My guts churned. “Yes.”
Paul nodded. “How many more TVs you got in this place?”
I walked into the bathroom and pointed to a small screen tucked on a shelf. It was pointed directly at the bathtub and shower. The shower where Eliana had stuck her damn finger up my damn ass.
Fuck!
From how pale she looked, I could tell that Eliana understood what was going on.
“I also have TVs in the living room, office, guest bedroom, and exercise room.”
Zoe yelped and slapped a hand over her eyes. I glanced at her. “Did you sneak a boyfriend in?”
Eyes still covered, she slowly shook her head.
“Then what…? Oh…” I got it. Zoe was afraid she’d been videoed rubbing one out.
Eliana was still clearly confused. She looked from Zoe to me. “What?”
Paul barked out a laugh, then faked a cough and walked out of the bathroom.
I couldn’t stop myself. “Come on, Zoe, don’t beat around the bush. Tell Eliana about your finger painting hobby.” And once I’d started, the terms whizzed out of my mouth. “Been pearl fishing lately? Maybe tiptoed through the two lips?”
Eliana horse laughed, and Zoe finally joined in. Her hand was still over her eyes. “Stop it. This is so embarrassing.”
“Oh yeah? As embarrassing as the entire world watching your white ass humping up and down?” The deep belly laugh that surged up and out startled me.
God, it felt good to laugh.
So we did, for a long time.
When we were finally calmed down, we walked out to find Paul using electrical tape to cover up the tiny camera on the bedroom TV, and that sobered us all very quickly.
“So, that’s it?” I asked him, unable to believe it.
“I’m quite certain, Kane. I’ve done a visual and an electronic sweep and couldn’t find anything else. The TVs line up perfectly for both angles for the videos. You’ve been hacked. You need to change your wi-fi password and also use this tape to cover any cameras on your computers and phones.”
My intercom buzzed, and I groaned. “What now?” Limping over to the box, I answered, “Yes.”
“Sorry, Mr. Steele, but I have two FBI agents who say they can’t wait until morning to visit with you.”
I shot a look at Paul, but he only nodded. “Send them on up.”
***
After a round of introductions with Agents Grinstead and Mason, we settled into the living room, Eliana tucked under my arm.
“What can we do for you?” I asked to get the ball rolling.
“Agent Mason and I are dedicated to the sex unit of the cyber-crime division. As soon as we heard about what has been happening to you both, we were interested in helping. Your case is especially strange because there are two avenues the criminals took to expose you virtually.”
“What do you mean?” Eliana asked.
“One set of videos are from the past while the other set is from the present. Initially, we believed the same perpetrator was responsible for uploading both sets. Our initial theory was a jealous ex learned of your engagement, and in a fury, uploaded the tapes from the past. Then, because he didn’t feel he had harmed you enough,” Grinstead looked over at me, “he decided to harm and embarrass you both.”
I leaned forward, ignoring the pain in my thigh as it stretched. “You said ‘initially.’ Do you think otherwise now?”
Grinstead nodded. “Yes.”
“Why?”
Mason pulled a folder out of her briefcase. “Because we visited Brett Southerland, the man Ms. Anderson indicated filmed and participated in the first set of videos.”
Eliana’s hand tightened on my arm. “And?”
Agent Mason didn’t pull any punches. “And we found him dead.”
CHAPTER TWENTY
Eliana
I would probably burn in hell to be pleased that Brett Southerland was dead, and I couldn’t hide the relief the news brought me.
“How did he die?” I asked, not even sure why I wanted to know.
“Bullet wound to the head.”
“So, he killed himself?” Kane asked.
Agent Mason shook her head. “There was also a shot to the heart. Both shots were immediately lethal, meaning both couldn’t have been self-inflicted.”
“He was murdered,” I surmised.
“Yes, and from the level of decomposition, his murder occurred approximately one week ago.”
I shook my head. “But that isn’t possible. The videos of Kane and me could have only happened a couple of days ago.”
“Exactly. So although Southerland could have very well uploaded the old videos, he couldn’t have been responsible for the new ones.”
“Then who? Do you think the person who did upload the new videos is responsible for his murder?”
Grinstead shrugged. “That’s a working theory, but we have no evidence to indicate that right now. Southerland was a sleaze. When we searched his home, we found hundreds of videotapes clearly labeled with the date and woman’s name. The tapes go back six years, his senior year of high school. It’s not impossible that he uploaded another woman’s videos at the same time he uploaded yours, and was found out and killed by that party. The new videos following so closely could be pure coincidence.”
“Do you believe in coincidences?” Kane asked him.
Grinstead didn’t hesitate. “No. But at this moment, we have no other leads, so all theories are open.”
“Which means that whoever is trying to torment us might not be finished. Correct?”
“Correct.”
“So what do we do?” I asked.
“What you’re doing now. Cover the cameras, turn off any listening apps. Right now, whoever hacked you could be listening to this conversation. Just because the camera can no longer see doesn’t mean the internal recorder can’t hear.”
I shivered.
Mason added, “You might not think your discussions are important, but think about this. Suppose you kiss Eliana goodbye and tell her where you’re going and when you’ll be back. You’ve—”
“I might as well have given them my calendar,” Kane finished for her.
“Yes. On a silver platter.”
On the other side of me, Zoe shuddered. “This is really scary.”
Grinstead and Mason both nodded. “It is, and the problem will only grow increasingly more terrifying the more technologically advanced we become. Smartphones, smart TVs, smart cars. All of that means technology that can be hacked and manipulated.”
“This makes living on ‘Little House on the Prairie’ sound ideal,” I muttered and turned my phone over until the screen was facing down. Now, the eye on the back camera was looking at me.
I really needed some of that tape.
“Baby monitors, toys with speech recognition software, essentially anything with an operating system can be hacked, even thermostats, printers, key fobs, fancy refrigerators and toilets. And talk about scary… here’s scary. Car brakes. The wave of the future is electrical rather than mechanical brake systems. One hack, and you can’t stop your descent down a mountain.”
Grinstead leaned forward. “Medical implants are particularly vulnerable. Pacemakers, artificial hearts. When you think of all the ways we utilize radio waves and other wireless signals…” he lifted a shoulder, not needing to finish.