Page 90 of #Starstruck

I brought my phone and laptop out to Gavin. “Can you tell if these were hacked? Or if somebody stole pictures from them?”

“Yeah,” he said, seating himself at the kitchen table. “What’s your password?”

“I don’t have a password.”

He glanced up at me, his eyes full of disbelief. “You don’t have a password? On either one?”

“Why would I?”

“Oh, I don’t know,” he muttered. “Maybe so somebody wouldn’t swipe pictures of your movie-star boyfriend and post them online.”

He was having an emotional day, so I decided to give him a pass.

“Did you open the pictures on your laptop?” he asked.

“I transferred them to my laptop after I got them, but that was it.”

He nodded and went to work. After about twenty minutes, he leaned back in his chair and sighed. “Okay. So you weren’t hacked. I can’t find any trace of software or viruses or worms or anything else on your phone or laptop that indicates this was done remotely. But when I went into your Event Viewer on your laptop and checked the logs, I can see that these files were accessed by somebody who didn’t know enough about computers to cover their tracks. This was really easy to find.”

Gavin turned the laptop toward me and showed me the pictures that had been accessed. He told me the date and time.

And my theory had been right. It had been during the design meeting. I didn’t know whether to be angry or sick.

I grabbed my phone and purse.

“Where are you going?” Lexi asked.

“The Foundation. I’m going to find out what happened.”

“I’m putting a password on your laptop!” Gavin yelled behind me as I closed the door. I stormed down the stairs, not caring if the paparazzi took pictures that showed me angry and upset. Because I was seriously pissed off. In an it-took-me-far-less-time-to-drive-to-the-Foundation-than-it-should-have sort of way.

I entered the building and headed straight for Stephanie’s office. She was responsible for this. Either she had done it herself or she’d put somebody up to it.

Before I could start screaming at her, she had the audacity to look up from her computer and smile at me. “Zoe. I’m glad you’re here. I wanted to talk to you about Chase Covington. Please take a seat.”

I was so surprised she had brought it up directly that when she indicated I should sit in one of her chairs, I did. Stephanie closed the door and settled back behind her desk.

“I’m concerned because it seems you’ve had a bit of a falling-out with Mr.Covington. I hope you were able to patch things up, and this won’t affect him coming to our benefit.”

Was she serious? “How did you know we were dating? I didn’t tell anyone.”

“Noah figured it out.”

Noah? How could that have possibly happened? We hadn’t even spoken since our failed dating attempt. “How?”

“He saw a picture of you onThe Helen Show. The one from Disneyland? He couldn’t see your face, but you had your keys out, and he recognized the fish key ring I’d given you. You’re the only person in the office who’s the right age and height, so we made an educated guess. I called my cousin Jerry. He works at ENZ. He said he would help prove it was you.”

The paparazzo I’d seen in the crowd. The same guy from the gas station. “Does Jerry have a red, white, and blue denim jacket?”

She pursed her lips, puzzlement shadowing her features. “I don’t know. But he found proof that you’ve been holding out on us, even though I told you over and over again how important this year’s fund-raiser is. Jerry discovered you’d been going into Chase’s neighborhood. A guard told him.”

I knew I shouldn’t have handed my license over to that security guard. This Jerry had probably bribed him for it. Had Jerry been following me? Was he the one who had set off Chase’s perimeter alarm? Had he seen my car?

But Jerry wasn’t the one who’d found the Disneyland pictures. “And the photos from my computer? Who did that? Was it you? You sent me to that meeting, making sure I was away from my laptop.”

Her eyes narrowed for a moment, like she was deciding whether to tell me something. Finally, she admitted, “Noah forwarded them to me.”

A lump formed in my throat. We weren’t friends any longer, but I had never imagined Noah would stoop to something so low. “Noah stole pictures from my laptop? Why would he do that? To make sure he was the one who got the full-time job instead of me?”

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