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For his own part, he felt like their time together had been preempted and he hadn’t been able to pull himself from those fantasies. Or that’s what he told himself was the case. Truthfully, she’d been on his mind most of every waking minute of each day that she’d been gone. He even dreamed about her, making his unconscious mind a cohort in the sappy, lovesick way he felt.
Kendall heard the phone start ringing as soon as they stepped inside the home they shared, and not for the first time felt his heart leap, hoping for a call from Jocelyn. They were upstairs in the main house this time, and not in their basement play area. He picked up the phone before it rang a second time.
“Hello.” He hadn’t meant for his tone to sound so eager. So he was even more than slightly disappointed when his brother Clay said, “Hey, it’s me. I heard you called a while back. What’s up?”
“Not Jocelyn,” he mouthed to Logan. “It’s about time you called me back, bro,” Kendall added and watched Logan nod then head upstairs.
“Well, I was on the run, dodging an assassin for a bit. Then I got married again. Sorry to keep you waiting so long.” Clay told him briefly about the person who tried to kill him, and also about the woman he married. Her name was Angelica. Each subject was equally intriguing, but Kendall was under the gun from the other owners to resolve this security issue with the compound computer being hacked, and additionally, last week’s break-in from Reggie.
“Wow. An assassin, and another wife. You have been busy, but that’s still no excuse. I’d love to chat with you more about your jet-set lifestyle, and I’d also love to meet your wife, but first you need to get up here and take a look at our security system.”
Clay’s long sigh came over the phone. “What’s the problem? Maybe I can just talk you through it over the phone.”
“Someone hacked into the compound computer security about three weeks ago. The report that spit out only said there’d been a breach, but not where it came from.”
There was a long silence at the end of the phone line. “Surprising.” Clay finally said the one word and nothing else. More time elapsed in silence. Apparently, it was going to be one of those conversations, meaning the limited conversational ones Clay liked best.
Kendall rolled his eyes. “Yes. Especially since you told me that the compound security was hack-proof.”
Clay released another sigh over the phone line and responded, “Hack-resistant is probably more accurate. What did the hacker do while in your system?”
“I don’t know, but it happened again a week ago. Although, I may know who got in the second time. Still, I can’t prove it. That’s where you come in. Nothing was changed, nothing was added or introduced that I can tell, but I don’t want to be surprised by an all-consuming virus later on wrecking our entire system.”
“Right. I get it. I’ll look into it. But I wouldn’t worry. There’s a failsafe built in to shut down the system once a breach has been recognized, if there is any viable threat to the software. Who do you think got in the second time? Maybe that’s who got in the first time.”
“I considered that. And I believe it’s possible. The guy is a blogger-slash-journalist-slash pain in my ass trying to find a salacious sex scandal at our amusement park afterhours. His name is Reggie Bender.”
In a sardonic tone, Clay said, “Never heard of him.”
“And did you think you might have?”
“Well, anyone with the skills to hack your custom-designed system—the one I personally installed for you—would definitely be someone I’d recognize.”
“Oh yeah? So there aren’t very many of these skilled hackers who could get into this system?”
“There are probably many that might be able to get in, but the system would shut down and kick them out and also leave a wide trail to follow. I’m assuming you didn’t get a report from the system with a name, and that it didn’t shut down.”
“No. This person didn’t leave any trail. The system didn’t shut down. Just a breach notification.”
“Right. So like I said there are only a few who could pull that off.” Clay didn’t seem too worried. This relaxed Kendall somewhat. Having Reggie anywhere near their system gave him heart palpitations.
