Bennie and the Ace of Hearts

Chapter 3

Bennie

I read the article about John Cabot, and I thought I was going to be sick. It was such a fluff piece, obviously the editor owed him a favor. I had met him several times before at some charity events, I can’t explain it, but the guy gave me the creeps. He was so arrogant and fake, he acted like we should all feel so blessed that he graced us with his presence. I did a quick search online, he started his import business only about five years ago and was already one of the largest companies in the area. This seemed a little strange to me, usually these types of businesses take more like ten years to become this successful. I did some more digging. Several years ago, I was able to gain access to a portion of the FBI’s active cases on their website. I found that there was an open investigation into John Cabot and his import business, it didn’t give any details, but it was enough to convince me that he was a bad guy.

I went to work to see how far I could go, after about two weeks, I got in. I saw an account with several million and decided that Cabot surely wouldn’t miss just one. I transferred the money around just like I had done many times before. I wasn’t sure what to do with it yet. I always tried to get it back to the people that it belonged to if it was stolen, or to those who were hurt by whatever illegal activity was used to get the money. I decided to wait to see what the FBI found out before I gave the money away.

It was time for the annual Bennett T. Harlow Youth Center fundraiser. About 40 years ago my grandfather built a new office to run his business from and he donated his old building and the money to renovate it into a youth center. I am sure that Grams was behind the whole thing and Grandpa just went along with it to make her happy, that and the big tax break that he received. The center served over 1000 teens, provided them the opportunity to play sports, get help with homework and just hang out after school in a safe environment. Since Grams had passed away, I had become the face of Harlow Industries at all such events. Mother couldn’t care less about any charity, let alone the one that was named for her father and that her mother had started. I was actually a member of the board of directors for Harlow Industries because I owned a share of the company. This was how I made a living, aside from my hacking hobby, I received a salary for going to a quarterly board meeting. I was also expected to attend all charity events that we supported, I was given a list of events and an envelope with checks that were to be donated.

The salary was more than enough for me to live on, I had a modest house in the suburbs. I didn’t need a big mansion with servants like mother did, I was happy to be alone. My one weakness was for classic cars, I had a large garage built behind my house to keep my six babies in. My “daily” driver was my two-year-old dark blue BMW, it was perfect for blending in with everyone else in the city. I had my ’69 GTO when I felt like going fast and drawing attention to myself. The ’32 Roadster and the ’39 Plymouth Sedan for a leisurely Sunday drive and the Red ’65 Mustang convertible, well, just because it was cool. My favorite by far was my ’57 T-Bird, gloss black and polished white walls. It was my go-to, whenever I wanted to make a classy entrance, usually when I was in my tux headed to one of my charity events.

I got ready for the youth center event and pulled the T-Bird out of the garage, I arrived at the center and the first person I saw was none other than John Cabot himself. I chuckled to myself as he flashed that fake smile to me, I was sure that he had discovered his money was missing by now. We exchanged the usual small talk, and both moved on to mingle with the rest of the guests. I made my rounds telling all the potential donors what improvements and equipment their donations would be used for. I was getting a drink at the bar when I overheard Cabot talking, I heard him say something about being hit by a hacker. This of course, piqued my interest, I pulled my phone out and acted as if I was busy so that it didn’t appear that I was eaves dropping.

The second gentleman asked, “what are you doing about the hacker?”

Cabot said, “I hired a firm to see if he could find anything and then help improve our security.”

He asked, “so what firm did you use, I might consider having him look at my system to make sure we are secure.”

Cabot nodded, “It’s Edwards Cyber Security, Adam Edwards is the owner, he seems very knowledgeable.”

I made myself a note and went back to talking with the guests. We raised a good portion of the money for the center and considered the event a success.

I got up the next morning and immediately searched for Adam Edwards, I was taken directly to his business website. I was impressed, two years in the Army then five years with the FBI, maybe I better be careful with this guy. I saw the picture of Adam Charles Edwards, the owner, wow, I think I’m in love. Those coffee brown eyes, those perfectly kissable lips all just took my breath away. I shook my head, ok Bennie, keep it together, you need to have your wits about you if you are going to have to deal with this guy. I went further and checked out all his social media accounts, Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. It had been several months since he had any posts on any of them, and they were mostly just replies to others that had tagged him. I searched further, oh, what is this? A profile on an adult dating site… a gay adult dating site. This is getting better and better. I viewed his profile, yes, there was a picture, I clicked it hoping for a full nude. No such luck, just one of him on the beach in just a pair of trunks. Those beautiful eyes and rock-hard abs and well-defined chest, every inch of that ebony body had muscles in all the right places. I had to remind myself again to keep my head in the game. I continued reading his profile and then noticed his profile name: ACEOHARTS. I chuckled a little bit and thought about what made him choose that name, then I saw it. A-Adam, C-Charles, E-Edwards. Ok, that is so cute, I wish my initials spelled something cute like that.

I continued my search, I was shocked when I was able to get into his office computer, I would have thought that someone who runs a cyber security firm would have their own system protected a little bit better. I looked through a page or so of emails, nothing of interest in the subject lines until I saw “Cabot case info”. I quickly forwarded it to my email so I could read it later and not risk Adam checking his email and finding me there. I didn’t see too much more that I thought would be helpful, so I left, hoping that I got out undetected.

I opened the email, it was from the FBI. They had matched the Cabot case to at least 3 others, I knew each one that he had described. I was only slightly relieved when the FBI agent said that while they thought the 4 cases were done by the same person, they still had no lead on who that person was, they had given the culprit the name “Robin Hood”, ok, not as cool as Ace, but it was pretty good. It was time to lay low for a while, thankfully I had the renovations at the youth center to keep me occupied.

After about a week, I began to get restless, I kept going back to that dating site and staring at the picture of Adam. I just knew if he got to know me, he would absolutely fall in love with me, after all I am adorable, not to mention charming. He would fall so hard for me that he would overlook anything bad that I had done in the past. I just had to talk to him, I decided to take a risk, I called Adam’s office.

“Edwards Cyber Security, Dallas speaking.”

I said, “hi Dallas, is Adam available?”

“I’ll check, please hold.”

I heard some muffled voices, Dallas had just held his hand over the phone while he yelled to Adam.

“Can I tell Adam who is calling?”

I thought a moment, “yes, Mr. Hood.”

A few seconds later, “Hello, this is Adam.”

I said, “hi Mr. Edwards, I am wondering if you could help me.”

He answered, “I’ll sure try, what seems to be the problem?”

I continued, “well, this is just a little bit embarrassing, but I found myself on an adult web site, and well, I signed up for a free month trial and now I can’t get the subscription canceled. Is there anything you can do to get them to stop charging my credit card?”

I heard him stifle a chuckle, “I’m sorry sir, but that isn’t something I can help you with, you need to get in touch with the company you purchased the subscription through, if that doesn’t work, maybe you could try to call your credit card company and dispute the charges.”

I tried to sound disappointed, “darn, I thought you might be able to just go in and cancel it for me.”

He said, “no that isn’t really what we do here. I am sorry.”

I sighed, “ok, thank you anyway, sorry to waste your time.”

He chuckled, “that’s ok Mr. um, what did you say your name was?”

I replied, “Hood, thank you again Mr. Edwards.” I hung up the phone.

My heart was racing, damn, that voice sounded just as sexy as I had imagined, it just seemed to match his picture. I could just see him sitting there laughing at the call, by now he was probably telling Dallas all about the poor guy who is paying for a sex site that he couldn’t get canceled. I wondered if he caught the name I used and if he did would he make the connection to his case with John Cabot.

I kept thinking about how I am now on the FBI’s radar, I need to really think about things, was I getting sloppy? I spent the rest of the day moving the Cabot money around one more time, hopefully making it even harder to track. I was hoping the FBI would make its move and charge Cabot with some crime so I could figure out what to do with his money.

I couldn’t get Adam out of my mind, I looked at his picture, then remembered his voice on the phone. I knew it was a huge mistake, but I went downtown and drove by his office. I didn’t know what kind of car he drove, so there was no way to know if he was there. What was I thinking, did I really think that I could go into his office to talk to him. It would be suspicious if I didn’t have an actual case for him. I saw a coffee shop on the corner down the street and decided I needed a cup to calm my nerves. I ordered my coffee and as I stepped away from the counter, I stopped in my tracks, there sitting at the corner table was the man that I wanted to spend the rest of my life with. Adam was working on his laptop as he took a sip from his cup.

Jesus, he was even hotter in person, I had to think of a reason to talk to him, any reason. Luckily the shop was fairly busy, he was sitting alone at his table. I took a deep breath and walked over to him.

I pointed to the chair across the table from him, “excuse me, do you mind if I sit here?”

He looked up and smiled, “oh no, please sit down.”

I held my hand out, “thank you, I’m Bennie.”

He took my hand, “Adam, nice to meet you.”

I said, “sorry, I didn’t mean to interrupt your work, please don’t let me stop you.”

He gave me another smile, “thanks.” He went back to his laptop as I pulled out my phone. I’m not sure why I was so nervous, there was no way he knew who I was, he had never seen me before. I kept messing with my phone, stealing glances at Adam every few minutes. I started to notice he was doing the same thing.

I brought the camera up on my phone so that it was front facing, I could see my face in the screen. I let out a sigh.

Adam looked up from his laptop, “is everything ok?”

I shrugged, I’m not sure.”

He asked, “is there anything I can do to help?”

I smiled, “well maybe, there is a guy that I like, and I want to ask him out, I’m just trying to find the right words to ask him.”

He smiled and closed his laptop, “maybe I can help, what do you want to say? Maybe if we talk through it, we can come up with something together.”

I turned up the charm, “would you like to see a picture of him?”

He nodded, “sure, it might help.”

I handed him my phone, he saw his face on the screen as I gave him the most adorable look I could muster.

He looked back to me with a smile, “that was smooth, how often does that work?”

I grinned, “you tell me, this is the first time I’ve tried it.”

He chuckled, “well, somebody is very confident.”

I batted my eyelashes, “I’m also adorable, don’t you agree?”