Page 116 of Stripping Bare

He fumbled his phone and it fell under hisfeet.

But Siri didn’t seem to notice, just droned on. “Second message.Get your gear. It’s time to play or die.End of message. Would you like toreply?”

“Yes,” heyelled.

Shit, he was going to kill himself this way. He took the next off ramp and pulled to the side of the interstate frontage road. When he finally laid hands on his phone, he called Mickiback.

“What the hell? You hung up on me.” His sister’s voice was increasing in volume with each word. “What is goingon?”

“Phone took a tumble, but I pulled off. I got two texts from Tessa’s number. The first said she was going to Keith Benery’s parents’ house in BrysonCity.”

“Why in God’s name would she dothat?”

“The second text wasn’t fromher.”

“But I thought yousaid—”

“It was from Keith Benery. He worked at Steele Trap. He’s the one. Thehacker.”

“How do youknow?”

“Because his message was Play orDie.”

“Oh, God.” Micki’s breathing suddenly changed, and Jonah knew what hyperventilation sounded like since he was on the edge of ithimself.

“What?”

In a strangled voice, Micki said, “A text just came from Mom’s number, and it says ‘Tell your brother to suit up unless he wants to know what it feels like to kill a member of his own family. Location tocome.’”

Jonah pulled back onto the road, swerved around a minivan, and raced through a hard yellow light to get back on the highway. “Can you meet me at the Murchison building? I have the sensor shirt with me, but I need the other hardware hesent.”

“What’s theplan?”

“To beat this fucker at his owngame.”

When he double-parked in front of the Murchison Building, Jonah didn’t give a shit that he was blocking a Ram long bed, a VW Bug, and a ragged-out Honda. He was out of Clementine, inside, and up the stairs without conscious memory of taking thesteps.

The apartment door was wide open, and he rushed in to find his sister and his dad, of all people, bent over one of the controller gauntlets with tiny screwdrivers. “What’re y’alldoing?”

Micki glanced up, and her eyes, a reflection of his own, were full of worry. “I don’t like anything about this, so I inserted a trackingdevice.”

Jonah checked his phone. “He’s supposed to contact me with a location any timenow.”

“But how do you know he won’t change the plan mid-game? We need to know where to findyou.”

“You mean where to find Mom andTessa.”

The beep of his phone sent a painful jolt though Jonah and he tightened his sweaty hold onit.

564 Hidden Hills Drive.The house he’d been raisedin.

“Something about this seems so personal,” Mickisaid.

“You think? The guy’s only been trying to kill people around me. That wasn’t personal enough for you?” And right now, he didn’t have the luxury of time to scratch his head over why Keith Benery would be pissed enough to come after his family and him. Because whether she believed it or not, Tessa was his family. Part of the small group of people he would do anythingfor.

He wanted a lifetime with her if she wanted him back. For the first time in years, he believed that was possible for him. For themtogether.

His dad placed a steady hand on his back. Jonah wanted to shrug away from it, but he held on to his composure. The old man was here to help and that had to count forsomething.