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Now, Cami's stomach was curdling. She was worried that Jacenta really did know something. She tried to reassure herself that there was no way she could know, and that she was most likely just giving her a pre-emptive warning based on what she knew about her and her personality.
"I won't," she lied.
She cut the call and stared at the laptop bag for a while.
This was dynamite, and it could destroy her. Was she really going to go any further with this? Was she going to try and unlock this stolen—not borrowed—laptop and see what it contained?
Or was she going to leave it.
But as she reached for her bag, Cami knew the answer already. She couldn't leave it. She was committed to this. She had to try and see what was inside.
And it was too late—far too late—to go back.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Cami opened the stolen laptop with hands that were shaking slightly. She felt like a criminal. She was a criminal. That was the harsh truth, and the only thing that remotely justified her actions was that Liam, without a doubt, was a shady character who had something to hide.
She needed to find out more, that was all. She didn't have to continue this way. She could walk away right now, put the laptop away, and never look at it again.
But it wouldn’t help her. Somebody might already know what she’d done. A hidden camera at the house could already have given Liam a heads-up on her identity. She had to act now, faster than him. This was war, and she had to keep a step ahead.
With that in her mind, Cami opened the laptop and waited while it booted up. She was watching closely, on the lookout for anything untoward. All there was, however, was a blank access screen.
As she began probing the device's security, Cami told herself that she could backtrack on this any time she wanted, or else she could reroute it through more legal channels. As soon as she had a better idea who he was and what he'd done, she could plead with the FBI to reinvestigate her sister's case—and him.
For now she didn't know enough. She was coming into this with a strong suspicion but zero proof, and she had to find out more.
The problem was that the security on this device was top notch. As Cami struggled with the access, she realized that Liam had far higher than average protection on this laptop.
He was clearly paranoid, because he had been up to no good. That was what she suspected.
She tried to brute-force her way through the password, and while that was running, she did her best to use a few other techniques and bypasses that were usually reliable. But not this time.
The problem was that this device was unbreakably interlinked to two alternative two-factor access points. In addition to the passcode, it required either voice recognition or else facial recognition. End even though she wrestled with ways to get around this, it seemed that those parameters were cast in steel.
Her opinion of Liam as an IT professional was, without a doubt, now higher than it had been. Either this guy knew his stuff, or he was clever enough to have used the very best expertise in setting it up. But her opinion of him as a person was still at rock bottom. He was scum, and she was going to dig deeper into the motives behind his actions.
"So, I need facial recognition or voice recognition," Cami said to herself.
Both those were going to be risky to obtain. Both would mean confronting Liam, and as yet, she had no idea whether he knew who she was or not. If he did, she might be walking into a death trap.
Could she call him?
Cami shook her head. Just getting a “hello” wouldn't be enough. She needed a reasonable snippet of clear, recorded speech to work with. That, again, meant being face to face. No other option.
Glancing around her room, hoping for a solution to come to mind, Cami looked at the narrow bed with its faded blue and white coverlet, the study notes taped to her walls, and one personal item that meant the world to her—the selfie she'd taken with the young FBI agent, Ethan, when they'd attended a local metal band's concert a week ago.
Ethan was part of Connor's team, sometimes providing backup to Connor from the FBI Boston office, but other times, he was working on separate cases. His passion for his job and his commitment to trying to set things right by catching the bad guys had given Cami a very different picture of the FBI.
Ethan was young, cute, intelligent—and he'd chosen to work there? That helped redeem the organization in her eyes.
Her gaze softened as she looked at their smiling faces, close together, Ethan's mischievous grin, and his classically good-looking face, accentuated by a strong jaw and crisply cut brown hair. She felt her stomach twist in a way that made her feel short of breath as she remembered how they'd kissed before they had said goodbye.
Ethan had been out of Boston for the past week on a case that had taken him elsewhere in Massachusetts, but they'd been texting, and he'd told her yesterday that they were wrapping things up. So, he might even be back tonight.
An idea occurred to Cami. Perhaps he would be willing to help her. At least, he might agree to come with her, if she could find a place and a time when she could get that all important recording from Liam.
With her heart beating faster at the prospect of seeing Ethan again, she texted the man who was becoming much more than just a friend.
