Page 17 of Risk Everything

Was it possible Jared didn’t have anything to do with the fire at all? That perhaps he really had stayed within the two-mile radius he was allowed to travel in since his release? Because Bree was one of the top computer geniuses on the planet, and if he was fooling the system, then she couldn’t figure out how it was being done.

The office door crashing open had her jumping in her seat. She immediately tapped the required keys to hide what she’d been doing, expecting to find Tanner returning with Parnam.

But instead it was Jared Ellis himself.

Chapter Seven

Jared was bigger than Bree would’ve thought. She imagined Marilyn, who was probably a good three inches shorter than Bree’s own five foot five, struggling against him. It was hard to visualize a situation in which Marilyn would come out the victor.

A man stepped from behind Jared, much shorter, but still stocky. “This is pretty much harassment,” the shorter man said in a booming voice. “My client has been out on bail for four days and we’re already being called in here like he’s done something wrong? Do not doubt I’m going to make sure the judge hears about this.”

“I thought you came in earlier?” Bree said without thinking. Wasn’t that what Parnam had said?

“Believe it or not, my client does not jump at the whims of this office. If the judge tells us to come in at a certain time, we will certainly comply, but this office having technical difficulties is not Mr. Ellis’s problem. You’re lucky he’s here at all.”

They didn’t know who she was, of course. They thought she was a computer tech assigned to this office.

This was a gift horse. She was going to ride that sucker, not look it in the mouth.

“Of course, Mr. Stobbart.” Bree forced her most subdued tone. Wait—would the tech have known his name? Too late now. “We appreciate you and Mr. Ellis coming in so we can take a look at the hardware.”

Stobbart looked slightly appeased, at least enough to stop yelling. “Well, I certainly wasn’t going to allow my client here without representation,” he huffed. “It’s not my first day being a lawyer.”

He and Jared both chuckled.

“If you don’t mind stepping over here, I’ll evaluate the hardware.” She studied Jared’s face. Stobbart may be a loud bully, but it was the look in Jared’s eye that had her recoiling.

Jared Ellis was evil.

He hadn’t said a word yet, and he didn’t say a word now; he just walked over and placed his leg on the chair next to Bree’s, exposing his ankle under his khaki pants. She wasn’t surprised to find him wearing loafers.

If wearing loafers in Colorado didn’t tell you everything you needed to know about a man, she didn’t know what would.

“Have you attempted to remove the device or modify it in any way?” she asked. “Maybe it got uncomfortable so you did something to it?”

“Like what?” His voice was deep and low and had almost a hiss-like quality to it.

She yanked her gaze from his face and studied the ankle monitor. There were no scratches, no markings whatsoever to indicate it had been tampered with.

“Just any attempt to open the device. Believe it or not, some people could start to feel claustrophobic because they can’t remove the hardware.”

She had no idea if that was true, but it sounded reasonable enough.

“No. I’m not prone to claustrophobia.” Icy voice once again.

There were no markings to indicate it had been overloaded with electricity, another way of attempting to dismantle it, but that would also have telltale signs.

“I’m just going to run a system diagnostics test while you’re here,” Bree said. “You shouldn’t feel anything.”

Although if she could’ve managed to rewrite the system so that the ankle monitor gave off a shock to Jared, she wouldn’t have hesitated to do so. Unfortunately, the device didn’t work that way.

She backdoored into the system, praying neither Jared nor his lawyer would understand what she was doing, and ran a full diagnostics test on everything: the monitor, the link between it and the system, the system itself.

She also made sure the GPS tracking was accurately calibrated, since she knew exactly where Jared was and could tell if it had been tampered with.

The system was perfect. The anklet was broadcasting exactly as it was meant to. Damn it.

She tried to think of any other tests she could run, but there wasn’t anything. She was grasping at straws. She stared at the hardware, willing an idea to come to her.