Page 115 of Stripping Bare

27

On the roadback from Charlotte, Jonah thought about what the hell he’d missed. Harrison was in prison, Cartwright had been genuinely clueless, and Carson Grimes wasn’t theirguy.

That left the other two fuckwads…unless Tessa had been on to something by looking back at Steele Trapemployees.

Maybe the hardware had actually been the important clue all along. Steele Trap had been one of the few companies that had developed software and designed specializedcontrollers.

He dialed the company’s main number and asked for the manager over the hardware developmentarea.

“Hello?”

“Gary, it’s Jonah Steelehere.”

“Hey. I…uh…talked with your sister earlier. Reallyearly.”

“Yeah, Micki has no concept of boundaries. Look, I’ve picked through every part of the hardware she mentioned to you. It all looked like stuff that could’ve come from Steele Trap stock. Have you noticed any inventory missing in the past few weeks orso?”

“You know we don’t usually do any kind of count except twice a year. When inventory was done in early November, all the numbers linedup.”

“Is the normal shrinkage percentage still the same?” They’d never had a huge sticky finger problem at Steele Trap, partially because electronic components weren’t exactly hot resaleitems.

“I should probably talk to the new owner before handing out more information. Your sister didn’t give me the details on why you need all this. Are you looking to develop gamesagain?”

How many times did he have to answer no to that question for people to start believing him? “No problem. I understand. If I need anything else, I’ll call the CEO directly. But hey, we missed you here at the meet-up inCharlotte.”

“Yeah, we’ve got some critical ship dates around here coming upsoon.”

“Then I’m surprised anyone was on thiscoast.”

Gary grunted. “Some people just aren’t as committed now that you’re gone. In fact, a couple of guys recently up andquit.”

Jonah’s instincts went on high alert, but he didn’t want to spook Gary into clamming up again. “Thatsucks.”

“Two of our best,” he grumped. “Carson Grimes and KeithBenery.”

“Really hate to hear that,” Jonah commiserated. “They were always good guys.” Except one of them wasn’t anything close to good, he thought as hedisconnected.

Before he could call Tessa, his phone rang. “Where the hell are you?” Mickisnapped.

“On my way back to Steele Ridge, and I need to talk to Tessa.Now.”

“Well, that’s a problem, seeing as I woke up from the nap Mom forced me to take only to find her and Tessagone.”

“What do you meangone?”

“Like not in the house and the car isn’t heregone.”

No, surely Tessa wouldn’t just head out on her own. She knew how damn dangerous this situation was right now. Who would protect her if…Stop that shit. You will find her.“Did you look for a note?” he asked Micki, putting more pressure on hisaccelerator.

Maybe Tessa hadn’t stumbled on the same thing he had. Maybe she and his mom had just taken a quick trip intotown.

“I’m not a moron,” Micki said on a huff. “And when I called Mom’s phone, it went to voicemail.”

His phone beeped with an incoming text, which was always a pain when he was already on a call. “Lemme call you back.” But when he pulled the phone away from his ear, the notification had already disappeared. And hurtling down the freeway at ninety wasn’t a good time to flip through his phone. He pressed the home button and said, “Readtext.”

Siri’s voice came through the car speakers. “Two new messages from Tessa Martin. Message one.Keith Benery. His parents live in Bryson City. 1612 Connamere. Meet there ASAP.End of message. Would you like toreply?”

Jonah’s heart went into overdrive. Oh, fuck. He had made the mistake of a lifetime, had been so sure he knew where the threat was coming from. He’d been trying to protect Tessa by keeping the truth from her, but by pushing her out, he’d done the exactopposite.