Silver Shield Security Box Set

by Dee Bridgnorth

  “It was the only way, Hope. I had to begin my search there,” he said, trying to get her to see his point of view.

  “You could have waited to ask me first! That’s what friends do. You don’t go behind my back and read stuff about me.” Hope was mad and hurt at the same time.

  “Hope…”

  “How would you feel if I’d hacked into the military records and found out why you are no longer in active service?” He blanched at the thought. “I know there’s a story there and I’ve waited patiently for you to trust me enough to tell me. Do you think I could not have dug up the info if I’d wanted to?”

  “It’s not the same thing.”

  “Isn’t it?”

  “Look, Hope—”

  “Look…Just forget it, Rusty. You don’t get it and I’m done trying to make you understand.”

  Just then a white Audi convertible drove past them. Inside the car was the woman they had come looking for. The car drove into the yard of the house they’d been watching.

  With one part of her brain, Hope noted that they were nice wheels. It was an old model, but it still looked pretty cool. Web development must be paying better than it used to when she used to freelance.

  “We’d better go talk to her,” she said, opening her door.

  “This is not over, Hope. We need to discuss this,” Rusty said, stepping out as well.

  “There’s nothing more to discuss.”

  “How can you say that?” She could hear the exasperation in his voice because it echoed how she felt inside. “Hope, that’s not how relationships work. If we have issues, we need to discuss them.”

  She ran a hand through her hair in frustration. She was not so sure about this relationship thing. They had barely begun and already they were having issues.

  “Okay, fine. We’ll talk about this later. Let’s just get this over with.”

  Rusty stared at her, frustration and determination burning in his gaze. She knew he was not going to let this go and somehow, in a place she did not want to acknowledge, she hoped he didn’t. Of course, she knew she was hoping in vain. Most likely he would think about things and decide that she was too much trouble. She gave an internal shrug. Whatever, she didn’t need anyone to feel complete.

  Squaring her shoulders, she shut her door and walked away from the car, towards Sandy’s house. Rusty caught up with her. They climbed up the wooden steps together and stood in front of her door.

  “Are you sure you want to do this?”

  She heard the concern in Rusty’s voice and looked up in surprise. He was worried about her? She met his gaze and saw that he really was. A part of her melted. Taking a deep breath, she nodded. He held her gaze, letting her know without words that if she’d changed her mind, they would turn around and walk right back down the steps.

  Feeling a little off center, she stepped forward and rang the bell. From inside the apartment, they heard a voice.

  “Yeah, I know, right? Just a minute, there’s someone at the door…”

  Hope exchanged a glance with Rusty, he shrugged. They turned to face the door and waited for it to open. There was a click then the door swung open. The young woman on the other side had a phone pressed to her ear. She frowned when she saw Rusty, then turned to look at Hope and her mouth fell open.

  “Ah…Carla? I’ll call you back, okay?” She spoke into the phone even though her entire attention was on Hope. She tucked the phone into the pocket of her jeans and stood staring at them.

  “Hi, Sandy Shipman? This is Rusty and I’m—”

  “I know who you are,” she said, interrupting Hope’s attempt at an introduction. “You are Hope Conran.”

  Hope had not expected her to admit that and it took her by surprise. “Okay. Do you mind if we came in?”

  Sandy folded her arms around her chest and eyed them. She seemed to have recovered from the shock of seeing Hope on her doorstep.

  “How did you find me and what do you want?”

  “We have reason to believe you might know something about the hacking at DesireU.net and as a hacker, you know the first question was pointless,” Rusty said.

  She swung her gaze to Rusty. After a moment, she shrugged. “Sure, come on in.”

  She turned and walked back into the house. Hope glanced at Rusty, a silent question in her eyes. He nodded and pointed towards the interior of the house with his chin. Taking that as reassurance, Hope walked in after Sandy.

  She walked into a simply furnished apartment. It had a rustic charm, with a shag rug thrown over polished wooden boards. The furniture looked like it had been picked up from different flea markets and garage sales. It was all eclectic and rather nice.

  “Have a seat,” the other woman said carelessly.

  “Thanks,” Hope said. She sat and looked around. “You have a nice place.”

  “Yeah, whatever. I want to know why you think I have anything to do with your servers getting hacked.”

  Hope noted the slip, but chose to ignore it.

  “I’m not sure you remember me, but I fostered at your house as a kid,” Hope said.

  Sandy blinked, but otherwise kept her expression blank. “My parents fostered a lot of kids, I was too young to remember all of them. After my father died, we moved.”

  “About that, Hope was blamed for your father’s death…” Rusty began.

  “Hope was blamed? I’m sorry, but from what I heard, she was the only person at the top of the stairs and he was found dead at the bottom.”

  “Do you also think that I was responsible?”

  She turned an angry glance at Hope then looked away. “I don’t know and anyway, it’s all water under the bridge. I’m not sure why you came here.”

  “Someone, somewhere is trying to sabotage my company. I have no idea who it is, but I do know the person is connected to your family. I’m not saying you are responsible,” Hope hurried to say, seeing the heated expression in the younger woman’s eyes. “I’m just saying that if you know anything about who it is, you might want to advice the person to reconsider.”

  “I have no idea what you’re talking about and it’s not my business if your past is finally catching up with you.”

  Hope met Sandy’s gaze and held it. She saw the malice burning in their depths and felt anger burn deep inside her. She was the victim. Sandy’s family had wronged her and the sanctimonious little bitch was either trying to destroy the life she’d built or knew who was behind it. She clenched her teeth.

  “May I use your bathroom, please?”

  Both sets of eyes swung towards Rusty. He had a sheepish smile on his face. Sandy looked at him like he was weird, then she gestured towards a door.

  “Second door on your right.”

  Rusty murmured his thanks and left. Hope turned her attention back to Sandy and found the woman studying her. She looked like she wanted to say something then thought better of it.

  “What? Just say what’s on your mind,” Hope said.

  “I’m just wondering how you sleep at night, that’s all.”

  “Excuse me?”

  “You deprived a little girl of her father. Thanks to you, I’ll never know a father’s love because I was too young to remember anything,” Sandy said bitterly.

  “Trust me, you didn’t miss much,” Hope could not help muttering.

  “What? Are you for real?”

  Hope faced her squarely. “I said, you did not miss much. If you really think I deprived you of your father, then you should be on both knees thanking me because after he was done with me, he would have turned on you!”

  As soon as the words left her mouth, Hope felt a twinge of regret. She did not come here to destroy a daughter’s memories of her father, it was the last thing she wanted to do. It was not going to serve any purpose so what was the point? Still, she hated being accused unfairly.

  “What are you saying to me?” Sandy asked, rising to her feet.

  Hope stood as well. “I’m sorry. I should not have said that,” she said
, truly regretful.

  “But you did,” Sandy pointed out. “What do you mean by he would have turned on me? How? How would he have turned on me?”

  “Look, just forget I said anything, okay? I have no idea why I came here, but it’s obvious that it was a mistake.” She just wanted to go home and have a long soak in a bath, maybe a good cry as well.

  “You can’t just throw something like that out there and then leave. I need to know. Please.”

  Hope sagged. She did not know how to deal with this. Was she just supposed to come out and say Oh hey, your father was a pedophile…? How did one say something like that? She should never have started this.

  “Everything you need to know is on that folder on the coffee table.”

  They both turned to find Rusty standing by the door through which he’d exited. He walked over to where he was seated, before he asked to use the restroom and picked up a plastic folder filled with printouts. Hope must have been more upset than she’d thought because she had not noticed him holding the folder when they’d entered the house.

  He held the folder out to Sandy. She just stared at it like she was staring at a snake poised to strike.

  “What’s in there?” she asked, not taking her eyes off the folder.

  “The answers to your questions,” Rusty replied simply. “You want to know how he died, why Hope was blamed, what he was doing in her bedroom that night…”

  Sandy blinked then and Hope knew that it was a question she had not wanted to admit to herself that she was asking.

  “This doesn’t mean anything,” Sandy said, snatching the folder from Rusty’s hand.

  “Maybe. Maybe not. You won’t know unless you read it.”

  She sent a defiant glare their way. “Look, if this reunion is over, I’ve got stuff to do so you can leave now.”

  Hope nodded. “I just want you to know that I’m not the enemy here. Oh, and we are going to get whoever is behind the hacking of my servers and when we do, the person will face the full wrath of the law. It would be a shame for anyone to have a criminal record.”

  Without waiting for Sandy’s response, she turned and walked out. She was so done with this. So Sandy thought she was a victim? At least she’d grown up with her mother. She’d had a mother’s love and the security of a home. What had she, Hope, had? A messed up life. True, her life had been messed up before she’d gone to live with the Shipmans, but that house had scarred her so deeply, it had taken a lot to get over it.

  By the time she got to the car, she was drained from the encounter. Rusty opened the door for her but stopped her from getting into the car.

  “Are you okay?” he asked.

  Hope opened her mouth to reply, but then shut it and shook her head. She was overwhelmed.

  “Come here, sweetheart,” Rusty said gently and folded his arms around her.

  She wrapped her arms around him and sighed. There was something so comforting about being held in his arms and having him run a soothing hand over her back. After a few moments, she stepped back.

  “Thanks,” she said, pushing her hair back with a small smile.

  “It’s going to be okay,” Rusty said, then he leaned down and dropped a kiss on her startled lips. “Come on, let’s get out of here.”

  Hope couldn’t agree more. She got into the car, slipped on the seatbelt and leaned back with a sigh. What a day, and it was not even noon yet. She felt emotionally drained, but also strangely peaceful. No matter what happened from here on out, she was going to be okay. She had to believe that.

  Chapter Twenty

  Sandy watched them leave from the window. Long after they had gone, she was still standing by the window, gazing out. Her mind was filled with questions, at the front burner was how they had traced her there. She was surprised that they had found her so easily, even with the November twenty-ninth reference she’d left behind. It was not supposed to be this easy.

  She glanced back at the plastic folder she’d carelessly dropped on the coffee table after they’d left. Did she really want to read that? What if she discovered things she did not want to know…stuff about her father that she’d rather not know? Her mother had always made him out to be a fallen hero, a man that was so kind and giving, he’d opened his house to strange kids and one of those strange kids, Hope Conran, had cost him his life.

  That was the version she’d grown up with and she was not sure she wanted to do anything to taint that memory. Still, she needed to know the real truth about her father, and she had a sneaking suspicion that the folder contained just that.

  Well, whatever was in that folder was not going to derail her from her decision to totally annihilate the woman. It had been her life’s mission: destroy Hope Conran. Her mother had monitored her progress through the years and when she’d began her dating company five years ago, it seemed like the perfect way to go. They were not going to harm her bodily, oh no! The plan was to pull the rug beneath her feet as completely as she’d pulled theirs several years ago.

  The first step had been moving back to Chicago. Sandy had applied to the University of Chicago to study computer science. She had put everything into her studies and had graduated summa cum laude. She had focused on python programming, Hope’s programming language of choice, but of course, she was well versed in practically every other programming language there was. She’d had several years to perfect her craft. Even though she’d received employment offers from different companies, she’d taken a year off to do her thing. She was just about halfway through. Once she was done destroying Hope’s company, she could then decide what she wanted to do with her life.

  Her phone began to ring. She reached into her pocket and fished it out. Checking the screen, she groaned when she saw it was her mother. She thought about not answering for about half a second, but then she knew it would be worse for her if she did not answer. So she tapped on the screen and brought the phone to her ears.

  “Hi, Mom, how are you doing?” She forced her voice to sound chipper.

  “I will be in Chicago tonight. No need to fetch me from the airport, I’ll find my way to your place,” Marinette Shipman said without preamble.

  “You are coming here? Today?” Sandy could not keep the horror from filtering into her voice. Her mother here? She needed that like she needed a hole in the head.

  “Yes. Is there a problem with that?”

  “Noo…not at all. No problem, Mom. It would be nice to have you.” She almost choked on the lie.

  “Good. See you later.” And she ended the call.

  No how are you Sandy? or would you like me to bring you anything? … It had always been that way. Since her husband died, it was almost as though something had died inside her mother. She was no longer the affectionate woman she remembered. She had become hard and selfish. Something else she owed to Hope Conran.

  Sandy sighed at her thoughts. It had taken a while for her to admit it, but when she finally had acknowledged the truth that her mother was a selfish woman who cared only about herself and her insane need for revenge, she’d found some peace. Of course, she also hadn’t been back home since she came to Chicago. Their relationship seemed to work better long distance.

  She walked back to where the folder sat and picked it up. Suddenly, she felt like she had to know what was in it. If she was going to face her mother in just a few hours, she needed to be well armed with knowledge.

  She curled up on the armchair and opened the folder. It was quite bulky and she saw that a lot of the printouts were government records. She pulled out the ones on top and began to read. Some time later, she sat staring into space, the papers scattered around her. Her face was pale and her eyes glassy. Her chest felt tight, like she could not breathe properly.

  After several moments, she stood up and gingerly made her way to her bedroom. She walked carefully, as though if she made one careless move, she would disintegrate. She slowly lay down on the cool sheets and closed her eyes. She needed time to take in all that she’d read and still loo
k normal when her mother arrived. It was going to be a feat, but she would worry about that later. After her nap.

  **

  After they drove away from Avondale, where Sandy’s apartment was located, both Rusty and Hope were quiet for most of the drive, each lost in their own thoughts. Rusty wondered if Sandy Shipman would actually read the contents of the folder he left her. He was fairly confident she would. She was an intelligent woman and looked like someone who liked to be armed with information. What he could not tell was if it would change her mind about her revenge mission. He was fairly sure she was the one behind the hacking of Hope’s servers.

  Thinking of that reminded him of something. He tapped the speed dial on his phone, which was sitting in the car phone holder on his dashboard. He had the phone connected via Bluetooth to the car speakers and the sound of the phone ringing on the other side filled the car.

  “Hi Russ, what’s up?” Emily’s voice came on.

  “Emily, hey. I was wondering, can we get a warrant to search Sandy Shipman’s computers and devices?”

  Hope shot him a questioning glance, which he ignored.

  “Let me speak to Kinsella and I’ll get back to you ASAP.”

  “Will do. Thanks.”

  “Who is Kinsella?” Hope asked after he’d ended the call.

  “He’s with the Chicago Police Department and has worked with us on many cases,” he replied. “Do you mind if I stop by my place? I need to pick up some extra stuff.”

  “I don’t mind,” she said with a shrug. “You think we’ll find evidence on her systems, right?”

  “I can almost bet my bottom dollar.”

  She was silent for several minutes. “I almost feel sorry for her,” she said with a sigh.

  Rusty glanced at her. “You’re kidding, right?” He knew he sounded incredulous.

  She turned her body to face him. “If all she’s been told from childhood is that I’m responsible for her father’s death, then she can’t help feeling the way she does.”

  “Yeah, but she doesn’t have to commit a crime just because she’s feeling wronged.”