Blaize and the Paramedic (MM) by Cara Adams
The Millionaire's Grandsons book 3
Just as everyone had predicted Michael Carmichael’s outright refusal to listen to common sense led to a huge cyber security breach. Locke Parkes’ crippled brother Prince relies on his laptop for social interaction. He’d been surfing the Carmichael Industries website at the time the cyber security was breached and his laptop froze. Locke takes the laptop to the company asking for help from their IT staff to get it working again.
Blaize Carmichael is determined that those whose electronics were damaged will be helped, no matter what his grandfather says. When he sees Locke, he offers Prince the loan of an old laptop until Prince’s can be fixed.
Neither of them ever expected to see each other again. After all a millionaire’s grandson would never have anything in common with a paramedic. Besides, Locke would never leave Prince, not even for his own happiness.
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STORY EXCERPT
Blaize left his grandfather’s office and marched to the elevator. It was waiting at the top floor, and he took it all the way down to the ground. He noticed a man standing by the reception desk, talking to a security guard there, and the receptionist and security guard shaking their heads at him. Normally he would have continued walking straight out the door, but something in the resigned slump of the man’s shoulders made him change direction and cross over to the desk.
“Is there a problem, Henry?” he asked the security guard.
“No, sir, Mr. Carmichael. This gentleman is just about to leave.”
“Carmichael? Mr. Carmichael?” The man turned huge, pleading, dark brown eyes toward him.
Blaize couldn’t resist those eyes. He stuck out his right hand and said, “Blaize Carmichael. Can I help you?”
The man juggled an old-fashioned laptop bag onto his left arm and shook Blaize’s hand. “I’m Locke Parkes, Mr. Carmichael, sir. My older brother has cerebral palsy and is wheelchair-bound. He spends most of his time on the Internet where he talks to his friends and, well anyway, he was browsing the Carmichael Industries website at nine a.m. yesterday looking for one of your original engineering designs, when—”
Blaize instantly knew what was coming next. His laptop had become infected with one or another of the many viruses the IT company was still busy cleaning up.
Exactly as he’d guessed, the man continued, “His computer is completely locked. Something on your website has infected Prince’s laptop, and it’s unusable. I hoped your IT people could fix it for him.”
“I’ve already explained to the gentleman, sir, that his brother’s computer problems have nothing to do with us,” said Henry.
But Blaize was very much afraid that this man’s computer problems, and possibly dozens of other people’s computer problems as well, were indeed going to be their problem.
“It’s okay, Henry. I’ll take Mr. Parkes up to IT.”
“Thank you. Thank you so much. Having access to the Internet means everything to Prince. Since he’s wheelchair-bound, and I’m at work all day, the Internet is how he communicates.”
Blaize nodded, not really listening. He was already convinced their damn website had probably infected any number of people’s devices, and fixing the problem was going to be hellishly expensive. Damn Grandpa’s obstinacy. The man’s a public nuisance!
The IT department should have been half-empty since the departure of his brother, Quade, and Quade’s second-in-command, PJ, but the IT company, still hard at work cleaning up their data and computer systems, seemed to fill every inch of the spacious room. There were snaking lines of cables along the floor, half a dozen open laptops with data scrolling across the screens, and four IT techs, their heads bowed low over their own computers.
Parkes stopped still in the doorway looking down at his feet, but Blaize picked his way through the room to the head geek, cleared his throat, and said, “Rick, we have another problem.”
The head geek stared at him. Blaize knew the man was about the same age as him, thirty-four, but he looked as if he was barely out of high school with pimples on his cheeks, forehead, and nose, huge black-framed eyeglasses, and battered athletic shoes on his large feet. Still, he was making headway against a vast number of viruses, scams, phishing attacks, and hell only knew what else, so Blaize didn’t care what he looked like as long as he could save Carmichael Industries’ data.
“What’s the problem?”
Blaize beckoned Mr. Parkes over. “Tell Rick your story.”
Parkes’ curly black hair bounced as he nodded and said, “This is my brother’s laptop, sir. He was surfing the Carmichael Industries’ website at nine a.m. yesterday when it locked up, and he can’t use it. His laptop is his entire life, sir. He has cerebral palsy and is wheelchair-bound, and I work all day and can’t be with him, so all his friends and activity is via the Internet. And now his computer has been damaged by this company’s website, and I hope, I need… please, sir, you have to fix it. He’s completely alone and helpless without it.”
“How does your brother know it was this website that caused it? Maybe it was something else he had open at the same time?” said Rick.
Parkes shook his head. “No, sir. Prince only has the use of his right hand and almost never has more than one window open at once because toggling between sites is difficult for him. Besides, his laptop is no longer new, and it’s too slow if too many browsers are open at once. He has all day and nothing else to do, so doing one thing at a time is perfect for him. His hand doesn’t ache, and he can get full enjoyment out of each individual step.”
Blaize stared at Parkes, closing his mouth with a snap. What an incredible attitude this man—and presumably his brother—had, making his disability into something that gave him pleasure. Instead of moaning about an old laptop, or about not being able to use both hands, here he was reveling in going slowly and enjoying the journey. In that moment Blaize determined to help him, even if it wasn’t a Carmichael Industries problem. Although he was almost certain it would be a company problem. The whole “nine a.m.” thing was the key. That was the exact time the IT security program had expired.
Buy link:
http://www.bookstrand.com/book/blaize-and-the-paramedic
