Page 16 of Between a Rock and a Hard Cowboy

Besides, she earned more than enough on her paying jobs to be able to work gratis for the organization. And the challenge, gathering the evidence, putting the pieces together like a puzzle, honed her skills. And the jobs kept her in the loop with people who could be of assistance to her in her paying jobs. Win-win.

Opening the message, she copied the encrypted text into a document, then disconnected her customized gaming computer from the internet. Behind more firewalls and security than most government agencies ran on their systems, Eva put the message through the decoding program.

Even before she read the full correspondence, words jumped out at her. Zelensky’s name being one of them.

There had been another assassination attempt. So far, the president of Ukraine had survived more than a dozen. Presidential adviser Mikhail Podolyak had reached out to Bellingcat to prevent further attempts.

The organization was casting a wide net, reaching out to all their contributors, searching for any indications of who was involved, besides the Kremlin, which was a given. Anything found was to be forwarded immediately to Grozev, her contact at Bellingcat.

A chance to save democracy in Ukraine by playing in her favorite sandbox—the dark web? Yes, please. She could do that.

Fueled with adrenaline, she settled into bed, the computer in her lap. She wouldn’t sleep until she found something to send back.

Not all superheroes wore capes. Some battled the bad guys on the web instead. Most of those heroes’ names would never be known. They’d never get public recognition or credit and she was fine with that.

ChapterEight

Linc threw the last flake of the hay bale into the stall and turned to his brother. “I gotta go.”

Ethan frowned. “Go where?”

He scowled. “To buy a hundred or so yards of pine roping.”

“Tsk, tsk, tsk.”Ethan shook his head. “We’re supposed to make everything we can for the Christmas challenge. Seems to me there are plenty of pine trees around here.”

“Did you hear what I said? Ahundred yards.” Linc enunciated each word clearly for his smart-ass brother. “I’m not making that. Unless you’d like to do all the chores alone for the next three or so days so I have the time to cut the boughs and string them together.”

“And why are you using that much roping anyway?”

“Uh, have you seen the size of the cabin?” Linc asked.

Sarcasm wasn’t his usual go to, but it seemed to fit this situation.

“The staircase handrail alone is gonna take ten yards. Then inside and outside the front door, another ten yards each. And then to wrap the two stone columns out front.” Linc spread his hands as the math added up. “A hundred yards. She wants the entryway to be a big deal so…”

“She.” Ethan nodded slowly. Annoyingly slowly. “So this was all Eva’s idea?”

Rather than admit Ethan was right, Linc deflected with, “Dad made us a team.”

“So she’s in charge of the design and you’re the lackey doing all the work,” Ethan, who apparently wanted to be punched in the gut, continued.

“Shut up,” Linc grumbled.

“Pussy-whipped already, I see.” Ethan grinned.

Linc’s eyes widened. “There’s no pussy.”

“Mm. Even worse. Whipped without benefit of pussy.” Ethan nodded knowingly.

“Fuck you.” Linc shook his head and headed for the door.

“Love you too, bro,” Ethan called after him.

Without having to turn around, Linc was sure his brother was grinning at his expense.

By the time he got home from the tree farm, his truck filled with greenery and his wallet empty of cash, he found Eva’s car.

He backed the truck up to the entrance so he could unload, cut the engine, grabbed his keys and climbed out of the cab.

---