Page 18 of Stripping Bare

5

Tessa quickly changedher e-mail password, then forced herself to scroll through her outgoing messages. It didn’t take her long to find another, similar to the first two with the exception of name and youthful transgression. LaurenCaldwell.

Surely Lauren would never believe Tessa was capable of sending something like this. After a few sessions together, Tessa had referred her over to a private practice therapist, explaining she felt Lauren would get better results with someone who specialized in addiction disorders. And since Lauren was no longer Tessa’s client, they’d becomefriends.

Casual friends. Occasional weekend lunches and Pike Place Market shoppingfriends.

But friendsnonetheless.

Lauren would understand an early morning call, so Tessa grabbed her cell anddialed.

“’Lo?” Lauren answered in a sleepy voice that said she’d either had a very late night or a very early morning. Tessa could picture her, blond hair cut in a messy shag and smudged eyeliner as black as the leather jacket she alwayswore.

“Lauren, it’s Tessa Martin. I’m sorry to call so early, but it’s urgent. I need to talk to you about an e-mail.”

Some shuffling from the other end made it sound as if Lauren was sitting up in bed. When Tessa heard the flick of a lighter, her heart sank. Lauren had given up smoking over a year ago and had claimed nothing would make her go back to sucking down lungfuls of tar anddeath.

“Are you smokingagain?”

Another long drag, then Lauren finally said, “What the hell do you care?” The sleepiness was long gone, replaced with a jaggedbite.

“I care because I know how hard you fought to beat that addiction.” Along with severalothers.

“So this is like a professional follow-up call. The psychologist making sure no more of her clients, my friends, take a header off the Aurora Bridge. At least not until she gets hermoney.”

Guess that answered the question of whether or not Lauren would believe Tessa was capable of completely unethical and abhorrent behavior. “I did not send that e-mail.”

From Lauren’s side of the phone came another long inhale and an exhale with the force of afuck you.“That’s right. You don’t care about anyone in Seattle, not since you left here to follow JonahSteele.”

Is that what people back there believed? That she’d run back to the North Carolina because ofJonah?

She should probably feel ashamed that Lauren’s assumption held more than a little truth. Tessa had given herself three months to get Martin & Associates up and running. The same amount of time she’d set to convince Jonah that she was the woman for him. If she couldn’t make him see they could be good together, then she’d promised herself she would finally move on. Write off any type of relationship withhim.

But anything between her and Jonah was no one’s business but their own. “I would never compromise client confidentiality—not for money or anythingelse.”

“I’m not your clientanymore.”

“It doesn’t matter. Privilege and privacy outlast the professional relationship.” Why was she arguing about this? What really mattered here was that Lauren believed Tessa was threatening her. “I called because I need to find out what’s going on. So far, I’ve found three e-mails that I didn’t send, each of them demandingmoney.”

“Carson told me you were on his heels,too.”

“Has anyone else mentioned receiving an e-mail fromme?”

“Besides Davey, you mean?” Lauren said, making it obvious she didn’t believe a word of Tessa’sdenial.

“Yes.”

“Not so far, but if someone hangs himself, I’ll be sure to let youknow.”

And the line wentdead.

Although Tessa was sick over Lauren’s obvious anger and hurt, right now she couldn’t do a thing to change her mind. Words alone weren’t persuasive. She had to find out what was happening here and put a stop toit.

Badger must’ve sensed her mood because he trotted out to the balcony and scratched at her leg to be picked up. He burrowed under the hem of her cardigan and poked his head out far enough to watch for birds or squirrels. He felt it was his honor bound duty to protect her from anything feathered orfurry.

Tessa stared at her computer. Now that she was starting to think clearly, she considered her client files. Maybe the company that kept confidential medical and mental health records had been hacked. Why hadn’t she checked thatearlier?

She opened the website and scanned the DataFort homepage. Nothing about a security breach, but some companies tried to keep mistakes like that out of the public eye. Since DataFort was in Florida, she dialed the customer servicenumber.