Page 47 of Dangerous Temptation
‘Belize.’
‘South America?’ She frowned and glanced at the world map she’d hung on the wall. Grabbing a pen, she walked over and marked an X. Stepping back, she surveyed the myriad dots that had been marked across the world. ‘I doubt that. Belize has an extradition treaty with the United States.’
‘But the man who thinks he saw him is a banker.’
And the last one had been a day trader.
Elena moved back to her desk and sat. Finding this man was becoming like a snipe hunt. ‘According to my chart, that’s the sixth country where a sighting has been reported.’
‘I know it’s a long shot.’
But her mother still wanted the man to pay. Everyone did. Elena jiggled her mouse again. She wanted to read the stories for herself and see if there were any bits in them that rang true. She frowned when the screen lit up, but her spreadsheet program closed. ‘What?’
She heard the ding of a timer on the other end of the line and the screech of an oven door. ‘Sorry, baby. What was that?’
Elena’s breath caught when her browser closed next, quickly followed by her text editor. ‘No, no!’
‘Lainie?’
She put down the phone and switched to speaker mode. She reached for the keyboard, but she was afraid to touch anything. ‘My computer is … Ahhh! It’s crashed.’
‘Uh oh.’ The edge had left her mother’s voice to be replaced with concern.
‘Maybe it was just a glitch. Or it’s booting again to install updates.’
She knew it was neither. Her luck just hadn’t been going that way. A knot started forming in the pit of her stomach.
‘Your paper is on there, and all your notes.’
‘I know.’ Being reminded didn’t help. Tucking her foot underneath her, Elena tried to get more comfortable. She pushed the power button again and crossed her fingers. She winced when a notice popped up about booting up in safe mode. ‘This doesn’t look good.’
‘Can you fix it? When was the last time you backed everything up?’
A couple of weeks ago, maybe? ‘Too long.’
‘Oh, baby.’ There was a swish and then the background noise on her mother’s side quieted. She must have moved to another part of the bakery. ‘What’s it doing now?’
Elena scanned the screen. Her breath caught when it blipped. ‘The screen just went blank.’
The conversation fell into silence.
‘What are you going to do?’ Yvonne asked. ‘You’re stuck there. You can’t go out and get another. Those news vans are still outside your gate.’
‘I don’t know.’ Elena bit her lip. She wasn’t a computer tech. She was competent in using them, but the inner workings were beyond her.
‘Can you call in a repairman? See if he can rescue it? But … damn. Who could you call that would keep their mouth shut?’
She didn’t know, but …
There was someone else on the compound who had an above-average knowledge of computers.
‘I’m going to have to call A –’ Elena broke off, nearly biting her tongue. ‘An expert.’
Another long moment ticked by. ‘When you say an expert, you mean Alex Wolfe.’
Her mother wasn’t stupid, even if the leap was a short one. Somewhere near the phone, fingernails drummed. ‘So you’re talking with him now?’
Elena searched for the right answer. ‘It’s kind of hard not to.’
