“Good luck with that,” Alex said. “I don’t envy you at all.”
“So if that’s it, we’ll adjourn and get back together tonight for a quick update.”
“No!” Trey’s voice shot out like a bullet drawing everyone’s focus.
“Sorry,” he said. “I didn’t want you all to take off before we discussed security for Eryn’s class tomorrow afternoon.”
“What about it?” Eryn tried to hide her surprise.
“I’m glad to take care of clearing the room and standing watch for the class,” Trey replied. “But it would be better to have an extra set of eyes.”
“I’m teaching then,” Gage said.
“Me too,” Alex said.
“I’m free and glad to be there,” Riley offered. “Just tell me when and where.”
“Meeting room 10a.” Trey looked at Eryn. “What time do you want to set up for your class?”
“One forty-five should be fine.”
Trey changed his focus to Riley. “I’d like you to clear the room right before that and stand watch at the entrance. Don’t let anyone in and text me so I know it’s safe for Eryn to enter.”
“Give me your cell number, and I’m on it.” Riley took out his phone, and they exchanged numbers.
Trey shoved his phone into his pocket. “I’ve arranged with security to bring Eryn in through the staff entrance in the back of the room so she won’t have to come in the main door.”
“When did you do that?” Eryn asked.
“When you were so deep in code that a bomb could’ve gone off next to you, and you wouldn’t have noticed.” Trey grinned.
“I wasn’t—”
Alex held up a hand. “Don’t even try to deny it. We’ve all seen you like that more than once.”
Nods of agreement traveled around the room. Eryn knew she got involved, but that deeply? Clearly, she needed to accept that she became obsessively lost in her work, but she didn’t want the team to dwell on it.
She cleared her throat. “Thank you for arranging the security measures, Trey.”
He responded with a quick nod, but she could see he was pleased that she recognized his extra effort on her behalf. “And I also called my contact at PPB, Gage. He gave me the name and number for a Samantha Willis for your forensic job. I’ll text it to you.”
“Oh, goodie, another girl on the team.” Alex wiggled his eyebrows.
Eryn groaned. “Okay, now can we get going before Alex says anything else?”
“Yes, ma’am.” Trey gave a mock salute.
She stood, and as the team filed out, she faced him. “Let me tell Mom I’m leaving, and we’ll start with Coker.”
Trey nodded his agreement but worry darkened his eyes into a solid wall of gray.
“What’s wrong?” she asked.
“I watched some videos of Coker while you checked your email, and I’m not eager for you to be in the same universe with him, much less getting in his face.”
“I can handle myself.”
“You’re like this fierce former agent, but still…” He clenched and unclenched his fists.
She pressed her good hand on his arm. “It’ll be okay.”
“I know—I’ll be there.” he said.
She squeezed his arm. “I’ll be right back.”
She planned on making quick work of saying goodbye to her mother, but the moment Eryn saw Bekah sitting on the bed with a giant picture book, a sudden need to hug her washed over Eryn. Why, she didn’t know. Maybe she was buying into Trey’s warnings a bit too much.
She scooped Bekah into her arms and held her tight.
“Ouch, Mommy.” Bekah squirmed. “You’re squishing me.”
“Sorry, pumpkin. I needed an extra big hug today.”
“Sometimes I like extra big hugs, too.” Bekah frowned. “When I’m hurt. Or sad. Or someone is mean. Or I don’t want to go to bed. Are you sad, Mommy? Or hurt?”
Eryn tapped the tip of Bekah’s button nose. “Nope. Just needed to hug my girl.”
Eryn squeezed and tickled her until Bekah was laughing again, and then she set her down. Eryn caught her mother’s attention. “I’ll keep you updated.”
“Stay safe, sweetheart.”
“Always,” Eryn replied and stepped back into the main room.
Trey waited at the door for her. He was staring at his phone, and she heard Coker’s outraged voice echo from his speaker.
“Thought I’d look at another Coker video while I waited.”
“You’re going to make yourself crazy if you keep watching him.”
“Maybe, but I like to be prepared. Especially when it comes to your safety.”
Perhaps Trey was right, and she needed to be a bit more careful when approaching Coker. She took a moment to say a prayer of thanks to God for bringing Trey into her life when she needed a bit of extra protection. And to ask God to keep them both safe.
Trey reached for the doorknob but paused to look at her. “You’re sure you still want to talk to him?”
She nodded. “He’s outside in the public eye right now, and the place is swarming with officers, so he won’t likely hurt me. At least not physically.”
“Still, you’re going to get an earful.”
“Won’t be the first time.”
“And he seems pretty unstable, which means he could lose his cool and forget all about the officers around him. So I need you to promise to be careful. If I ask you to walk away—walk away. Got it?”
She wanted to protest, but Trey looked so fierce that she nodded.
He went out to check the hallway. Once satisfied, he quirked his finger, and they took the elevator to the lobby. He stuck closer to her today, and she knew his concern was elevated, which in turn made her anxious. As they wound their way through the officers, the protests grew louder. She caught conversations with the officers complaining about Coker.
Near the door, Trey reached out for her arm and drew her even closer. She didn’t mind since hearing Coker’s tone rattled her. Trey abruptly came to a stop, and Eryn almost barreled into him.
“Look at that.” He pointed at a display monitor listing the classes for the day.
Eryn stepped closer and stared at the line item he indicated. “Cancelled. What? Who cancelled my classes?”
“Maybe Coker put pressure on Martha, and she did it to appease him.”
“But she would’ve told me. I need to talk to her.” Eryn spun and wove through the officers to get to Martha’s room. Eryn pounded on the door, the sound echoing through the hallway.
Martha opened the door. “You’ll wake the dead with all that racket.”
“Did you cancel my classes?” Eryn demanded.
“No. Why would you think that?”
“The lobby monitor has them listed as cancelled.”
“Impossible.” Martha turned and strode to the desk. “I’ll log into the resort scheduling software and see what’s up.”
Eryn moved to stand behind her, and Trey stepped to Eryn’s side.
“Okay.” Martha bent closer to the screen. “It says cancelled. But that’s impossible. I’m the only one who can change this, and I didn’t do it.”
“Nothing’s impossible with computers.” Eryn wished she had a dollar for every time she told someone this. She’d have a nice little nest egg by now.
“I’ll change it.” Martha clicked on the field and typed in the room number, but when she saved the record, it reverted back to cancelled. “That’s odd.”
“Mind if I take a look?” Eryn asked.
“Not at all.” Martha slid out of her chair.
“These entries are listed in a database and should be changeable.” Eryn sat and first tried to change the record on the screen by highlighting it and hitting delete. Nothing happened.
“Interesting.” Eryn created a new record using the name of her class and got the same results. Cancelled. She made up a new class title and entered it. That record worked fine. “Looks like someone hacked the software an
d targeted the name of my class.”
“But who?”
“Likely the same person who hacked your company server.”
“And the guy who warned you off teaching anymore classes,” Trey added.
Eryn had to admit she forgot that Trey was even with them. She looked up at him. “The best thing for me to do now is to talk to the resort’s IT person so I can get access to the database logs. It should show me when and who changed the record.”
“Couldn’t he delete any records that prove he made changes?” Trey asked.
“Yes, but there are a number of places he would have to hide the changes, and odds are good he wouldn’t get all of them. Anyway, I don’t think he cares if we see that he’s been in the database. In fact, this seems to be his way of flaunting it and telling me that he can get to me.”
“But can’t you track who he is from the changes?” Martha asked.
“It all depends on how good he is at hacking.” Which was better than she first thought, and she realized she was facing a more worthy adversary.
7
After the latest hack, Trey wanted to demand that Eryn cancel her remaining classes, but she would stubbornly refuse. There was no point in asking. It would only upset her, and she was already tense as it was. He couldn’t convince her to stay out of sight, so he’d keep his eyes open, and if danger appeared, then he’d insist.
Right now she was safe in the small office of Denise Frazier, the resort’s computer professional. For the last two hours, Eryn had been sitting with shoulders hunched over the computer next to Denise who seemed in awe of Eryn’s skills.
Eryn pushed her chair back. “I’ve traced the hack to an Internet service provider. Now I need to call in a favor, and hopefully I’ll have the physical address of the computer used for hacking.”
She stood and looked at Denise. “If I need anything else after I review the files, I hope you’ll give me access to your network again.”
“Of course.”
Eryn jotted numbers down on a sticky note and handed it to Denise. “You’ll want to block this IP address. And make sure you get one of the intrusion programs we talked about in place today. That way, if this happens again, you’ll be aware of it.”
Denise’s face colored. “I should have done more, shouldn’t I?”
“Hey, don’t feel bad.” Eryn smiled. “I’ve worked with bigger companies who have less in place than you do.”
“Really?”
Eryn’s expression turned serious. “Absolutely, but now that you know, don’t be caught unaware again. You have guests to protect. You may warn them when they log into the Internet that they’re accessing an unsecured network, but they still have expectations that you are doing everything you can to protect their electronic data while they’re staying with you.”
“Thank you.” Denise vigorously shook hands with Eryn.
Eryn pulled a business card from her pocket. “If you have any questions about the intrusion programs or any questions at all, call me. I’m always available to help you.”
Denise blew out a long breath. “Thank you for being so understanding.”
Eryn nodded and made a beeline to the door.
In the hallway, Trey caught her attention. “You’re a very nice person, Eryn.”
She looked up at him. “What prompted that?”
“A lot of people would have made Denise feel bad in there. Instead, you taught her something and left her with her dignity intact.”
“You can thank my mother for that. And the FBI. She taught me the basics, but I learned how important it is when I joined the Bureau.”
“That honestly surprises me. I always see these pushy agents who are hard to work with on TV and in the movies. They’re even rude to local officers.”
“That’s not reality. Maybe many years ago, but not today. You won’t meet a more cooperative and uplifting group who are dedicated to helping people than FBI agents.”
He held up his hand at the lobby door to take a long look before letting her enter. “Tell me about the intrusion software that you asked Denise to install.”
“It acts much like an alarm system on a house. It monitors specific areas of their network and sends an alert if an unauthorized person tries to access sensitive parts of their system, as well as if they succeed at it. It also detects unusually high traffic. When the program spots any of these scenarios, it sends the administrator a message.”
His respect for Eryn’s knowledge grew exponentially with each hour he spent with her. “And you’re sure the contact you mentioned will give you the address we need for this guy?”
“Pretty sure. And once I have that, I’ll do a little digging on his name. If it looks like we have a valid lead, then we’ll pay him a visit.”
“Are you going to do that or talk to Coker first?”
“The guy who hacked the hotel’s network could disappear, so he has to come first.” She made her way through the lobby.
Back at the suite, Trey felt the tension flood from his body. He hadn’t realized how tense he’d been, but he was on high alert with her being in the middle of a crowd where anything could happen.
“Trey!” Bekah jumped up from the couch where she sat with Sandra and came running across the room. “Is it playground time?”
He hated to be the one to burst her bubble. “Sorry. Not yet.”
Her smiled drooped into such an adorable pout that he picked her up to comfort her. “Don’t worry. We’ll make time for the playground.”
Her lip jutted out more. “Mommy has to work.”
“Yes, she does.”
“We could go without her.”
“I’m sure your mom wants to have fun, too.”
Bekah squirmed free and charged over to Eryn. “I’m being patient, Mommy. Like you said. Can we go now?”
Sandra snorted, and Eryn looked like she wanted to laugh. Trey had a hard time holding his laughter back, but he managed it.
Eryn knelt in front of her daughter. “Being patient means not asking every time you see me.”
“Oh.” Bekah seemed to think that over, then put her hands on her hips. “I don’t like patience.”
Eryn stood and stroked her daughter’s hair. “I know it’s hard, pumpkin, but you can do it. I know you can.”
Bekah spun and came running back to Trey. She took his hand. “Show you my cutting. I did good today. Gammy said so. I cut kitties. And puppies. And a tree. And I did my numbers and letters. I’m good at that, too. Gammy tells me all the time. I like numbers better than letters, don’t you? They’re more fun.” She drew in a deep breath, and Trey waited for her to go on.
On her way to the desk, Eryn mouthed, “I’m sorry.”
He waved her off as he was actually enjoying Bekah. She helped alleviate the stress generated by protecting a strong stubborn woman who could at any moment go running off, leaving him to chase after her.
He heard her on the phone asking about the IP address, but Bekah held out a puppy dog that was cut from blue lines on paper, taking his focus. She’d cut off the ears and tail, but basically followed the lines for the body.
“You did do a very good job,” Trey said with sincerity.
“Gammy said it’s my bestest.”
“I did, at that.” Sandra smiled at her granddaughter.
“I have an address and a name,” Eryn announced. “Quick, Trey. Compare it to the class participants while I start a background check on the guy.”
“Your mom needs me to work now,” Trey said.
“I’m going to write your name. You can see it when I’m done.” Bekah plopped down on the carpet and picked up a big pencil. “Gammy, how do you spell Trey?”
If he wasn’t so eager to find the hacker and keep Eryn safe, he would gladly sit and watch Bekah. But finding the hacker came first. He joined Eryn at the desk.
She pointed at the class rosters without taking her focus from her screen. “Guy’s name is Rodrick Newton. Lives nearby.”
Tre
y picked up the list and perched on the corner of the desk. On page three, he found a local detective named William Newton listed in her afternoon class. Trey pointed at the entry for Eryn.
“Let me see if I can find a relationship connection.” Her fingers flew across the keyboard, and he knew for that moment he ceased to exist for her.
She was exactly like computer professionals he knew, and yet different in so many ways. She was outgoing, confident. Personable. And she was a really nice person, too. He almost wished she was mean to Denise, then he could’ve found something he didn’t like about her. Other than the fact that she didn’t want to have anything to do with him romantically.
He should take a page out of her playbook. Until he figured out how his leg situation would resolve, he should fight his attraction more. What if he messed things up with her and then he wanted to work with Blackwell? That would be so uncomfortable, maybe impossible, and he knew he could never find another job like Gage was offering. Not in a million years. So he needed to do a better job of cooling things off for both of their sakes.
She looked up at him. “I found William. I don’t see any connection to Rodrick, but then William doesn’t have much online. Not unusual for a law enforcement officer. We all try to avoid putting personal information on the Internet.”
Trey glanced at the clock on her computer. “We have time to talk to William and still have a late lunch.”
“No. Rodrick first.” She grabbed her phone and tapped the screen. “I’m calling Gage to get the team ready to head to Rodrick’s house.”
“Shouldn’t you leave that for the sheriff?”
She shook her head hard. “He’ll have to get a warrant before doing anything other than talk to Rodrick, and that will take time we don’t have. If Rodrick is our actor, he could already be dismantling his equipment and moving on.”
She stood and turned her attention to the phone. “Gage, good. Glad I got you. Assemble the team. We have a hacker to visit.”
Trey stood back while Gage opened the rear door of his SUV. To avoid an altercation with Coker, Gage had brought his vehicle to the back entrance. Four tote bags labeled with each team member’s name were stacked in a neat pile and secured with bungee cords. He jerked them out and passed them to the rightful owners.
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