Liam was right. This wasn’t a theft as much as a warning. Someone wanted her to know they were watching, and they could get to her. Chills crawled over her.
He pressed his hand against her shoulder. “Don’t touch anything. We want security to see this. They’ll be here in a few minutes.”
Rae stopped putting items away. She should have known not to mess with things. For five minutes she and Liam stood in place in the room. With Liam there too, the room seemed to grow smaller with each passing moment. On her cell, she searched through her emails, hoping to find something from Reggie, or even Alan.
“I need fresh air, even if it’s cold. Can we at least open a window?” She moved in that direction, but he caught her and shook his head. A knock came at the door.
Liam looked through the peephole, then quickly opened the door to a tall man wearing a resort security jacket. “I’m Greg. You called for security. What’s happened?”
“See for yourself.” Liam opened the door wide and waved the man in.
“Someone broke into my room and ransacked it,” Rae said.
Greg frowned. “I’m sorry to hear that. Was anyone hurt?”
Rae shook her head. “No. I wasn’t here at the time.”
“Is anything missing?” Greg asked.
Her gaze shot to the desk and her heart skipped a beat. She rushed to where she’d left her laptop. Then she searched the room. “Oh no!”
“What is it?” Liam asked, concern in his eyes.
“My laptop. It’s gone!” Rae covered her mouth. She eased onto the edge of the bed. “My life was on that. Everything. My contacts. My articles.” Information she’d kept about Zoey. She hadn’t noticed it was gone because . . . because . . .
She looked to Liam. That he could distract her so completely infuriated her.
Rae quickly got on her cell. “I’m going to find it with the locator app. Find, lock, and . . . no. I’d better not erase.”
She waited for the app to show her laptop’s location. “Nothing. How can it show nothing at all?”
“Depends on what software you’re using,” Greg said as his gaze roamed the room. “Or if you only have software and not a tracker on your actual hard drive.”
Greg. Security guy. Make that security tech guy.
Her pulse felt as shaky as her limbs. “I should just erase everything.”
She had stored some of her files on the cloud but had kept more sensitive data only on her laptop. Like her bank information, passwords, and . . . a few articles.
Secrets.
Okay, so erase, then. “It’s not letting me hit the erase button.”
“Your software could require that your laptop be turned on,” Greg said.
“Calm down, Rae.” Liam now. “There are ways we can track your laptop if someone gets past your log-in and into your files. Like if they access your email account, for one thing, but I don’t have the expertise for all this. You need someone else.”
“Reggie!” He’d know exactly what to do. She called him, but it went to voicemail. She left him a message with all the information she could regarding locating her laptop. Why didn’t he answer? Maybe he had a life outside of his business as a research editor.
Deflated, she dropped her cell to her side. My laptop. My notes.
Liam stared at her, but he looked right through her. What was he thinking? “The entire reason they broke in could have been to get your laptop. Maybe they ransacked the place in a quick search for anything else that could be useful—or for drugs.”
“What?” Rae stiffened. “I don’t do . . . oh, you mean like prescription opioids?”
Liam nodded, a contemplative frown growing between his brows.
“Well I don’t use those either.”
“As for retrieving information, the thief could know exactly what he’s doing,” Greg said. “By now, he could have removed the hard drive to retrieve your data and ditched the shell of your laptop, in which case you won’t recover anything.”
“Oh, that’s just great.” Rae squeezed her fists. “You guys make it sound like my laptop might have been brutally murdered.” She plopped onto the bed and tugged her tablet from her bag. “I’m going to change all the passwords I can.”
“That would be wise,” Greg said.
She glanced at him. “Any chance your security people can dust for prints?”
“We work with the local authorities. A report will be filed about the break-in and stolen computer. I’ll give them a call now.”
If they had to go through the local police anyway, what was the point of