“Honestly, I’ve never tried. But it fits one quite nicely.”
“Or two…” Dana purred.
That was it. I was driving her straight to an SA meeting after this.
Felix crossed the room to a large, Craftsman-style desk. Beside it an array of printers, fax machines, scanners, and lots of other scary-looking electronics lined the low bookcases. A slim, state-of-the-art computer hummed to life on the desktop, a flat-screen monitor bigger than my television just above.
Felix sat behind it and jiggled his mouse until the screen came to life.
“What’s the name of this bird’s site, then?” he asked, his fingers hovering over the keyboard.
I gave it to him, he typed it in, and almost instantly Jasmine’s pouty lips filled the monitor, the caption You know you want to watch beneath her. He clicked the “enter here” button, surfing through the free trial pages. I tried not to look as images of the red-velvet living room flashed across the screen. A pair of brunettes who looked like twins were playing a game of strip Candy Land. Apparently badly, as neither was wearing much.
He clicked through to a different page and came up with a shot of the kitchen, where two women were doing something completely unsanitary on the counters. Ewwww!
“This the site?” Felix asked.
“Yeah, that’s it. Jasmine said all their credit card info goes through a company called PayMate. Do you think you can hack into it?”
“Hack is such a crude word, ” Felix chided me. “I prefer to think of it as visiting.”
I rolled my eyes. “Fine. Can we pay them a visit?”
“I’m going to set up an account with Jasmine’s girls, ” he replied, clicking through the motions as he talked, “to find out what ISP the information is going through. Then hopefully I can find some sort of back gate to their system that will unlock the security code.”
“Won’t that be hard to do?” I asked. “I mean, it is a credit card company. If just anyone could hack into their system, they’d be ruined.”
Felix grinned at me, showing off a pair of dimples. “Luckily, I’m not just anybody.”
“Wow, you must be, like, really smart to know this much about computers, ” Dana crooned, tearing herself away from the window. “Where did you learn this stuff?”
Felix shrugged noncommittally. “Around.” I watched as he created a screen name. Ppingtom07. Cute.
Finally a screen verifying his account came up. Then it asked him if he’d like to make a secure payment now. He clicked yes, and as the screen transferred us to PayMate.com’s home page, Felix opened a new window. This one had a black screen with a little flashing cursor prompt.
“Bingo, ” he said.
“What, are we in?”
He chuckled. “Hardly. As you said, it’s no simple task to break into a secure network like this one. But I’ve got their location now. It’s a start.”
He did a few more clicks, and a sequence of numbers started appearing on the black screen.
“Are those supposed to mean something?” I asked.
Felix didn’t look up, intently watching the numbers grow. “Not yet. Give it time, love.”
Fifteen minutes later my eyes were starting to bug out from watching numbers fly. I rubbed at my neck, trying in vain to work out some of the stiffness. I rummaged in my purse for an aspirin, then remembered I’d given the last one to Dana.
“Hey, do you have an aspirin or something?”
Felix motioned down the hall. “Bathroom’s the first left. Check the medicine cabinet.” He looked up from the screen. “You all right?”
“Just dandy, ” I told him as I went in search of relief.
I followed the hallway and made the first left into a bathroom the size of my entire studio. A sunken Jacuzzi tub took up one side, while a marble-topped vanity spanned the other. To the right of it hung a beveled-glass medicine cabinet. I swung the door open and, to my relief, spied the aspirin right away. I downed two with water from the faucet, resisting the urge to snoop through Felix’s cupboards.
Okay, almost resisting.
With a quick over-the-shoulder, I opened the two beside the sink, disappointed to find only a stash of clean linens. I tried the next two, coming up with a Water Pik, a hair dryer (that, judging by the perpetually tousled state of Felix’s hair, had likely never been used), and a Costco three-pack of Listerine. Well, at least he valued dental hygiene. I opened the next cupboard and instantly blushed as I saw that mouthwash wasn’t the only thing Felix bought in bulk. A double pack of the biggest Trojan boxes I had ever seen. A bright red sticker on the front touted, Value pack-30 more free! I couldn’t help picking one up and checking the size. (Hey, I was already snooping; I might as well go all-out, right?) My blush turned into an full-body flush when I found it. Magnum, extra large. Either someone had an inflated image of himself or there was more to Tabloid Boy than met the eye.
I quickly put the box back and scuttled back down the hall to the computer room, ducking my head to conceal my ruby cheeks.
I found Dana hovering over the monitor, her head bent toward Felix’s as they whispered about something.
“Ahem, ” I said, clearing my throat loudly.
Both Felix and Dana jumped at the sound of my voice. Dana got a sheepish look on her face and began guiltily twirling a lock of hair between her fingers, no doubt thinking what Therapist Max would have to say about her flirting with tabloid reporters.
Felix cleared his throat. “Say, this looks like it could take me a while. Why don’t I call you when I have something on this guy?”
“Works for me.” I grabbed my purse and, steering the reluctant Dana by the elbow, made for the front door.
“It was so nice to meet you, ” Dana called over her shoulder.
“Likewise, ” Felix replied, a few steps behind us.
“Like I said, give me a call if you ever want company in that hot tub.” She added a couple of eyelash bats for good measure as I shoved her out the door ahead of me.
Felix chuckled. “I think your friend likes me, ” he said as we watched Dana beep open the driver’s-side door.
I turned on him. “She’s in SA, you know. She’s celibate, and the last thing she needs is to get involved with another Mr. Wrong.” Even as I took an indignant pose, I couldn’t help my gaze straying down his khakis into “Magnum” region.
One side of his mouth quirked up. “Are you warning me away from her?”
I snapped my eyes up to meet his and crossed my arms over my chest. “Yes.” Don’t look down, don’t look down!
The other side lifted into a full-fledged smile. “Don’t bother. She’s honestly not my type.”
I snorted, keeping my eyes (with difficulty-I mean, who really buys extra-large Magnums?) on his. “Oh really? Tall, stacked, blonde aerobics instructors aren’t your type? What is then?”
He paused, his smile faltering as he stared at me, his eyes blinking back what I could swear was a sincere emotion bubbling just below the surface.
For half a second I was almost afraid of his answer.
But then the Tabloid Boy I’d come to know and dread resurfaced. “You know me, I live for the story. The only thing that gets me hot and bothered is a report of the Loch Ness Monster surfacing to chat with Bigfoot.”
“Very funny. Who’s the comedian now?”
He grinned, showing off twin dimples. “Listen, Dana told me about your fan in the Rover today. I know you’ve got wicked accuracy with the pepper spray, but I think you should consider something a little more serious.”
“What do you mean, ‘serious’?’
“I mean a real weapon.”
“The pepper spray is fine. It stopped you, didn’t it?”
He shot me a look.
“All the pepper spray did was piss me off. Were I really bent on harming you, I still could have.” Felix went to a low cabinet along the wall and opened a drawer. He pulled something out and slipped it into my hand. “Here.”