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“I’m not following. What are you all seeing?”
“The beginning of these letters are full of the overly zealot buzz words of an extremist group. All the trigger words are present and accounted for. Textbook terrorist.” Fitz let out a sound of disgust. “I should have seen that sooner.” Of course this would have hit him hard. His skill set was profiling out targets or unknown threats. I could have chewed him out for the oversight, but we’d all missed it. I’d missed it, and I probably wouldn’t have if I hadn’t been so distracted by the damn woman we were keeping safe.
“But then, the subject of the rage and hate turns more toward the former Senator, himself. That’s where Lake is introduced, not more than the ‘slut daughter’, but she’s mentioned. But look as they continue. The terrorist rhetoric is almost an afterthought, sprinkled in at the end. The subject matter turns more toward Lake. The hate is directed ather,” Cabot said, pointing to the final letters as well as a copy of the text.
“So she’s been the target all along?” Turner asked, putting a voice to what the rest of the room had been wondering.
“Hard to tell definitively,” Fitz sighed. “Could have been aiming for her all along, or someone got a little obsessed as the letters came. Sheisquite stunning.”
The comment had been delivered in the same matter-of-fact tone as the rest of his assessment, but I still wanted to hit him for it. Reactionary as usual when she was brought up, and I wasn’t stupid enough to think it wasn’t jealousy. Unwanted and unwarranted, which only made my blood boil further since I couldn’t lock it down as quickly as I could my other emotions. I wasn’t sure when my hands had clenched into fists, but when Fitz was staring pointedly between them and my face, I forced the placid calm to take over and relaxed my fingers until they were unclenched. “Thank you for the assessment, Doc. But this leaves us at a crossroads.”
“How so? Doesn’t this help us figure out who is behind all this bullshit?” Turner was looking between us, trying to understand what he was still missing.
“If we could say for certain this was directed at Lake,” Cabot explained, filling in the silence, “we could devote our time and resources to her life and background, but you heard Fitz. This could be some guy who started his letter campaign with one goal, and, in his obsession with Robert Harrington, found himself attracted to his daughter. She might have someone completely stuck on her to the point of changing goals.”
I felt three sets of eyes slowly rest on me, and I knew exactly what they were silently accusing. I’d been thrown off by Lake the second I’d been forced into her space. She’d kept me on edge and reacting to each look and word. I was, as Cabot put it, stuck as well. I refused to return any of their looks and shoved my hands into the pockets of my pants, fingers colliding with a stolen cell phone that I really needed to return. My eyes moved to the row of screens in the corner that had all the camera feeds pulled up, one screen completely black thanks to Lake and a can of spray paint.
It didn’t take long to pick out the lone figure in the library of the home, busy on a laptop at an ornate desk. I stepped closer and studied the woman on the screen. She was sitting cross legged on the swivel chair, dark hair pulled into a messy knot on top of her head, a tank top and leggings contrasting with the expensive outfit she’d been wearing before. She also had glasses on as she typed away, giving her a studious look completely at odds with the Lake Harrington the world saw. She was focused in a way I’d yet to see, and I couldn’t stop myself from stepping closer, enthralled with the dressed down version she was now. She’d been gorgeous before, but in the light of her laptop, biting at her bottom lip and stopping her work only to slide the glasses back up her nose with her index finger…well, hell, this little dork was completely breathtaking.
“What’s she doing?” I asked, voice rougher than usual, completely engrossed in the image of the woman working hard on something.
“No idea,” Kasey said. It was the tone of irritation that broke my concentration from the feed to look back at the one person who was never unaware of someone’s keystrokes.
“How do you not know?”
“That computer might as well have come from the NSA,” Kasey grumbled looking at something on his end, probably the same feed I’d been focused on. But judging by his glare at the screen, I had a feeling he was staring at the offending object and not the woman using it.
“You’re telling me you have no access at all to that laptop?” I didn’t even try to hide the shock and outrage in my voice. I hated unknowns in any job, and the fact that she had a computer that she could be using for literally anything, was a huge red flag that I should have been told about immediately.
Kasey finally turned his attention back to the screen that obviously held the video call. “Every inch of that thing is encrypted, which is another reason it irritates me. Why does a former Senator’s daughter, who only lives to party, need a computer that is so heavily encrypted thatIcan’t even worm my way in?”
The room fell silent, even the sound of typing from the three tech specialists stopping as we all tried to muse on what the answer could have been. No one could reconcile the party girl with the woman rapidly working on the laptop that none of us had access to. Finally it was Cabot who broke the deafening silence. “What the fuck did we get into?”
I glared back to the camera feed where our client sat. Whathadwe gotten into? It had been hard enough with the idea that someone was targeting the former Senator for terroristic reasons, but switching the focus to his daughter threw everything we knew out the window. “Kasey, I want you to start pulling history on Lake Harrington right now. I want everything you can get your hands on. School records, medical records, travel history…” Kasey’s groan cut my demands off. “What?” I snapped looking back at the man on the screen.
“That’s just like, alotof work. Travel history alone is going to take a dedicated team. The girl's wanderlust is boundless.”
“In the time it took you to complain about that, you could have already had her school records pulled up,” Fitz said, surprising the room with an irritated tone that could have given me a run for my money.
“Oh I got that and counseling reports starting from when she was thirteen.” He shot Fitz a sarcastic smile. “I am more than capable of complainingwhileI do my damn job.” Without another word, the screen with his face was blank, letting us know Kasey had disconnected unceremoniously.
As the room fell into a heavy silence and the techs resumed their work, Cabot, Turner and Fitz studied various reports while I continued to watch the screen. I didn’t like being in the dark when it came to clients, and something just didn’t add up with trust fund brat, Lake Harrington. She didn’t even resemble the woman gracing the gossip sites weekly, studious and determined curled up on herself.
“Someone should feed her,” Cabot said, nodding toward the screen. I turned to face the men only to see them looking at me expectantly… again.
“Turner, go grab something for her,” I responded to the room at large before making my own abrupt exit.
I’d spent the days before my official meeting with Lake, mapping and setting up the equipment with Cabot, so I knew my way around the estate as I walked down the hall to the library. The room was cast into a darkness only achieved by pulling all the shades down, something I doubted this room had experienced since it was built. The natural light played off the rich cherry of the wood, shined off the gold accents, and even gave a romantic air to the old books lining the walls. But since the threat had surfaced, all windows were to remain locked and curtains drawn if and when possible. Lake hadn’t seemed to fight the rule and instead was illuminated by nothing more than the small antique lamp atop the desk and the glow of her laptop screen.
She seemed to be curled impossibly on herself as she nibbled on the edge of her thumb, attention completely on the work in front of her. I couldn’t really blame her for being oblivious to my presence; I made it a point to stay silent. Knowing that she hadn’t detected my presence, I kept my tone soft and gentle in an attempt to keep her at ease.
“Didn’t know you wore glasses.” My attempt at politeness and conversation. I inwardly rolled my eyes at myself. Fitz would have been glaring at me if he were here. And knowing the guys, they were probably watching the entire exchange from command.
Even with my gentle tone, Lake still gave a start before yanking her glasses off and slamming the lid of her laptop down. I studied her for a sign of guilt, like she’d been caught doing something wrong or illegal, but there was nothing more than a guarded woman eyeing me up in return. For signs of threat? I honestly couldn’t read her at that moment.
“I don’t,” She said stiffly before looking down at the pair in her hand and shaking her head. “I mean they aren’t prescription. They’re blue light glasses.”
“Spend that much time behind a screen?” I didn’t even attempt to hide the suspicion behind the words.
