My fingers flew over the keys as my stomach bottomed out. The grease from the pizza coating my throat and threatening to explode out of my gut.
I turned off my Bluetooth and the wireless as a preventive measure, but a few files already started disappearing on my screen.“What the fuck?” Nothing was working. Had my computer auto-connected to the internet?
“What’s wrong?”
“I don’t know.” I tried to close the windows but another opened with a string of characters. I slammed the top of my laptop closed.
“Dutch, what happened?”
My fingers shook as I pulled the laptop off the table.
“Is it your files?”
I couldn’t answer her. The idea of my book being stolen again left the blood rushing in my ears, as the sounds of peoplewalking down the sidewalk turned to white noise. The table wavered as my vision tunneled into a pinprick of light.
“Dutch.”
Her voice was distant. She stood and grabbed the person closest to her. I wasn’t sure what she was doing, but I was frozen. I was afraid to even open the laptop.
Was I overreacting? Was it just my laptop doing an update?
No.
I made sure no auto-updates ever happened.
She gripped my shoulder and she was talking to someone on the phone. The honey scent of her was the first thing to dent the panic. She grounded me with her touch. With shaking hands I stuffed the laptop into my bag.
Distantly, I heard her voice telling me to stand. She pulled me across the street to Haven Café.
“I’ll meet you there. Thanks, Lance.”
Lance?
I nearly tripped as she pulled me onto the sidewalk and through the doors. The café was nearly empty with just a handful of people loitering around the bakery. I vaguely recognized the sandy haired man who stood up in the corner. He rushed over to meet us.
“Dutch?”
I blinked out of my stupor. “Why are we here?”
Phoebe gripped my arm. “My brother works with computers. Would you let him look at your laptop?”
I gripped the bag against my side. “I?—”
Her brother held his hands up in a placating gesture. “My job actually includes doing manual patches on websites that are infected with viruses or malicious code. If I can’t see a fix right away, I can brick your laptop so no one can get into it.”
Phoebe wrapped her hands around my arm. “Lance won’t let anything happen to your files. I promise.”
“You have backups, right?” Lance asked gently.
I blew out a breath. “Yes. I have four backup hard drives that aren’t connected to the internet.”
“Four is a bit of—” He cut himself off.
“Overkill?” I said, hoping my voice didn’t crack.
“Thorough.”
I snorted. “To say the least.”
