“They always wait to do the fun stuff when I’m not there,” Royce grouched. An eyebrow went up. “Are they doing it shirtless?”
“Why do you think I’m down here?”
“Take a picture,” Geoffrey blurted out.
Quinn ignored the request. “Anyway, Brendon may be jealous and have plenty of motive. But you’re right, he knows nothing about computers. He uses freaking password1234 as his damn password for several accounts.”
“Quinn,” Sven said in a low, warning voice. Rowe had set very strict parameters on where Quinn and Gidget were allowed to hack. Brendon might be on their list of suspects, but unless Quinn had solid proof that Brendon was the stalker, it was unlikely that Rowe would have set him free to play in Brendon’s accounts.
“What?” Quinn’s voice jumped several octaves. “It’s not hacking if you use a stupid password like that. It’s like you’re asking for other people to access your accounts.”
Geoffrey twisted around to look at Sven with a sheepish grin. “I’ve gotta agree with him on that one. If you want to protect your stuff, you’ve got to at least put a little effort in.”
“Anyway…I honestly can’t see Brendon knowing how to erase his footprint from videos, much less hack into so many sites. Not only was that video posted on your pages, whoever did this hacked other sites and uploaded it.” Quinn cleared his throat. “I’m so sorry, Geoffrey.”
“Not your fault. And it’s not mine either—no matter what all those assholes are saying.” Geoffrey shifted back and snuggled under Sven’s arm, his hand going right back up under his shirt.
Fuck, he was adorable. Sven squeezed him.
“We’ll check Brendon’s accounts and keep an eye on him to see if there’s any indication that he might have hired someone to hack you. If nothing shows up, he’s off the list of suspects.” The sound of Quinn typing on his keyboard was briefly muffled by the sounds of shouts and cheering for several seconds before Quinn spoke again.
“Patrick Klein is an IT specialist for Quantum Networks, which provides technical services to companies such as building servers, networks, websites, and even security. If anyone has the skills to hack your accounts and possibly even manipulate video, it’s Patrick. I have no doubt that he knows how to pull markers from video.”
“Patrick is dating Sean. They’ve just started living together,” Geoffrey said. He shook his head, rubbing it against Sven’s chest. “It doesn’t make any sense for him to stalk me.”
“Unless he’s obsessed with you,” Sven said.
“He’s very handsy with you,” Royce added. “I saw it at the club. He always has to be touching you, and you don’t look comfortable with it.”
With a groan, Geoffrey shoved to his feet, frowning down at Royce, who didn’t at all look perturbed. “That’s just how Patrick is. He’s one of those touchy-feely people. Like me. He touches everyone. That’s not a crime.”
“It’s worse with you,” Royce countered.
Sven leaned forward, putting his elbows on his knees as he looked up at Geoffrey. “He also stopped by after the video was released to see you. He was very pushy about seeing you.”
“He’s a nice guy.” Geoffrey’s hands flew out in his agitation. “Nice people do things like check up on their friends when they are hurting. He can’t be the stalker.”
Sven reached up and gently wrapped his hand around Geoffrey’s wrist, drawing his wide blue eyes back to him. There was anger in his voice, but those eyes were filled with pain. “You’re probably right about Patrick, but we need to think logically about this. Your stalker has strong technical skills that aren’t easy to come by. Patrick fits that description. We should check him just for your safety. He’ll never have to know.”
A soft sigh slipped from Geoffrey before he sat back down. “Yeah, I know you’re right. It’s not like we’re close. It’s just…he’s a nice guy.”
“That leaves us with Kody Muse,” Quinn said. “And honestly, I’m not liking this guy.” There was a fresh clatter of keys. “Kody doesn’t have a lot of useful information. He has only a Facebook and Instagram account that I’ve found, and both pretty damn impersonal. Just the usual posts of food and some random memes. Nothing that shows family or even what he does for a living.”
Geoffrey snuggled up against Sven’s side again, but he could still feel the lingering tension in his slender frame. He hated putting Geoffrey through this, but he wanted to keep him safe. “He told me that he’s an independent contractor. He works short-term contracts building networks or working on some coding here and there. He mentioned going up to the Hamptons in the fall, so I always got the impression that he comes from money.”
“How did you meet Kody?”
“Like I met most of them—Instagram. He just started showing up at gatherings.”
“Wait, he appeared and instantly became a member of your friends?”