Page 13 of Parker

Those were the things most people didn’t consider when wishing for a giant windfall to come their way.

For Parker, it was different. Thanks to his parents’ wealthy status, he’d learned to accept all aspects of the rich-and-famous lifestyle a long damn time ago. But that acceptance didn’t come with an all-encompassing enjoyment, which was where the online gaming community came in.

“That guy… the one who just took our picture? He proves my point, exactly.”

“Which is?”

How do I explain this without sounding like an arrogant ass?

Giving it a shot, he asked, “Do you ever wonder why I always bring you to this particular restaurant for lunch when I’m in town?”

Sydnee blinked her blue eyes a few times as she pondered the question. With a slight shrug, she guessed, “I just assumed it was because you really like their food.”

“You’d be wrong.” Parker exhaled slowly. “I bring you here because this place is known for its discretion. The cooks and servers here all know if they get caught Tweeting about me or any of the other well-known patrons who frequent here, they’d be fired on the spot. Same reason so many politicians and other higher-ups choose to carry out their business luncheons here as opposed to some of the more popular places in town. It’s not because we can’t get enough of their bland-as-fuck foie gras. We come here because it’s safe from all the prying eyes we deal with out there.” He motioned toward the window again. “Well, safe-ish, anyway.”

“Makes sense, I suppose.” The pretty brunette’s expression softened. “In a really sad sort of way.”

He shrugged a shoulder and swallowed another drink of the ice-cold beverage. “It’s the reality of the life I’ve chosen to live. It’s also why I enjoy spending time in the online gaming community I mentioned. When I’m in there, like most of the time when I’m here…I can just be myself. Therealme, not the flashy man whore the press has made me out to be.”

“Oh, Park…”

“We’re getting way off track, here.” A quick wave of his hand cut off Sydnee’s well-intended pity. “My reasons for playing the game aren’t important. Jinxis what’s important.She’swhat matters.”

She’s all that matters.

“Jinx?”

“The woman I told you about. The one who plays the game with me. Jinx is her username. I don’t…” Parker swallowed down a giant ball of regret before admitting, “I don’t know her real name. We decided not to share those just yet. And before you ask, yes. I’ve tried like hell to find out what hers is.”

At first, Parker had thought a simple hack into her in-game profile would do the trick. But when he’d tried accessing it, the system showed no account with the username Jinx existed.

It was at that very moment when he began to suspect the secretive woman was crazy skilled with the keys. Not only that, but given that he, of all people, still hadn’t been able to uncover Jinx’s true identity, he was left with only one plausible conclusion…

The faceless, nameless woman he’d come to care a great deal about was a hacker. And not your ordinary, run-of-the-mill techie, either.

Jinx was good. Likereallyfucking good.

“Maybe this Jinx woman doesn’t want to be found.”

Sydnee’s soft-spoken words weren’t anything Parker hadn’t said to himself a dozen times in the last few weeks. And if there was even a small part of him that believed them to be true, he’d stop looking.

But that part of him didn’t exist, and he damn sure wasn’t about to give up. Not when, deep down, he knew something was wrong.

When he didn’t respond, Sydnee prodded him with an insistent, “Tell me about her.”

Staring across the table at his friend, Parker did just that.

He filled her in on everything. How he and Jinx first “met”. Some of their more memorable conversations. And when he felt she had a more solid picture of what Jinx had come to mean to him, Parker shared how their last phone call had ended.

“Something happened that night, Syd.” His chest tightened as he tried not to imagine the worst. “Something or someone had Jinx so terrified, she rushed off the phone, disconnected her number, and erased the only link that might have led me to her.”

All within a matter of minutes.

“Maybe she’s a criminal on the run from the law.” Sydnee hypothesized. “If she can do the things you’re claiming, maybe she used those skills to commit some sort of cybercrime. Maybe the authorities finally caught up with her, so she cut ties with everyone she knew and split town.”

Another possible explanation for Jinx’s sudden disappearing act. One Parker had already considered.

“I have a system that’s been running since the day after I last spoke with Jinx,” he told Sydnee. “I entered the basics I managed to piece together from our conversations…female, approximately late twenties, early thirties, slight mid-western accent…extremely tech savvy…that sort of thing. After that, I built a program to cross reference the types of crimes she’d most likely commit—statistically speaking, of course.”

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