Chapter 24 #2
“She’ll be stoked.” He gave me a wave as he stepped up into the truck. “I’ll have Micah contact you about the pier when we get an appointment.”
“Thanks, Dylan.”
“Sure. No problem.” He backed out, giving me a little half honk before he slowly made his way back up the lane toward the main road.
My head full of ideas for the portal, I was tempted to lock myself back into my office, but I wanted to see Phoebe. She’d been so wrapped up in her current job we’d barely seen each other this week. It was just as much my fault as it was her busy schedule.
I stepped back inside and grabbed my laptop, tucking it into my bag. Maybe I’d convince her to grab some lunch with me and I could get some words done at the café.
Locking up, I whistled for Mouse and he tore up the beach, his butt wiggling when I opened my door.
He clambered up, scratching everything as he fumbled into the passenger seat.
I got in and rolled down the window for him.
The air was humid with another storm, this one might actually have some teeth with a thunderstorm.
She worked inside Heavenly Bite after it closed for the night, but used the daylight hours to work on the side of the building.
There was a small crowd of people watching her work when I parked on the street and got out.
Mouse practically lost his damn mind as I reached for my bag, blocking his escape.
Church Street was little more than an alleyway between Destiny and Halloren Streets, which held most of the businesses in town.
A few kids zipped up and down the sidewalk on their bikes and electric scooters.
A lemonade stand stood on the corner to take advantage of all the lookie-loos who couldn’t resist Phoebe in her element.
And there were a lot of them.
Passersby kept taking selfies with her scaffolding and the bits and pieces she revealed through the process.
Originally, the plan was just to scrawl the name of the restaurant along the wall, but the job kept getting more intricate with all the attention it was garnering.
She generally did her work under the cover of night or before the world woke up.
This was a whole new aspect to her career.
I wasn’t sure if she was oblivious, or just that comfortable in her skin.
She had her noise canceling headphones on, moving to whatever beat she was listening to as she outlined each illustration with thick lines that reminded me of a coloring book. The scaffolding put her nearly ten feet off the ground and my heart still kicked regardless of the safety harness she wore.
She’d finished the lettering for Heavenly Bite, creating a happy combination of script and block styles in heavy black paint with gilded sparkles that stood out from the white brick.
A glowing halo was deliberately painted to be crooked over the I.
At the moment, it was directly above her head as she worked on a cartoony sandwich with angel wings soaring beneath the word bite.
I slipped my phone out and took a photo. Evidently I was one of the fan club, too.
Her talent was staggering.
Anyone else would have used tech and projection screens to do the work, but not Phoebe. I could see her rough grid to make sure her perspective stayed on point, but she barely referenced her sketches and seemed to just know exactly how the final product looked in her head.
Her usual florals were still in their sketchy version along the bottom of the building with a few hidden gems like the red bandannas the employees wore as part of their uniform as well as the names of all the Ferrara family members hidden in the blooms.
Thoughtful in ways that showed exactly how much she cared about her clients.
Infinitely Phoebe.
As if she could feel my gaze on her, she turned and locked eyes with me. There always seemed to be some invisible string between us. Her smile brimmed with that internal supply of joy.
She tugged off her headphones then leaned on the railing of the metal frame around her. “Hey there. What are you doing here?”
“Thought I’d steal you away for some lunch.” I moved closer, grinning up at her.
“I could be persuaded.”
“I missed you.” I popped out before I could call it back.
Her eyes grew soft and she hurried to the edge where the ladder was. She forgot she was hooked and jerked back with a laugh.
“Careful,” I called up to her.
She unbuckled and slipped over the edge.
I reached up to grab her, bringing her down to meet me on the ground. “Hello there.”
“Hello there yourself.” She curled her arms around my neck. A spray of black and white paint dotted her face like freckles. “I didn’t want to wake you this morning. I don’t think you came to bed until after three.”
When the words were flowing, I was afraid to staunch them. “I think I’m close to the end.”
“Really?”
Which was why I was so itchy. I’d have to make some decisions. “At least the first pass. It probably needs a lot of cleanup, but yeah.”
She toyed with the ends of my hair. “That’s a good thing.”
“Since I’ve been dodging Monte’s calls...” I sighed. “Yeah, definitely a good thing.”
“She’s going to love it.”
“I don’t know.” I set her on her feet. There were too many young eyes around.
“I know.”
The sureness of her voice settled me a little. Mouse bounded over to us and circled us with a happy bark.
“I think he agrees.”
“He’s just happy to see you. And hoping the butcher will give him another bone.”
“I bet he will.” She locked the ladder so none of the kids got ideas about climbing up there.
“Do you want to eat here? Or change it up?”
“I could go for pizza and I need to stretch my legs. I’ve been crouching all morning.”
Mouse followed us as we walked the few blocks up Destiny to Pete’s Pizza. The sun was trying to break through the heavy cloud cover that had been sitting over the town for the last three days.
We grabbed a couple of slices and a can of soda for each of us. Mouse snoozed under the picnic table as I filled her in with the details I got from Dylan and that my scull had finally arrived.
“So now you actually get to take a look at the lake up close.”
“Think you’ll come out with me?”
“In your boat?” She licked the side of her thumb.
“Scull.” When she rolled her eyes, I laughed. “Yeah.” I toyed with the fingers of her free hand. “I’d like the first row to be with you.”
I’d made sure the boat could hold two. As if I’d always been planning to expand my life with her. My instincts continually made room for her, I was just too obtuse to pick up on it.
She tangled her fingers with mine. “As long as you don’t dunk me. That lake is cold.”
“Never.”
“Then let’s plan on it for the weekend. We don’t have much going on except my brother’s party.”
I winced. I hadn’t met her family yet, except for a brief interlude with Lance at the grocery store. I used to be good at being around people and I wouldn’t ever get out of my own way if I didn’t start living again.
She was worth it.
“Speaking of, I need to check on Keaton’s present. It was supposed to be delivered to my PO Box today.” She patted her overall pockets. “Shoot. I think I left my phone in my paint tray.”
“Use my phone.”
She glanced over at my bag. “Can I use your laptop?”
My hand froze over the messenger bag.
She squeezed my hand. “You know what? Never mind. It’s fine. I can check when I get back to Heavenly Bite.”
“No. It’s fine.” I pulled out my laptop and set it on the table. I plugged in my codes to unlock the encryption. LockSure’s logo split apart and my screen came to life. All my files were closed. Safe. I turned the laptop around to her.
“Are you sure?”
“Go ahead. Oh, wait. I need to give you my hotspot login.”
“We have a hotspot on Destiny. All the businesses offer free internet.”
She hit the space bar and I pulled the laptop away. “I don’t log into open internet. You shouldn’t either.” I spun the computer around to log in with my encrypted key but the screen flickered. I frowned. “Did you connect?”
She shook her head. “No. I haven’t even opened a browser.”
My fingers flew over the keys as my stomach bottomed out. The grease from the pizza coating my throat and threatening to explode out of my gut.
I turned off my Bluetooth and the wireless as a preventive measure, but a few files already started disappearing on my screen. “What the fuck?” Nothing was working. Had my computer auto-connected to the internet?
“What’s wrong?”
“I don’t know.” I tried to close the windows but another opened with a string of characters. I slammed the top of my laptop closed.
“Dutch, what happened?”
My fingers shook as I pulled the laptop off the table.
“Is it your files?”
I couldn’t answer her. The idea of my book being stolen again left the blood rushing in my ears, as the sounds of people walking down the sidewalk turned to white noise. The table wavered as my vision tunneled into a pinprick of light.
“Dutch.”
Her voice was distant. She stood and grabbed the person closest to her. I wasn’t sure what she was doing, but I was frozen. I was afraid to even open the laptop.
Was I overreacting? Was it just my laptop doing an update?
No.
I made sure no auto-updates ever happened.
She gripped my shoulder and she was talking to someone on the phone. The honey scent of her was the first thing to dent the panic. She grounded me with her touch. With shaking hands I stuffed the laptop into my bag.
Distantly, I heard her voice telling me to stand. She pulled me across the street to Haven Café.
“I’ll meet you there. Thanks, Lance.”
Lance?
I nearly tripped as she pulled me onto the sidewalk and through the doors. The café was nearly empty with just a handful of people loitering around the bakery. I vaguely recognized the sandy haired man who stood up in the corner. He rushed over to meet us.
“Dutch?”
I blinked out of my stupor. “Why are we here?”
Phoebe gripped my arm. “My brother works with computers. Would you let him look at your laptop?”
I gripped the bag against my side. “I—”
Her brother held his hands up in a placating gesture. “My job actually includes doing manual patches on websites that are infected with viruses or malicious code. If I can’t see a fix right away, I can brick your laptop so no one can get into it.”
Phoebe wrapped her hands around my arm. “Lance won’t let anything happen to your files. I promise.”
“You have backups, right?” Lance asked gently.
I blew out a breath. “Yes. I have four backup hard drives that aren’t connected to the internet.”
“Four is a bit of—” He cut himself off.
“Overkill?” I said, hoping my voice didn’t crack.
“Thorough.”
I snorted. “To say the least.”
He sat down at the table in the corner. “I’m in no rush. Take your time.”
Phoebe’s green eyes were swimming. “I promise I wouldn’t ask him if I didn’t think he could help.”
I licked my lips. “I had my friend set up an encrypted system for me. It requires a keychain lock.”
“That’s good. Makes my job a little easier. What system does it use?”
“LockSure.”
“Decent setup.” He gestured to the chair across from him. “Unlock your computer and let me see what I’m working with.”
I sat down and lifted the lid with shaking fingers. The computer automatically locked down when I closed the lid. I mistyped my password twice.
“Don’t lock us out before I can even look, Dutch.”
“Right.” I blew out a breath and painstakingly typed the alphanumerical code I knew better than my own birthday at this point. When the screen flickered on again, the screen jittered.
Lance took it from me and his fingers flew over the keys.
It took everything inside of me not to grab it away from him.
“Who’s been on your computer?”
“No one.” My hands fisted at my sides. “Why?”
“Are you sure?” His gaze never wavered from the screen.
“Yes, I’m fucking sure.”
Phoebe came up beside me, wrapping a hand around my fist. I almost shook her off, but her honey and paint-tinged scent wrapped around me, easing the panic. I lifted my arm and she immediately vined around me. “He’s the best at this. I promise.”
I couldn’t form words to reply to her. I just hoped she was right.
I couldn’t go through this again.
Even knowing it was safe, it didn’t matter.
It had to be Christopher.
How the fuck did he get in?