Page 26 of Cassidy

He hesitated, instinctively knowing he wouldn’t have used the same password for his work computer on his personal device.

“Give it time,” Cassidy said as they headed back outside to Steele’s SUV. “It will come to you.”

Would it? Panic swelled in his chest, and he did his best to wrestle it back. Some of his memories had returned, mostly when he wasn’t expecting them. He closed his eyes and cleared his mind. He envisioned himself at home, sitting in the living room that had not been ransacked and trashed.

Cassha$myheart.

His eyelids flew open, and he quickly picked up the phone. He quickly accessed the settings and typed in the password that had flashed in his mind.

It worked!

“I’m in,” he said excitedly for Cassidy’s benefit. “I remembered the password.”

“Check your recent messages,” she urged.

He was already thumbing the home screen to bring them up. But there were none. Not a single message.

That couldn’t be right. He tried again, then went to his recent calls. There were none listed there either. A flash of panic surged again as he tried various ways to retrieve his messages and other personal data. But there was nothing. Not even any photos had been stored in the cloud.

Which meant only one thing. His phone had been wiped clean.

Cassidy glanced atGabe with concern. “What’s wrong?”

He lifted his tortured gaze to hers. “Somehow, my personal information on my phone has been sanitized.”

She frowned. “Sanitized meaning... what?”

“It’s all gone.” He sounded so dejected her heart ached for him. “Wiped clean.”

She had no idea how someone could even do that. “Maybe you typed in the wrong password and that’s why none of your data is in there.”

He slowly shook his head. “That’s not it. I’m sure it’s the right password.”

“I don’t understand,” she said after a long minute. “How can something like that even happen?”

“It’s not by accident,” Gabe said somberly. “It was done on purpose. Either by me or the bad guys.”

She tried to follow his logic. “So the bad guys assaulted you, took your phone, and wiped it clean? You have tech savvy bad guys after you?”

He turned to look at her. “You’re onto something, Cass. The bad guys must have tech skills. They stole my computers, my phone, and my gaming system. They smashed my TV screen for good measure.”

“Okay, but why?” She still didn’t understand. “Why would they do all of that?”

“I don’t know. But I’m very much afraid Travis is in the middle of this in some way. The case on his phone featured the latest video game, so he’s a techy too.”

That made sense. To a point. “I guess I’m not seeing how a computer game can be dangerous.”

“I’m not sure this is about the game itself. It could be more about proprietary information. Like maybe someone is trying to steal the video game source code for some reason. To pirate it or to sabotage it.”

She took the Wildflower Motel exit. This was so far outside her area of expertise she felt a headache coming on just thinking about it. “I think we need to eat lunch,” she said. “My brain needs protein.”

He looked impatient. “We don’t have time for that. We need to find Travis.”

“And we can’t do that if we don’t take care of ourselves.” She glanced at him with exasperation as she pulled off at the side of the road behind the large crime scene tech van. “You love to eat, Gabe. You’re always snacking, even while working. Your famous line is that you need food to think clearly.”

His brown eyes widened in surprise. Then he finally nodded. “Okay, you’re right. If I’m being honest, my stomach is growling. We can eat while we discuss our next steps.”

“Good.” She glanced over as Steele jogged up to the car. “Are you interested in lunch?”

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