Page 15 of Crossing Paths
That gleam from earlier returned to Laken’s gaze, making Norah immediately regret mentioning how busy they were. After all, it was only because half their workforce was chasing down their mom, plus the jobs Barney insisted they do, plus the fact that they’d need as much cash as possible over the next few weeks and months if Barney ended up yanking their house out from underneath them, and she wasn’t about to share any of these facts with Laken Albee of all people.
“Well, I’m going to have to insist on getting together before I leave.” Laken pushed her lips out in a pout.
Norah felt the prickle of nervous sweat on the back of her neck. If Laken wasn’t giving up, that meant the odds were high that Norah would end up partying with her former classmates very soon. She was terrible at turning people down. She racked her brain for excuses to allow her escape from the social scene, but panic made her mind blank.
“How about coffee?”
Laken’s suggestion was so unexpectedly simple and almostnot horrible compared to partying with a crowd of her high-school nemeses at Dutch’s of all places that Norah found herself not hating the idea. Besides, she’d stepped out of her comfort zone with Chloe, and she’d managed to possibly get a new friend—or at least a lead to Leifsen—out of it. Maybe she should give Laken a chance. “Okay.”
“Great!” Laken gave her a wide-eyed, excited look as if she was just as surprised by her acceptance as Norah was. “Ten a.m. tomorrow?”
“I can’t at ten.” The thought of Dash and her next training session made her smile, if only for a split second. The sensations she felt when Dash popped into her mind were novel. She’d never experienced warm, fluttery feelings like this before, and she wondered if this was what a crush felt like.
“Oh? Why not? What was that smile for?” Laken’s coy questions were like a spray of Raid, immediately killing off every butterfly dancing in Norah’s stomach, and she felt her smile slip away as the other woman continued throwing out questions. “Are you doing something fun? Can I come?”
Laken’s casual nosiness made Norah’s eyebrows shoot up—along with her anxiety level. The thought of bringing Laken along to her training session was even more horrifying than the idea of one of Norah’s sisters accompanying her. “Gynecological exam.” The words were out before the heat in her cheeks caught up.
Despite the embarrassment, Laken’s taken-aback expression made Norah give an amused snort. She’d obviously chosen the right fake excuse if it had knocked Laken back a few steps.
“Before that then.” To Norah’s dismay, Laken wasn’t slapped down for long. “I’ll see you at the Java Bean around nine.”
No good excuse came to mind, so Norah let all the air out of her lungs in defeat. “Sounds…” She couldn’t saygood, because it wasn’t good. Not at all. “Sounds like a plan.”
As Laken beamed, Norah tried to hide her dismay. She was already dreading the next morning.
***
Sitting on her bed that evening, Norah stared at the black screen of her laptop, her stomach churning. For the past half hour, she’d been unable to boot the thing up. She felt like her computer had betrayed her, which was stupid, since it was an inanimate object. It was her fault for not making her system secure enough, for allowing Devon Leifsen to keep wiggling in through holes she’d unknowingly left open. If she couldn’t turn it on, then she couldn’t figure out how he’d gotten in, much less patch those holes.
Even knowing that, she couldn’t bring herself to boot up the laptop. With an impatient huff, she moved it off her thighs and onto the bed. Feeling like an abject failure at life, she got up and went downstairs to see Cara heading for the garage door.
Her sister paused, looking surprised. “Everything okay? Usually you don’t emerge out of your research cave this quickly.”
“Fine. Just having technical difficulties.”More mental difficulties than technical, but the technology doesn’t work if I can’t bring myself to turn it on.
“Feel free to use my laptop,” Cara said, opening the door.“I’m going out with Henry tonight.” She actually blushed a little, and Norah had to smile.
As strange as all the recent changes had been, she had to admit that Cara and Henry were objectively adorable together. Henry seemed like a really good guy now that they knew he was an FBI agent rather than a sociopathic murderer.
“Okay, thanks.” Norah realized that using Cara’s computer might be perfect. There was no way for Leifsen to tell that it was now Norah using the device, not her sister. As her brain whirred with her rapid thoughts, she realized that Cara was still hovering half in and half out of the doorway. Norah cocked her head in question. Figuring Cara might be waiting for her to say goodbye, she added, “Have fun tonight.”
Cara smiled, creating deep dimples in her cheeks. “Thanks. Molly and John just ran to pick up a few things. Will you be okay here alone until they get back?”
“Sure.” The reassurance came easily even as a cool prickle ran up her spine. The sun would be setting in just over an hour, and the thought of being in the house by herself, not wanting to turn on any lights just in case Leifsen was outside watching, was nerve-racking. Even though she knew there was a very minimal chance he was actively stalking her rather than just creeping into her laptop, she was still spooked by the whole thing. As much to reassure herself as her sister, she pulled her cell phone out of one of her hoodie pockets and a small Taser out of the other.
Giving the phone and weapon an approving nod, Cara said, “It’s good you’re smarter than me. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“I’m not smarter,” Norah protested. “I just learned from your experiences.”
Cara blew a raspberry as she moved into the garage. “You aresosmarter. Bye!”
“Bye.” The door swung closed on the word, and Norah moved to lock it behind her sister. As she heard the automatic garage door opener kick on, she moved to the alarm keypad. Another thing her sister’s experience had done was make her lose trust in the security system, especially since disarming systems was Leifsen’s thing, but she still set it onoccupied—armed. Even flawed protection was better than none.
Warrant padded after her as she checked to make sure the front door was securely locked and then returned to the kitchen for Cara’s laptop. She spent more time than actually required to create a perfect square out of electrical tape and affix it over the camera. Once the lens was covered, she knew she had to take the next step. Without allowing herself to think about it, she jabbed the power button, turning it on before she could wallow in her doubts and anxiety. As it booted up, she busied herself with other tasks—getting a drink of water, scratching Warrant behind the ears, settling into a kitchen chair, lining the edge of the laptop to run perfectly parallel to the edge of the battered kitchen table, and arranging herself to allow for premium comfort. Even though she knew keeping her eyes off the screen wouldn’t help if Leifsen decided to hack Cara’s computer too, she still wouldn’t watch. The tiny illogical part of her brain was insistent that she should keep her head buried firmly in the sand if she wanted to stay safe.
When enough time passed that she was sure the computer was fully booted and she was starting to feel silly, she forced herself to focus on the screen. Logging in, she took her first full breath in what felt like an hour when she didn’t see the text box she’d been dreading. Wiping her palms against her jeans, she lifted them to the keyboard.
As soon as she dove into her usual research sites, her stomach untwisted, and she relaxed into the comforting familiarity of her job. Since Cara’s laptop wasn’t hers, she felt like it was a mask she could wear, a way of disguising her identity—albeit thinly. She saw that Chloe Ballister’s band would be playing at Dutch’s that weekend, and she added a note to the report she was preparing for Molly. It would be worth having someone there to talk to Chloe and check to see if Leifsen had tagged along.
