Page 44 of Wired Justice

Chapter Twenty-Six

The troublewith going on a police raid was that Jake, as a civilian, had to stay behind.

He sat in the armored, bulletproof SUV parked in the driveway of Chernobiac’s house, grinding his teeth, and metaphorically twiddling his thumbs—which meant cleaning his gun.

He had spent the drive to Ocean View Terrace drawing an interior schematic of the floor plan of the house as he had memorized it, notating the whereabouts of Chernobiac’s stash behind the laundry hamper in the linen closet. His crude map had been plucked from his fingers as they drove up to the dwelling.

Freitan gave him a predatory smirk, waggling the map. “Sit tight, honeybuns. We’ll be back soon enough to have you for lunch.”

Did the woman ever say anything that wasn’t sexist or condescending? Humiliated and seething, Jake watched as the detectives retrieved the key from the place where he had described it and entered the house. They were back in less than ten minutes, just as he put away his weapon.

Freitan’s brow was puckered in an angry frown. Wong shook his head at Jake as they reached the vehicle.

“Cash is gone. No signs of forced entry. I think you were right; this guy had partners. They must’ve picked up the money when they chased you guys off.”

Freitan threw herself into the front seat. “We still have to go back in for a deeper search, looking for anything pertaining to the missing persons. Maybe we’ll get lucky, and Chernobiac kept some kind of record or souvenirs from the victims. You can help, now that we know the place is clear. Wouldn’t want to endanger a civilian.” She handed Jake a pair of latex gloves. “Glove up.” She bounced her brows. “We might need to go in deep.”

Jake rolled his eyes. She was ridiculous, and any sort of response just made her worse.

He followed the detectives back into the house, trying to put himself in the mind of that squirrely, pudgy little gamer. Where did a gamer keep his treasures?

Where his most prized possession was. So he could keep an eye on it; be close to it.

Jake headed straight upstairs to the computer area in Chernobiac’s bedroom. The young man had two computer rigs parked below a simple table used as a desk. Jake moved the chair out and crawled underneath. He took his own rolled-up fabric tool kit out of a cargo pocket. Inside was an all-purpose utility tool, a set of lock picks, and a graduated row of Phillips head screwdrivers. Jake chose one of the smallest of the screwdrivers and went to work on the back of the computers.

The first was filled with nothing but what he expected: the innards of a computer. Wires, a fan, several stacked hard drives wired together.

Jake screwed the back on and went to the next one.

“Nice view.” Freitan’s voice from behind Jake made him recoil and bang his head on the bottom of the desk. He swore ripely.

“Nice cussing there, Soldier Boy. Good idea, checking in his computers.” She squatted next to Jake at the corner of the desk. “We’re on the same team, you know.”

Jake rubbed the top of his head. “I’m trying to remember that. You’re not making it easy.”

“I’m just a girl who knows what she wants.”

Jake could feel Freitan looking at his body. Down on his hands and knees, trying to unscrew a computer from a weird angle, his ass in the air, Jake felt vulnerable. Shit. He was never making an inappropriate crack about a woman’s body again; it sucked to be seen as a piece of meat.

Jake focused on the tiny screws. The back came off, and he peered inside. “I think we just hit gold, Detective.”

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