Page 21 of Reset

When she glanced up, it was to find Megan pulling over another chair. “I know he usually keeps you supplied while you work, but seeing as he isn’t here…” She settled into the seat.

“Thanks.” Elle reached for the candy bar, her throat tight. “Any luck calling Ryan’s contacts?”

“Nothing.” Megan bit into her own chocolate bar and frowned. “It’s times like this that I need some decent Scottish comfort food. A good roll and sausage, or a potato scone roll, or a sausage roll on a bread roll.”

“I sense a pattern here,” Elle said as she returned to her screens.

“There are only two rules for Scottish cuisine,” Megan said. “It has to be deep fried or fit on a bread roll. You’d be amazed what we can fit onto a roll. I’ve had curry, a full Scotch pie, and Christmas dinner all on a roll. Not the same one, you understand.” She heaved a sigh. “Why does thinking about Ryan always lead to thinking about food?”

“Maybe because that’s his MO. Sad? Eat. Happy? Eat. Stressed? Eat.”

“Awake? Eat.”

They shared a bittersweet smile.

Megan brushed her natural blonde hair off her face. “Man, I hope he’s okay.”

“He has to be,” Elle said as she brought up Ryan’s old Tinder account. “It wouldn’t be fair to go through a near-death experience, months in a coma, then rehab just to end up…” She couldn’t say the word. “He’ll be fine. We’ll find him. Plus, he’s capable. If he’s in trouble, there’s a good chance he’ll get himself out of it.”

“True.” Megan put her feet up on the corner of Elle’s desk. As long as her biker boots were nowhere near the machines, Elle didn’t care. “I mean, look at the state he was in when he woke up. He could barely stand, his right hand couldn’t grip anything, and he couldn’t remember half of our names. Now, he’s stronger than ever.” She stared at the wall for a minute. “I don’t want to miss him again. I feel like seven months was enough, you know?”

“Yeah.” It had been more than enough time without the man she thought of as a brother. She hadn’t been able to move on without him in her life. She’d even postponed her wedding so he could take part. Three months earlier, he’d been her proud maid of honor—even borrowing a kilt from Callum because he insisted that a proper maid of honor wore a dress.

Callum had been pissed that Ryan called his kilt a dress, and that’s when the fighting started.

Best. Wedding. Ever.

Elle stared at the stream of green-colored code on the black screen to her right and frowned. “That’s not right,” she muttered.

There was a thump as Megan’s boots hit the floor before she wheeled her chair closer. “What?”

“Gimme a sec,” Elle said absently as she typed commands into her keyboard. “Oh!”

“What?” Megan demanded. “You can’t make noises like that and not tell me what’s going on.”

There were moments when she wished there was someone else around in the office who spoke code, then she wouldn’t have to explain herself to normals all the time.

“Someone hacked Ryan’s Tinder account months ago.”

Megan was unimpressed. “Aren’t those accounts hacked all the time?”

“Not like this.” She continued scrolling through the lines of code, already forgetting that there was someone with her.

“I thought Ryan hadn’t been on Tinder since he was shot,” Megan said, reminding Elle she was in the room.

“He hasn’t. This hack is from around the time he went into hospital. Whoever did it was particularly interested in a woman he’d been talking to, somebody called Sarah.”

“You mean ‘talking,’ right?” Megan made air quotes. “I don’t think people use Tinder to chat. It’s a hookup app.”

Elle shook her head. “He was trying something new. We’d had a long talk about how bloody dumb he was with women, and he agreed that he should get to know the next one before they jumped into bed.”

“Smart. Less chance they’d steal his car.”

“Exactly.” Ryan was never going to live down having his new car stolen on the day he’d bought it—by a woman he’d met on Tinder that afternoon.

Megan scooted her seat closer. “Who’s this Sarah, then?”

“I’ve no idea.” Elle frowned at the screen. “But there’s like a month’s worth of messaging on here.” She flicked over to his other message and text apps. “He was talking to her on all of these. It feels wrong to read them.”