The Refusal

Never let down your guard. Never let anyone see your weakness. You can’t say I wasn’t warned . . .

When I first walked into Janus Phillips’s offices, it was right into a high-profile hacking problem the scale of which I’d never seen before. That word high-profile? Been there, done that. Not stepping through that doorway twice. But the trouble was, I didn’t really have a choice. And I wasn’t prepared for Janus. God, no. He was determined to get through every last defense I had. And I had no idea how addictive he would turn out to be.

I could tell you how the gossip columns roasted me, or how I wasn’t prepared for the limelight. But truthfully? I was blasé and foolish. I dropped my guard. And trusting someone like that? Well, that’s the worst thing you can do.