by Anne Conley
“Actually,” his voice lowered to a dangerous level, “I wanted to design video games, but my parents wouldn’t pay for me to go to college for that. I got into MIT on a full ride, and they wanted me to use that education for something ‘useful.’”
His sexy tone of voice totally contradicted his mundane words, and she knew he’d quit school to pursue his career in AI research and development when he’d been head-hunted right out of MIT to go work for one of the biggest software development companies in the world at the time.
Putting her cup to her lips to quench the heat inside her, as well as find something to do with her sudden awkwardness, she found her glass empty. Thankfully, Evan rose to get her another, and the moment passed without any more opportunities for her to be stupid.
The party lasted a couple of hours, in which Paige managed to forget her troubles, blessedly. She didn’t remember Neil’s outburst, The Crimson Lady, or the sabotage of her company she’d worked so hard to build. Evan touched her constantly, reminding her of the fission between them, but his touches were platonic, for which she was thankful.
When it was over, he took her home.
Evan felt an insane sense of satisfaction as he drove her home after the party. She’d loosened up and smiled more than he’d seen her since the night she’d been Sandra. Gone was the nervous woman who wouldn’t speak to him. Gone was the stressed out CEO trying to fix The Crimson Lady. Then the reality of her life came crashing back in on her.
When she unlocked her house and went to the alarm pad just inside her door, Evan watched her shoulders slump as she slapped the keypad.
“Dammit!”
Instantly alert, he asked, “What?” Frustration made him want to punch something. They’d had a perfectly pleasant evening, and now there was something else to bother her.
“Stupid thing has been so glitchy lately, and I haven’t had a chance to really look at it.”
On guard, Evan drew his gun and herded her into the corner with his body. She didn’t resist, and he saw the weary lines around her eyes. “Stay here, and I’ll check it out.”
Evan did a room-by-room search, ignoring the desire to snoop. He’d only been in her kitchen before, but her décor was just like Paige—classy yet comfortable. Once he was satisfied they were alone, he went back to get her.
Slumped down on her backside in the corner, Paige had her head leaned back and her eyes closed. He reached for her elbow to help her up.
“How long has it been glitchy?”
She shrugged. “A couple of weeks.” Her eyes widened, “You don’t think it has anything to do with all this, do you?”
“It might. I’m not ruling it out. You’re dealing with someone with massive computer knowledge, so they easily could have hacked into your alarm system. Have other computerized circuits been acting up?”
She nodded. “Yeah, I thought it was all related. My lights and TV come on at odd times, too.”
“You have all that on a timer?” When she nodded mutely, Evan ground his teeth together and steered her to the sofa. He would address the computer stuff in a little while. But one thing was for sure. This was all related.
“Tell me about Peggy. I caught her coming out of your server room this afternoon.”
Paige’s body straightened in surprise. “Peggy? What was she doing in the server room?”
“Well, she wasn’t backing up stuff, which is what she told me. Tell me what she has on you.”
“Nothing really. I rehired her after the mash-up out of a show of sentimentality, I guess. She was Dale’s wife.”
“Dale Stygman?”
“Yeah.”
Evan raked a hand through his hair in frustration. “Why didn’t you tell me this?”
“I didn’t think about it and it doesn’t seem all that relevant.” Her eyes met his, etched with regret.
She shrugged, and Evan saw the fatigue in her gesture. Shoulders slumped with defeat, her eyes were rimmed with red and had puffy, dark bags under them. He softened toward her, knowing he shouldn’t.
“Look. Why don’t you go take a shower and go to bed? I’ll sleep down here and make sure everything’s okay. I’m calling my buddy Quinten to help out. You’ll be safe tonight.”
Her eyes widened again, giant pools of green. She hadn’t even thought about her own safety. He refrained from letting go of the immense sigh he felt like blowing at her. What was it like to look at everyone so innocently? So trusting?
“Okay,” she said meekly. This was a side of Paige Lawson he’d rarely seen. She was meek, pliable, and ready to do whatever he told her to. He refused to let himself think about that.
Instead, he listened as she went to the shower connected to her bedroom upstairs. He could hear the water running through the pipes, and tried not to imagine her naked, wet, and soapy, running her able hands across her lush curves, humming softly to herself. Did she hum in the shower?
His mind kept turning to Ryan and Krista. From what Ryan had told him, if he’d kept his dick in his pants around her, she never would have been taken by the twisted asshole who’d kidnapped her and tried to make a snuff film.
The truth was, Simon was right. He needed to focus and keep his boundaries clean and clear. They needed to be drawn in fire, not chalk. But as it was, he was so damn close to the boundary lines with Paige, he was sweaty hot and about to get burned.
He shook his head and called Quinten.
“I need a perimeter check while I stay inside, and I’ve got shit to get done tonight. Can you come over?”
“Be there in ten.”
After hanging up, Evan went to check Paige’s alarm, to find it had been tampered with. The code was all messed up. He hacked in, added a firewall he’d designed for the firm’s security installations, and reset everything. Writing down her new code, he couldn’t resist making it the date of Their Night. Then he tried to settle himself and wait for Quinten.
When the knock sounded at her door, Evan let him in, fist-bumping him in the process. He was still dressed from the party, although he’d lost the cape.
“Hey, man. Thanks for coming. Your eye looks better.”
Quinten looked at him through narrow eyes. “There are footprints all over the place out there, especially outside her kitchen window. Bedroom’s upstairs?”
Evan nodded, fists clenched.
“I’ll go check tomorrow where the trajectory for her window meets the ground. Not gonna get shot snooping around a neighbor’s house this time of night.”
“Thanks. I think I’m going to take off. Can you stay the night here with her?” Evan didn’t trust anyone else on earth as much as he trusted Quinten to make sure Paige was okay.
Quinten nodded, and Evan rose to leave.
“Who do you have pegged for it?”
Through gritted teeth, Evan growled, “Koen or Patton. I just have to figure out how the fuck he’s doing it.”
Quinten nodded, his temple flexing as he clenched his jaw. “You like this one?” He nodded up, a vague gesture to Paige.
Evan ran his hands through his hair. “She’s the one, man. The one y’all have been making fun of me for mooning over for months.”
“Yeah, but do you like her? Or is she just a good bed-warmer? Can you imagine your life without her in it?”
Evan blinked at Quinten, unable to answer his questions. They were abrupt and non-sequitur, which meant they’d been bouncing around his mind a while. The big man rarely voiced things that weren’t important. Evan opened his mouth, but snapped it shut.
Quinten shook his head. “‘Nuf said, man. I got this. Go do your thing.”
Evan knew most people shouldn’t play video games with problems like his looming. None of his Pierce comrades could understand why he did it. Why he completely immersed himself in highly pixelated images for hours at a time, strategizing with strangers, especially when his world was about to topple around him. They called it ‘Going Geek.’
They all had their foibles, except Simon. Ryan wen
t native, spending a week out in the woods, living off the land. Quinten went silent, just plain disappearing, except possibly to fight. Simon didn’t break. Never. Someday, though, he would, and Evan dreaded it. He knew it wouldn’t be pretty.
Logging in, he saw his crew ready, but not waiting. He looked around, finding Grazy_Lady casting some sort of enchantment over a pack of wolves about to eat a child, her green robes flowing around her legs. Mystic was wielding his sword against a witch who appeared to be incapacitated somehow. And Red_Dawn was sitting under a tree, eating a loaf of dark bread, most likely re-upping his life score. He hadn’t mastered the skills required to earn life points and was usually reduced to foraging for food in the game. Consequently, he didn’t have the stores of tools, spells, and talismans in his chest the rest of them had.
EmberFalls: Hey guys.
Grazy_Lady: Dude! WTF have you been?
EmberFalls: Around. Too fucking busy.
Red_Dawn: Did you hear about The Crimson Lady? I heard the kid left marbles to toy with the cops. What do you suppose that means?
Evan sat back in his chair, staring at the screen, trying to ignore the sudden chill seeping into his bones. The countdown stuff was only in the FBI reports. He’d double-checked that. Could Red_Dawn be an FBI agent on the case? If he was FBI, he wouldn’t have divulged the information online. So that left only one option. Evan was playing with The Crimson Lady. And had been for months. Or Paige told Red_Dawn. What if Red_Dawn is Paige?
While it made sense, lots of game developers had an online persona to play with ‘the masses’ like a focus group of sorts, he didn’t see Paige going online and spilling details of the case. Would she?
EmberFalls: I hadn’t heard that. You really think so?
Evan’s pulse pounded, and he whooshed out a breath while he decided how to play this. Random things about Red_Dawn filtered through his mind while he quickly analyzed their online communications. He knew nothing about the guy, except he seemed to be really good at finding food in the game.
The only option he could think of right now was to play dumb and try to get more information. Maybe The Crimson Lady would divulge more.
Mystic: Nah. I heard she used to be a homeless whore who got a job at IBM because one of their interns caught her building computers out of old cell phones she’d found in the trash.
Red_Dawn: Hey, Ember, you got your boys on this one, or is it just you working alone? Does your hot little secretary have anything to do with The Crimson Lady case?
Grazy_Lady: Are we going to fucking play, or what?
Evan suddenly knew the meaning of the phrase, ‘blood running cold,’ as his veins seemed to be filled with ice. He’d been extremely careful to not reveal any personal information about himself or where he worked. He’d always considered himself a bit paranoid, an occupational hazard. Evan knew without a doubt he’d never told his gaming friends about his co-workers, or his job. Or Miriam.
Which meant Red_Dawn knew who he was and where he worked. Chewing on his lip, Evan thought furiously. The Crimson Lady knew who he was, since she’d called him by name in the website chatroom. If Red_Dawn was The Crimson Lady, then how many damn personalities did this freak have? And for what? Paige? All of this for an unrequited love? Revenge? Why in the hell was he calling himself out here? Did he want Evan to know he knew? His head was spinning.
EmberFalls: Nah, man. She just takes care of paperwork.
It physically pained him to converse this way with the man, like they were friends. But he couldn’t antagonize him. He didn’t even want him to realize that Evan was putting the pieces together. Surely, he’d thrown these tidbits out there to let Evan know who he was.
He wanted to be caught?
Was he tired of playing the games with Paige? Or did he have some huge, epic battle in mind?
He played half-heartedly while calling Miriam.
“Hey, you safe?” he asked her when she answered her phone.
Miriam laughed at him. “Of course I am. What’s going on?”
He explained as much as he could as quickly as he could, and then waited for her to grasp the seriousness of the situation.
She huffed at him, a sound he was accustomed to from her. “You’re telling me I’ve been targeted by one of the sickos you’re trying to catch?”
He breathed out relief. It didn’t sound like she was going to fight him on this one. “Yes. I’m calling Simon next, to see how he wants to play this, but I needed to make sure you’re safe, first.”
“I’m double checking my locks now. Wasn’t planning a night out on the town tonight, anyway,” she said sardonically.
“Thanks, you’re a doll, Miriam.”
“Yeah, yeah.” She hung up on him, and Evan called Simon next, continuing to play his game. He was mostly just aimlessly walking around the forest, losing life points to wolves right and left.
After explaining the situation to Simon, his boss’s controlled voice was a relief to Evan, whose mind was whirling.
“Okay, I’ll take care of Miriam. Your number one priority is to find this asshole and shut him the fuck down. You understand?”
“Loud and clear.”
EmberFalls: Sorry, guys. I guess my head’s not in it tonight.
Grazy_Lady: Fuck, Ember. Get done with this job so we can have our flank man back. This is bullshit.
Red_Dawn: Have fun, Mr. Bigshot.
Mystic: Cut the guy some slack. Stressed.
EmberFalls: Thanks, Mystic, but I’m beat. TTYL.
Evan stared at the blank screen long after he’d logged off. Red_Dawn was in this somehow. He probably knew who it was. He thought back to all the interactions he’d had with the person he’d come to count as a friend of sorts.
The most recent addition, Red_Dawn had come into the group about five months ago. At the time, that hadn’t meant anything. Now, though, the timing was telling. That was after the merger, after his night with Paige, after Patton had gone underground. He remembered there had been some times after Red_Dawn had joined the group that he hadn’t shown up to play, citing procedures, leading them to all believe he had health issues. Something about that all tugged at his brain, but he couldn’t see the significance in it.
Red_Dawn was Roger Patton, inserting himself into his former adversary’s gaming world after she’d bought him out, committing the ultimate betrayal. He was The Crimson Lady, having created her and programming her into the game as his final act of retribution. And he knew Evan was EmberFalls. Especially after the dig about Miriam and his parting words, calling him Big Shot. It was a subtle middle finger the rest of the crew wouldn’t get.
So he’d been playing with the murderer. The hermit Patton had come out of hiding, online at least, to flaunt himself to Evan. He’d probably gotten huge ego strokes from hiding in plain sight. Evan just needed to figure out how to get him to come out in real life so he could catch him before he did something to hurt Paige.
He did a quick search of Red_Dawn’s IP address, hoping for a Greek address, and found it to be a pinger. It was usually a computer fingerprint, the string of numbers associated with every computer. Evan wouldn’t be lucky enough to think Red_Dawn had overlooked that vital bit of information. There were all kinds of shield subscriptions to be purchased on the internet to keep people like Evan from finding people with the IP addresses, and undoubtedly whoever Red_Dawn was had either paid for one of these or built his own.
He felt like he’d hit a brick wall. All of the answers were right in front of him, but he couldn’t come up with how to tie them all together. He had a horrible feeling he himself was at the center of it all, but wasn’t sure how. Helplessness washed through him, and Evan closed his eyes for a brief moment, just to rest them.
When he opened them next, daylight filtered in through his curtains, and the answers were no clearer to him.
Paige was surprised and disappointed to find Evan gone and Quinten in his place on her couch. She’d slept, thinking Evan was sleeping just below her
, fantasizing about asking him to come to bed, and had almost worked up the nerve to do it. But hadn’t. When she’d come downstairs the next morning, Quinten was sitting on the edge of the couch, a blanket and pillow stacked neatly beside him, blowing across the top of a cup of coffee.
“Good morning. Evan left?”
He nodded, studying her. “I made coffee. Nice place,” he said, gesturing with his cup toward the kitchen.
“Thanks. Um, where did Evan go?”
The taciturn man cracked a small smile. “He went to go do his geek thing. He’ll be back.”
Realizing Quinten was a man of few words, and still having no idea where Evan went, she turned to the kitchen to get herself a cup of coffee and make some calls. She had an emergency Board Meeting to hold.
Tamping down disappointment that Evan hadn’t spent the night, Paige dressed carefully in a sage green business suit. She didn’t dress like this often, usually only for the Board members, but they seemed to expect a certain level of professionalism from the CEO of the company, and she obliged. Of course, they all knew she didn’t work like that, but the Executive Board was a bit of a stage-play to Paige, with all the characters playing their roles, so her costume was important.
While Evan’s presence made the meeting easier in terms of goals, his physical appearance and presence made it much more difficult. When she arrived, he was already there, mingling with the other members of the board, so she had the opportunity to watch him a little before he noticed her. He was wearing a tailored suit with a vest. Paige had no idea she thought vested suits were so sexy until she saw Evan wearing one. Or maybe it was the light green cuffed shirt, complete with the binary code cufflinks she’d given him that complimented her suit perfectly. Or maybe it was just Evan, with his dark mop of hair carefully styled to look like he’d just rolled out of bed. Or his smoldering eyes, catching hers over the shoulder of the man he was talking to.
