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“Almost two years ago.”
“Aw, that’s great. To Luke?”
“No,” she answered. “Not Luke.”
Thankfully, they let it slide, continuing on with the conversation at hand. “Well, the good news is,” Alex answered, “if they’re not already out in the wild, there may be a chance at containing them. Once they get plastered all over social media, it’s impossible to make sure every trace is scrubbed.”
Her heart lifted a little at his words. Did they have a chance? “They’re not yet, but…how can we be certain we’ve gotten them all?”
“If they’re tied to a specific person, we just need some access to them and a few accounts, then I’ll let my little bots crawl across all their accounts and major spots on the web for image storage and scrub them all. I’ll leave no stone unturned…pun intended, kid.”
Julia sucked in a breath as she bobbed her head up and down. This all sounded promising. But could it be trusted? She’d never known Alex Stone to fail, though. His massive tech ego was backed up by his exceptional skill. “Well, this sounds hopeful, at least. Umm…”
She pinched her eyebrows, trying to come up with a delicate way to ask him for the favor.
“If you’re trying to think of a polite way to ask me to do this, don’t,” Alex said, interrupting her whirling thoughts.
Her heart sank. She’d pushed it too far. He had no interest in stepping away from his billion-dollar tech company to deal with her personal tragedy.
“I’m happy to do it.”
She breathed a sigh of relief. “Oh, Alex, thank you. How do we go about this? And what can I give you in return?”
“Nothing, kid. A favor for a friend. We should do this right away, though, before this joker decides they’re going to do something stupid. I’ll get the chopper up. I can be in Harbor Cove in a few hours.”
“I’m not in Harbor Cove, actually,” she said. “I’m in New Orleans now.”
“Wow, that’s a big move for a small-town Mainer,” Ava said.
“Yeah, it is,” she answered with a chuckle.
“All right. I’ll take the jet. I’ll leave in the morning, and be there by the afternoon tomorrow. Sound good?”
“That sounds perfect. Alex, Ava, thank you so much. I can’t tell you how much this means to me and will mean to Grant and Sierra.”
“Grant,” Ava repeated. “Your husband?”
“Yes, I…married Grant Harrington.”
“Grant Harrington,” Alex repeated, his voice sounding intrigued. “Energy mogul. I think we sold him some chips a while back, but I never met him. Interesting. This’ll be fun.”
Julia’s heart settled back into a normal rhythm since there was no horrid history between them. “You can come straight to Harrington House when you get here. I’ll send a driver to the airport to pick you up.”
“Cool,” Alex said. “See you tomorrow, kid. And don’t worry. We’ll get this solved. Alex Stone is, after all, the ace of cyberspace.”
Julia chuckled at the nickname that he’d apparently kept since college. “Yes, you are. Thank you. See you tomorrow.”
They said their final goodbyes, and Julia ended the call. She rubbed at her forehead, trying to take solace in the small win. She’d feel better, though, when they’d scrubbed any traces of these pictures from Lydia’s clutches.
She considered passing the news along to Sierra. Maybe it would ease some of her upset, though she was certain it wouldn’t go far to remove the pain of her mother being the one who did this to her.
Before she could force herself to her feet to check on her stepdaughter, a knock sounded at her door. She spun in her chair to find Kyle leaning against the jamb, his features tense.
Her stomach twisted into a knot. Grant had insisted on speaking with him privately. From the look on Kyle’s face, that conversation had not gone well.
“Hey,” she said. “You look upset.”
“I am upset,” he answered as he shuffled inside and pulled a chair closer to her.
