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His eyes fluttered but didn’t focus. Addy stepped near her and whispered in her ear. “He can hear you. Keep talking.”
She looked into Addy’s kind eyes. It made her eyes water all the more.
Her voice cracked. “Daddy.” Kenna cleared her throat and tried once more. “Daddy. How are you feeling today?”
His eyes fluttered open, and his mouth moved, but no sound came out. She glanced at Addy, who nodded her encouragement. Her mom sat at the foot of the bed and rubbed her father’s feet. Addy sat in the chair in the corner. There for support if she needed, but not too close.
“Daddy. I met a boy. He’s just the best, and he takes such good care of me. He’s so strong and handsome. He’s wonderful and I’ve never felt more loved. I’d love for you to meet him. His name is Spencer and I know you’ll be best friends.”
Tears streamed down her face, but she continued. “Jon’s on his way home. He’s excited to see you. Sean is too. After they visit with you, I’ll introduce you all to Spencer. I’m sure the boys will have to give him a hard time, like they did with other boys over the years. Remember when they teased Doug, my eighth-grade crush? That poor boy didn’t know what to do.”
Her mom chuckled behind her. “They sure made his life a living hell for a few days.”
She sniffed and nodded. “They sure did.”
She turned back to her father. She pulled her phone out of her pocket and dialed Sean’s number.
He answered, “I can’t get there any sooner, Kenna.”
She cleared her throat. “You need to talk to Daddy now, Sean. You may not have the chance later. I’m putting the phone by Daddy’s ear.”
She listened as Sean told her dad how much he loved him. How he taught him so much and set him on the right path in life and how there was no other father in the world better than he was. She used three tissues and was reaching for another when Sean called out, “Kenna.”
She pulled her phone up to her ear. “Yes. I’m here.”
Sean’s voice cracked. “Thank you. See you later." As Kenna ended the call she heard Sean's muffled sobs.
35
Spencer entered the house and followed Tate to his office. The day had been quiet after Gerard and Jasiah left. They’d done a search and checked out CyberSecure’s site. Cyber security companies had to register with certain agencies for bonding and other legal securities, since they usually had access to sensitive information. They’d crosschecked several sites and still had the email Kenna had received running through some forensic metadata checking. Nothing so far led to CyberSecure. And, as he thought about it, it was highly unlikely that they would give Kent, on his first day on the job, carte blanche to access any systems that he could then use to scrub data from emails.
Kent probably wasn’t their culprit, but better safe than sorry where Kenna’s safety was concerned.
Tate sat at his desk and picked up Kenna’s phone.
“We got it.”
Spencer walked around Tate’s desk and looked over his shoulder. The text Kenna had received was populating on the screen, a bit pixelated, but hopefully it would settle in and develop clearly.
Spencer picked up his phone, still plugged into Tate’s computer, which was running the software scan on it, and his text was populating too.
“Here too.”
“Good. As soon as they come through completely, we’ll get the number from the sender.”
He set his phone down, excited to tell Kenna what they’d found. He pulled up his burner phone and texted her.
“Where are you?”
Within a few seconds, she responded.
“Mom and Dad’s.”
“How is he?”
“He’s dying. The doctor said it won’t be long now.”
“I’ll be right there.”
