Page 42 of The Rough Ride

What the hell?

As she unloaded Ella into the stroller and hung the diaper bag over the handle, she questioned the older gentlemanwearing a Vietnam vet hat, “Did you happen to see who left this stroller here, sir?”

He looked up from his book.

“Waiting for my grandchildren. Some lady in a black hoodie left it there about half hour ago. Kept thinking it was pretty strange she was wearing a hoodie in ninety-some degrees, and even stranger she pushed a stroller without a little one in it. Yours, huh?”

“Yes indeedy, it is. It disappeared when I was in a restroom a ways back.”

“I’m glad you found it. That’s a pretty baby girl you’ve got there.”

“Thank you. She’s a sweetheart.” Liz pointed at his hat. “And thank you for your service.”

“You’re welcome, honey. I’m one of the lucky ones. Came home from the jungle at twenty-one and lived a full life.”

“Good for you.”

He smiled and tipped his hat.

Liz had every intention of living a long and full life, too. But first—she’d like to unleash some whoop-ass on whoeverborrowedher stroller.

25

Thank goodness for packed restrooms.

Illusia sat in her car with the air conditioning on full blast, guzzling a coke. She’d tossed her brother’s hoodie into the trunk where it awaited a good wash. Today waswaytoo hot to be tromping around a zoo wearing the winter-weight sweatshirt, but security cameras lurked everywhere in this place. She couldn’t risk her face on camera, just in case.

It had been thelongestday ever. She’d followed Liz since that morning when her car pulled out of the driveway. The tang of victory was still fresh in her mind at the luck of it all. Liz Nelson rarely left the house, except to go to work. Yeah, it’d sucked to shell out the forty-five dollars for admission to the freaking zoo, but it had paid off big time.

She’d stayed twenty paces behind Liz and her kid all day, waiting for the chance to nab her phone. Ever since Liz’s workplace went dark and the server shut down last week, she’d needed an access point to get back in. DHS had shored it up like Fort Knox.

Of course, she could hack in. She could breach anything, anywhere, but instead, she’d used her time wisely and invented a new worm that would remain undetected for several weeks. Once her littleLiz projectended, she’d sell it on the black market, and then to hell with going to work every day.

All Illusia had needed to do was install the new program on Liz’s phone. Once Liz stowed her purse and phone in the security area at work, it’d be a cinch to access a portal. It wassomuch smarter than chipping away at the dozens of security measures from the outside.

She’d been right behind Liz in the bird house, feeling Liz’s pockets when Liz shot the video of the bird on her finger. Illusia ducked out of the way fast to avoid being in the picture and saw Liz slide the phone into the stroller pocket.

Seriously. Her luck was on the rise. She ought to buy a lottery ticket on the way home. Illusia grinned at the memory of Liz ditching that stroller outside the restroom. It was sitting right there for the taking. Illusia had waited for the door to close and nonchalantly rolled the stroller off the grass patch and pushed it into the flow of traffic. Then she’d found an unoccupied bench about a mile away and installed the program.

And just in case someone discovered the worm, she’d left the tiniest reference to SecureIT, so Nick’s company would take the fall in the event of any backlash. As far as she was concerned, there weren’t enough nasty paybacks in hell for a man who called out another woman’s name during playtime.

The shame of it all? That little baby was all smiles and chubby fingers. It kind of hurt her heart that the kid would grow up without a mother like Illusia had, but that was theproblem with Liz having been the command leader on a mission gone wrong.

At some point, heads had to roll.

Sorry, Liz.

26

Ahalf-hour of television time was a glorious reprieve from Ollie’s perpetual motion. The little urchin climbed onto Nick’s lap and fell into a state of rapture every time the cartoon characters sang. And during commercials, Ollie entertained himself by pulling goldfish crackers in and out of Nick’s golf shirt pocket, his fourth of the day. He hadn’t been quick enough with the peepee-teepee before nap time and endured another spraying. The sliver of hope he’d felt with the possibility of hiring a nanny service had dive bombed after a few phone calls. They’d all required initial in-person interviews, background checks, plus their answering machines requested he leave a message and they’d get back to him after the holiday weekend.

Natalie enjoyed her tea party at the dining room table. She’d agreed to let Nick skip the event as long as chocolate milk and the little cupcakes confiscated from the pantry served as the treats du jour. The last time he’d looked, the three dolls she’d invited wore more chocolate icing than the cupcakes.

Biggs had settled into the security office, but not before remarking several times that Nicklooked real good with little kids hanging off him.All in all, it had been an okay day. No blood, a few tears, and Nick never would’ve guessed it, but the knot in his stomach had eased.

Biggs’ baritone voice invaded the room. “Hey Boss…”

“Yeah?” Nick’s stomach growled as he chewed the goldfish cracker Ollie stuffed in his mouth with his chubby little hands. Biggs had ordered Chinese a half hour ago. It couldn’t get there fast enough.

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