Read Online Reed (The Love Family Series Book 4) by Kate Allenton - Free Book Online

spoke. I hadn’t heard her that happy since before the accident.”
    “A thumb drive?” Avery asked, walking into the room, wiping the sleep from her eyes.
    “Something about how she’d created a thumb drive, similar to the nervous system.” Emily bit her lip as if trying to remember. “Yeah, if they didn’t have the right algorithm, there was a virus that would attack the mainframe, causing it to overheat.”
    “Son of a bitch.” Reed stood and immediately regretted the hours he’d spent sitting on the couch. He paced the room to work the kinks out of his body. “Did she say how to stop the overheating without the password?”
    Emily tilted her head. “She was talking over my head when she was explaining, but yeah, I think she said it was another one of her creations.”
    “What creation?” Reed asked, sitting back down. “Think, Emily, it’s important. What did she create to combat the overheating?”
    “A compression sleeve, like a patient would wear. It goes over the thumb drive. She said it acted like acupuncture, pushing all the right spots to block the signal that the code sends to the computer to start the overheating process.”
    Emily stood and walked into the open adjoining kitchen to start a pot of coffee. “She said she was on the verge of getting a patent for both items, but I don’t think she ever did before she disappeared.”
    “Something like that could be worth millions.”
    “I don’t know about you, but I’ve lost a dozen of those little things in my life. What good is the information on it if you can’t find it?”
    “There’s a tracking chip inside accessible by the user’s platform,” Emily called out as she stuck her mug where the coffee pot should be. “That was my suggestion.”
    “It still doesn’t explain where she went or why. With all the used bloody towels we found lying around her house, I have to assume that it wasn’t because of her computer toys, but more because she was a doctor, even if she only delivered babies. Stuart wouldn’t have been interested in babies or electronics. He’s only interested in two things, money and making more of it.
    Reed met Avery’s gaze, and they both spoke at the same time. “The ledger.”
    “What ledger?” Emily asked pulling out her mug and replacing the coffee pot underneath the nozzle.
    Avery was about to hurry from the room, but Reed stopped her. “We need to find that sleeve and take a short trip.”
    “What ledger?” Emily asked again, and they ignored her.
    “We have it here.” Avery’s words were directed at Reed. “We crack the ledger, and we’ll know what the hell she got into.”
    Reed cringed. “I was only able to decrypt half the drive. There was a portion I couldn’t get to.” He gave her an apologetic look; his secret would cost them precious time. “Another screen that required access was taking too long. It was heating up my computer, and the boxes weren’t fast enough.”
    “You didn’t tell me. I asked you exactly what happened, and you left that part out?” Her voice rose in anger, and her eyes narrowed to slits.
    “What boxes? What ledger?” Emily asked. “Will someone tell me what’s going on?”
    Reed turned to Emily. “I think your sister hid information on one of her thumb drives, and I believe if we figure out that information, we’ll find her.”
    Emily’s mouth parted.
    Reed grabbed Avery’s hand. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you. I was using it as my bargaining chip. But we need to find the sleeve and go back to the Island so I can crack the rest.”
    “No.” She slipped her hand free. “We need to meet Landon tomorrow.”
    Reed dropped his gaze to his feet. Landon was the reason he was here, but he couldn’t leave Alice running, not when he was so close to figuring out the secret keeping her away.
    He lifted his head. “How about this? We go to her house tonight to look for the sleeve, and then we still make the plane to meet Landon.”
    “Or…how about