My Soul Loves: Hidden Creek Series #1

by Barbara Gee

  “I was going to let you sleep for a while,” I told him, standing up and going to him, because he was just that irresistible and I needed a hug after that conversation.

  He reached out an arm and drew me in. “JP texted me about something stupid and woke me up.”

  I hugged his lean waist and let my forehead fall against his chest. “I was talking to Ian.”

  “Oh yeah? It’s about time.” He pushed his hand into my hair, cupping my head. “Did he finally call, or did you call him?”

  “He texted and asked me to call when I could.”

  “So? What’s the word on Abigail?”

  “Not good.”

  I felt him stiffen and his hands went to my shoulders as he stepped back so he could look at me. “What does that mean?”

  “She left yesterday, and Ian doesn’t know where she is. He said they had a terrible fight and she kind of snapped. He thinks she’s going to try to mess with his servers.” I chewed the inside of my lip and frowned. “Who knows what she might’ve already gleaned, though. I mean, she’s had access to all his stuff for so long—she could already have enough to ruin our current contracts, which will also keep us from getting new ones.” I shook my head worriedly. “If word spreads that we can’t even handle our own security, why would anyone hire us to work on theirs?”

  Jude frowned. “If Ian’s as good as you say, he should be able to find out what she was looking at, right? Or what she’s already copied? Maybe he can figure out what she’s up to.”

  I shrugged. “He’s good, but Abigail’s had a long time to come up with a contingency plan. She could do so much damage with a head start like that.”

  The thought was all kinds of depressing. We’d worked so hard to be competitive in our market. We’d built up respect and a good, solid reputation, and now Abigail could ruin it all with a few keystrokes.

  “That sucks,” Jude said gently, “but I’m more worried about how she might take revenge on you specifically. I still think there’s a good chance she’ll blame you for the fact that she and Ian are over. You’d be an easy scapegoat, and I don’t like it.”

  In light of what Ian had told me about Abigail’s state of mind, Jude’s concern carried a little more weight than it had previously. Still, I simply couldn’t imagine tiny little goth-girl Abigail, with her brilliant red hair and combat boots, coming after me. I mean, she might take a few virtual swipes at me, try to knock out my own servers or something, but there was no way she’d show up in Hidden Creek and confront me face-to-face.

  I walked over to my work table and shut down both of my modems. Until I had time to change all my own access points and passwords, I would simply disconnect from the outside world completely. Tomorrow I’d look for evidence that Abigail had managed to penetrate my servers, but I wasn’t overly worried. I’d never granted anyone access to my personal equipment, not even Ian, and I was pretty sure I’d have noticed if anyone had been poking around.

  Ian’s problem was that he hadn’t locked her out of the sensitive stuff on his machines. He’d trusted her because they’d lived and worked together for so long. That had been a huge mistake. One that could cost him his business.

  I shivered a little when I remembered what Ian had said about her not being the girl he knew and how he thought the changed girl was actually Abigail’s true self. Had she really had us all fooled the whole time? All because she was obsessed with Ian?

  I turned and looked up at Jude, forcing a smile. “I might be a scapegoat, but I won’t be an easy one. No matter how skilled she is, she can’t get into any of my stuff without a connection, and I just shut that off.”

  “She could come here,” Jude insisted, walking over to me. “If the girl’s unhinged, the threat is real, Ava.”

  I stubbornly shook my head. “I can see her trying to hack my servers….in fact, I think there’s a good chance of that. But she’s not violent. She’s not going to try to harm me physically.”

  “You don’t know that.”

  I reached up and pressed my palms to his cheeks. “She’s a cyber girl, Jude. Physical violence is beneath her.”

  He took my hands and moved them to the small of my back, holding them there as he drew me close. “You need to keep in close touch with Ian. Maybe he’ll figure out a way he can track her.”

  I thought about that for a moment. It was possible. Ian probably knew some of her online haunts, and if he could find her there, he might be able to trace her. Of course, Abigail would be expecting that, so she’d be careful. The odds weren’t in our favor.

  “I’ll talk to him every day,” I promised anyway.

  He dropped a kiss on my nose. “One more thing, and this is non-negotiable. I’m going to schedule someone to come look at your place and draw up a proposal for a security system. Then we’ll go over it together, make any changes needed, and get it ordered.”

  I propped my chin on his chest and looked up at him. “You sound very emphatic about that.”

  “Because I am.”

  “It also sounds like you’re used to getting your way.”

  “When it’s this important, I do,” he said, arching a brow and waiting for my next argument.

  I gave a dramatic sigh. “The only reason I’m not going to fight you on this is because I’d planned to do that anyway, I just haven’t gotten around to it. It’s not because I think Abigail is going to come here.”

  “I really don’t care why you agree to do it,” he said with a grin, “just that you do. It’ll help me sleep a lot better at night.”

  I pulled my hands free of his and hugged him again, breathing in his scent, grateful for his concern.

  “Thank you. I’m fine with any security company you say is good. Also, thanks for going to church with me and being so sweet to my friends.” I gave him a smile that was a little bit shy and a whole lot happy. “You’re a really good boyfriend, you know that?”

  He laughed. “Good to know, since I’m way out of practice.”

  I put my arms around his neck and pulled his head down. “I’m really glad no one snapped you up before I got here,” I said before pressing my lips to his.

  I didn’t say the three little words that were in my heart—not yet—but I hoped my kiss would leave him with no doubt about how strongly I felt.

  Judging from his response, I was pretty sure he got the message.

  Chapter 27

  Jude was true to his word, and two days later I was following along behind Bill, owner of the security company Jude had chosen, while he walked around my house measuring, inspecting, and scribbling notes onto a pad of paper. On a second pad, he was sketching the layout of the house, paying particular attention to every door and window.

  I suggested he didn’t need to install monitors on the upstairs windows, aside from the one in the office, but Bill said he’d gotten his orders from Jude Keller, and he’d specified the full package, nothing left out….so that’s what it was going to be. My consternation must have been obvious, because he winked and told me not to worry because he was also under orders to give me the contractor’s discount, which would basically cut the cost in half.

  I supposed I could live with that—thank you, Jude!

  After Bill left, I sat down to call Ian for my daily update on all things Abigail. We’d talked for over an hour the day before, and he told me what he’d found so far. He still didn’t know where she was, but he’d found multiple instances of her opening backdoors into his server, which would have made it very easy for her to worm her way into his hard drives had he stayed online.

  That finding had confirmed our fears of her laying out a contingency plan while she still had full access to everything.

  Ian was experienced in finding things like backdoors—he did it for a living, after all—but he was checking and double-checking everything. Considering her knowledge of his system, he knew it would be easier for her to hide things from him.

  The whole thing felt unbearably sad to me. Abigail had obviously been pl
anning this for a long time, which revealed a long-held fear of losing Ian. And she’d decided if she couldn’t have him, she’d ruin him.

  That goal hadn’t been accomplished yet, and if Ian had anything to say about it, it never would be. He was determined that nothing would get by him. As he discovered her methods, he passed them on to me and the rest of the team. We were already testing our own systems extensively, but it helped to be able to see into Abigail’s mind a little bit.

  So far, no one other than Ian had discovered anything, but we were all still playing it safe and keeping our servers offline. That made working on our jobs extremely challenging, but we were limping along on stand-alone workstations and a small bank of brand new, untainted servers that the Kansas cousins had quickly cobbled together. They weren’t as powerful as what Ian had, but were better than nothing. We were determined to fulfill our contracts in spite of everything.

  Today Ian was working on a new bid, which had forced him to take time away from his efforts to short-circuit Abigail’s revenge strategy. I helped him with the bid for a while, and I tried to be upbeat about it, but by the time we hung up, I was tired and discouraged. I wondered whether we would ever manage to completely rid ourselves of the effects of Abigail’s presence. She’d left personal scars, as well as professional ones.

  Before I got too depressed, I decided to forget about work for the rest of the day. I’d already sent the wrap-up report on our joint project to Victor to get his final input, which would bring that job to an end right on schedule. That was enough to justify taking off a few hours early.

  I’d just started pulling weeds in my front flower bed, a never-ending task but one I was beginning to enjoy, when I got a call from Donna. She and Rosie were going walking in an hour, and if I wanted to join them for a while, they’d meet up with me behind my house.

  My first instinct was to come up with an excuse, because I knew they’d spend the whole time asking me about Jude. But then I reconsidered. Now that he and I were back together and doing so well, I didn’t mind talking about him.

  I told Donna a walk sounded perfect, and she told me she’d learned how to text and she’d “shoot me a message” when they were close to my place.

  I went inside to change into workout capris and sneakers, then weeded again until I heard Donna’s text come in.

  We;r3 grtttng cccclose aAVa/

  I laughed out loud before replying that I’d be right out. Kudos to Donna for taking on the texting challenge.

  I went through the gate into Hannah’s yard, then out their back gate into the woods. Thankfully Lulu wasn’t outside to raise a ruckus at my sudden appearance and disappearance.

  When I emerged from the woods onto the walking path, I spied Donna and Rosie coming at me, dressed once again in fuchsia and violet velour. Their arms were swinging energetically, but their tiny, careful I-don’t-want-to-risk-falling-and-breaking-a-hip steps meant it took much longer for them to reach me than I’d anticipated. At this rate, even a short walk was going to take a lot more time than I’d planned.

  That was okay. It would be nice to visit with the ladies, especially now that I didn’t have to worry about them trying to set me up with Devon.

  We walked for half an hour, all the way around the local loop on the trail, which ended up back where they’d parked their cars. The two talked nonstop and caught me up on all the happenings behind the scenes at Hidden Creek United Methodist. Not the least of which was the news that Devon Pembroke had been spotted coming out of a local bar after midnight with a married woman.

  “It was a close call for you, Ava,” Rosie said, her voice quivering with emotion as she dabbed at her forehead with the white sweatband on her wrist. “We all thought he was such a wonderful young man, and we were determined to get you two together. What a mistake that would have been!”

  I felt compelled to defend him, but only because I’d learned the hard way that jumping to conclusions was a bad idea.

  “Maybe he was just walking her out to her car since it was so late,” I suggested.

  “Nope, they drove off together,” Donna said, shaking her head with a mixture of sadness and disgust. “Such a shame.”

  “Maybe he just gave her a ride home because she’d had too much to drink and couldn’t drive,” I tried again.

  “It’s sweet of you to give him the benefit of the doubt,” Donna said, “but Liz has heard some other stuff about him from her granddaughter. Seems that Devon is a real ladies man—and I mean ladies as in lots of them. Poor Pastor Dan. That’s not how the boy was raised, I can assure you of that.”

  “It’s one of those things that makes you ponder the whole nature versus nurture argument, huh?” I asked.

  They both gave me blank looks and I tried to explain what I was getting at. Finally, Donna gave me a wrist flick.

  “Those newfangled ideas just confuse the issue. Devon is a womanizer, plain and simple. Thank goodness you found your Jude before we could set you up with the little skunk.”

  That was something we could all agree on. Not that I would’ve gone out with the skunk anyway.

  We were back at the parking lot by then, and the two ladies gave me hugs and promised to text me the next time they went walking at this end of the trail. I waved as they shuffled away, then turned and jogged back the way we’d come.

  Repeating the loop at a run would get my heart rate up for a little while, at least. After spending so much time at my desk lately, I definitely needed the cardio.

  ***

  I sent Jude a text to tell him I was cooking dinner, and by the time he showed up at seven, I had a chicken potpie ready to come out of the oven and a chopped apple salad waiting in the fridge. It was a beautiful evening, so we carried everything out to the table on the deck.

  Of course, as soon as we started to eat, Lulu started to bark. Jude went to the gate and let her come over and she kept us entertained. Chase came outside looking for her just as I was bringing out dessert, so we told him to bring Hannah over and share our angel food cake, fresh strawberries, and whipped cream.

  We had a fun time catching up. Hannah showed off her baby bump, which I still had to use my imagination to see, but she and Chase were so proud that I went along with it. I wish every baby in the world could be that loved and wanted before even being born.

  After they left, Jude went out to his truck to get the estimate from the security company, which Bill had emailed to him that afternoon. We spent a while going over it, but neither of us saw anything that needed to be changed. I was pretty sure the price was wrong—it was way lower than I’d expected. Surely contractors didn’t get that much of a markdown.

  But Jude just shrugged and said it looked good to him.

  “I’m not exactly hurting for money,” I told him, still convinced he’d subsidized the project in some way. “I can afford to pay full price for this system.”

  We were sitting side-by-side on the couch, and he reached over and tousled my hair. “Being a geek pays pretty good, huh?” he teased.

  “It does. Let’s just hope it continues to, post-Abigail.”

  Jude scooped me up and settled me in his lap, his arms strong and warm around me. “Still no word on her whereabouts?”

  “Nothing, but not for lack of trying. She’s gone completely dark.” I gave a frustrated sigh. “She could be a block away from Ian, or on the other side of the world. We have no idea.”

  “I’m sure she had it all planned out.”

  I nodded. “She probably had some help, too. I asked Ian if she has any family and he said she always claimed to be all alone in the world. Now he doesn’t know if that’s true or not.”

  “Hard to say whether anything she told him was true,” Jude said cynically. “If Jed didn’t need me, I’d be tempted to move back in with Chase for a while. I’d feel better if I was closer to you.”

  His concern felt good, but I didn’t want him stressing about Abigail and me. “Don’t worry. She’s probably far away, biding her time unt
il she can get back to her keyboard and see whether any of the backdoors she left in Ian’s servers are still there. My guess is she’s amassing the hardware she needs and figuring out a way to mask her location. Then she’ll start her assault.”

  “And Ian will be waiting?”

  I nodded. “He’s ready, even impatient, I’d say. He wants to have that showdown. I’m not convinced that’ll be the end of it, though. I don’t think she’ll give up after just one try.”

  “So do you think the team will stay together long-term?”

  I answered him honestly. “At this point, I’d say that’s going to depend on Ian. If he thinks we can weather the Abigail storm, the others will probably buy into it.”

  “And you? Is that what you want?”

  I gave a slow, thoughtful shrug. “Part of me does. The other part feels like I’ll be constantly looking over my shoulder, so maybe it would be best to start over somewhere else.” I reluctantly pushed away from his warm chest and gave him what I hoped was a brave smile. “I guess I’ll just play it by ear for a while.”

  Jude put his hands on my shoulders. “You know I’ll support whatever you decide to do.”

  “I know you will.” I tilted my chin and raised my brows. “I also know you’d prefer me to distance myself from both Ian and Abigail.”

  His smile flashed as his thumbs stroked my collarbone. “Yeah, not gonna deny it. She’s obviously bad news, and he’s still carrying a torch for you. I’m not seeing a win there.”

  I nodded. “I get that. It’s just that we’ve accomplished so much, and quitting doesn’t come naturally to me.”

  “Which is one of the things I admire about you,” he said softly. “And when I say I’ll support whatever you decide, I mean it.”

  I took his face in my hands and brushed my lips across his. “I like you more every day, Jude,” I murmured. “Maybe even every minute.”

  He gave a satisfied hmmmm. “Good. Don’t stop.”