Chapter 1
CHAPTER ONE
Jordan Logan sat back and smiled. After working many nights until the sun rose, she’d finally hacked into Sintinex Corporation’s mainframe computer. This had been her toughest assignment yet, requiring all of her expertise. But that was why they’d hired her—she had a reputation for being the best.
At last, she could take a breath. The pressure to hack into the system had been intense. She wasn’t sure why they’d pushed for such a tight deadline, but at this point, it no longer mattered. In a few hours, her bank account would be that much richer.
Jordan arched her back and stretched her long, toned arms over her head. She scanned the room and frowned at the dozens of boxes stacked against the foot of her unmade bed. “Well, Buck. Looks like I have no more excuses. I’m going to have to unpack all this stuff and put it away.”
Her black Lab sat up, tilted his head, and let out one short bark.
She smiled. “You know something, you’re right. Before we unpack, let’s take a nice long walk, get some fresh air, and get to know our new neighborhood.” She reached down and rubbed Buck’s head. “Maybe this will be the place. What do you think, boy? Will Brooklyn be it?”
Jordan hoped she might make New York her home.
This city was big enough that she could get lost among the millions.
Over the years, whenever she’d thought she might be able to settle in one place, there was always some nosy neighbor who wanted to get to know her.
Have a coffee, join them for a yoga class, or come to dinner to be set up with one of their friends.
She’d declined all invitations. It wasn’t that she had anything to hide.
She simply wasn’t a big fan of people. Ultimately, she knew they would only disappoint her—like the mother who abandoned her.
So she kept moving. Besides, with a laptop and Wi-Fi, she could work from anywhere, live where she wanted, and keep to herself.
She hoped no one would notice her in a city like New York.
“Okay, Buck, give me a minute. I need to copy this ridiculously brilliant code I’ve created and then send it off to Sintinex.” Jordan pulled up the company’s mail program and began to type.
Hi, Sam,
Mission accomplished. Here’s the code. Taking a break. Call me if you have any questions.
After hitting send, she dug inside her desk drawer for a flash drive, copied the code onto it, and dropped the drive into her oversize shoulder bag.
Jordan knelt and scratched Buck behind the ear. “You’re such a good boy,” she cooed. He licked her face, and she wiped her cheek with the back of her hand. “No need to get sloppy.” She rubbed his head one more time. “Let me get a few things, and then we’re off.”
Grabbing her bag, she dropped in a bottle of water, her wallet, and the latest paperback she’d been dying to read. “I think we’ve got everything we need.” Buck’s tail thumped on the hardwood floor in anticipation. “Oh, shoot. Hold on, let me find my cap.”
Her gaze scanned the bedroom. “Now, where did I pack it?” She stepped into the living room and searched a few boxes on the coffee table.
Buck trotted toward the front hall closet and let out two quick barks.
Jordan put her hands on her hips. “You trying to tell me something?” Buck barked again.
“Okay, I’ll check the closet, but only ’cause you asked nicely. ”
On the top shelf, above the coat rack, sat several caps. “Buck, you have such a good memory,” she murmured. “I forgot I unpacked these.” She reached for her favorite navy blue baseball cap and jammed it on her head. “Well, I think we’re ready.”
A soft whooshing sound came from the bedroom, signaling an incoming email.
She continued moving toward the front door but stopped mid-step, turned, and marched back into the bedroom.
She couldn’t help herself. Jordan was compulsive about checking email.
After any job, it took days before she could relax and not continually check her phone.
Leaning over her computer, she clicked the envelope icon and quickly read the message.
“For real?” she said to the screen.
The request was odd, and she wondered why Archer Kelly, Sintinex’s CEO, would ask her to add a line of code to the program she’d created.
Until now, they’d never even communicated.
All work orders had come from his chief technology officer, Sam Morris—and she’d emailed him the code a few minutes ago.
Sintinex had hired her to hack into their system.
The whole point was to test the strength of their firewall, and she’d proven the firewall wasn’t all that.
There was no reason to mess around with her code.
What they needed was to fix their computer security.
But she was not the CEO, and she wasn’t the one making dumb decisions.
Jordan sat and crossed her arms over her chest. “Well, guess what, Mr. Archer Kelly, I’ve been at Sintinex’s beck and call for four straight weeks.
Me and Buck are taking some well-deserved time off.
” She huffed out a breath and turned to Buck.
“Isn’t that right? He got what he paid for.
He can wait another day for any additions.
And it’s gonna cost him.” She dug the flash drive out of her bag, copied the new snippet of code, and powered off her computer.
The chime of an incoming text had her reaching into her jacket pocket. “What now?” She checked her phone and found a message from Sam Morris.
Don’t email new combined code. Meet tomorrow. Breakfast. 8am. Olson’s 55th and Lex. Then I’m off to DC.
Jordan sighed heavily. “Whatever.” With her thumbs, she typed:
C u there.
This job had been all-consuming, and now it was getting silly. First, the CEO emailed her, and then the CTO texted her. Jordan wanted nothing to do with their office politics.
Once again, her phone pinged, and Jordan huffed in annoyance. When she checked the screen, it was an alert from her news app. Apparently, the L train was out of service. Some transformer was down or something. She shook her head and pocketed her phone.
“Okay, Buck, enough of this craziness. Let’s go.” She hooked his leash onto his collar, locked her door, and stepped out of her brownstone apartment building into the sunshine of a glorious May afternoon.
They walked several blocks before entering the south side of Prospect Park near the lake.
Despite the beautiful spring day, there was a heaviness in her step.
This was the hardest part of completing a job.
The free time. Because there was nothing to consume her mind.
No puzzle to figure out. No code to create.
Only her dim thoughts. Unhappy childhood memories always lurked in the background, threatening to consume her if she didn’t keep busy.
For that reason, the animal shelter had been Jordan’s first stop when she’d arrived in the city.
She didn’t much like people or trust them, but animals were different.
She’d never been allowed to have a pet, but some of her favorite books had beloved dogs as characters, and she wanted to feel the closeness described in those stories.
The right dog would keep her company the way people never could.
Buck had been deserted by his owner and left to roam the streets.
The moment she spotted him at the shelter, his nose pressed against the cage, she sensed they were kindred spirits.
And she’d been right. With Buck, she’d been able to drop her defenses.
They’d instantly become attached as if they’d been together for years.
“Okay, boy. Let’s get some exercise.” They took off at a quick pace and walked inside the park for almost an hour before Jordan’s mind began to clear, and Buck had the exercise he’d needed for the past week.
The constant pressure she put on herself whenever she had a new client began to float away like the white puffy clouds dotting the sky.
For the first time in days, the tightness in her chest began to ease, and she took a long, deep breath.
Buck barked at a man zipping by on an electric scooter, and she had to hold him back as he tugged on his leash.
A young girl across the lake laughed as she launched a miniature sailboat into the water.
“This seems like a perfect spot. That bench over there has my name on it. Let’s park it.
” Buck trotted toward the nearby tree and settled in the shade under its branches.
Jordan sat, got comfortable, and flipped open the latest Nora Roberts romantic suspense.
For the first time in forever, she happily lost herself between the pages of a book.
It wasn’t until her stomach grumbled that she looked up.
She had no idea how much time had passed, but the sun was lower in the sky, and the air seemed cooler.
Buck, she noticed, hadn’t moved and was gently snoring.
“Okay, buddy.” She knelt next to him and petted his back.
He opened one eye. “You had a nice nap, didn’t you?
You ready to eat? Because I’m starving.” Buck licked her face.
“Hey there, I’m not on the menu. We’ll walk over to Joe’s Joint and get some burgers to go.
If you’re lucky, we may even watch a movie. ”
It took some time for them to wind their way out of the park and walk the six blocks back to their neighborhood.
On the corner was the burger restaurant she had frequently called for delivery since she’d moved into her apartment.
The tables set up outside were already filling with people out for an early dinner.
Jordan tied Buck’s leash to the bike rack at the corner. “I’ll be right back. I’m going to pick us up something delicious.” She rubbed Buck’s head and entered the restaurant.
Jordan gave her to-go order to a server with spiked purple hair and a dozen earrings in her left lobe. Handing over her credit card, she leaned on the host station and turned to look out the window and check on Buck.
“Excuse me,” the spike-haired girl said. “Your card isn’t going through.”
It took Jordan a few seconds to understand what she was saying. She shook her head. “Not possible. Try it again,” she said unapologetically.
Jordan watched as the server swiped her card through the card reader again and waited for the machine to do its thing.
Spiked-hair’s eyebrows narrowed. “Sorry. It’s not going through.”
“Oh, for goodness sake,” Jordan huffed. “Here, try this.” She handed over her debit card.
The server swiped the card and turned the machine toward Jordan to enter her PIN number.
Jordan’s eyes widened when the word DECLINED flashed on the screen.
This wasn’t possible. She was nowhere near her credit limit, which was high, and she had plenty of money in the bank.
“Listen, I don’t have time for this.” Her tone was sharp.
“There must be something wrong with your machine.” She held out her hand.
“Give me back my cards. I’ll pay in cash.
” As a matter of habit, Jordan kept a sizable amount of money in her purse at all times.
At an early age, she’d learned to be nimble and resourceful, and that didn’t happen without cash.
The restaurant was filling up, and her order took longer than expected. When the hostess finally handed her a brown paper bag with her food, Jordan barely said thanks and rushed out. She was anxious to get home, call the bank and credit card company, and sort out the problem.
She climbed the front steps of her brownstone, shifted the bag of food to one arm, dug out her keys, and went inside.
Her first-floor apartment was the second door on the left.
She managed to hold on to her food and Buck’s leash while putting her key in the door.
As she crossed the threshold, Jordan dropped the leash and stared in disbelief. What the—
She stepped back and checked the apartment number on the door.
This was her place. But how could it be?
The boxes were gone, the furniture was gone, everything was gone.
Her entire apartment was empty. With her mouth open, she walked from room to room.
The only thing left was a white venetian blind hanging askew in the bedroom.
Buck’s half whine, half bark, got her attention.
“Hey, boy, where are you?” Jordan called out, but he didn’t come.
Instead, his barking became more insistent.
She found him in the bathroom, growling at the closed shower curtain.
“Hey, buddy, come here.” She patted her thighs several times, but Buck wouldn’t move.
“What are you barking at?” The combination of nerves and the general creep factor of her empty apartment freaked her out.
“You come out of there right this minute!” Jordan yelled, and that was when she noticed several dark-colored footprints around the tub.
“What’s that?” she said under her breath.
Cautiously, she inched her way into the room.
“Man, I should not be doing this.” She squeezed her eyes shut, took a deep breath, and yanked back the shower curtain.
When she opened her eyes, her immediate confusion turned to revulsion.
Buck went wild, barking and circling her.
Blood dripped from the shower wall, and a body lay face down in the tub with half its head blown away.
She bolted from the room into the kitchen and vomited into the sink.
Wiping her mouth with the back of her hand, she knew she had to call the police.
Shaking, she pulled out her phone from her jacket.
Before she could place the call, her news alert app pinged with an image on the screen.
Breaking News: Wanted for stealing classified government documents.
She didn’t have the mental bandwidth for this. Jordan was about to click off the alert and dial 911 when an image of a woman’s face filled her screen. She shook her head and blinked. Wait. Is that me? Could she be looking at a photo of herself? It didn’t make sense. None of this made any sense.
While Buck howled and frantically jumped around the apartment, Jordan was paralyzed, unsure what to do.
Her furniture was gone. A dead man was in her tub.
And if the alert on her phone could be trusted, she was wanted for stealing government documents.
The sound of sirens coming down the block freed her from her paralysis.
Without thinking, she grabbed hold of the leash.
“Buck. Come on. We gotta get out of here.”