Page 31 of Lethal Illusion (Six Points Security #8)

“That depends on who’s around.” Lately, he’d been spending more time alone.

Jackson was often busy with his wife Essie, while Pinto was practically joined at the hip with Fiona.

That left Hatch, and even though they got along well, their ideas of a good time didn’t always mesh.

“Now that the Barracuda is fully restored, I started work on another car.”

Her eyes sparked with interest. “What kind of car?”

“A 1985 Chevy Camaro IROC-Z.” He’d bought the car a few months ago at the auto auction for next to nothing, mainly because the poor thing was in sorry shape.

It was going to take a fair amount of time, money, patience, and effort, but he was confident he could return the classic muscle car to her former glory.

“How long will it take to restore?” she asked.

“I can’t say for sure. Any estimate would be contingent on how hard it’ll be to score the right parts and how much free time I’ll have to work on it.”

At first glance, the car looked rough, with sun-damaged paint, rust creeping along the undercarriage, and a sizable dent on the driver’s side quarter panel.

While the exterior damage was manageable, the interior presented different challenges.

The headliner sagged, the front seats were trashed, and the cabin bore the unmistakable signs of years of neglect.

Clearly, the previous owner didn’t understand the concept of routine maintenance.

Mechanically, it had serious issues—he’d paid to have it towed home—but there wasn’t anything he couldn’t fix.

He’d already found a site online where he could order most of the parts, which would save him from having to take time-consuming trips to the junkyard.

From there, it was mostly an investment of time that he’d fulfill on his days off work when he didn’t have other plans.

They moved deeper into the forest but stayed parallel to shore. The vegetation was thick enough to provide cover in the event hostiles were in the area, as well as much-needed shade. Because even though storm clouds were moving in, there was still enough sun to get burned.

Navarre held out his hand to help Sloane climb over a rotted log that blocked their path, and there it was again, that little spark he felt every time they touched. It was becoming increasingly difficult to ignore, and he wasn’t sure how to deal with that.

“What are you going to do with it once it’s all fixed up?” Sloane asked, providing a much-needed distraction.

“I haven’t decided. I don’t need two cars, so I guess I’ll have to figure out which one to sell.”

Surprise flickered over her face. “I’m shocked you’d even consider selling the Barracuda. That car’s a work of art.”

Navarre pushed up a low-hanging tree limb so she could walk past without ducking. “I never intended to keep her, but now that she’s back to her former glory, it’s not so easy to let her go. I guess it all depends on how the Camaro looks after I’m finished with her.”

She gave him a funny look. “Why do guys always refer to their cars as she?”

Navarre shrugged, momentarily thrown by the question. “I don’t know. I never really thought about it. I suppose it’s a holdover from the old sailing days when ships were named after women or goddesses.”

“Did you name the Barracuda?”

“No.”

“Why not?”

“Because you never name something unless you’re planning to keep it.”

She gave him a look. “Like a dog?”

“Yeah, like that. If you name a dog, you just made a commitment to take care of it for the rest of its life.”

A rustle stirred the underbrush, a subtle reminder that they weren’t the only creatures in the forest. Moments later, a young doe stepped into view, its wide eyes locking with theirs. Time seemed to pause as it stood motionless, then, with a flick of its tail, it vanished into the shadows.

Navarre glanced at Sloane, and the wonder lighting the depths of her eyes stirred things inside him that he wasn’t mentally prepared to examine. He coughed to clear the sudden tightness in his throat.

“Enough about me.” He was tired of hearing his own voice. He’d much rather listen to hers. “What’s your story?”

Sloane threw him a sidelong glance as she tugged the zipper of the camo jacket higher. “There’s not much to tell.”

“I find that hard to believe.” The tone of his voice made it clear he wasn’t prepared to let her off the hook. “Let’s start with the basics. How did you end up working at Six Points?”

That was easy. “I was recruited by Larissa.”

Apparently, her answer didn’t provide enough details to satisfy his curiosity. “And why did she recruit you? It couldn’t have been for your sparkling personality.”

She flipped him off, and he laughed. “At the time, I was working for Orlando Security Solutions. They were competing against Six Points for a contract out near the coast—some big engineering firm that does a bunch of work for NASA. Somewhere along the line, the friendly competition turned ugly. My boss in the cyber security unit offered a bounty to anyone who could hack the servers at Six Points as a way to prove our company was superior.”

“Did you succeed?”

“What do you think?”

He laughed because they both knew Larissa was one of the best in the business, if not the world.

At first glance, she appeared unassuming: a doting mother with two young girls, a husband, an SUV, and a house with a white picket fence.

But she was also an absolute demon with a keyboard, feared and respected in the digital world by those who knew her professionally or by her hacker alias.

The things Larissa could do with a computer were kind of scary at times.

It was a wonder the government hadn’t drafted her into service.

Then again, maybe they had, and they just weren’t aware of it. It honestly wouldn’t surprise her.

They hopped over a narrow creek that fed into the lake, and she did her best not to wince. The blisters on her feet still throbbed, though the pain had lessened since Navarre treated them the night before. For now, the best she could do was grit her teeth and keep moving forward.

“What did Larissa do to you?”

Navarre watched her with a singular focus, as if every word that came out of her mouth mattered to him. She wasn’t used to that in a guy. It knocked her a little off-balance.

Warmth flooded her cheeks, and she hoped he didn’t notice. Not because she was affected by the way he was looking at her—okay, maybe a little—but because the next part was just plain embarrassing. “She goated my laptop.”

As expected, he gave her a puzzled stare. “Okay, I need you to explain that one to me in simple English.”

She sighed. “Without getting too technical, Larissa is really good at designing Trojan horses within computer systems. It’s some serious next-level stuff.

She toys with hackers and lets them believe they’ve breached her servers.

But as soon as they try to access a file or insert any malware…

” She clapped her hands together. “The trap is sprung and you’re totally screwed.

By the time the hacker figures it out, it’s already too late.

In my case, the trap was a virus that took over my computer within seconds and wallpapered every file with images of baby goats wearing pajamas. ”

His sandy-brown eyebrows drew closer together, a common reaction for anyone not familiar with the world of cyber security. “Why goats?”

“You’d have to ask Larissa,” she said. Somewhere up above, a woodpecker drummed its brains out against a tree.

She glanced up, but it was impossible to spot it among the tangle of branches.

“My goats came with her contact information and a message that if I wanted to corral the goats, I’d have to call her within the next ten minutes.

After that, the virus would permanently corrupt all the data on my hard drive. So I called, and she offered me a job.”

“That’s a creative recruiting technique,” he said, amusement clear on his face.

“It’s not uncommon in the field. Some people view hacking as an audition. Larissa said she would have offered me more money if I’d actually made it into the server.”

“That sounds like something she’d say.” He paused, consulted his map, and then altered their course slightly to the left. “How is she to work for?”

“When I started, she scared the crap out of me, but that was before I really got to know her. Her skills are at a level I don’t think I’ll ever achieve, even if I live to be a hundred.

I mean, there are times I can’t wrap my brain around some of the stuff she does.

But if you’re willing to learn and put in the work, she’ll pull up a chair and stay for however long it takes for you to understand things.

She expects a lot, but she treats her people fairly and works with us when we have things going on outside the office.

” She shot him a glance, taking in his profile, noting the straight line of his nose, the strong set of his jaw.

“Your turn. What brought you to Six Points?”

“One of Jackson’s buddies is friends with Austin.

He told us about this security company that was expanding in the Orlando area and was looking for people with our…

talents. We were leaving the Army in a few months, so Jackson gave him a call, and Austin hired him on the spot.

Then he handed the phone to me, and I got hired too. ”

“You’ve been here—oh, shit!” The smooth soles of her boots skidded across the loose leaf litter, and Navarre caught her just before she face-planted on the forest floor.

Her heart skipped several beats, and she blamed it on the close call, not the feel of his hands on her waist. “Thanks. I take it you like working for the Flints?”