There is No Cloud

by Kat Wheeler

  “A kick to the knee took him down? No way. That guy was fit.”

  His expression then took a serious tone. All hint of laughter was gone. “You were really lucky. He had an old rugby injury, and that was his bad knee. If that hadn’t happened, you would’ve been dead. It was another two minutes before the detective showed up.”

  Cameron was stunned. What a crazy series of events.

  “So, it’s Sunday?” she asked. “I guess that means I’m going to miss my meeting with Steve. That’s just great. I’m sure he’ll love this twist. Freakin’ Steve.”

  “It’ll be okay. You’re going to be fine. The rest of it is just semantics,” he said, squeezing her hand. “It could’ve been so much worse if the detective wasn’t there.”

  “Why was he there? I still don’t understand what happened.”

  “Do you want me to get him?” he asked. “He’s been waiting here all night.”

  She nodded, and Bill left the room. She struggled to find the controls for the bed, but eventually she did and raised the bed to a sitting position she could tolerate even with the pain radiating from her side. She reached over and grabbed a glass of water from the bedside table, wincing as she took a small sip through the straw. Then she noticed Will standing in the doorway to her room.

  “Hey,” she greeted him.

  “Hey,” he replied. “How’re you feeling?”

  “I’ve had better days.”

  “I’m sure. Your friend Bill says you’re having a little trouble putting together what happened last night?”

  She nodded. “I don’t understand how you found us. Don’t get me wrong, I’m grateful. Just confused.”

  “Well, I guess it started when you left me at the restaurant on Friday.” She winced a bit at the hurt look on his face. That was surprising. I didn’t think I’d affected him that much, she thought as he continued.

  “I thought about what you said, and you were so sure, so convinced, I began to wonder if maybe there wasn’t more to it as well, so I followed you after the funeral. I figured you’d still be looking for the answers, and maybe if you were, then someone else was as well. I admit it threw me for a loop when you went to Matt’s apartment, but I knew you were on to something when I saw Brandon Reece walk in not too far behind you. I wish I would’ve followed you instead of him. When we went into the building, I lost him for a bit getting in the door. He followed someone in, but the doorman stopped me. That’s why I was late getting to you. I’m so sorry I wasn’t there sooner. I could’ve stopped him from getting to you.”

  “Don’t worry about it. It all worked out. Did you get the flash drive?”

  “We did. The tech guys are going through all the information as we speak, but you were right. They were all in on it. We have enough there to arrest and convict Trey Howell.”

  “What about Brandon?”

  “Him too. He’s here in the hospital as well. Handcuffed to his bed with an officer on guard.”

  She nodded, sleepy from whatever the doctors had given her. “So that’s it, then. It’s all over?”

  “It’s all over,” he agreed, reaching out to hold her hand. “I’m so sorry I didn’t believe you. You were right, about everything. It was Trey’s plan from the beginning. Tessa and Brandon were both in on it, and they kept it from Matt for as long as they could. They all planned his murder, banking on the party as cover for all of them. They were beta testing the data retrieval capabilities on themselves before they were going to try to market it. Who knows who they thought they were going to sell it to? Our government, someone else’s, a private company. We don’t have all the details on that yet, and we may never know for sure, but at the very least, the project has been shut down. We’ve recovered all the chips, and Tessa, Brandon, and Trey are going away for a very long time.”

  “You can’t put the genie back in the box,” she said, sounding a little loopier than before. The painkillers they had her on must have been on a time release, or maybe that was what was in her IV. “Now that it's out there, someone else will figure it out too.”

  “Maybe so, but that’s not for us to worry about. There have been some government suits sniffing around. I’m pretty sure they’ll want to talk to you too. My guess is they’ll take custody of all the materials, and it’ll be like it never happened.”

  “Shh,” she said, putting a finger to her lips. “Don’t tell them about my cloud account.”

  That made him chuckle. He pushed her hair out of her face and whispered, “I would never.” He smiled. “Get some rest. I’ll be here when you wake up.”

  He leaned down and softly kissed her lips.

  Well, she thought as she drifted off, that was interesting.

  Acknowledgments

  To the crew at Hot Tree Self-Publishing, thanks for everything. You made this possible.

  Shout out to my family, Mom, Dad, Andy, Graham, and Kristen. Wouldn’t be anywhere without you.

  To Ben and Ken, how did I get so lucky to get partnered up with you two? I’ve been honored to have your friendship for the last ten years. I’ve learned more from you than I can say. I can’t tell you how much you mean to me. Sorry for telling tales, but some are too hilarious not to share. I left out most of the good stuff. Love you both.

  To my Friday night poker group. Thanks for letting me use your names. Kim, Mike, Nick, Mark, Jay, Ed, Wayne, Al, Dennis, Richard, and Jimmy. You guys are the best.

  To Eytan, Scott, Chris, and Tayt, thank god Ohio ended up in the northeast. To Clint for the advice.

  To Nancy, it’s amazing to have a friend who holds you accountable and supports you unconditionally. You’re one of a kind.

  To Chris Perkins, thanks for all the “teaching moments.” Marla Suttenberg, who taught me a badass woman could be a badass boss and look good doing it. Cory, for letting me kill him; it’s a shame about the polar bears. Fred Bargetzi, who talked to me and listened to me like my voice was important when I was a newbie. You have no idea how much your kindness stayed with me.

  To Toby, Patrick, Lainie, Narayan, Mark, Kathryn Cordina, Ellen, and Marcia. To Delia, Tricia, Sandy, Abby, Maria, Liz, Tara, Melissa, Candice, Clancy, Roseanne, Tom, Hatcher, Casey, Turner, Michelle, Bryan Celli, Keith, Marcus, Yohanna, Glenn, Jon, Carl, Manish, Ray, Alex, Justin, Dominick, Charlie, Doug, Andrew, Rich, Maria, and every member of the swirl family I forgot to list. I didn’t forget you, and I’ll never forget how much better I am for having known you.

  To the guys at B&W, thanks for the motivation to make me want to be one of the guys who sat at the table.

  To Tony for giving me my start.

  To all my dealers, past, present, and future. I love you all. Before you say anything about the tech in this book, I’M AWARE! It’s fiction; sometimes you’ve got to get creative.

  And finally, for Bob. I wish you were here to see this. I know no one would’ve been prouder than you.

  About the Author

  Kat has worked for eighteen years in sales in the AV industry, her love for technology starting early with her first computer, a Commodore64 at age six. She loved it until she realized you could put a magnet to the screen and it made pretty colors.

  Kat spends a lot of her time traveling. She’s been to forty-six states and lived in six. She loves yoga, poker, sports, and all things technology. Her dreams are to one day stop travelling so much and be able to own a dog and to be the first woman to win the World Series of Poker Main Event.

 

 

 
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