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[19] Dicipherment
It was late evening when Jim was released, his story corroborated by Teri’s, the laptop, and other evidence. Exhausted but free and without any charges filed against him, he wrapped his arms around Teri as soon as he saw her awaiting him in the sheriff’s station lobby. “How did you do that?” he breathed into her hair, drawing peace and comfort from the familiar floral scent there.
“The first rule of overseeing deployments that people actually use is don’t do anything that will impinge on the service’s availability. Ever.” Her hazel eyes scanned his face for comprehension.
“I use a test environment to check all my coding before I deploy to a production or live environment. I create a copy that mimics the live system and tracks my changes.” Teri shrugged. “The test environment was already launched on my laptop. That was the last thing I’d
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Antiquarian's Precious Find [20] New Layers of the Tel
“So this is it?” Jim glanced from the road to Teri in the passenger seat, then back. The trip to Coeur D’Alene would take about fifteen hours driving. Though they’d left that morning, Teri had driven until they’d stopped for lunch, and after he’d taken over for about an hour, he found himself marginally disappointed. “This is RVing?”Teri’s eyes squeezed shut with her laughter. “It’s just driving, even if it is a big bus-like thing. I can put the radio on if you need a little excitement. What’d you think it was going to be?”Across from her, Jim grinned at her snarky reply. “I don’t know. I didn’t have a basis for comparison.” He glanced in the rearview mirror through the length of the vehicle. “I guess it’s nice not to have to sleep in a bag on the ground. Or put the tent up in lousy weather.”
Antiquarian's Precious Find [21] Shifted Stratigraphy
“Are you done yet?”Teri startled as Jim banged on the bathroom door again, nearly dropping the pregnancy test into the RV’s toilet. “For pity’s sake, no! I just sat down and with you hovering outside the door incessantly banging like that, you’re giving me performance anxiety.”Through the thin door, she could hear his snort of laughter. “Fine.”“Now you sound like a petulant child.”“Teri, so help me God, I’ll open that door and squeeze some pee out of you myself. Stop torturing me.”She couldn’t help her snicker, and humor at his excited frustration helped her relax. She held the test stick in the flow for several seconds, then capped and set it aside to finish her business. No sooner had she righted her clothes and collected the capped strip, steppin
Antiquarian's Precious Find [22] Unsuspecting
Though he’d lived in Idaho most of his childhood and into college, Jim had never visited Coeur D’Alene, but could instantly see the appeal to Teri, as the mother of a young and energetic daughter. Situated in an area of incredible natural beauty along the lake, there were lots of amusement and water parks, bike trails, hiking and public beaches with swimming, picnicking, boating and other water-related sports available.Teri’s house was not far from downtown in a safe clean residential neighborhood of quaint homes, situated across the street from a city park with lots of open space to run and a playground at its center. Though only two-bedrooms with two baths, the house had a generous three-car garage that included one large enough to store her RV at home. Inside, the place was neat and comfortably furnished, with an open kitchen-dining room-great room, and a small den off the front of the house that Teri used as her home
Antiquarian's Precious Find [23] Predator (**trigger warning--rape mentality**)
Lay on your left side. Lay on your right side. Ginger. Lemon. Watermelon. Dry biscuits. Peppermint. Magnesium supplements. Gah! None of it works. Why does none of it work? Teri moaned to herself, trying to lie still, breathe, and not vomit. Morning sickness had been nowhere near as ferocious with Zoe as it was now.Or maybe it had. Maybe she’d been so relieved escaping everything else happening in her life with Zoe she hadn’t noticed how bad the morning sickness was. She couldn’t imagine how she’d missed it, but obviously her life had been filled with stranger things at the time.“Mama?” Zoe whispered from the door. “Are you awake?”“Yes, kiddo. Come over here, please.”“Gently,” Jim cautioned as both he and Zoe came around the bed into view. Taking a seat on the edge of the bed beside T
Antiquarian's Precious Find [24] Prey
It took maybe quarter of an hour and two of the tart hard candies, but Teri did feel better. Significantly better than she had in the previous few days and with any of the other morning sickness remedies she’d tried.That Estelle. She’s a wonder, she mused. Still, Teri eased herself first to a sitting position, then to her feet in slow increments.Overnight the mercury had plummeted into the forties, and she shivered padding across the rug-strewn floor to the closet for her terrycloth robe, insulating her body heat against escape, then, chaffing at her arms to increase the warmth and circulation, slid her feet into slippers. The house seemed unnaturally quiet with everyone gone but her, though that would be short lived. Jim would be home long before and by ten, the two-man construction crew would arrive to continue work on the basement and things would get noisy again.Fortunatel
Antiquarian's Precious Find [25] Machinations
They think they’re so smart.Nick’s steely gaze followed the bulky figure of an undercover agent from behind a newspaper as the man left the window bar of the coffee house where he’d been idly staring at his phone and picked up his order at the counter.Three cups in the drink carrier for the second day in a row. That answers that question, he thought, shifting in his seat so he could confirm the license tag on the agent’s vehicle as the man entered it. It was the same as the one he’d seen follow Teri’s white SUV from the hospital to Erickson’s house the afternoon he’d returned to Moab and happened upon her there.His gaze flicked to the coffee house employees behind the counter, recognizing one immediately. The assistant manager, a twenty-something stoner he’d treated more than once in the ER for mountain biking and skiing injuries, the
Antiquarian's Precious Find [26] Concoctions
Good morning, Gorgeous.”Jim leaned over Teri and kissed her temple sweetly, dropping a handful of Estelle’s magic morning sickness candy cures on the bedside table where she could reach them and she sighed gratefully. “Good morning. And thank you.”Reaching for one, she unwrapped and popped it into her mouth, eager to have done with the nausea.“I’m walking Zoe over to Patrick and Abby’s. Abby’s going to take her to school with Beth.”Rolling to her back, Teri stared up at him. “What did our oh-so pleasant escort have to say about that?”Shoving his hands in his jean pockets, Jim shrugged, wearing a lopsided grin. “Not much. They were less pleased to find out I’m going out to the airfield.”Teri’s brows lifted inquiringly, promp
Antiquarian's Precious Find [27] Fox and Hounds
Oh, sweet submissive Teri! Nick almost groaned aloud.Timid as a hare, she shambled towards him with hesitant steps, much to his delight, her slim hand still clutching her phone, holding it like a magical weapon between them, her face drawn in a frightened grimace. When she was close enough to grab, he snatched the device, tossing it towards the lifeless contractors.With another trembling whimper, she tried to bolt away, and thrilled with how perfectly Teri fed him his every desire, he gave chase. Through he tripped over the dog doing it, Nick caught her by the slim ankle, bringing her crashing to the ground with a hard whump and pained cry.Releasing the shotgun to catch at her with both hands, he half-dragged half-crawled up her petite body, pressing his crushing weight down on her and pinning her scrambling hands behind her neck.“Attempt to do that again and I’ll kill the next person I see. Do you understand?” he snarled at her ear and beneath him her delicate body trembled fierce
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- Antiquarian's Precious Find [1] Trojan Horse
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- Antiquarian's Precious Find [29] Hunted
- Antiquarian's Precious Find [28] Crosshairs
- Antiquarian's Precious Find [27] Fox and Hounds
- Antiquarian's Precious Find [26] Concoctions
- Antiquarian's Precious Find [25] Machinations
- Antiquarian's Precious Find [24] Prey
- Antiquarian's Precious Find [23] Predator (**trigger warning--rape mentality**)
