Carla Cassidy - Pawn

She’d punched on her computer with the intention of working only to discover that the piece of technological machinery had gone wonky.

It booted up just fine, but before she could touch another button it began indiscriminately opening and closing programs one after another. Her dancing dolphin screen saver, WordPerfect, Free Cell, Excel—every program large and small she had ever loaded into the computer flashed on and off the screen in mind-boggling succession.

She stared at the screen, stunned, wondering what in the hell was going on. She punched keys, trying to gain control of the possessed computer, but it responded to nothing she keyed in.

What was happening? When she’d opened that crazy Delphi e-mail the night before, had it somehow infected her computer with a new kind of virus?

She was still seated in front of the computer screen when a knock fell on her door. She got up to answer, unsurprised to see her next-door-neighbor Leo Tankersly. He often drifted in and out of her apartment as if he belonged.

“Hey, Lynnie.” He walked through the doorway and headed for her kitchen, where she knew he’d help himself to her freshly brewed coffee.

Leo had made it clear from the moment she’d met him seven months ago that he wouldn’t mind if their neighborly relationship moved on to something more intimate.

She stood in the kitchen doorway and watched him pour himself a cup of coffee. There had been times in the past seven months that she’d been tempted to let herself fall into a relationship with Leo, times when loneliness had made his attractiveness look appealing.

And he was attractive. He was a big man, with broad shoulders and a headful of long, blond hair that made him appear lionlike. He had the clear blue eyes of an Arizona summer sky and an easy nature that made him comfortable to be around.

He owned his own construction business, but was the least driven man she’d ever known. He worked when he felt like it, or when his cupboards were empty. For him, work was merely a means to an end, not a way of life.

What had kept her from falling into a physical relationship with him so far was the fact that, as handsome as he was, as sexy as he looked in his jeans and T-shirt, there were no sparks for her, none of the visceral pull that she’d felt only once before in her life for a man.

“You aren’t speaking this morning?” he asked once he had his cup of coffee in his hand. He raised a furry blond eyebrow.

“I’m having a bad morning,” she said, unable to stop the frown she felt tug across her forehead.

“How can it be a bad morning? The sun is shining, the coffee is hot and all is well with the world.” He grinned, exposing slightly crooked front teeth.

Lynn’s frown deepened. Leo was one of those people who never had a bad day. Laid-back to the point of being comatose, he never expected anything and therefore was never disappointed. He was at peace with the universe in a way Lynn often envied.

“Something’s wrong with my computer.”

“Something’s wrong with all computers,” he replied. “Too much, too fast isn’t good for anyone. Technology isn’t always a good thing.”

“I’m serious, Leo,” she said with a touch of impatience. She led him through the living room and to the tiny spare bedroom she used as an office.

Leo took one look at her computer screen’s activity and whistled beneath his breath. “Wow, what kind of evil virus did you manage to pick up?”

“I don’t know. I can’t even key anything in to see if I can find the problem.” Once again Lynn stared at her screen.

It was like nothing she’d ever seen before. It was at that moment a thought struck her. Was it possible her “friends” at the FBI had decided to wreak a little havoc in her life?

It would be relatively easy for one of their computer techs to transmit a virus via the Internet directly to her machine. Even though she had the latest in security features on her computer, she knew no security was fail-safe and the FBI would have viruses that had never been seen before in their little cache of surprises.

She couldn’t imagine what they would hope to gain by doing something like this, other than reminding her of how powerful they were.

“Have you tried shutting it off and rebooting?” Leo asked. “Maybe that will reset it or something.” Lynn shrugged, leaned over and punched the button to shut off the power.

“And while we’re waiting for it to cool down or reset or whatever those things do, maybe we should just take a quick tumble in the bed.” He grinned at her. “You look tense. There’s nothing like a full-body massage to relax you. I’ll use my body to massage yours.”

She laughed in spite of her frustration. “Leo, do you ever think of anything else besides sex?”

“Food,” he replied. “Speaking of which, do you have any of those cinnamon muffin things you had last week? They were awesome.”

“No. I haven’t been back to the bakery since you polished off the last dozen.”

“Then if you aren’t going to offer me muffins, you should offer me sex.” A wicked grin curved his lips.

Again Lynn laughed. “You might as well give it up. It’s never going to happen.”

He held up one of his large hands as if to stop her protests. “Never say never. Who knows what fate has in store, and never might be something very different tomorrow.”

He took a sip of his coffee and eyed her over the rim of the cup. “Are you sure you’re all right? You really do look tense.”

Lynn leaned against the wall and sighed. “I didn’t sleep well and then I got up to this computer problem.” She couldn’t tell him about the FBI. Leo knew nothing about her history and she liked it that way. A clean start, that’s what she’d wanted when she’d decided to move to Phoenix.

“Unfortunately, I can’t help you with the computer and as far as not getting enough sleep, my advice would be take a nap.” He drained his coffee cup and they left the office and returned to the kitchen where he rinsed his cup in the sink and put it in the drainer to dry.

“Guess I’ll head back over to my place. I just wanted to check in and see what’s shaking.”

“Absolutely nothing. If I can get my computer working again I’ve got tons of work to do.”

“All work and no play make Lynn a boring girl.” His blue eyes twinkled.

She flashed him a quick smile. “All play and no work make Lynn homeless and hungry. Now, get out of here so I can figure out what’s wrong with my computer.” She walked with him to her front door.

“Wanna share a pizza tonight?”

She considered it for a moment. She and Leo often ate together on Saturday nights. “I had pizza last night.”

“What about Chinese?”

“I don’t think so, not tonight. I’m really swamped. I’ll probably just nibble on something while I work.” Although she did have a lot to do, that wasn’t the reason for telling him no.

She didn’t feel much like socializing, especially since what she did feel was the presence of an insidious threat hanging over her head.

“If you change your mind, let me know,” Leo said. “I’m going to be in and out all day, but just leave a message on my machine or call my cell.”

“Okay, but don’t count on it.”

She closed the door behind him as he left, then returned to her office and booted up her computer. To her surprise everything came up normal. She had just begun running a diagnostic to see if she could figure out what had caused the earlier anomaly when a knock once again fell on her door.

Probably Leo again. She rarely had any other visitors.

“Leo, I told you I’m not going to bed with you,” she said as she pulled open the door.

She stared at the tall, handsome dark-haired man at her door in stunned shock. “Nick.” His name fell from her lips in a breathless whisper.