Hacker For Hire (Ted Higuera Series Book 2) Read Online Free Page B

clicked “OK” and
went to work.
    Her email in-box
was full. She rubbed Maxie’s head and sorted through the items. Her assistant
had scheduled two meetings later in the afternoon. She had an email from the
vice-president and another from the controller. Maxie stretched and rubbed his
head against her cheeks.
    The last item on
her list was marked urgent. The message was comprised of only six words.
“Donna, call me immediately. Urgent. Alison.”

Chapter 4
    “Good morning,
Mr. Chris.” The small Filipino nurse pushed back the drapes. “Today’s your big
day.”
    “Morning, Maria.”
Chris Hardwick sat up in his bed. “I can’t wait to get out of here.” He tossed
his head to get his shaggy blonde locks out of his deep blue eyes. “I don’t
remember the last time I saw the sun shine.”
    “There’s not much
danger of you seeing that today, Mr. Chris. The weatherman says it’s going to
rain all day.”
    Chris was dying to
get out of the hospital room. He hated the institutional gray walls, Formica
covered cabinets, the IV stand by his bedside. He couldn’t get the IV out of the
back of his hand soon enough. That had to be the worst part of his hospital
stay. No, the second worst. The catheter tube was the worst.
    “Maria, I want to
thank you for all of your help. You’ve been the best.”
    “Just doing my
job, Mr. Chris.” She smiled as she recorded his vital signs. “Besides, we have
to take care of our big hero, don’t we?”
    Chris’ heart
skipped a beat; he felt tears forming in his eyes. Hero? They stopped
the al-Qaeda terrorist, saved Dad and Sarah, but he lost Meagan.
    Unconsciously, he rubbed
the left side of his chest. The bandage was just under his collar bone. That’s
where the bullet had penetrated his lung. There was a matching bandage on his
back where the bullet exited his body.
    I’ve got to
think about something else.
    Being in a
hospital setting, seeing Maria, made him think of Mom.
    “Did I tell you
that my mom was a nurse? Actually, she was a nurse’s assistant. That’s how she
met my dad.”
    “Really? She’s
been gone a long time, hasn’t she?” Maria took his wrist and felt for his
pulse.
    “Yeah. . . She
died my senior year of high school.”
    An awkward pause
filled the room. Chris didn’t like to think about his mom dying either. This
was getting rough. Now he had two things he couldn’t think about. He needed to
teach himself to think about the good memories.
    “Hey, Chris-O!”
Sarah Hardwick breezed in through the open door. “You’re getting out today.”
    Chris could hardly
believe his eyes. The last time he saw his little sister, she had been a Goth.
Black hair, black lipstick, black nail polish. She dressed in nothing but
black, with black combat boots and wore a studded leather collar around her
neck.
    The sister he
remembered from before Mom died peeled off a tan rain jacket. Her short, sandy
brown hair matched Dad’s hair color. She wore jeans with new Reebok sneakers
and a Gap sweatshirt. She even had red nail polish.
    “Who are you and what have you done with my sister?”
    “I decided that
today’s a big day for us. We’ve both starting our lives over. Like Mom used to
say, we get a ‘redo.’”
    “How are you starting your life over?”
    “I started classes
today.” Sarah raised her hands in the air and twirled around. “Surprised?”
    He was. Sarah was
adamant that she wouldn’t follow Dad and him to the University of Washington. “But I thought . . .”
    “I didn’t do it
for Dad, I did it for you. I’m moving into your house. I’m going to take care
of you while you recover. I figured that I had to have something to do, so I
went ahead and enrolled in school.”
    “You’re moving in
with me? There’s only two bedrooms. Where’re you going to sleep?”
    “That’s all worked
out. Ted’s already found another apartment. He’s moved all of his stuff.”
    Ted’s moved
out? “He hasn’t said a word to me.”
    “I wanted it