Total pages in book: 135
Estimated words: 129027 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 645(@200wpm)___ 516(@250wpm)___ 430(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 129027 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 645(@200wpm)___ 516(@250wpm)___ 430(@300wpm)
“So, what’d the sheriff say?” I ask. Only someone as rich as Domhnall has a direct line to the sheriff’s office.
“I was on with him all morning. He says he was getting the runaround from the hotel. When he sent detectives down there, they reported back that the footage had been erased. He was gonna send it to his cybercrimes department to see if the hotel was hacked, but I told him I’d be happy to do the department a favor and look into it myself.”
“Oh?” I sit up straighter in the cushioned poolside table chair. “And what’d you find?”
“The footage wasn’t scrubbed from an outside hack.”
“What’s that mean? It was an inside job?”
Domhn shrugs. “Or your boy did it from within the hotel. I can’t tell much more than that. Just that the scrub was from the hotel’s IP. Not very sophisticated, either.”
“Can you find the original footage?” This is the closest we’ve ever been to a lead.
But Domhn shakes his head. “Footage was all kept on the local drives, which was destroyed completely. Whoever did it at least knew enough to completely wipe it.”
“Dammit.” I breathe out hard. “This guy’s not a fucking ghost. Someone had to have fuckin’ seen him. You’re telling me not a damn camera caught him?”
“All the cameras were scrubbed. He was there from nine forty-six to nine fifty-eight. Twelve minutes in and out.”
“When we were at the club. Goddammit. What if we’d been in the room when he got there?”
Domhn’s eyebrows drop, narrowing. “What if he knew you wouldn’t be?”
“What do you mean?” I sit up straighter.
“What if he’s got some sort of tracker on her car?”
I swear under my breath. “Fuck. I’ll sweep for bugs later today.”
Domhn nods. “Whoever’s doing this is smart.”
I look over at Kira, laughing as she catches up with Anna, and my chest tugs.
“You still think it could be one of her students?” he asks.
“I don’t fucking know,” I mutter, frustrated. “Or one of the ex’s pissed off side-pieces. I still haven’t been able to check into the woman who threw a bitch fit at the engagement dinner beyond a standard background check because I’ve been so busy…” Again, my eyes drift to Kira. What can I really say? Because I’ve been busy fucking my client instead of focusing on protecting her?
“What’s the woman’s name?” Domhn asks, lifting the lid of the laptop he takes with him everywhere.
“Becca Summers.” Why didn’t I think of coming to him first? There was only so far I was going to get looking up outstanding warrants, and the other databases required my full PPO license number. But while Domhn’s business is on the right side of the law now, he started off as a hacker. I wouldn’t ask him if this didn’t feel like it was starting to get serious.
His eyebrows lift as he continues typing rapidly.
“What?” I ask.
“Well, someone’s good at getting her records expunged. But looking at some of her original arrest records here… and oo-hoo, she’s repeatedly been arrested for drunk and disorderlies. She never spends more than a few hours in holding, though. She even punched a cop in the face. Nearly took out an eye with her nails.”
“Okay. So you think she’s our stalker?” I’m a little skeptical but ready to be convinced.
Domhn frowns, continuing to type and click. “Maybe? But it says here one of the fights was over her dog, Chanel. And she’s a member of PETA.”
I sigh. “Yeah, she didn’t seem like the kind of woman who’d want to get her hands dirty chasing down a river rat to put in someone’s bed. No matter how much she hated a bitch. But you never know with these Texas girls. ’Specially when they get pissed.” I take a long draw on my coffee.
“And her GPA at Texas State was only a 2.1,” Domhn continues. “I’m not sure I can see her pulling off the kind of hack we’re talking about unless she had help.”
“I’m guessing the woman’s not without her charms. Help isn’t out of the question.”
Domhn punches a few more buttons. “No one else was ever arrested with her.”
“Hey, do you mind running a few more names for me?”
Our eyes meet briefly over the top of his laptop. “Anything to help. You were there for me and Anna, and I don’t forget that shit.”
I hear what he’s saying, and I nod, then give him the students’ names that Kira gave me. But there’s nothing on any of them. Not even any juvie records. I don’t wanna know how Domhn checks that, just that he does.
Which leaves me exactly back at square one. With fuck all.
Suddenly I’ve got that feeling just like I used to back in the sandbox. Like there’s an invisible threat always hovering around, but you never know what direction the hit might come at you from. It’s always when you least expect it. My chest tightens and my asshole clenches.