Lauralee. Have a good night.” He ended the call, leaving her sitting there with a Cheshire cat smile on her face and a dead phone in her hand.

She signed out of her system and put the computer in sleep mode. When she stood, her gaze landed on Boone’s bag again. She walked over, grabbed it and carried it to his office.

A glance around the spare space made her wonder what kind of person he really was. Ross Wynton’s office had a walnut desk and leather chair, a bookcase, and an antique globe on the corner of his desk, while Boone’s was stark, flat white walls painted by the contractors who built the office and a cheap department store desk along the windows.

The space gave away nothing about his personality. But she already knew Boone Wynton was a cocky know-it-all. He ordered around his own sister, and that was saying something, because Corrine Wynton was a strong, sassy woman. She’d been raised with four brothers—who wouldn’t be?

She dumped the bag in the corner of his office before walking out and slamming the door. Let him take care of his own damn laundry. She couldn’t afford to be seen as anything less than dead serious about her job.

As soon as she saw the truck racing toward the office, and the cloud of dust that came with it, she groaned. Boone. Of course he’d be the one to flare up her allergies with his wild driving—again.

He braked hard, skidding on gravel for several feet. She jumped out of the way, her brows lowered when she met his stare through the truck window. Add reckless driver to his list of things she didn’t like about him.

He hopped out of the truck and headed for the door. “You lock up already?”

“Yes.”

Without responding further, he strode inside. For a moment, she stood there, staring after him in indecision. Would it look good on her if she went in and asked if he needed anything from her before she went home?

She inwardly groaned at the thought of helping Boone do anything.

Then again, she wanted to be the person everyone at WEST Protection called for help.

She hardly got through the door before she heard another truck engine and more tires skidding