Tempt Me by Tamara Hogan Page A

want?”
    “Other than Bailey? Unknown,” Jack answered. “We need more information. He and his friends haven’t cracked SL yet—”
    “And they won’t,” Bailey nearly snarled.
    “Hey, you have to sleep sometime,” Chico said. “When did you start work today?”
    “About three,” she admitted. “I was awake, heard the ping, and drove over so I could give Cheyenne a hand.”
    She’d been working since three a.m.? Hell, she had to be running on caffeine and adrenaline.
    The door opened, and Lukas came back in, popping an antacid from the tube he always carried in his back pocket. “Where are we at?” He didn’t explain why he’d left so suddenly, but he looked rattled.
    “We were just talking about the ‘why’,” Jack said. “What’s Cooper’s end game? What does he want, and why now?” He set the remote on the table. “We have the thread at the message board, a break-in, a stolen computer, and an uptick in malicious incursion attempts at SL. So far, Bailey is the common denominator.”
    Bailey shifted in the chair, clearly uncomfortable. “We have to assume he’s done a thorough physical recon of Sebastiani Labs,” she said. “That he has spatial knowledge of the SL campus, its entrances and exits, the roads in and out. Escape routes. He’s probably tried to tailgate into the building, chatting with the people taking smoke breaks so he can enter without an employee badge.” She paused, staring at Cooper’s picture, still displayed on the screen. “People are the weakest link.”
    Though her voice was steady, she leached self-recrimination. He choked back his feeble, helpless rage. “How do we take this guy down?”
    “That’s where you come in.” When Lukas flipped on the room lights, Rafe saw that every eye in the room was on him. “We need to draw him out.”
    “How?”
    “Jealousy.” Lukas glanced at Bailey. “Jack told me about the packages and mail you receive. Cooper’s still fixated on you.”
    His head whipped to where Bailey sat, fiddling with a blue gel ice pack. “He’s stalking you?”
    She paused, then shrugged. “Nothing actionable.”
    He shot Lukas and Jack a disgusted look. “You really can’t do anything about this?”
    “He’s smart and he’s careful. No handwriting or prints to analyze, no return address, generic printer paper and ink.” Lukas looked at Bailey. “Have there been any incursion attempts against your personal accounts?”
    “No.”
    “The condo’s clean? No bugs?”
    “I swept it as soon as I arrived at Bailey’s place and saw the computer was missing,” Jack answered. “Whoever stole the computer didn’t bother to install anything else.”
    Bugs? Were they talking about surveillance equipment?
    “How about your car?” Chico asked.
    Bailey cursed under her breath. “It’s been over a week since I checked.”
    Chico’s big fingers flew as he sent a text. Rafe had no doubt that a Sebastiani Security operative would be out in the parking lot checking Bailey’s car within minutes.
    “Okay, what’s the plan?” he asked Lukas.
    “Make him jealous. Piss him off. When he makes a mistake, we take him down.”
    Bailey twisted around in her chair to glare at Lukas. “Are you serious?”
    “As a heart attack.” Lukas popped another antacid. “Let Cooper see you and Rafe spending time together. Wine and dine. Dance and date.” Lukas waved a hand toward him. “Rafe knows the drill.”
    His eyes widened. What the hell was Lukas up to? “I don’t think—”
    “Not interested?” Lukas said. “Okay. Chico, how about you?”
    Chico grinned, the flash of his teeth rivaling the sparkle of the pea-sized diamonds he wore in both ears. “Sure—”
    “Slow down,” he snapped. The prospect of someone else masquerading as Bailey’s lover sent his temper into the red zone. If anyone was going to do this, it would be him. But... “Maybe we can kill two birds with one stone.”
    “What do you mean?”
    “I have deadlines and work