“But there are cameras in the hallways,” Tessa said.
“Yeah,” Maggie said, “but they’re not connected to anything.”
“Unfortunately, hardware doesn’t do dick without the proper software behind it.” Disgust rolled through Jonah. He would be having a friendly chat with that building owner soon.
“What about tracking down the dude in the hoodie?”
Maggie’s gaze flickered away and slowly back to him. “Asheville PD wasn’t willing to put that kind of manpower into it. After all, nothing was missing from Tessa’s condo. And three words of graffiti didn’t warrant a full-out investigation.”
“What the fuck, Mags? That was a threat.”
“Has anyone tried to directly hurt Tessa?”
“Hey, you two,” Tessa said, waving a hand in front of Jonah’s face. “I’m standing right here. And no, no one has tried to harm me. But I received an odd call from a Steele Trap employee.”
“Someone local?”
“He worked at Steele Trap in Seattle. I’m not sure where he is now.”
“Did he threaten you?” Maggie asked.
“Not exactly.”
“What the hell does not exactly mean?” Jonah demanded. “That’s a yes or no question. When you first told me about Carson, you didn’t mention that he’d scared you in any way.”
“He was obviously unhappy with me, but that’s because he thinks I’m blackmailing him. Which I’m not. But someone hacked into my confidential client files.” Tessa cut him a quick look. In response, Maggie’s gaze narrowed. Tessa hurried to say, “And the company denied a breach.”
“So you’re telling me you plan to just accept that at face value?” Now Maggie’s attention was on Jonah. She knew exactly what he and Micki were capable of when it came to digging through data. She turned to Tessa. “Tell me about the call.”
“Fuck.” Jonah paced and brooded while Tessa gave Maggie the lowdown on Carson’s call. He didn’t like these new details. Maybe he needed to look more closely at Carson. “What can you do about this?” he asked his cousin.
Maggie lifted a shoulder. “Honestly? Not a lot. None of this has occurred in my jurisdiction. I’ll stay in touch with Asheville PD, but unless something else happens, I doubt they’ll put any more time into it.”
Maggie finished her coffee, rinsed out her cup, and put it in the sink. Then she gave Jonah a slug in the shoulder. “Sorry I couldn’t do more. Let me know if you need anything, and please stay on the right side of the law.”
Once she left, Jonah returned to his pacing. This time, he added some muttering. “If they won’t find this fucker, then I will.”
He rolled Tessa’s mention of Carson Grimes around in his head. Originally, he’d just considered him an innocent bystander, but what if there was more to it?
Jonah checked the time on his phone. Not quite nine, which meant it wasn’t even six on the west coast. If he called Steele Trap’s HR director at this hour, she would get on the next plane to North Carolina and castrate him.
Wait a sec, Carson had called Tessa. “Where’s your phone?”
“Upstairs.”
“I need it. You should have Carson’s call-back number on there.”
“You don’t really think—”
“I don’t know what to think.”
It didn’t take Tessa long to go upstairs and come back with her phone. She tapped in her password and handed the phone to Jonah. Unfortunately, Grimes didn’t pick up, so Jonah left a message, trying not to sound like he planned to strangle the guy. “Grimes, this is Jonah Steele. I have something I need to talk with you about, so call me back.”
His brain clicking through options, he picked up the box that had been delivered yesterday. Turned it over in his hands as if it were a Magic Eight Ball that could tell him the chances of success.
Something inside rattled.
“If you keep tossing that around, you’ll break whatever’s inside,” Tessa commented. “I don’t know how you can stand to have an unopened box sitting around. That would make me crazy.”
“Have at it.” He slid the box in front of her, then rummaged around in the kitchen drawer for scissors. He passed them over and Tessa attacked the tape on the box.
She withdrew a wad of packing paper and two smartphones in protective cases with Steele Trap’s logo on them. “What in the world?” She dug into the box again and pulled out controller gauntlets and what looked like military night goggles with an attached headset and mic. “What is all this?”
“Looks like a VR—virtual reality—setup.” Jonah grabbed the phone and turned it on. A text immediately popped up.
Luv ur work. Chk out mods to SS. CUS, $1RB@L1N
CUS. See you soon. What the hell?
“Huh,” he said. “Some dude calling himself Sir Balin had the balls to port Steele Survivor over to an app and send me his game mods.”
“Don’t most people try to stay under the company’s radar when they do something like that?”
“Well, I’m not a part of Steele Trap anymore, so maybe he thought I wouldn’t care.” He tapped the phone against the countertop. Something about this whole thing made the back of his neck itch.
He’d been so damn sure he could track down the source of her compromised files by the time Tessa woke this morning. Whoever had been snaking their way through the DataFort system was a pretty decent hacker.
But he was better.
He just needed a plan of attack.
And there was no one smarter to bounce ideas off of than his sister. He pulled out his phone.
It rang three and a half times before Micki answered. “’Lo?”
“I need your brain.”
Her chuckle was more than amused—it was evil. “I always told Mom you’d gotten the raw end of the twin deal. And finally you’ve realized which of us got all the smarts. Only took you thirty years.”
“Mick, I’m serious.”
“Me too, little brother.”
Whatever. He wouldn’t rise to her bait this morning. “I’m trying to track down a hacker, but I haven’t been able to trace the SOB. Spent all damn night last night chasing him from one IP address to another. Every time I thought I was getting close, his path darted in another direction.”
Jonah heard murmuring from the other end of the line and what sounded like the slide of sheets. Something he didn’t want to hear, since she and Gage were apparently doing the very thing Tessa wanted to do with him.
Something he damn well wanted to do with her, but knew could be a huge mistake.
“I need your help,” he told Micki.
“Why don’t you do something to clear your mind? Sounds like you’re knocking your head against a wall.”
What he really wanted to do to clear his mind was to take Tessa to bed, but that wouldn’t do a thing to find this hacker. “Someone sent me a modded copy of Steele Survivor.”
“Ballsy,” Micki said. “But it could be your answer. Play it. Sink in, and something on this hacker might pop for you. Later.”
And click, she hung up.
“Did your sister have any suggestions?” Tessa asked.
“She suggested I play a video game to try to unstick my brain.”
“Because what else would you do?”
“Sometimes it’s like a form a self-hypnosis,” he explained. “I’ve had some of my best ideas, my most innovative concepts, come to me while playing.”
“Kind of like taking a shower or driving.” She nodded thoughtfully. “Hey, if it works, it works. Can I play, too?”
“I’m going to play the modded version of Steele Survivor.”
“Okay.”
“It’s a first-person shooter game.” Even if the weapons weren’t machine guns and hand grenades, they were used to inflict a certain amount of damage on the other players.
“Jonah, I contracted for Steele Trap. Of course I know about the game.”
Resigned, he led her back to his dim tech cave. Badger trotted along and s
ettled into Jonah’s favorite gaming chair.
He clicked the smartphones into the VR goggles and outfitted Tessa with a pair, along with a headset and controller gauntlets. She looked as if the hardware on her head would tip her over, but she rocked the gauntlets like a pair of Wonder Woman bracelets.
When she thrust her arms this way and that, making little pow and whoosh sounds, he wanted to hug her.
“Be careful not to lose your balance or bump into anything,” he warned her. “You can just move in place.”
The game’s opening sequence played as normal, with a cut scene of four guys joyriding in the back of an old pickup that closely resembled the POS truck Britt still drove. They wound their way down a mountain road, then cruised Main Street under the baleful eye of a stereotypical potbellied Southern sheriff. As closely as Jonah had modeled the dude on Sheriff Caldwell—who’d lorded over Haywood County before Maggie—he should’ve been sued.
But when the old sheriff had seen the game, he’d strutted around for days telling people he was famous and that it was only a matter of time before Hollywood came calling. Far as Jonah knew, he was still waiting at some retirement community in Georgia.
At the far edge of town, the truck stopped and all the characters piled out. They were joined by a few more guys loosely based on Jonah’s high-school friends. But there was no mistaking the four main characters as Jonah and his brothers.
“They look like you,” Tessa commented.
“Since I’m the youngest brother, they would say I look like them.”
“Did they have any idea you were immortalizing them?”
“Britt had a shit-fit when he found out.” Jonah chuckled. “But by that time, I had people beta testing demos. Reid and Grif didn’t have a problem with any of it.”
“Why are all the characters guys? Where are the girls?”
Yeah, Micki and Evie had asked that a million times. “It just wasn’t made that way. I was ten years old when I first came up with the idea. It was a game for guys.”
“You’re honestly too young to be that sexist.”
“It’s not sexism, dammit. But even on-screen, I have a thing against hurting women.”
“Seriously? It’s a game.”
“Holy shit.” His attention was snagged by what was happening in front of him. The lineup of eight male characters was expanding as more people strolled onto the playing field. Tessa had certainly gotten her wish, because the new characters sure looked a helluva lot like Jonah’s sisters and mom. His heart was thumping painfully. But that was nothing compared to the way it seized when another character joined them. She was wearing a red business suit and high heels—ridiculous for playing a shoot-’em-up survival game.
The person who’d modded his game had rounded up all the people Jonah cared most about in this world.
Including Tessa.
Well, how about that. Someone obviously thought enough of the women in Jonah’s life to add them to his male-dominated game. “Who did you say sent this to you? Because I like him, whoever he is.”
When Tessa peeked out from under her goggles, Jonah’s face was immobile except for a tiny twitch in his jaw.
“What’s wrong?”
“He fucked up my game.”
She didn’t agree. Anything could be improved with a little girl power. “Maybe he or she thought your character diversity was a little shortsighted.”
“I don’t like it.”
Tessa might be a psychologist, but that didn’t mean she’d ever completely understand the male ego. It was elusive and mysterious—like the Loch Ness Monster or Sasquatch. She used her gauntlet controller to select herself as the character she’d use to play the game. “Why am I wearing work clothes?”
“How the hell should I know? You weren’t even in my version.”
She had a feeling he was also trying to keep her out of this version of his life. But she wasn’t going to let that happen. “Next time, I want cargo pants and sneakers.”
“I’ll submit a change ticket to whoever modded this,” he said, his tone as dry as burnt toast.
“Who’s the woman with long dark hair and blue eyes?”
“My baby sister Evie. Micki’s the one in the skull T-shirt.”
In the game, Jonah’s twin was dressed in skinny jeans and black boots with silver buckles running down the sides. Her dark hair was styled in a jagged cut that, combined with her delicate bone structure, made her look like a badass fairy. “She looks fierce.”
Jonah laughed. “Tell her that and she’ll love you for life.”
He skipped over his sisters and chose his own avatar.
Now that they both had their players, the intro scene faded and Tessa faced a crazy-realistic 3-D scene with a small inset in the lower left corner. “Why do I have two views?”
“The big one is yours.”
“And the other is…”
He didn’t answer, but she could hear him moving beside her and the small inset view changed. Ah, that was what his character was seeing. Nice.
She turned her head and the full effect of the 3-D hit her. “Whoa. This is kinda wild.” By holding out her arms, she was able to convince her brain she was on solid ground.
With even, controlled breaths, she studied the scene in front of her. By the looks of the background, she and Jonah were at different starting locations. Before she could blink, his character was rushing along trails surrounded by native mountain trees and rhododendron. He shimmied up a sweet gum, the leaves rustling realistically. When he dropped back to the ground a few moments later—graceful as a cat—he held a wooden sword in his hand.
“Where did that come from?” And why didn’t she have one?
“You gotta find your own weapons.”
“Where?”
“Everywhere.”
That wasn’t incredibly helpful, especially when her on-screen character had yet to take a step.
With some effort, she was able to walk toward a massive oak. Unfortunately, she didn’t “climb” it as easily as Jonah had. Instead, she ran into the trunk again and again. Ow! If this were real life, her forehead would be full of bark chunks. “How do I get up there?”
All she got from Jonah was a distracted grunt. Not helpful. But it sure fueled her competitive spirit. So she moved her arms and legs until she found a combo that allowed her to jump and move her arms at the same time. With renewed determination, she made modest progress up a tree. But when she tried to inch her way out on a branch to grab for what looked like some type of water gun, it cracked and she fell through the air.
On-screen, she landed on her back with an audible thump. Although she used every move she could think of, her character didn’t budge. “Why can’t I get up?” she demanded.
“Had the air knocked out of you,” Jonah said. “Creates a ten-second freeze on movement.” Meanwhile, he was vaulting over dead trees and finding stuff like gold coins and stashes of acorns in abandoned hunting cabins and deer blinds.
“I want treasure, too,” she said when VT—Virtual Tessa—was finally able to sit up, then get to her feet. “Is that the point of the game? The person with the most stuff wins?”
“Nope, it’s kinda like capture the flag. You round up everyone on the opposing team and disarm them.”
“And I assume we’re enemies?”
She momentarily lifted her goggles and glanced over at him. Whew! If she’d had a free hand, she would’ve fanned herself at the sexy flash of his smile. The force of it tingled its way through her system, and she dropped her arms. The gauntlets knocked against her thighs and her character vaulted off the ground and into a nearby bush. She emerged with a gun, and a thrill of accomplishment raced through the real Tessa. After a few false starts, she figured out how to run and weave, although she was still clumsy.
Her attention snagged on something at the edge of her screen, a glimmer of movement behind a cluster of azalea bushes. Before she could determine exactly what she’d seen, the foliage swayed and settled.
“Are you chasing me?”
“Whether I want to or not,” Jonah muttered.
“What’s this weapon I’m carrying?”
“Dammit, Tessa, we’re playing.”
“Yes.”
“You won’t quit talking.”
Oh, that’s right. Apparently men weren’t able to walk and talk at the same time. Too bad she couldn’t use her feminine charms on-screen to distract him. Or…maybe she could.
In real life, she untied the sash of her robe, but Virtual Tessa’s clothes remained on her body. Sexy distractions were out. Shoot, if seduction wouldn’t work, then she’d have to play it his way. “I need to know how to use whatever this weapon is.”
“Aim and pull the trigger.”
Fine. She’d figure it out by herself. For several minutes, she directed her character to hunker down behind some rocks near a stream. She fiddled with her finger and hand movements until she figured out a combo that would allow her to not only shoot the strange gun, but also jab it like a bayonet and swing it like a club.
Oh, yeah. She was going to take him down.
Then she studied the terrain on Jonah’s inset view. Somehow he’d found his way to the towering tree she’d fallen out of, which meant he was gaining on her. If she didn’t figure out the game soon, he’d find her and capture her.
The thought of being chased and captured by him in real life sent a delicious tremor through her body. It would be intense, challenging, and downright thrilling.
But that was reality. Steele Survivor was a game she planned to best him at.
She waded her way across the stream, almost feeling the chill of the current against her skin. On the other side, she found an incline where she could watch the area around her. Watch and wait.
Jonah was so intent on his pursuit that he apparently didn’t realize she was on to him. Now that she knew how to maneuver, she shimmied up a small tree to get a better view. To assess her opponent.
Jonah’s character—dressed in the incredibly realistic torn jeans and graphic T-shirt—jogged up to the rocks Tessa had sheltered behind. He crouched down and ran his fingers across the indentions made by her heels.
“Why can’t my character take off her clothes in the game?”
Stripping Bare (Steele Ridge Book 7) Page 11
