Data Capture

by Jesse J. Thoma

  Data Capture

  Until a year ago, Lola Walker always felt comfortable in life—she was unlucky in love, but solid as part of Holt Lasher’s team. But the past year has made her swear off women and shaken her faith in her ability to do her job. Getting cheated on, dumped, and almost getting your team killed will do that. But then a new threat is leveled against Holt and her family by a group of anonymous cyber criminals attempting to steal millions from unsuspecting online fantasy sports players. Lola goes undercover in L.A. to find them, intent on regaining her footing. And if she just happens to spend some time with the intriguing Dr. Quinn Golden? Well, it would be rude not to, even if she might be involved in the scheme. But when Quinn’s life is in jeopardy will Lola have to watch helplessly as someone she loves gets ripped away from her once again?

  What Reviewers Say About Jesse J. Thoma’s Work

  Seneca Falls

  “Loneliness and survival are the two themes dominating Seneca King’s life in Thoma’s emotionally raw contemporary lesbian romance. Thoma bluntly and uncompromisingly portrays Seneca’s struggles with chronic pain, emotional trauma, and uncertainty.”—Publishers Weekly

  “This was another extraordinary book that I could not put down. Magnificent!”—Rainbow Book Reviews

  Pedal to the Metal

  Sassy and sexy meet adventurous and slightly nerdy in Thoma’s much-anticipated sequel to The Chase. Tongue-in-cheek wit keeps the fast-moving action from going off the rails, all balanced by richly nuanced interpersonal relationships and sweet, realistic romance.”—Publisher’s Weekly

  “[Pedal to the Metal] has a wonderful cast of characters including the two primary women from the first book in subsidiary roles and some classy good guys versus bad guys action. …The people, the predicaments, the multi-level layers of both the storyline and the couples populating the Rhode Island landscapes once again had me glued to the pages chapter after chapter. This book works so well on so many levels and is a wonderful complement to the opening book of this series that I truly hope the author will add several additional books to the series. Mystery, action, passion, and family linked together create one amazing reading experience. Scintillating!”—Rainbow Book Reviews

  Data Capture

  Brought to you by

  eBooks from Bold Strokes Books, Inc.

  http://www.boldstrokesbooks.com

  eBooks are not transferable. They cannot be sold, shared or given away as it is an infringement on the copyright of this work.

  Please respect the rights of the author and do not file share.

  Data Capture

  © 2018 By Jesse J. Thoma. All Rights Reserved.

  ISBN 13:978-1-62639-986-6

  This Electronic Book is published by

  Bold Strokes Books, Inc.

  P.O. Box 249

  Valley Falls, NY 12185

  First Edition: January 2018

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  This book, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced in any form without permission.

  Credits

  Editors: Victoria Villasenor and Cindy Cresap

  Production Design: Susan Ramundo

  Cover Design By Sheri (graphicartist2020@hotmail.com)

  By the Author

  The Chase

  Seneca Falls

  Pedal to the Metal

  Data Capture

  Acknowledgments

  I am grateful to the wonderful team at Bold Strokes who are so supportive of us authors, especially Rad and Sandy, but everyone who touched this manuscript made it better, and I am thankful. I would like to take a few moments to profusely praise my editor, Victoria Villasenor, for her wisdom, patience, knowledge, and skill. No matter the track changes blood bath after a first draft, I know my manuscript will always come out better and stronger for her editing, and I am lucky to have her in my corner.

  I am also incredibly grateful to the readers who have contacted me and asked for more adventures from Holt and company. I love these characters and hope you enjoy their next chapter.

  Finally, to my wife, thank you for putting up with my weird writing schedule and being more supportive than I have a right to ask. We are writing a pretty great love story.

  Dedication

  To my whole world, Alexis, Goose, and Bird

  Chapter One

  Lola Walker hurdled a log at a full sprint and didn’t break stride when she landed on the other side. She slowed her pace when a branch whipped her in the face and made her eyes water. She cursed and wiped away the sting before setting off at a sprint again in pursuit of the man she’d been chasing through the woods for the past twenty minutes. She’d take her city living any day over the bugs, rocks, branches, and arboreal hiding places out here.

  The guy she was chasing was a high value bail jumper they’d been chasing from Rhode Island heading west, one of three out here in the woods in bumblefuck Michigan. She’d arrived with Holt, Dubs, and a plan, but as often happened, things went a little sideways. But one of these clowns was connected to the car theft ring they’d taken down a little over a year ago, and she needed to catch him. It wasn’t Lola’s fondest set of memories; between her spectacularly embarrassing public breakup and Dubs getting shot, things could have gone better. Don’t forget you didn’t notice the bad guy lurking a few feet away for months at a time.

  She wasn’t interested in leaving loose ends from that period in her life, which was why she was careening through the woods now in a Bounty Hunter 5K.

  She stumbled as the ground sloped downward steeply under her feet. Why do people come out here for fun?

  Lola half jogged, half skidded down the hill. She couldn’t see the man she was pursuing until she reached the bottom. He hadn’t descended with as much grace.

  “You in one piece?” Lola asked, looking down at him.

  “My neck ain’t broke. So I guess that counts,” the man said. “Ankle’s bad.”

  He was sprawled on the ground and didn’t look like he was going anywhere anytime soon. Lola was worried she was going to have to carry him back to the rendezvous point. She handcuffed him, alerted Holt via her comms unit nestled in her ear that she had her man, and had begun explaining what his life was going to look like for the next few days, when two gunshots cracked loudly in the distance, disturbing her overly nature-filled morning in the woods.

  “That better not have been a gunshot,” Max said through the comms. She sounded worried.

  “Pretty Girl, please. I’m just out for an early morning jog. Doing a little bird watching. I think you heard species Pistolasis,” Dubs said. She sounded out of breath, like she was running hard.

  “Angry fucking bird,” Max said.

  Another shot rang out, and Lola scanned the trees to see if she could spot movement, but everything was still around her.

  “You had better be hole free when I get to you,” Holt said through the comms.

  “Oh, hi, boss. Good news, I caught up to my guy. Sort of wishing I’d let you or Lola handle the armed asshat. Having been shot before, I’m very motivated to never repeat the experience,” she said. “If I could communicate that to my avian friend here…”

  “Where are you?” Lola asked. She slipped a GPS tracker on her capture and sprayed him with tagging nanocrystals, then re-cuffed him to a short branch on the log. Even if he slipped away while she was gone, they would find him again. She looked at the man on the ground. “I’m sending a friend of mine to collect you. It’ll be less pleasant for you if he has to chase you a second time. Understand?”

  He nodded and s
ettled against the log. Lola didn’t know if he would stay put, but she needed to get to Dubs. Moose and Jose were with them in Michigan and were now on cleanup duty. Moose had not appreciated being second team on this capture, but they never sent everyone into the field at once. Too many things could go wrong, especially so far from home. He and Jose were perimeter cover and their backup. They were also the cavalry if they needed them.

  Lord help me if I ever need Jose to ride in to save my ass.

  “You lost her? Holt, I thought you brought her with you for training?”

  “Good morning, Isabelle,” Dubs said. “This seems to be live ammunition training. I’ve always liked pass-fail tests best.”

  “Good morning, Dubs. Please be careful, honey. This isn’t my favorite part of what you all do,” Isabelle said.

  “Concentrate on where you are and not getting shot,” Holt said forcefully. “Lola and I are on our way. Can you find cover? Get to higher ground?”

  “I’m in the woods. Just like I have been since we got up here. I’m a reformed thief, not a cartographer. I don’t see any caves and I can’t run up a tree.”

  Max came on. “Babe, she’s going to need more than that. You’re in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Woods and water aren’t very specific. Help them get to you.”

  Lola thought Max sounded scared now. That wasn’t good. Max never sounded scared, except for the time Dubs actually had gotten shot a year ago. Everyone had been scared then.

  “Look, I have no idea where I am. Don’t you have me tracked or something? I’m sort of too good to let get away. You should probably microchip me so I can be returned to owner when lost.”

  Dubs’s breathing and tone had a new quality to it. Lola recognized it as the beginnings of panic. Things were going downhill quickly.

  “GPS isn’t working all that well out there. I don’t have a good location on you. I didn’t expect you to wander off on me,” Max said.

  “No fancy Dubs retrieval app that just sucks her right back to you when you miss her?” Lola asked. She needed them to start thinking about something other than Dubs getting shot. She kept moving in the direction she hoped the gunshots had come from, but she was running blind.

  “I haven’t finished it yet,” Max said. “And Isabelle won’t let me redirect a satellite to look for her.”

  “I think the U.S. military would notice.”

  “They’d never know it was me,” Max said. “I’d come save your ass myself, but I’m stuck here in Rhode Island behind my computer. And now no one is even letting me use that to help.”

  “Well, now I’m picturing you in all your Batman baddassery and I’ve almost run into a tree. And Isabelle’s right; they would totally know it was you. Who else would be scouring the woods looking for a barely reformed ex-con?” Dubs asked. “Besides, I don’t think they allow conjugal visits in whatever black site they would dump you in and it would take me a couple of weeks to spring you.”

  “Fine. I could’ve used a Russian one.”

  “Jesus, World War III over Dubs,” Holt said. “Any markers you can give me yet, Dubs?”

  Lola could hear the evidence of Holt’s sprint to get to Dubs. It sounded through the comms like she was running through cellophane. Given that Lola was dodging rocks, flinging branches out of her way, and crashing through bushes, all at a full sprint, she could picture Holt doing the same. She just hoped she was running in the right direction. She’d judged the gunshots as coming from her left and set off in that direction, but Dubs and her skip were also running, so they could be anywhere.

  “Excuse me,” Dubs said. “I’m totally worth it. The Russians would start it themselves if they’d had the pleasure. But I’m not sure even I could get you out of the gulag, Pretty Girl. And there’s just trees and more trees, boss.”

  “Your ego does know some bounds. Amazing,” Max said softly. “No prisons for me. No bullets for you.”

  “Deal,” Dubs said. “Some good news, though. No gunshots for these last few acres, and I don’t see my new friend right up my ass, which means I’m much harder to shoot. That and I wore waterproof mascara. I wasn’t expecting a marathon, but I came prepared. See, H, I’m paying attention to those things you’ve been teaching me.”

  “When have you been giving Dubs makeup advice, boss?” Lola asked.

  “I don’t remember that lesson,” Holt said. “If he’s not right behind you, this is the time to hide. Find a bush, or a big tree, a little dip in the ground you can curl up in, anywhere you can disappear from view. If you aren’t moving, you’re easier for us to find.”

  “GPS is back online for two of you,” Max said. “I’ve got Lola and Dubs. Lola, you’re close. Can you pick up the pace? You’re heading right for her.”

  Lola’s quads and lungs burned, but she pushed harder. No way was Dubs dying out here in the woods today.

  “Maybe I should duck behind a tree and confront this guy. We could get what we came for. We do need this capture, right?”

  “No!” Lola and everyone else on the comms said.

  “Sorry, I’m not you, Pretty Girl. Or you other two superhumans, who can run, and jump, and punch to the end of time, and I gotta tell you, I don’t see a single thing I can hide behind without looking like a bad cartoon character. I gotta work with the formidable skills I got. Besides, you all remember what Dubs stands for, right? Wonder Woman? I’m bulletproof. Don’t take too long, Lola. I’ll be waiting.”

  “Dubs, what the fuck are you doing? You are not bulletproof. Neither was Wonder Woman, you idiot, that’s Supergirl. Don’t use inaccurate comic book references as justification to get your ass shot again,” Holt said.

  Lola wondered if Dubs screwed up the comic book reference just to get a rise out of Holt. Dubs did that sometimes when she was scared.

  “How about you don’t get shot again?” Max suggested.

  “I’m not going to die on you, Pretty Girl,” Dubs said, her breathing slowing. “Holt, Lola, I can see my guy about fifty feet behind me. He’s headed my way with his gun on me, but he’s not shooting.”

  “Max, what’s my updated position now that Dubs is stationary?” Lola asked.

  She’d been running at maximum velocity for a long time and she was tiring. Her words came out haltingly.

  “It looks like you’re about quarter mile from her. Still headed directly for her,” Max said.

  “I’ll be there in ninety seconds, Dubs. Don’t die on me before—”

  Lola stopped as the ground in front of her disappeared. The drop-off was less than ten feet, but a stream gurgled along below. She couldn’t tell how deep it was and didn’t want to slow down to find safe passage across it. Several branches from a large tree hung out over the stream and were low enough for her to reach.

  She said a little prayer, backed up a good distance, and charged at the drop-off. Without breaking stride, she leapt for the farthest branch she thought she could reach comfortably and get a grip on when she landed. Her momentum almost carried her too far, but she released from the branch and landed with an unpleasant thud on the other bank. Why wasn’t anyone around to see that?

  She took off again toward Dubs. “H, where are you?” Lola asked. “I’m almost to her.”

  “I’ll meet you there,” Holt said.

  “How was your night, boys? Sleep well?” Dubs asked.

  Dubs’s voice in her ear broke through Lola’s single-minded focus. She sounded for all the world like she was back at the office with her feet up, shooting the shit.

  “Seem to recall you were the one wrapped in Holt’s arms this morning when I woke up,” Moose replied casually.

  Lola had wondered about the scene they’d walked in on that morning, but wasn’t stupid enough to comment on it at the time.

  “Excuse me now?” Max said.

  Lola was glad Max didn’t sound scared anymore. If she wasn’t scared, she was focused. Lola thought she heard Isabelle chuckling. Isabelle didn’t usually listen in during their captures, which mean
t she was scared too.

  Another voice joined the conversation, but not through her earpiece. He was asking Dubs if she was alone. She realized it must be the man who had been chasing her. If he was close enough for her to hear him talking to her, he was too close to miss if he decided to start shooting. She pushed her body harder.

  “Just me. And you. Only me and you,” Dubs said.

  “I was dreaming about Isabelle,” Holt finally chimed in. She was practically growling, though it was obvious she was breathing hard from running to get to Dubs.

  “You Holt Lasher?” the man asked. “Was Holt with you when you chased me and my boys out of camp this morning?”

  “Never heard of him,” Dubs said. “And I didn’t chase you out of anywhere, big guy. I was out for a walk and you started chasing me.”

  “He’s a she. And I need to talk to her. Are you her?”

  “Do I look like someone that would walk around with the moniker Holt? Do you think that suits? Whoever this chick is, she’d be damn lucky to look like me, but the name doesn’t fit.”

  “How am I supposed to know what Holt Lasher looks like?” the man asked.

  “You’re the one looking for her,” Dubs said.

  “Based on the naked pictures you sent earlier, you look nothing like Holt,” Isabelle said.

  Lola held back a laugh. Maybe she shouldn’t rush getting to Dubs. Holt was going to kill her when she got there anyway, if Dubs was sending sexts to Isabelle.

  “You snuck off earlier so you could send Isabelle naked pictures?” Holt asked.