Out Of Your League: The Hacker Boss

I liquidated my life savings and spent three years in a dark bunker, using my hacking genius to build an untouchable criminal empire for the Capo I loved.

But the moment his throne was secure, he erased my name from the Syndicate ledgers and brought home a mafia princess to be his Queen.

He publicly humiliated me to elevate her, dismissing my heartbreak as a pathetic civilian tantrum.

He even ordered me to use the offshore accounts I had funded to buy her a three-hundred-thousand-dollar blood diamond engagement ring.

When he finally cooked a lavish dinner in our safehouse, he covered the plates in fresh truffles.

"Then do not eat it. Just stay out of the way when she gets here."

He had perfectly memorized the elite tastes of a woman he barely knew, but conveniently forgot the one ingredient that would send me into fatal anaphylactic shock.

I had sacrificed my sanity and ignored my dying father to secure his territories.

I finally realized he never kept me in the shadows to protect me.

He hid me because he was terrified of my brilliance, caging my mind so he could steal my victories and replace me.

So, I initiated a master kill-switch, wiping every trace of my existence from his servers.

I packed my bags, invoked my own Omertà, and walked out.

Since he refused to give me the throne he promised, I would just have to step into the light and conquer the underworld myself.

Chapter 1

Elara POV

My finger hovered over the Execute key, a command that would collapse the entire architecture of West Atlantic smuggling, hesitating as I finished decrypting the marriage contract my lover had drafted for another woman. I could not bring myself to incinerate the work of three years. These servers held every transaction I had ever engineered-including the seed transfer of my own life savings into his first casino. If I destroyed them, I destroyed the only proof that this empire was built on my money, my code, my blood. So, instead, a muscle in my throat spasmed, and I altered the command, locking only the Sicilian routing files while leaving the core servers dormant, but intact.

To leave the servers standing was to remain a ghost in this gilded cage, a nameless asset to be liquidated at his convenience. Yet some foolish, vestigial part of me refused the finality of the act, and so the routes were merely frozen.

The cold, blue luminescence of the monitors threw the cavernous penthouse into sharp relief, carving long, distorted shadows from the furniture. The document on the central screen was meticulously typed, detailing the transfer of the Sicilian smuggling routes and a blood-diamond ring to one Siena Vitiello.

Siena was of the Vitiello bloodline. I was only Elara-the woman who had liquidated her civilian life, a sum of one hundred and twenty thousand dollars, to provide the seed capital for Zane Falcone's first illicit casino.

Zane was the most feared Capo on the East Coast, a man who painted the streets with the blood of his enemies. He commanded an army of ruthless soldiers, and his name alone made grown men drop to their knees and beg for mercy.

Three years ago, he had pulled me into his dark world. He had sworn that from my mind and his will, a throne would be built for us, and that I would be the heart of the entire network of offshore accounts and laundered assets.

I believed him. I became his secret Consigliere. I laundered his dirty money, hacked rival security grids to clear the path for his hits, and designed the very foundation of digital and financial power upon which he now stood.

But in the official Family ledgers I had just breached, my name did not exist.

In the family's ledgers, my name was expunged. The system logs showed only a null entry designated 'Civilian Asset'-proof that Zane had claimed every one of my tactical victories as his own. He had always claimed the Don would never respect a woman in power, insisting that the Syndicate needed a traditional, ruthless face.

He did not hide me in the shadows to protect me. He hid me so he could replace me.

The heavy steel door of the penthouse clicked open.

Zane walked into the living room. The cloying, metallic scent of fresh blood and burnt gunpowder rolled off his tailored suit. He tossed his holster onto the glass coffee table, the heavy thud of its impact seeming to suck the remaining air from the room.

He did not look at me. He walked straight to the liquor cabinet and poured a glass of amber whiskey.

"Why are the Sicilian route clearances locked, Elara?" His voice was a low, dangerous rumble-the precise register he employed just before ordering a man's execution.

I stared at his broad back, my chest tightening so hard my ribs ached.

"I locked them." My voice was surprisingly steady.

Zane paused with the glass halfway to his lips. He finally turned to look at me, his dark eyes cold and impatient.

"Unlock them." He took a sip of his drink. "You are delaying the alliance negotiations with Siena's family. The High Commission is waiting for the route clearances."

He said her name so casually. As if he had not just signed away the network I built to a woman he had known for a mere two months.

"I found the betrothal contract, Zane."

Zane set his glass down. He did not look guilty; he looked annoyed. He pinched the bridge of his nose and let out a heavy sigh.

"Do not start with the civilian hysterics tonight, Elara." His tone was dismissive. "I just spent four hours interrogating a cartel rat. I am not in the mood for your jealousy."

Jealousy. The word hit me like a physical blow to the stomach.

"You promised me a throne." I stepped out from behind the monitors. "You took my money. You took my mind. You took three years of my life."

"It is just business." Zane stepped toward me, his towering frame casting a long, dark shadow over me. "Siena has the Vitiello bloodline. She brings the political legitimacy I need to become Don. You know how this world works."

"I know that I am invoking my own Omertà." I looked directly into his cold eyes. "I am leaving you."

Zane scoffed, a harsh, arrogant sound that scraped against my eardrums. He reached out and grabbed my chin, his grip firm-a silent threat of his absolute control.

"You are throwing a tantrum." He released my chin and turned away, dismissing me entirely. "Fix the servers before morning."

He walked into the master bathroom and shut the door. The sound of running water masked the sound of my ragged breathing.

A memory flashed behind my eyes, dragging me back to six months ago. My father was lying on an operating table having a quadruple bypass surgery, and I was crying, begging Zane to let me go to the hospital.

Zane had locked the bunker door. He had invoked his authority as Capo, forcing me to stay behind and hack a rival weapon shipment. He had told me the Family came first.

I had sacrificed my own blood for a man who just called my broken heart a tantrum.

I pulled a burner phone from my pocket. My thumb twice failed to unlock the screen, sliding uselessly over the glass.

I opened a secure text thread to my mother.

"I am making preparations. I am coming home soon."

*I stared at the words on the screen-the first honest message I had sent in three years. Somewhere in the bathroom, the water was still running. And somewhere in the servers behind me, a kill-switch was waiting. I was not ready to press it. Not yet. But soon. *