Chapter 2 #2
“Or beaked,” Ava said as she pulled open her laptop to search for more information about Vivienne and Theodore Bancroft.
Before she finished typing their names, her phone chimed.
“Woo, that was fast,” Alex said, his fingers flying across the keyboard. “Maybe Raven is going to open the flood gates.”
Ava picked up her phone, her forehead creasing as she stared at the screen.
“Well?” Alex asked. “What did Raven say? Buzz off?”
“It’s not from Raven.”
Alex froze, his eyes rising from his laptop. “Is it Chris?”
“No, and even if it was, you don’t need to get all tense.” She stroked his hair. “Anyway, it’s Julia Stanton.”
Ava scanned the message. Hey, Ava, it’s been a while. I’m so sorry I haven’t kept in better touch. And I’m double sorry, but I have a big favor to ask. I completely understand if you say no, but I’m desperate.
Alex’s eyebrows knitted as he shot a glance to Ava. “Sunshine?”
“Yeah. Weird,” she answered as she typed a message. “She seems…upset. She’s asking for a favor.”
“I didn’t realize you two stayed in touch.”
“We haven’t. I mean a few times she’ll like social media posts, but we haven’t talked or anything.”
“She was your sorority sister, right?”
“Uh-huh,” Ava answered as she sent her response. Hey Julia! No worries. I haven’t exactly been excellent at keeping in touch either. Your message sounds kind of dire. How can I help?
Before she could set her phone down, it chimed again.
“Wow, she must desperate, she answered already.”
Alex peered over her shoulder as she read the text. Yeah, it sort of is. I can text it all to you, but it may be easier to explain over the phone? But since I’m asking you for a favor, I’ll work however you’d like.
“Wonder what’s going on,” he pondered.
“I don’t know. I’ll give her a call.” Ava pressed the call button next to Julia’s name and pressed the phone to her ear. “Are you getting anywhere on that?”
“Nope,” Alex said with a sigh.
“You’re the best. You can do it,” Ava whispered as Julia’s voice buzzed in her ear.
“Ava, hi.”
Ava shifted on her cushion, her hand falling to stroke Gizmo’s back. “Hey, Julia. What’s up? You sound really…desperate. Everything okay?”
“Yes, and no. I’m…facing a problem that I can’t fix on my own.” Julia’s voice sounded shaky.
“Okay?” Ava asked, wondering how she could help.
“I…” Julia hesitated as though searching for the right words. “I hate to ask this, but…is there any chance you are still in contact with Alex?”
“Yes. Actually, he’s sitting right next to me.” Ava patted his thigh, raising her eyebrows as he glanced at her.
“Oh, uhh…”
“I’ll put you on speaker, and you can tell us both. Just a second.” Ava lowered the phone and tapped her speakerphone button. “Okay, Julia, you’re on with both of us.”
“Hi, Alex. It’s been a while.”
“It definitely has been,” Alex answered.
“I’m not sure if you remember me–”
“Of course, I do. You passed your required computer science course because of me. I fixed your double-linked list.”
Ava smiled at the memory, rubbing his shoulder.
“Yes, you did. In two seconds flat.”
“Ahhh, I think it was more like one-and-a-half seconds, but who’s counting,” Alex teased.
A laugh answered him before he spoke again.
“So, what can I do you for, kid?”
“I’m not exactly a kid anymore,” Julia argued.
Ava chuckled. “Who is?”
“You two are still a little younger than me. Anyway, uh, I have an issue, and I don’t know if there’s anything I can do about it. I need a professional assessment.”
“Shoot,” Alex said.
“This is a little hard to explain, but the long and short of it is there are some…compromising photos of my stepdaughter that someone has gotten a hold of. They’re using them as leverage to make life pretty uncomfortable.
In the age of cloud storage, though, there’s no way to get rid of them, really, right? ”
Alex and Ava exchanged a glance. The last Ava had heard, Julia was unmarried.
“Were they posted on socials or what?” Alex asked.
“No. They’re not public. Not yet. We’re trying to stop that from happening.”
“Are you paying someone specific?” Alex questioned.
“In a manner of speaking, yes.”
Ava wrinkled her nose. “Well, that’s never going to work. They’ll just keep demanding more. And by the way, when did you get married?”
“Almost two years ago.”
Alex slid his hand around Ava’s, pulling it up to kiss her knuckles.
“Aw, that’s great. To Luke?”
“No,” she answered. “Not Luke.”
“Well, the good news is,” Alex announced, “if they’re not already out in the wild, there may be a chance at containing them. Once they get plastered all over social media, it’s impossible to make sure every trace is scrubbed.”
“They’re not yet, but…how can we be certain we’ve gotten them all?”
“If they’re tied to a specific person, we just need some access to them and a few accounts, then I’ll let my little bots crawl across all their accounts and major spots on the web for image storage and scrub them all. I’ll leave no stone unturned…pun intended, kid.”
Ava shot him an amused glance as she shook her head.
“Well, this sounds hopeful, at least. Umm…”
The line went dead as Julia searched for more words, but Alex beat her to it.
“If you’re trying to think of a polite way to ask me to do this, don’t.” He paused for a second before adding, “I’m happy to do it.”
Julia’s voice lifted. “Oh, Alex, thank you. How do we go about this? And what can I give you in return?”
“Nothing, kid. A favor for a friend. We should do this right away, though, before this joker decides they’re going to do something stupid. I’ll get the chopper up. I can be in Harbor Cove in a few hours.”
“I’m not in in Harbor Cove, actually,” she answered. “I’m in New Orleans now.”
Ava’s eyes went wide. “Wow, that’s a big move for a small-town Mainer.”
“Yeah, it is,” Julia said with a chuckle.
“All right. I’ll take the jet. I’ll leave in the morning, be there by the afternoon tomorrow. Sound good?” Alex asked.
“That sounds perfect. Alex, Ava, thank you so much. I can’t tell you how much this means to me and will mean to Grant and Sierra.”
“Grant,” Ava repeated. “Your husband?”
“Yes, I…married Grant Harrington.”
Alex shot Ava a surprised glance. “Grant Harrington. Energy mogul. I think we sold him some chips a while back, but I never met him. Interesting. This’ll be fun.”
“You can come straight to Harrington House when you get here. I’ll send a driver to the airport to pick you up.”
“Cool,” Alex said. “See you tomorrow, kid. And don’t worry. We’ll get this solved. Alex Stone is, after all, the ace of cyberspace.”
Ava patted his shoulder at his nickname for himself.
“Yes, you are. Thank you. See you tomorrow.”
They ended the call, glancing at each other.
“Well, that was bizarre,” Ava said. “Thank you for helping her.”
“Of course. She was a pretty good friend of yours, right?”
Ava nodded, setting her phone aside. “So, how long do you think this will take?”
“Depends,” Alex said. “On how much access we have to the person doing this, how long it takes to track. Why?”
“I’ll miss you,” Ava answered, returning to her laptop.
Alex slid an arm around her shoulder. “Come with me. It’ll be our first trip together after…you know not being a fake marriage anymore. I’ll take you to Paris after.”
She grinned at him. “Okay. Maybe I can even see Julia. Sounds like she’s leading a very interesting life.”
Her phone chimed again. “I wonder if that’s Julia again.”
She checked the display, finding the message from Raven instead of Julia. If I need to tell you what to pay attention to, you shouldn’t be on the team. You’re better than this, Ava. Now, get to work. I expect results. Failure is not an option.
With a sigh, she stared at the warning message. What would happen to her if she didn’t achieve the desired results?