Come and Find Me by Hallie Ephron Read Free Book Online Page A

fifty-two between rounds of chemo. She could barely swallow a bite of chocolate cake. I can’t even imagine what it would have been like for us if an accidental overdose had killed her.”
    Daniel groaned and got up from his chair. He put his arms around her from behind and started to read over her shoulder. “You know as well as I do,” he said after a minute, “these guys were an accident waiting to happen. Their backup systems were for shit and not secured. If not us, then something much more destructive would have bitten them. All we did was wipe out some data. The chaos that followed? All of their own making.”
    She looked up at him. “Right. We expose weaknesses and then wash our hands of what happens next.”
    “So what’s your point? You knew what you were getting into.”
    She held his gaze. “I thought I knew. But this time we’ve gone too far. Even if you don’t, I feel responsible for this woman’s death. Daniel, I’m telling you just as clearly as I can, I can’t keep doing this.”
    He stood there, towering over her. “What are you saying?”
    “I’m done. And I can’t let you and Jake keep doing this either.”
    “You think you’re letting us do this?”
    Her heart pounded but for once she didn’t apologize her way out of it. “I’m saying I’ve had enough.”
    Diana had been completely stunned when, a few weeks later, Daniel had been the one to suggest that they sell the farm, move back to the Boston area, and open a security consulting company as a trio of rehabilitated black hats.
    They’d settled on the name Gamelan. It was sufficiently obscure and she liked the way it sounded. It even made a kind of sense. Gamelan was a Balinese music ensemble of percussion instruments. Drums, gongs, xylophones, bells. The music sounded odd and discordant, like the way the three of them worked together.
    Daniel was the one who’d suggested they celebrate the impending transition by climbing the Eiger. But only two of them had come back alive, and instead of a dissonant trio, Gamelan Security turned into a fractious duo. Numbed by loss, Diana had been reluctantly dragged along by a determined Jake.
    The Klaxon alarm startled Diana back to the present. Her palms turned sweaty and the back of her neck felt like someone laid an ice pack across it. She wasn’t expecting a delivery, and besides it was too late for that.
    She silenced the alarm. Couldn’t be Ashley—she was supposed to be meeting Aaron downtown. Had to be a false alarm, the calm voice in her head reasoned, but she could barely hear it over the alarm that kept right on screaming inside her head.
    She checked the surveillance feeds. It was already dark out, and the lights around the house had automatically turned on. None of the cameras showed anything amiss. She toggled the sun icon to a moon, and the images changed to velvety black.
    There! In the feed from the camera alongside the house, she saw a bright green mottled shape moving across the screen. It disappeared from view and was picked up in the security camera angled behind the house. It could have been a person on all fours. Low to the ground. But it would have to be a small adult or a child.
    Diana watched as the shape meandered back to the side of the house. It was more likely a raccoon or a large dog with a longish tail. She wanted it to go away, and then finally it did, passing back through the electronic security perimeter and off the screens.
    Diana pushed away from the monitors, feeling as if she’d been picked up and shaken. Even though she knew it was insane, she toured the house, checking that every window and door was latched.
    She ended up in the kitchen. Rational analysis kept her bogeymen at bay, but just the unexpected jolt could stir up that still-potent residue of grief and trauma. She’d been on such an even keel that she’d gone a week without a single remote session with Dr. Lightfoot. She knew what her shrink’s advice would be: Try to stay in the