Chapter Thirty-One

Tess Angelhart

Tess was good with research using all the tools at her disposal, but her younger sister Luisa was a computer whiz. She'd always been smart, and had done something related to cybersecurity in the Marines. Luisa didn't talk much about her time in the Marines. She'd left last summer and enrolled at ASU studying psychology and computer science. She'd said that psychology was interesting, and computers were easy. Based on how her fingers flew across the keyboard, computers were certainly easy for Luisa.

"I don't even need to be here," Tess said after an hour.

"Don't be silly."

Tess let her sister work, not wanting to mess with her rhythm.

"Have you and Gabriel talked about a date yet?" Luisa asked a few minutes later.

Tess moaned. "Please, don't start. Everyone is asking, and I don't want to rush."

"I'm not nagging. You said yes, you want to marry him, why are you hesitating?"

"I'm not! I love Gabriel."

Tess loved him with everything she had. She knew why she was scared. She'd been engaged twice before. And twice before, her fiancé had left her. The first time had hurt, but she'd been young and accepted that he wasn't the right man. But the second time? She'd been head over heels in love, they'd set a date, she'd bought a wedding dress, they had mailed the invitations...and he said he couldn't go through with it. That he loved her, but he wasn't in love with her. She had no idea what that even meant. She'd begged him not to leave her, feeling small and stupid then, and especially now thinking about it.

It had taken her a year before she could even think of going out with another man. And then her father was arrested and her family fell apart. Her mother needed her, her brothers and sisters. She was resigned to being single for the rest of her life.

And then came Gabriel.

She kept expecting him to leave.

"I know you're scared," Luisa said simply. "But I've seen the way he looks at you. He loves you."

"I know."

"Do you?"

"He's perfect."

"No one is perfect, but Gabriel Rubio comes close." Luisa smiled. "Don't let the losers who came before kill your chance for happiness."

Tess rolled her eyes. "Now you sound like Margo."

"I'm glad we're working with her on this."

"I don't know," Tess said. "She's smart, and she has real good instincts. But she's a maverick."

"That's not always a bad thing."

"Not always a good thing, either."

"April," Luisa said.

"What?" Tess was confused.

"You met Gabriel in April, right? Next April is eleven months away and will be your two-year anniversary, of sorts. It's spring, not too hot, not too cold."

"I don't know," she said.

"Think about it."

Luisa frowned at the computer, tapped a few keys, frowned deeper.

"Someone installed a virus," she said.

"Like a virus in an email when you click on a bad link?"

"It's not an accident," Luisa said. "Someone intentionally downloaded a worm that ate all the data."

"How can it just be gone?" Tess yawned. It was only seven thirty, but she was exhausted. It had been a long week.

"It's gone here, but I can recreate the data from the archives. We can't do it tonight but it tells me someone knows the data will lead back to him, or her."

Tess had more questions, but she couldn't think clearly. "I'm going to find the break room. I need coffee."

Luisa frowned. "Wait," she said.

"What?" Tess rubbed her temples. She had a splitting headache. It seemed to come on suddenly, and it pounded.

Luisa didn't answer. She rose from her seat and looked at the ceiling, so Tess looked at the ceiling. She had no idea what she was looking at. Luisa started walking around, then stopped as if to listen.

"We have to get out of here," she said. "Drop to the floor, crawl to the door."

The room began to spin and Tess could barely hear Luisa.

"Do it," Luisa commanded, rushing over to Tess and pulling her down. Luisa grabbed her backpack, strapped it over her shoulders, and started crawling across the room to the door, urging Tess to move faster.

Tess tried.

"Whdya see?"

"I heard something—a hissing. You're yawning, your words are slurred, I'm lightheaded. There's gas coming from the vent in the corner."

"Like at Logan Monroe's house on Sunday," she muttered, or thought she did.

"I smell something," Luisa said. "Smoke, upstairs."

Tess didn't smell anything until they were halfway across the room. Then a pungent scent came from the ceiling, followed by smoke coming in through the vents. But her eyes were droopy, she was dizzy even though she was practically on the floor.

"Tess, move it," Luisa ordered.

She tried to tell Luisa that she was going as fast as she could, but her words were jumbled.

A moment later, the fire alarm pierced the silence, a high-pitched trill that made her jump. She moved faster, then collapsed. She tried to get up, but her arms and legs were slow and heavy.

She smelled burning—like a campfire, but more pungent. She kept moving, or thought she was moving, but Luisa was yelling at her over the sound of the alarms. Then suddenly, Luisa picked her up and had her over her shoulder. The first thing Tess thought was Luisa was way too small to carry her—Tess had at least four inches and forty pounds on her. But Luisa carried her easily.

They stumbled as they exited the office. The security guard ran up the stairs, coughing, and said, "You're the only two in the building, the fire department is on their way. Where's the fire?"

Luisa said, "Fourth floor."

Then the sprinklers came on and showered them and everything in Desert West Financial with a torrent of water.