TECHNICAL THREAT
By Julie Trettel
Technical Threat
Westin Force: Book Four
Copyright ©2021, Julie Trettel. All rights reserved.
This is an excerpt intended as a sneak peek into this book for readers only. Do not copy or use for any other purpose.
Partial Chapter 7 – Tarron
“This is my grandson, Caleb. He’s single and available.”
My mouth dropped open and I turned to glare at her just in time to see her grin and wink
at the receptionist before waltzing off for another cookie.
“I’m so sorry for that. She clearly doesn’t get out enough.”
The girl giggled. “It’s cute. Where are you headed?”
“Idaho.”
“Road tripping with granny. That’s so sweet,” she gushed.
That was my cue to get far away fast. I cleared my throat and she seemed to snap out of
whatever Nonna’s trance she’d been put in.
“Right, well, you’re in 412. The elevator is around the corner. Breakfast is served daily
starting at seven. If there’s absolutely anything I can do for you, please don’t hesitate to call.”
She leaned forward and I was certain she squeezed her breasts with her arms to draw attention to
them. “I’m here all night.”
There was definitely some heavy sexual tension in the air, and that was the absolute last
thing I needed right then. “Thanks,” I said. I gave her what I hoped was just a friendly smile and
left to retrieve our bags.
Nonna was nowhere in sight. I didn’t think she could get into too much trouble in the
lobby of a hotel, so I walked back out, moved the car to a parking spot and started pulling out our
luggage, or rather Nonna’s. While I had one gym bag for the week, Nonna had five overflowing
suitcases. I had no way of knowing what she actually needed. I knew that no matter which one I
chose she would inevitably need something from one of the others, so I just grabbed them all.
I had three out when she ran out of the hotel and yelled across the parking lot. “Caleb,
come quick. It’s an emergency!”
My body tightened on full alert. I threw the bags back into the trunk and slammed the
door down as I turned and ran back to her.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
“What? Nothing.”
“You said it was an emergency.”
“Oh, yes, come quick.”
She dragged me back into the hotel and over to a tall man with snow white hair sitting in
the lobby. He was wearing a suit. His briefcase was propped up against his chair on the floor
next to him and his computer was sitting on the table in front of him.
“Caleb, this is Walter Johnston. He’s recently widowed and lives in Sacramento. He’s in
town on business.”
“Uh, okay. It’s nice to meet you.”
“Walter this is my grandson Caleb I was telling you about. He’s a computer genius. He’ll
have you fixed right up.”
“Come again?” I asked.
“Walter is having trouble getting his computer to connect to the Wi-Fi. I assured him you
know everything about computers and would have it working in no time.”
“Right. Okay. And that’s the emergency?”
“Of course. Didn’t I mention he’s here on business?”
I groaned, but sat down next to the man, feeling trapped and unable to do anything else,
knowing Nonna wouldn’t stop until she was satisfied, I’d do the job and help the man.
“So, what’s going on?” I asked him.
“I’m not sure. It’s a new laptop and I can’t get my email to come up.”
I checked his settings. Everything looked fine.
“Have you been sending and receiving email since you got the laptop?”
“Yes. This is the first time I’ve had any problems.”
I ran a few more settings checks and everything looked fine. I went to run a ping trace
and suddenly noticed he was connected to the hotel Wi-Fi, but he wasn’t getting any service. No
one else was complaining about it so I had to reason it was just his laptop being affected.
I disconnected the network and then reconnected to the Wi-Fi. The internet popped up
with the sign in screen.
“Mr. Johnston, is the room under your name? You need to put in that info and your room
number again.”
“Again? I never saw this before.”
I held back my groan of irritation. “Well, sir, looks like that was your problem then. You
should be good as new now.”
Before Nonna could drag me into something else, I walked back out to the car and
retrieved our bags.
She met me in the lobby smiling proudly.
“Thank you for helping poor Walter. I told him you were a genius. You showed him. I
just love watching you work.”
I scoffed. “That wasn’t me working, Nonna.”
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