Game of Fear (Montgomery Justice #3)(10)
“Ashley, you’re not still playing that stupid game, are you?”
“There’s nothing stupid about P.O.E. We just broke through to Level 88, and it took more brain cells than all my Academy courses combined. Justin and Mylo were talking about going out to celebrate since they helped me break the last codes. It’s fun working with a team instead of staring at the screen alone in my room.”
Deb stood and walked into the kitchen. She poured a glass of orange juice and took a sip, studying her sister across the bar. She searched for the right words, but she just had to say it. “I’d still feel a lot better if you weren’t doing anything that remotely resembled hacking. Especially with Justin. You two came too close to getting locked up.”
“My advisor gave me the latest version of P.O.E.,” Ashley protested. “He said, with my background, I might enjoy the challenge. Lighten up. It’s only a video game, after all. Besides, I’m tired of being the too-smart-for-other-kids-to-do-normal-things-with geek. I want to be normal.”
“It’s a game where you pretend to break into banks, follow money trails, plant evidence on computers, and take down governments.”
“And catch the bad guys,” Ashley added. “It’s harmless fun. The guys like the shoot-’em-up, and I like the math and computer stuff. Besides, if I go into Intelligence—like the Academy counselors seem to think I should—I’ll need the practice. I have to be able to think like the bad guys.”
Why couldn’t her sister be like other kids? Deb placed her empty glass in the sink and foraged for a handful of granola. “Well, behave yourself. Your imagination is a little too creative sometimes, and the morals depicted in those games are questionable at best.” Deb tempered her tone, knowing she’d get nowhere with Ashley. “I have enough to worry about with everyone in the family deployed to the Middle East right now. I don’t need you in jail, too.”
Ashley saluted. “Yes, ma’am. Orders duly noted. Pretend games only. Maintain my integrity. Got it covered, Admiral Lansing.”
Deb laughed at the nickname Ashley had stuck her with. So she was bossy where her little sister was concerned. Ashley’s moniker for her might have been General Lansing, but their father had already laid claim to that title. Deb hadn’t stayed in the Army long enough to give him any real competition for the rank.
She took in the impish look on her sister’s face. “You’re lucky I love you, brat, because you are truly a wiseass. That mouth of yours is going to get you into trouble someday.”
“That’s not what Justin says.” Ashley batted her eyelashes and smiled.
“Great. Now I have something else to worry about.” Deb glanced at her watch. “You have school in the morning and I don’t like you traveling the roads this late at night, even if it is interstate most of the way. Why don’t you stay over and leave early in the morning? I’ll call in for you.”
Ashley shook her head with a sigh. “I promised the guy I’d get his car back before weekend curfew and I’m really going to have to push it to make it.” She collected her books and slipped them into her backpack. “Besides, I’ve been trying to reach Justin by phone all day with no luck. His cell service is terrible. It’s so spotty, half the time I can’t get him unless he’s in an empty field pointing his phone at the tower. I want to give him another call when I get back to school.”
Deb walked Ashley to the door. “Are you sure?”
“I’ll be fine. I . . . I needed to tell someone. Things feel a tad off, I guess.”
“Let me know if you get any more hang ups or anything else weird happens. I worry about you. Justin and Mylo’s info is in the address book in case you’re off campus. Right?”
“Yes, Admiral, everything’s there, along with all the school numbers, my roommate’s cell, etcetera. Talk about an overreaction. You are so anal sometimes.”
“Hey, pipsqueak. You’re the one who got antsy. And you’re not the easiest person to keep track of, you know. I like to have every contingency covered.”
Ashley buttoned up her coat and arranged her scarf around her neck. “Look, the phone stuff is probably nothing. Besides, I’m almost seventeen. I’m invincible, remember?”
“The kids I transported to the hospital today thought so, too. Humor me and be careful.”
“Yes, mother. I love you, too.”
Deb rolled her eyes. “Go. You’re driving me nuts. And be safe.”
Ashley hugged her, and Deb held her sister tight. She was going to be an amazing woman someday. Scary amazing, actually. Emotion clogged Deb’s throat. The truth was, she’d been a surrogate parent to Ashley ever since their mother had died of cancer when the little girl was only five, and the General had walled the whole family out in his grief. The protective maternal role was hard to give up.
Deb watched Ashley until she drove away, closed the door, and walked back into the empty apartment. A tremor of foreboding ripped through her. It almost felt like a premonition, like that feeling she got in Afghanistan when everything was about to go to hell. She raced to the door to tell her sister to come back, but the taillights had disappeared down the road.
She should call her sister’s phone and insist she spend the night, despite the need to get the car back to her classmate—