by Box Set
Samantha’s still staring at me with that cheesy grin. “See? You are in love. I can read all the expressions off your face. You’re unsure and fighting it, not believing he could possibly love you back.”
“You see nothing.” My voice is sharper than I want it to be. “Listen, you need to go to work while you still have a job.”
I close my laptop and disconnect the power cord. Now that I have my tunnel, I can get into her VPN router anytime.
“Marlena’s letting us have flex hours.” Samantha stretched her arms over her head and yawned.
If I cared, I would be jealous of Marlena. Flex hours my foot. In my book, it means 24/7. I’ll show them flex hours. Humpf.
A footstep sounds near the kitchen doorway.
“Sam, have you seen my phone?” A man props his arm on the counter. He looks like a member of a motorcycle club, wearing his cut, or vest with all the patches on it. I quickly lower my head, hoping my hair hides my face. I’ve seen that patch before—Scrappers Motorcycle Club—the same one whose trailer I was held captive in by last year’s hacker, Dex Steele.
I sneak a peek at the man whose back is turned to me, giving me the opportunity to study the patches. His nickname is “Back Door” and he’s the VP of the club. I’ll bet snake eyes, he’s Mitch Slack, president of TrophyShots, my number one competitor.
He slathers Sammie with a full, mouth-to-mouth kiss, rubs her hair roughly and swaggers from the kitchen. My stomach rolls at that display of grossness. Rough, hairy guys with beards and nose hair growing into their mustaches don’t hold any attraction for me. Add the yucky tattoos, engine grease, and road dust, and I’m ready to barf.
“So, did you find anything about the hackers?” Sammie prances back from the doorway, her teeny boobs bouncing under her hurriedly pulled on tank-top. She’s half-Chinese so she can get away with not wearing a bra. Meanwhile I have to lug around mammary appendages that make my back ache and turn men into drooling idiots or complete assbites.
“I’m good,” I chirp cheerfully to cover my less than charitable thoughts. “How’re Granny and Pappy doing? Any plans for Christmas?”
“They almost got kicked out of Happy Bear.” Her eyes roll slightly larger, referring to the retirement community my grandparents moved to recently. “They were taking care of Ben Powers’ pets so you two could take off for parts unknown.”
I hate it when rumors get distorted. “First of all, the pets belong to his grandfather. Secondly, I went somewhere to de-stress from all the crap going on.”
“With Bamm-Bamm Ben! I made sure to tell Lacy and Nash when they came looking for you.”
“Yes, thanks, Sammie.” I growl under my breath. Sammie’s one of those perky girls who give us larger, more buxom ones the urge to take that thin neck of hers and wring it hard. “You were ever so helpful.”
I stuff my laptop into the bag and walk toward her door. She bounces after me like an obnoxious Odie to my lethargic Garfield.
“I love helping you, Brittney. You’re my favorite cousin.” She hugs me. “I hope you catch the hacker. Let me know.”
“Definitely.” I peel her off me and picture Garfield drop-kicking Odie off the Thanksgiving table.
Chapter 68
~ Ben ~
Ben knocked on the door to his grandfather’s hospital room. He was no longer in intensive care, and the room looked brighter and cheerier with Christmas decorations pasted on the walls.
“Benny Boy,” Grandpa said in a hoarse voice. He was also off the ventilator. “How was the cabin? Is it true you took Brittney up there?”
The memory of Brittney holding his hand as they walked around admiring the Christmas lights pierced him with bittersweet agony. How lovely she was and how hopeful and bright the future had seemed.
“Yes. She was having a bad day, so I thought to cheer her up.” There was no sense hiding it from Grandfather.
“Glad she called off her lawyer. Ridiculous how they threw sexual harassment at you. I ought to call the newspaper and have them print a retraction.”
Ben heaved a sigh. “They don’t really have newspapers anymore.”
“Well, anyway, I did get that City Council lady I know from the pet store to talk to the police chief. He says they’re holding onto the indecent exposure charge because they don’t want to seem easy on athletes—you know, the hometown hero and all that. Hey, did you know Nash is doing a concert for Brittney?”
His grandfather was sure talkative now that he didn’t have a tube stuck down his throat.
“You almost ready to go home?” He pulled the visitor’s chair next to the bed and sat.
Grandpa narrowed his eyes and huffed. “I’m more than ready. Seems you’re getting into trouble without me. How’s the cabin? Anything need repairing?”
“Nothing. I’ll call the cleaners. I put up the Christmas lights and brought out the yard decorations, so if the folks who are renting it for Christmas don’t want them, I can go and take them down.”
“They’ll want them,” Grandpa said. “It’s the Reeds. They always love Christmas.”
“The Reeds? How are they all going to fit?” He couldn’t picture Brittney ever wanting to return to that cottage, especially the loft where he’d made love to her, truly wanting to comfort her and assure her he understood, only to blow it because of his fear of rejection—the thought that his brother had done the same, been there before him.
“It’s only Bob and Cece,” Grandpa said. “They don’t want to spend Christmas at the retirement center.”
“Wouldn’t they spend it with their son and his family?”
“A man wants his own place, you know that.” Grandpa gave him a sidelong glance. “If you’re still thinking of bumping me off to that retirement center, you need to quit. Nash agrees with me.”
“Is Nash going to take care of you? Is he going to look in on you and drive you to your doctor’s appointments?”
“Neither will you,” Grandpa said. “You’re going pro. I know it, and I wouldn’t want to hold you back. I’ll make do with the daytime aide.”
“But what about the night? What if you need help? The retirement center has networked heart monitors. You wear this little band on your wrist and if anything goes wrong, it signals the onsite doctor to your room.”
“I know all about their monitors and I will not be spied upon.” Grandpa crossed his arms. “A man’s got to have his dignity.”
It was true that the retirement center had cameras in every room, with motion detectors and heat sensors. But it was for the protection of the residents. “I’m sure they don’t turn on the video feed unless one of the sensors show a problem.”
“Yeah, like increased heart rate.” Grandpa chuckled. “You and I can think of several scenarios where you wouldn’t want anyone charging into your room for that.”
Whoa. Wait. If Grandpa was seeing another woman, why was he upset at Dad for remarrying?
“Don’t tell me.” Ben kept his voice level. “You have a woman friend?”
Grandpa grinned and patted his chest. “This old ticker’s still got a few beats left.”
“Oh, okay. Well, then, maybe she can monitor you overnight.”
“We’re not that close yet. She’s offered, but I wouldn’t want to take advantage of her.”
“Who is she?” Ben scratched his head. Maybe the reason Grandpa wouldn’t return to the cottage had less to do with missing Grandma, but more to do with this new love interest.
“We’re not ready to go public, so don’t worry your sweet little head. Now, tell me, is anything going on with you and Brittney? Bob and Cece came by all upset that their precious granddaughter had gone missing, and I supplied them with the clue. Looks like I was right.”
“Damn. I really screwed up.” Ben palmed his face and squeezed his eyes shut. Every muscle in his body ached, but the biggest one of all, his heart, was a cannonball shot through with agony. His chest was hollowed, emptied of all hope. He’d lost Brittney—all because he couldn’
t handle her relationship with Nash. The more he thought about it, the darker his despair. He could blame her stubbornness, but the end result was, he’d lost her.
Grandpa’s hand fell on his forearm. “What happened? You and Brittney took off to the cabin.”
“We did, and I threw away the thing I wanted most.”
His grandfather waited, not commenting. After a while, Ben continued. “I thought Brittney was the one for me, my perfect partner. But it turns out she’d been with Nash before. I punched out Nash and asked Brittney to cut her friendship with him. She refused, and let me go. Like a puppy taken to the pound. She let me go. She doesn’t want me anymore.”
“Do you want her back?” Grandpa’s voice was level and calm. “Is she that special to you?”
“I’ll never get over her. If only Nash hadn’t stuck his grubby paws where they don’t belong. She was perfect before he ruined her.”
“What did Nash do to her?”
“I’d rather not say. It’s private, but I wish it had never happened.”
Grandpa cleared his throat long and loud, taking Ben’s hand. “She can’t change her past. It’s up to you to decide how you want to deal with it.”
“That’s just it. I can’t stop comparing. Nash always lorded over me growing up. He was always smarter, more charming, and a lady’s man. I never got any dates when he was around with his guitar, and he’d tag every girl I even thought twice about.”
Ugh, he sounded like he was still a sophomore in high school with a face full of pimples.
“Then you need to decide if she’s important enough for you to overlook this. Nash and Brittney are good friends. He’s doing the benefit concert for her. Last year, when Brittney went through a bad spell, he was there for her. I bet you didn’t even give her a passing thought.” Grandpa was the voice of reason. The problem wasn’t reason, but feelings, and if there was ever a snake in the garden, it was Nash.
“I didn’t know she’d be the ‘One.’ I was too busy playing football.” Truth was, he hadn’t been aware of Brittney, not until she’d dressed as a sexy elf and plopped into his lap.
“It sounds like you’re looking for the impossible—a perfect love. Let me tell you something.” Grandpa beckoned him close. “The ‘One’ doesn’t exist. Or at least not in the way you think.”
“But, you and Grandma. You two were the perfect pair.”
“Only because we worked at it. The ‘One’ for you, Ben, is the one you end up with and work on loving. There’s no mythical person out there who’s perfect.”
“No one is. I know that.” That was logical, but could anyone blame him if secretly, in the heart of his heart, he still dreamed of the sort of completion his mother had set him up for? Hadn’t she been sure his father was the ‘One’ for her?
But then, he’d turned around and remarried before her body was cold.
“If Brittney’s important to you, you must go back and apologize. Try to win her back.”
“I can’t. After she told me she was letting me go, I said that she was only a little bit of ‘fun’ and not to think anything of it. I hurt her deliberately and she’ll never want to speak to me again.” Ben held his head in his hands, digging his fingers into his scalp.
“Then you have to accept it. You screwed up. Look, Bob and I were at each other’s throats over the lawsuits between you and Brittney, but we apologized, and we’re back to being friends again.”
“That’s different. You were buddies before. You go all the way back to the Korean War.”
“You must have experienced some sort of connection while at the cabin to be feeling so bad.” Grandpa smoothed the hair over Ben’s head. “Brittney’s a shy girl and she doesn’t date much, if at all. Lacy’s the opposite, and I knew there’d be trouble when Lacy dressed Brittney up. If what you said is true, you hurt a beautiful flower, plucked off her petals and ground your heel in the center.”
The image Grandpa painted could destroy him. He hurt his Brittney, the beautiful and fragile flower. His eyes ached as much as his heart and his breath caught over a gut-heaving sob. Grandpa rubbed Ben’s back as he laid his head on the hospital bed and wept the tears he’d held back since his mother and sister died more than ten years ago.
A few moments later, Grandpa’s hand stopped moving across his back. “Nash, my boy, how good of you to come.”
Ben looked up in time to see his brother swagger through the doorway.
Chapter 69
~ Brittney ~
Right before I leave Sammie’s apartment, I receive a text from Lacy that Nash had moved out. Good. I head back to my apartment, after buying a sack of bird seed for that noisy cockatoo.
Big Blizzard is happy to see me, fluttering his wings and wiggling his tail. “Hello, hello, hello.”
I don’t have time to talk to him, so I find a parrot training playlist on the internet, and dock my tablet into a pair of portable speakers. There, he can talk and chat to his heart’s content.
A pair of noise-cancelling headphones later, I’m so engrossed in the dim light, searching and pattern-matching Samantha’s router logs with the remote access logs I saved that I don’t hear the door.
Thud. Someone slams it so loud I remove my headphones. Footsteps come toward me. I freeze in the darkness, hoping the intruder won’t see me, buying myself one more second before my concentration is disturbed.
If I’m not mistaken, Samantha’s login was used during the time she was at work by the hacker who came in through her router. This is something we have to keep better tabs on. She can’t be at two places at the same time. I make a note to remind Sean to tighten the VPN access and crosscheck with internal wifi connects.
“I figured I’d find you here.” My sister Lacy steps into the kitchen, turning on the light. She plops onto a chair, groaning as she stretches her feet and adjusts her pregnant belly. “I can’t get comfortable no matter where I am.”
Okay, so she’s starting with the velvet gloves on. No mention of He Who Shall Not Be Mentioned. At least not yet. If I can stick to the baby talk, I’ll be golden.
“You’re carrying a little person.” I tickle her big belly. “Shall I get you some water?”
“I’m good. How long have you been holed up here? Have you even eaten dinner?” She stands to her feet stiffly, holding one hand on her back and goes to the refrigerator. “Ew … Gross. There’s nothing in here but dried pizza and curdled milk. Oh, and craft beer.”
“That would be Nash’s beer. Guess he left it.”
“Guess he did.” Lacy comes back and sits down. She taps the table. “Will you look at me? Or are your eyes glued permanently to the screen.”
I wish I hadn’t given her the keys to my apartment. Sheesh. How am I going to catch the hacker if she keeps bothering me? Keeping one eye on the scrolling log where I set an alarm if someone logs in from Samantha’s router, I turn toward her. “Did Nash find a place to stay?”
“I dropped him off at his grandfather’s house. Says he’s going to the hospital to visit him.”
Warning bells clamor over my eardrums, and tiny spikes prickle the back of my neck. “What about Ben? Isn’t he staying with his grandfather?”
“Whaddabout Ben?” the cockatoo in the cage repeats. “Whaddabout Ben?”
“Guess he is.” Lacy shrugs. “What’s it to you? I thought you were done with both of them.”
“I just wondered.” A flush of sweat tingles my pores. I’ll never be done with either of them. Not that I’m ready for them.
How do you acknowledge a guy you slept with who pretends nothing happened? Loser me. Now I have two notches—oops, make that three notches on my rarely used lipstick case.
“Wonder what they’ll be talking about? Or killing each other?” Lacy tilts her head, studying me with those light brown gypsy eyes of hers.
“I don’t care.” I focus back on the computer screen with the running log file.
“You do care. You know, Nash was so sad about losing you as a friend. He
practically cried on my shoulder all the way through Marin county and into Sonoma.”
“Too bad, so sad.” I tap the keys and issue a command through the wormhole. I’m so close to catching the asshole, if only my sister would stop playing Chatty Cathy. I’m not callous, but that last thing he said to me was really cruel. He doesn’t share with his brother. As if …
“Sad, bad Nash, bad, sad Nash,” Big Blizzard screeches and flaps his wings.
But, as my bad luck would have it, Lacy continues singing his praises. “He’s your best buddy, your go-to-friend, the only one who understands you.”
“He’s also ruining my life, or what’s left of it.”
Sheesh, how can I watch the intruder log, if Lacy’s interrupting me?
“Ah ha, so you do care about Ben,” Lacy prattles on. “I told Nash that something must have happened between you two.”
“Nothing of note happened. Can you drop it?”
“The way you two were so jumpy, like fleas off a fat dead hound, I find it hard to believe nothing happened.”
“Fine, shit happened, okay?” I continue staring at the computer. “I have a hacker to catch, so if there’s nothing else you need …”
“Shit! Shit!” Big Blizzard screams from his cage. “Shit happens.”
“I’ll get to the bottom of this. Mark my words,” Lacy said. “Remember, nothing you tell me will shock me. Nothing.”
“Coming from you, I can see why.” I can’t help the snide remark. My sister is known for the outrageous, the daring, the unbelievable. She’s the one whose naked selfies ended up on her boss’s phone—and now her former boss is her husband. How did that figure?
