by Emma Renshaw
I stepped up to him, glancing back at the man behind the front desk. His attention was already on the computer, and he was taking a sip of coffee. I’d been dismissed. A hysterical laugh bubbled up in my chest. I placed my hand on my forehead and shook my head. “This can’t be happening,” I whispered.
“The laws haven’t caught up with technology yet,” the man repeated. “But you can hire a private company to trace the messages and file a restraining order. I will take a police report of this incident so if anything does happen, it’s on record. I hate it as much as you, but right now there’s nothing we can do. I can recommend someplace you can go. They’re friends of mine and will take care of you. I’m Maddox. Let’s take a seat and fill out a report, and then I’ll send you over to MarxMen.”
I nodded and followed him to his desk. He walked me through a police report, slowly encouraged me, and sent me on my way to MarxMen with a promise that they would be expecting me.
I parked on the street in front of the sleek black building and nondescript logo of the MarxMen offices. The windows were black and I couldn’t see anything inside, but I strode up to the door and yanked it open. A cool blast from the AC hit me and caused me to shiver. My hair was still partially wet, and I didn’t even want to know what the bird’s nest looked like in a mirror or how long it would take me to brush through.
I stopped in the middle of the lobby as Kiernan turned around and grinned. “Usually it’s me stalking you, Dr. Conroy. What are you doing here?”
7
Kiernan
I strode to the lobby of MarxMen after ending the call with Maddox. He’d sent someone from the police station who wanted to hire a tracer. He often sent us work. His job had limits in ways mine didn’t. I’d considered joining the police force after finishing my military service, but I’d had enough of red tape and following the rules, so when Roman opened MarxMen, I didn’t even hesitate.
Plus it’s always fun to annoy the shit out of him.
I tapped my knuckles on the gleaming black surface of the front desk in the lobby. Trent swiveled the desk chair to face me and grabbed a notepad and pen, preparing to take notes. He’d only been at MarxMen for a month and wanted to train to work in the field. He was young, baby-faced, and didn’t have a lick of experience doing anything. The men and women who worked in the field as operatives didn’t all start at the front desk and work their way up; it depended on past experience and how much training they needed before they were assigned cases. Many started assisting higher-ranking operatives before moving on to lead cases in their specialties.
MarxMen had it all. Anything from providing bodyguards to private citizens or a baseball organization, to setting up state-of-the art custom security on properties, to private investigation and tracing online culprits.
“Put the pen away,” I said. Trent still sat at the ready, but he arched a brow. I shook my head. “I’m just waiting for someone Maddox sent over.”
“Would you like me to get the new client paperwork prepared?”
“Nope. I need to see what this is about before we accept this person as a client. Maddox didn’t give much information. This is just an informal meeting.”
“Would you like a small conference room with refreshments prepared?” Trent asked, setting down the notepad and pen. This kid was the best front office person we’d ever had.
“Sure. That’d be helpful.”
He popped up and scrambled toward one of the conference rooms just off the lobby. Anything our clients came in for happened in the front of the building. The back was only for operatives. It had our private offices, conference rooms we used for cases, and an entire training facility, complete with a shooting range.
The front door swung open, and bright sunlight filled the doorway, casting the person into a silhouette. I grinned when the door closed behind her and Dr. Conroy stood there glancing around the room. Her hair was damp, frizzy, and wavy. There wasn’t an ounce of makeup on her face, and the curves I knew she had were hidden under a T-shirt and sweatpants. It was a stark contrast to how I’d seen her before this, but she was still enticing.
I hadn’t been able to put my finger on where I knew her from, but if I’d slept with her, I’d definitely remember exploring those curves.
I grinned. “Usually it’s me stalking you, Dr. Conroy. What are you doing here?”
“Ki—Kiernan,” she stammered. With a furrowed brow and wringing hands, she stepped forward. I pushed off the counter and stood, watching her approach me. While she’d been nervous around me before, this was different. She was frazzled and seemingly fraying at the ends. “You work here?”
I nodded. “Did Maddox send you? He didn’t give me a name in his quick rundown. What’s going on?”
“Is there someone else I can talk to?”
I gritted my teeth. I fucking hated that she was uncomfortable around me, and I didn’t even know why or what I did. “Yes, but Maddox said it has to do with someone hacking into your computer. I’m the best in the office at tracing, but if it would make you feel better, I will go get someone else.”
She licked her lips and glanced around the office as she tried to run a hand through her hair, but her fingers got stuck in the tangles. She grimaced.
“The conference room is set up, Kiernan,” Trent said, coming back to the front. Dr. Conroy hadn’t heard him approach, and she jumped when she heard his voice, placing a calming hand over her chest. I nodded.
“Dr. Conroy, let me show you to the conference room, and I’ll grab someone else.”
I didn’t want to assign anyone else to this. If she was having trouble, I wanted to solve it and help her. I wanted to wipe that look of worry off her face and replace it with the annoyance and begrudging amusement I usually saw shining in her eyes. She followed me to the conference room, and I ushered her inside, turning to find someone else on the team to speak with her. “Wait,” she said. “If you really are the best, then I want you.”
I turned back toward her. “Are you sure?”
She nodded and sat, placing a bag on the table, and wrapped her arms around her middle. I sat in the chair across from her. “Would you like something to drink or eat?”
“Water, if you have it.” I unscrewed the cap on a bottle of cool water and handed it across the table to her. She took a small sip and closed the top, setting it on the surface in front of her.
“What’s going on?”
“I was getting out of the shower earlier when my laptop pinged. When I looked at the screen, it was filling with pictures of me. Filling like when someone has a virus and pop-ups take up every inch? That’s what was happening, but all pictures of me.” Her voice shook and color filled her cheeks as she took a deep breath before continuing. “Pictures of me getting out of the shower, changing. N-naked.” She looked down at the table, tracing her finger along the edge.
“Do you remember seeing a light next to your camera on your laptop?”
She shook her head. “I don’t remember seeing it, but to be honest, I don’t know if I would’ve noticed that it was on. I started panicking and then a message popped up.”
“A message?” I asked. Unfortunately, it was becoming more common for hackers to hack into cameras on laptops and phones to watch people. And the smarter they got, they harder they became to trace. if they were good at what they did, they could do it undetected, disabling the light that indicated the camera was on.
“Yes. It-it looked like what coders use when they’re writing code. At least that’s how it always is on television. I don’t actually know anyone that writes code,” she rambled. “It was a small black screen and green writing.”
I knew what she was talking about, and she was right. When hackers or coders were depicted on screen, it was always with a screen like that. “What did the message say?”
Her hand shook as she wrapped it around her delicate neck and smoothed it over her skin. “You’re so beautiful. If you don’t do what I want, these go on the internet.” Her chin wobb
led, but not a single tear fell.
Anger burned in my gut. “Did it say anything else?”
“I slammed my laptop closed and went straight to the police station. I just put on clothes and left. I know I look like a mess, but I couldn’t stand to be in my room a second longer. I feel…dirty.”
She shuddered. It wasn’t uncommon. I’d often heard that from people after they found out they were being watched. It was violating, and even more so when it happened in the space where a person should feel safest.
“That’s good that you closed the laptop without exiting anything. That will help me with the search. The second I open the laptop, if the person is watching, they will start to backtrack to cover their tracks. I’ll work faster.”
“Are you going to see the pictures?” she asked.
I nodded. “I am, but I won’t actually be looking at them if that makes sense. I’ll be using the information encoded, but I promise you, Dr. Conroy, I won’t be staring at you and the pictures that were taken without your consent.”
She nodded and wiped a stray tear that had fallen. Her jaw was tight and no more tears fell. She sat straighter in her chair. “I would like your help, Kiernan.”
“Is there anyone you can think of that might want to do this to you?”
She hesitated for a moment before answering. She tucked a long strand of chocolate hair behind her ear. “This is so embarrassing,” she whispered. “I have a restraining order against my ex-husband, but I don’t think this is him. I’m not sure he’s smart enough, and it’s not exactly his type of thing to do.”
“I will look into him,” I said. I clutched the armrests in a white-knuckled grip. “Even if it’s not him, it’s best to explore all options.”
Her cheeks filled with color and she nodded. “That’s the only reason I told you,” she said quietly. “I didn’t want to leave out any information that could be helpful and then become the girl in the horror movie that’s killed first because I was embarrassed about my past.”
The corners of my lips pulled up. “I’m not judging you,” I promised.
She sniffed and wrinkled her nose. “I suppose I need to actually tell you my name.”
“You do,” I said. “And how we know each other.”
“Caroline Conroy. We went to high school together.”
I squinted, tilting my head to the side and inspecting her. She crossed her arms over her chest. “I look different and you never knew I existed.”
“I find that hard to believe,” I said before I could stop the words. She was now a client, and that was a line I shouldn’t cross. In fact, it was one of the only rules MarxMen had. Sure, Roman had blasted through that rule and gone after Harper, even while using the full force of MarxMen to get her out of trouble and save her from their tangled past, but I wasn’t sure he’d give anyone else a pass on that rule.
“Well, it’s true,” she snapped, and the annoyance she usually had in her eyes was back. I smiled and silently planned to pull out my yearbooks later. I didn’t even know if I had them, but if I didn’t, it’d be easy enough to find out more information about her.
I grabbed one of the tablets used for meetings from the center of the table, brought up a new client intake form, and changed the subject. If I argued with her, she might walk out and refuse the help she needed. “Do you have the laptop with you?”
She nodded and slid the bag across the table. I caught it in one hand and set it aside. After I’d gleaned all the information I could from her and she left, I’d start work on the laptop, but I couldn’t open it until I was ready to work and counteract what her hacker had already done. “Let’s get started. We have a lot of information to get through, Caroline.”
I liked the sound of her name on my tongue.
8
Caroline
“No, don’t even say it,” I begged Alicia. She was standing outside the exam room with a pained expression on her features. Her naturally curly hair was cropped short, showcasing her high, prominent cheekbones and deep brown, almost black, eyes. Her smile radiated warmth and kindness. She was my go-to woman for anything in the office. Alicia was quick and efficient with exams. She knew how to juggle my schedule when squeezing in last-minute additions. She’d been my first hire when I’d opened Conroy Veterinary Clinic, so I knew this face well.
It was a program system error.
We’d been having trouble for the past six months with the program we used for everything, from storing patient histories to scheduling to note-taking. When it went down, it meant we were in a big jam. Until six months ago, I’d never had an issue. Now Toby, our IT guy, was on speed dial.
I stepped up to the sink, flipped on the faucet, and washed my hands. I glanced over my shoulder at Alicia. “How bad is it?”
“I’ve already called Toby. He isn’t far, so when he finishes up with the client he’s with right now, he’ll head over here. The screens on the front computers flashed black, like they’d turned off then back on, but when they came back on, every appointment for the next three months had somehow switched to ‘CoCo Rigsby’.”
“In all the time slots?”
She nodded. I dried my hands and glanced around at the doors that led into the exam rooms. I relied on the schedule and charting to know which animal was in what room and why. I was running behind schedule because of an emergency surgery that morning. Pebbles, the sweetest Rottweiler, had gotten out of his backyard and been hit by a car. Thankfully, he’d made it through surgery, but I was late to my first appointment.
“Caro, I’ve been saying this for a long time, but you need to think about it again. It’s time to hire a second vet. The clinic is growing. We’re full every day, and that doesn’t count the walk-ins that you accept, even though there is a sign on the front door that says no walk-ins. Between the training classes, surgeries, and normal visits, I’m not sure when you even sleep, and I know you don’t have a life.”
She’d taken the thoughts from my mind before I could even think them. When I’d opened my practice, I hadn’t expected it to grow as rapidly as it had, and I hadn’t wanted to hire another vet until I had to. That time was coming, though, because I wasn’t sure if I could juggle anything else, and if computer system failures kept happening, it would turn my already chaotic days into nightmares.
“I know, I know.” I blew out a breath, a small piece of hair flying away from my face. I placed my hands on my hips and looked at each exam room again.
“Lucky for you,” Alicia said, grinning and handing me a clipboard with a sheet of paper on it. “I already had the afternoon schedule memorized and know which of our furry little friends are in which rooms.”
“You’re my hero. Did you know that?”
“Sure did. But make sure you remember that at Christmastime when you’re writing those bonus checks. I’d like to spend my holiday on a white sandy beach while drinks in a hollowed-out pineapple are delivered to my beach chair.”
I laughed. “I’ll make sure you have your beach trip.”
“I’ll let you know when Toby arrives. Don’t forget you need to leave at five fifteen to make it to Myers Park for the beginners’ class this afternoon.”
My stomach dipped. Kiernan’s face popped into my mind, but I shook it away quickly. And I shook the next thought away even more quickly. I’d been shoving every thought of my hacker to the back of my mind and into a locked box. If I dwelled on it, I wouldn’t make it through the day. Right now, every day was about surviving to the next without collapsing from exhaustion.
An hour later Toby had arrived and was in my office, with the main server, repairing our system. I knocked on the door. He glanced up and smiled. His shaggy brown hair was swept across his forehead and curling behind his ears. The light blue polo with his company’s logo right above his heart was stretched across his chest and tucked into a pair of dark denim jeans. He stood up and swept a hand through his long hair.
“How are you, Toby?” I asked and leaned against the door.
/> “I’m doing good. How about you, Caroline?”
“I’d be better if this system didn’t decide to go wacky. What’s been going on? Should I change?”
Toby scrubbed a hand along the stubble on his jaw and shrugged. “I can tell you, you aren’t the only vet in the area experiencing issues, and a dentist’s office that uses the same software is also experiencing problems. I think I found a solution, but if it doesn’t work, I can come back and get you set up with something new.”
“Will your fix today set everything back to rights? The appointments all changed.”
“I have your system set up to back up every night. Worst case scenario, you’ll lose any appointment made today before the system failure.”
I sagged against the door, releasing some of the tension from my shoulders. If that was the worst case scenario, that would be great. Any appointments made today were fixable. “Thanks, Toby. You’re a saint! I’m going to send lunch to your office next week.”
I pushed myself away from the door. “It’s no problem. You know you’re my favorite client.”
I smiled. “I’m pretty sure you say that to everyone.”
He shrugged sheepishly. “You could have lunch with me.”
“I would, but I’m slammed right now. Stop by the front, and Alicia will take care of the check for the day. Thanks, Toby!” I waved and headed into Exam Room 5 to see Angus, a large tabby cat.
9
Kiernan
A substantial amount of my life had taken part in whispers. Whispered conversations, between bouts of tears, with my mom as she hid me in closets during my father’s drunken rages. Whispered “Happy Birthdays,” “I love yous,” and praise. Military missions done with light footsteps and whispered voices.
I hated whispering.
My father had been the noose around my mother’s neck for almost thirty years. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d heard her speak above a whisper. I was dead in my father’s eyes, and he was dead in mine. If only my mom could think of him the same way, but she wouldn’t leave and I couldn’t turn my back on her. If he knew that she still called me, even though it was usually to ask for money to pay their bills, since he wasted theirs on booze and strippers, he’d beat her within an inch of her life. He’d never kill her. He’d lose his meal ticket. Instead, he always made sure to stop the hitting in time.
