Page 47 of Off Her Game
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Tori’s phone rang. Unknown number. Maybe Tom decided to breach cell phone silence protocol since she left twenty minutes ago. “Hello?”
“Tori, Tori, Tori,” said a computer modified male voice followed by disparaging clicking. “You force me to teach you a lesson.”
“Who is this?” Sweat broke out over her body. She glanced around the subway. The other ten or so people in the car avoided eye contact.
“Keep looking. You won’t find me, but I can see you. An FBI meeting again? I thought we understood each other. You’re going to make me need to hurt you or Emma. I thought you understood the FBI isn’t interested in helping you. Not like I am.”
“Is this Symphis?” Tori kept looking around. She glared at the area where the cameras might be in the subway car.
“You’re my girl, Tori. Mine. Not Noah’s. Not Tom’s. I want to reward you, but I’m afraid you forced me to do this.”
“Leave Emma alone. What do you want from me?”
The call ended.
She dialed Emma. No answer.
She got off way before her stop. As she jogged to her sister’s apartment through rain that couldn’t decide if it wanted to drizzle or pour she tried calling Emma two more times. The second time she left a voicemail, “Call me.”
Once up to her sister’s place and inside, she paced. Still no call. She tried twice more. No answer. She phoned direct to NJ Legacy. No answer at her desk. No main receptionist working on a Sunday.
“What are you doing here?” Emma asked as she entered her kitchen, putting down her shoulder briefcase. “It’s four o’clock in the afternoon.”
Tori bolted upright. She hadn’t meant to conk out with her head on Emma’s kitchen table. “I tried calling you at least ten times. Why didn’t you answer?”
“I did call you back a half hour ago. You didn’t answer.”
She turned over her phone and saw she had a voicemail. Crap, she’d turned off the ringer when she was on her “date” with Noah this morning and forgot to turn it back on. “You’re okay? Nothing weird happened?”
“Well, I stopped by the ATM on my way home and my card didn’t work. My phone app says I have no accounts. I called the bank’s help line and they said I don’t have any accounts with them. So, no, I’m not really okay.”
“Shit.” She covered her face with her hands. “I’m sorry.”
“Did you hack the bank and erase my accounts?”
“What? No. I think—”
Emma jumped forward and put a hand over Tori’s mouth. She held up a finger to her lips and pulled Tori into her small bathroom. She flicked on the fan, whose racket made Tori wonder if it might shake itself off the ceiling.
Emma said, “Tom warned me I’ve been bugged.”
Tori’s eyes drifted closed for a moment. “I can’t believe my fuckups got you into this. That we’re forced to have a serious conversation in your deodorized, froufrou bathroom. I’m sorry. I got a call on my way home. On the subway. I think it was him. Symphis.”
“A call? Has he ever personally called you before?”
Tori shook her head. “Could’ve been one of his peons, but it sounded personal. He said he had to punish me for meeting with Tom today. He was going to do something to you.”
“You think he wiped my accounts as a weird way to punish you?”
Tori nodded.
“It’s a pain in the ass, but not the end of the world. I’ve got credit cards. I’ve got back up of all the account information. Tom told us to back everything up before we started in case of this. So, I’ll be at the bank when they open tomorrow. We’ll get it figured out.”
“It’s only a first step. You get that, don’t you? I don’t want you hurt because of this. Can you take a vacation, leave the country or something?”
“As if someone who can mess online can’t get me in another country?” Emma’s gaze bounced around the room. “They can’t control this. Tom thinks he can, but this gaming network is elusive, well funded, and it sounds like they eliminate anyone who threatens them. Tom didn’t tell any of us that he had another guy infiltrated before they recruited you.”
