The Hacker Pushes Her Luck Read online

  “I’m heading into town now,” the man said.

  The woman stared out the window, lost in thought.

  Lydia shifted to get more comfortable. It didn’t work. She now sat with her back half against the side wall and half against one of the rear doors.

  That caught the woman’s attention. “If you promise to behave, I’ll untie you. It’s not like you can escape.”

  Lydia nodded.

  Jade tugged the knots loose, roughly, then moved back to her seat.

  Lydia shifted into a marginally more comfortable position, leaning against the back doors of the van, and rubbed her wrists.

  After a few minutes, she couldn’t stand it anymore and had to ask. “What happened to my cat? She was in my car.”

  The woman smirked, her green eyes cold. “Kelly,” she called out to the man, “What did you do with the cat?”

  The man laughed. “I ate it.”

  Lydia’s eyes widened as panic clogged her throat. “What?”

  “Didn’t you know? We’re crocodile shifters. Your cat was undoubtedly a tasty snack.”

  Her green eyes glittered with a wicked light. Was she going to eat Lydia, too?

  She had to get out of here. Whether they ate her or not, they definitely didn’t have her best interests at heart.

  She shifted her weight again just as the van braked suddenly. The man swore, then gunned it. As she slammed against the back doors of the van, the latch clicked and they opened — finally, her luck had kicked in!

  She spilled out onto the road, striking her head hard enough to make her dizzy and nauseated, then the laptop bag fell out on top of her.

  Car brakes squealed as a vehicle came within inches of hitting her.

  And then everything went black.

  Duty, My Fireball!

  WALTER SHOT TY A HALFHEARTED SMILE. “You did land me in quite the pickle here, my friend.”

  Ty sat beside him at the conference table. “I have a couple of days before my next shift at the fire station. How can I help?”

  “Unfortunately, I have bad news for you.”

  Ty’s forehead furrowed. “What is it?”

  “You know I set up the incubator for your egg and did the best job I could.”

  “Is there a problem with the incubator?”

  “No, no,” Walter rushed to reassure him. “But we need to tighten security. We just learned from the London office’s elite computer response team that someone may be trying to steal your egg.”

  Smoke blew from Ty’s nostrils. “I’ll flame them.”

  “We need to move the egg to a special secure unit in the paranormal wing of the hospital.”

  “You think my baby will be safer in the hospital than in my home?”

  “Yes, in a number of ways. They have the best redundant systems and generators to keep the egg safely warm in case of power outages. We’ll have guards on duty, and a keypad entry and only you, Mara, the guards, and I will have the code.”

  “Mara won’t agree to this. She checks on that egg multiple times a day.”

  “We’ll arrange for a video feed so she can see what’s going on in the egg room any time of day or night.” Walter put a hand on his friend’s shoulder. “This isn’t like when you left to go rescue Mara’s sister and I stayed at the house to make sure everything was safe. The London office has identified a threat. We need to respond appropriately to that threat. I would be horrified if anything happened to your baby, Ty.”

  Ty sat stony faced for a moment. Then he said, “Have you had one of your premonitions?”

  “My mostly useless ones, you mean? No. This comes strictly from information found by the London security team.”

  Ty’s eyes narrowed. “You believe this action will keep the egg safe?”

  “Yes. I will make sure that room is impenetrable. The hospital’s IT Department won’t be involved. Our Council office IT people have been assigned to the room. They have a private network and run a secure VPN, a virtual private network. The security team we’re hiring has state-of-the-art equipment. I helped set up the nursery and incubator for your egg, and I took this job because you didn’t want it. We’ll keep your baby safe, Ty.”

  “All true.”

  “So I accept and appreciate your offer to help set up the office — and in this case, that means putting your egg in the safest possible environment. I’d like you to escort the van that will carry the incubator to the hospital.” Walter laughed ruefully. “First SOC office ever to be hacked into. And it had to be this one.”

  “I agree — on one condition.”

  “I won’t let you sell my chess set on eBay,” Walter teased drily.

  “It’s going to take quite some talking for me to get Mara to go along with this. That means you owe me.”

  Walter sighed. “What do you want?”

  “Mara says I need to get you out more. Find you a woman. She says you need a girlfriend.” The dragon grinned. “Let Operation Nerd Girl commence.”

  A girlfriend was the last thing Walter needed. “When is she going to let that go?”

  “Never. And if you think differently, you don’t know Mara very well.”

  “If only you’d rescued her sister and brought her back like you intended. That would have taken Mara’s attention off of me for a while.”

  “Hard to rescue a woman who loves her husband and was just telling her family she felt trapped because they expected her to want to escape.”

  “Yeah. Kind of ruins that whole trapped Swan Maiden story they’ve got going.”

  “But it was comforting to Mara to find her sister happy. Though embarrassing for her sister.” He shrugged. “We’re keeping her secret from the rest of her family.”

  “Disgraceful secret,” Walter said.

  “Disgraceful.” Ty chuckled.

  Heidi stepped into the room, spotted Ty and said, “Sorry, I didn’t know you were having a meeting.”

  Walter motioned for her to stay. “What’s up?”

  “Manfred is getting a room ready for the egg.”

  “Good work. Thanks.”

  She smiled.

  The sound of squealing tires and screaming ripped through the room. They glanced at each other and bolted toward the main exit. Others joined them there, and they all headed toward the street.

  Outside they found pandemonium. Traffic was stalled, vehicles stopped at strange angles. In front of a Dodge Ram pickup lay a young woman, rich auburn hair spilling around her pale face like a halo. Her eyes were closed.

  “What happened?” Walter demanded of the crowd.

  An East Indian man said, “She fell out of the back of a big white van, and her bag fell with her.”

  Fell? “Where’s the vehicle now?”

  “I do not know. They drove off and did not come back.”

  “Did anyone get the license number?” Ty asked the crowd but there were shakes of heads and negative responses.

  Weird. Walter pushed his way through the crowd of tourists and knelt down on one side of the woman, Ty on the other. “Miss? Are you all right?”

  She opened eyes that were a startling gray — and pierced Walter with her gaze. She was the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen.

  And a human. One with slightly crossed eyes and a hefty bump on her head. They needed to get her to a doctor.

  “I’m going to call an ambulance, OK?”

  The woman had pushed herself to a sitting position and was rubbing her head. “No, I don’t think I need an ambulance.”

  He couldn’t just leave her there, and she really did need to get that bump looked at. He’d start by getting her into the Council offices, then call Dr. Johnson to come check her out.

  “Let’s get you inside,” Walter said as he and Ty helped her to her feet. Walter looked at Heidi and said, “Call Dr. Johnson and see if he can get someone over here ASAP.”

  “I already did,” she said.

  “Oh. Good.” His competent assistant was already coming in handy.


  Heidi leaned over and picked up the contents of a bag that was lying next to the woman, and followed them inside.

  They helped the woman to the lobby, and she sagged onto the couch.

  “Don’t let her fall asleep,” Walter said. He looked around. “Heidi, when can we expect a doctor?”

  “I’ll find out.”

  In the meantime, Walter decided to put his own M.D. degree to use. He knelt before the woman. “We’re getting a doctor here for you.”

  “Thank you,” she said, her voice wispy.

  He checked the pupils of her eyes; they were equal and normal. He took her wrist and checked her heartbeat and breathing. A little elevated, but not too bad. He checked vital signs and everything he’d been trained to look for, as much as he could without equipment. Walter decided right then that they needed to get a first-aid station set up in the office, ASAP.

  He asked her some simple questions. “Do you remember what happened?”

  Her gray eyes fluttered. “I guess I got hurt.”

  “Do you know how?”

  She shook her head and winced at the motion.

  “That’s okay. What’s your name?”

  She paused, looking confused.

  If she couldn’t answer this one, he’d need to take her to Dr. Johnson’s office for some specialized tests, to make sure she was safe, instead of having him come here. Walter may have gotten an M.D., but he hadn’t practiced and was behind on the latest techniques.

  “Do you remember your name?” he repeated.

  Her lip quivered. “No.” She sounded like a little girl.

  Walter would have to monitor her cognitive skills for the next few hours. She might still need a CT scan if there were any changes in behavior. Though how would he know? He didn’t know this woman’s baseline normal behavior.

  He’d better just keep her talking until the doctor arrived.

  Ginnie said, “Her name is Jade Monroe.”

  Walter turned his head to the genie. “How do you know?”

  She handed him a business card. “It was in her bag.”

  “Jade Monroe,” Jareth said. “Isn’t that the hacker you hired?”

  Walter took the card and studied it.

  Walter turned back to the woman on the couch. It was good to see what she looked like, because she didn’t have any pictures of herself up on her website, or anywhere on the internet that he’d been able to find. But then hackers were notoriously secretive, so that didn’t really surprise him.

  He looked back at the woman. His hacker. “Your business card says your name is Jade Monroe.”

  “Oh,” the woman said with a confused frown. “Jade?”

  She looked so sweet and vulnerable, like spun sugar.

  Walter nodded encouragingly.

  “What are you going to do with her?” Ty asked, his arms folded. “Call Sheriff Winston to track down the people in the vehicle who didn’t come back for her?”

  “That’s a good idea — if only we had a license plate number.” Walter stood and looked at his old friend. “If I hadn’t hired her, this wouldn’t have happened. I’m responsible for her.”

  “It’s not your fault, Walter.” Ty shook his head. “Let Dr. Johnson put her in the hospital for observation.”

  Walter couldn’t explain it, but he felt duty-bound to take care of her. She’d been injured while coming to the job. He shook his head. “It is my fault. And it’s my duty to take care of her.”

  “Duty, my fireball! You’re looking at her like she’s candy and you have a sweet tooth.”

  “She’s human, I think,” Walter said, as if that explained it. And it did, for Ty knew him better than anyone. He knew Walter would never marry a human again. So, no matter how attracted he was, he had to resist. “No. I need to see if I can help her remember. We need her hacking abilities.”

  “Not for a few days, I hope,” Ty said.

  “Of course not.” Walter looked at the spun-sugar woman. “If Dr. Johnson says it’s okay for her to come home with me instead of going to the hospital, I’ll need to wake her every few hours.”

  And, in the meantime, he’d see how many things he could come up with to help jog her memory. Things he could learn about Jade Monroe.

  That’s A Brilliant Move!

  JADE.

  Sugar tried the name on for size. It did sound familiar somehow. Maybe because it was her name? “May I see the business card?”

  The very handsome man who’d helped her inside reached out and took it from the other woman’s hand, then handed it to Jade.

  “Here you are, Sugar.”

  “Sugar?” She tipped her head and winced when it hurt.

  “Sorry. It’s just what you remind me of.”

  The bigger man said, “A nickname, Walter? Since when do you use nicknames?”

  Walter. That was a nice name for the attractive man who’d helped her. “I kind of like it. You can call me Sugar.”

  She studied the business card: Jade Monroe ~ Cybersecurity & Ethical Hacking Services. CEH-certified. The card also provided a website and phone number.

  “I’m a hacker?” That thought excited her. Wow. “Am I a good hacker?”

  Walter sat beside her. “Yes. You’re one of the best.”

  “On computers?” The idea felt foreign to her.

  The two men exchanged worried glances, and Walter said, “Yes.”

  She straightened her shoulders and took a deep breath. “Okay.”

  There was a knock on the door.

  The bigger man opened the door, and another man stepped in carrying a doctor’s bag.

  He smiled gently and approached her. “I take it this is my patient.”

  Walter nodded and shifted away, and Jade wished he hadn’t. “This is Jade Monroe.”

  She smiled at Walter. “Sugar Monroe.”

  The doctor said, “Hello, Sugar. I’m Dr. Ben Johnson and I’m here to help you.”

  He did some of the same things Walter had done, and asked her the same questions. Only this time she at least knew her name.

  The doctor inspected her head. “That’s quite the bump you’ve got there.”

  “Ouch,” she said as he probed, even though he did it gently.

  “Sorry.” Can you turn to the side so that I can see the back of your head?” She did, and he moved her hair around her shoulders, searching for more hurt places, she guessed. He gave a low whistle. “That’s quite the tattoo you’ve got there. Do you know what it is?”

  She had a tattoo? She wished she did know. “What does it look like?”

  “It’s some kind of symbol, but I don’t know what it means.” The doctor continued to probe and inspect her arms and shoulders, and then he moved in front of her again and looked into her eyes. “I’ll research it when I get back to my office and see if I can find anything like it. Do you mind if I take a picture of it?”

  She shrugged. That hurt her head, too. “It’s okay.”

  Walter said, “I’ll do it.”

  The doctor pulled down the back of her blouse and Walter took the picture. “I’ll text it to you.”

  After the doctor sat back, Walter said, “Well? What do you think?”

  “I think,” Dr. Johnson said, “that you could be a very lucky lady, Sugar. You seem to be all right, though someone needs to check you every few hours. The amnesia is troubling, though. You remember your name, but nothing else?”

  Walter said, “We found business cards with her name. She didn’t technically remember it.” He turned to her. “Or do you remember it now?”

  She shook her head in a tiny movement that only hurt a little.

  “How long could it take her to get her memory back, Doc?” asked the biggest guy, the one who’d helped Walter carry her inside.

  “With global amnesia, her memory could return at any time.” Dr. Johnson frowned. “Or it might never return.”

  Sugar gasped at that.

  The doctor patted her arm. “But I’m sure yours will return qui
ckly. We’ll know more in a few days. Don’t worry if it doesn’t return for a few days.”

  “You sound like Walter,” the big man said. “Precisely imprecise.”

  Walter said, “Stow it, Ty.”

  Ty was the big man. Okay.

  He just smiled.

  Walter said, “I’d like to take her to my house and take care of her there.”

  “Well, you’re certainly qualified,” Dr. Johnson said. “How many M.D.s do you have now?”

  “Just two.” Walter turned to her, his warm brown eyes serious. “Will you allow me to take care of you, Sugar?”

  She looked at him. At the glasses that made him look so studious. The brown hair and chocolate eyes. The concern on his gentle face. He was so good-looking and she loved his light Scottish accent. Why not allow him to help her? He certainly didn’t seem as if he considered it a burden, and the doctor trusted him, so she nodded. “Yes.”

  He let out a breath and smiled. “Thank you. I’ll make sure you’re okay.”

  And she believed him.

  Kelly Monroe turned toward his sister. “What are we gonna do now?”

  “Just keep driving while I think,” Jade hissed at her brother.

  “Drive where?”

  “Just up the road and then turn around and we’ll drive back and see what’s going on.”

  He did so, and drove back toward Town Square. Lydia had fallen out in front of city hall and the new Council office that Jade was supposed to be working at. She’d been looking forward to working in the very office she was trying to hack. And now that stupid witch had her laptop bag.

  How could she possibly use this to her advantage? Think, Jade, think.

  As they drove around Town Square, Jade told Kelly to park in the lot.

  She got out and made her way to where Lydia had fallen to the ground.

  Traffic was moving again, so she’d been taken somewhere. People were still standing around, so she feigned ignorance, “What happened? I heard some woman fell out of a moving vehicle. Is she all right?”

  A little old lady looked way up at her and nodded. “They took her into that building,” she said, pointing to the new Council office.