Page 71 of The Hacker
“I’m glad to hear that. We’ll keep someone with you until this is over.” Tully switched back to business mode. “After Chad left Dawn at her building, he went to the gym. He has a key and let himself in through a back door.”
“He has a key?!” Dawn exclaimed. “I thought I was the only trainer who has ever been given a key to the gym.”
“Useful to know,” Tully said. “He’s more than a trainer, I’m guessing.”
“Yeah, I’m beginning to grasp that,” she said.
“So you’re not going inside the gym now that we know Chad is there,” Leland said sharply to Tully. “Observation only.”
“We’ll see how it plays out,” Tully said. “How’s the data traffic?”
Leland glanced at the other screen. “Steady.” He bent closer to the laptop. “Tully, swear to me you won’t do anything stupid.”
“The question is how you define ‘stupid,’” Tully said.
“You know what I mean.” Leland’s posture telegraphed frustration. She almost expected him to leap through that screen and drag Tully away from the gym physically.
“I’m not going to spook them, so you can rest easy, partner. However, I am going to get out of the car so I can get a better view of the door Chad used. Don’t panic when you see me move.”
Leland straightened up and rolled his shoulders. “Don’t get too close.”
Dawn nudged a counter stool toward him. “Sit down and be comfortable.”
He nodded and turned the stool toward her before he sat. “Tell me what that scumbag Chad said to you.”
“Can Tully still hear me?”
“No, our mic is off now. We can hear him but not vice versa.” He took both her hands in his, his grasp warm and comforting.
“I don’t remember everything because, honestly, I was trying to figure out what to say back to him half the time.”
“I can imagine that wasn’t easy.”
“Two things stood out for me. One, that he decided to walk back to my apartment with me. But not immediately. It was kind of weird that he caught up with me. I think he’d expected me to walk faster and was afraid I might have noticed him behind me.” She gave Leland a slanted smile. “I was walking slowly to make sure my bodyguards could keep up with me.”
He gave her hands a light squeeze. “I appreciate that you followed my suggestion. Sorry it stuck you with Chad.”
“His presence convinced me he’s involved somehow, so that’s useful.” She shrugged. “The second thing was that he referred to my past experience. Which means either Ramón or Vicky told him. No one else at the gym knows about what happened to me. I only told Ramón, although I’m sure he shared it with Vicky.”
“That ties them together even more closely.”
“I hate that Chad knows.” She shivered. And she didn’t want Ramón to be the one who had told Chad about her.
Leland’s grip tightened around her hands. “I hate it too. I wish I could erase it from his memory the way I can delete a file.”
She looked down at his long, supple fingers curled around hers and thought of all the ways he’d touched her. Suddenly, it didn’t matter so much that Chad knew because Leland had given her back the joy of being touched without fear.
“I need to tell Tully this.” He released her hands and turned back to the computer, keying on the mic and relaying the salient points of the conversation to Tully.
“No surprise,” Tully said. “Okay, I’m going to move now. I want to be in position before any shit hits the fan. Pardon my language, ma’am.”
“Don’t edit your language for my sake. I’ve heard it all at the gym,” Dawn said.
The image on the heavy-duty screen began to change as Tully exited his car and moved swiftly along the street. After a few minutes, he turned, and Dawn recognized the alley that ran behind the gym. The image was clear and bright, even though it was about eleven by now.
“How come we can see everything so well when it’s dark?” she asked.
Leland smiled as his fingers danced over the keys. “Some enhancements I made to the camera and software. Video technology is becoming quite advanced, so I simply built on what existed. Now I’m going to pick up all of Tully’s watchers on-screen.”
