Page 10 of Taming Tesla

I look at Tess, hoping she’d offer some sort of explanation. She’s as stunned and confused as everyone else. “When?” she finally manages. “And why you?”

“He didn’t say. Just that it was his last time to call for a while and he wanted to make sure he talked to me about it in case….” Conner shoves his phone into his back pocket and clears his throat. “Anyway, like I was saying, your video hasn’t been uploaded to the internet yet,” he tells me, like the last thirty seconds never happened. “Hospital emergency rooms have notoriously shitty Wi-Fi,” Conner says, motioning for Tess to get out of his seat. She laughs and gives the chair another slow spin.

“James is in the hospital?” I don’t know if putting James in the hospital scares me or makes me proud. “How do you—”

“He hacked the hospital’s server,” Tess says, giving herself another slow spin. “Probably blocked their guest internet connection too.”

“He’s been admitted to the Boston General ER about twenty minutes ago,” Conner says, ignoring Tess’s explanation. “He’ll be there for a while, but he’ll get around to releasing that video eventually.”

“Okay,” I say, feeling hopeful for the first time since I turned on my phone this morning. “I can call the police. Show them the video.”

“We can call the cops, accuse him of blackmail,” he says, shaking his head dismissively. “But he’ll deny it. He manipulated the time stamp. At first glance, it looks like it was made months after the two of you broke up. He used a pre-paid cell to send you the link so, even if you could prove it was the two of you in that video, there’s no way to prove he’s the one who sent it—he’d play the victim. On top of that, you went to his place of business and assaulted him in front of witnesses after which, you fled the scene. The fact that you haven’t been arrested yet tells me James doesn’t want the cops involved any more than we do. We want to keep it that way. For now.”

“He assaulted her,” Patrick says, his tone dead calm.

“I know that,” Conner says patiently. “I’m telling you how he’s going to spin this if we get the cops involved.” He laughs and shakes his head. “But trust me, this shit did not go down the way he thought it would.”

He’s right. James expected me to roll over and play doormat like I always do.

“So, I go to the hospital and take the phone he used to send it to her,” Tess says like burglary was the simplest thing in the world.

“That won’t stop him.” Conner shakes his head. “He’s got the original file on a computer somewhere.” Finally giving up on reclaiming his seat, he pushes the chair away from the desk, and Tess rolls away with it.

“He’ll be busy for a few hours. We can break into his house, no problem,” Patrick says. I look at him over my shoulder, but he’s looking at Conner, trying to work it out in his head. “The issue is his work computer. I can get into the building but—”

“Stop,” I say loudly, holding up a hand. “No one is breaking into anywhere. No one is stealing anything. Not for me.” I press a hand to my forehead, shaking my head when Tess opens her mouth to protest. “It’s not worth the risk.” I’m not worth the risk.

“Fuck that,” Tess says, finally abandoning Conner’s chair. “Tell her,” she says, looking at Patrick who’s standing behind me. When he doesn’t say anything, she throws up her hands. “Somebody tell her.”

Before anyone can say anything, I turn around and face Patrick. “If you’re caught breaking into James’s office, it won’t matter what kind of evidence Conner’s friend can dig up—he’s Lisa’s lawyer. You’ll lose that lawsuit before you even get a court date.” I can tell from the hard set of his jaw that he doesn’t care.

I turn and look at Conner. “He’ll lose everything.”

Something passes over Conner’s face. It looks like defeat. “Okay—” He holds up his hands to stave off the arguments he knows is coming. “Let’s table the crime spree for now.” He sighs, pinching his forehead for a second like he has a headache coming on. “I’ll book Templeton an overnight stay at Boston General. That’ll give me some time to figure this out.”

“You can do that?” I say, still trying to reconcile the guy I know with someone who holds a couple of doctorates and a law degree.

“Yeah, I can do that.” He looks over my shoulder. “And I can do a hell of a lot more if Bonnie and Clyde will just give me some time.”

I look at Patrick, watch him give his cousin a tight, disgruntled nod.

“Tess?” I say, giving her an exasperated smile. She looks so outraged, so pissed off that I want to hug her as much as I want to shake her senseless. “Promise me you’ll stay out of it—for now.”

Tess throws herself back into Conner’s desk chair. “This is bullshit,” she says, shaking her head, looking at Conner like she can’t believe he’s going along with it. “We should be fucking this guy up, six ways from Sunday right now.”

“Cari’s right,” Con tells her, sounding like he just told her that her cat died. “We aren’t kids anymore. We’ve got to be smart about this. Adults.”

Tess glares up at him. “I hate being adults.”

“I know, Tessie.” Reaching down, he snags Tess by her boot and pulls her toward him. “I’ll take care of it, but I need you to trust me,” he says, looking down at her before looking up at me. “And I need that video.”

“I don’t want Patrick to see it,” I say. It’s a stupid thing to worry about. If Conner is any judge, I’m in serious trouble, but right now, it’s all I can think about. I can feel him behind me. Watching me. So close I can feel my heart squeeze in my chest because I know if Patrick sees that video… “He can’t see it.”

Conner smiles. “I couldn’t show him even if I wanted to,” he tells me. Reaching into his pocket, he pulls out the ten-dollar bill I gave him. “You retained me. That means I’m your attorney, Legs.” He stuffs the money back into his pocket with a grin. “Believe it or not, I take that shit seriously.”

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