Jonas tapped the screen. “Every e-mail has an IP address. I’m going take that address and feed it into an IP tracer site.”
Confused and distracted by the way Wade kept drawing little circles on her thigh with his middle finger, Gracie asked, “A what?”
Jonas crossed his arms and sat back. “There are tons of online sites where you can simply input the address, and they’l tel you a general location of the user. They’l even tel you what operating system the person is using, and let you know who the person’s Internet service provider is.”
Intrigued now, Gracie sat up straighter. “Wow, I had no idea that was possible.”
Jonas grinned. “It’s not a big deal. Anyone can do it.” He looked back at the computer screen, his smile turning into a scowl. “But I’m not feeling real confident.”
“Why?”
“This guy doesn’t strike me as an idiot. Sick, but not stupid. I’m betting he’s using some sort of spoofing software.”
“English, Jonas,” Wade growled.
“Spoofing software is a utility that masks the person’s IP address. If he’s using that then the e-mails are useless.”
Gracie didn’t want to think negatively. She wanted this over too badly for that. “Who comes up with this stuff?”
“Unfortunately, there are a lot of people on the Net with something to hide. A company can make quite a profit off them. Now, hackers are a whole different breed. They don’t need the software to hide their IP addresses.”
Gracie placed her hand over Wade’s to stop the caressing. Getting turned on and not being able to do anything about it wasn’t her idea of a good time. “They don’t?”
Jonas looked at her hand and winked, as if he knew what she was feeling. Thankful y he didn’t comment. She wasn’t sure how she would’ve handled it if he had. “Nope. A hacker wil just find an IP address of a trusted host, and then they’l modify the packet headers. It’l look as if it’s coming from a legitimate source.”
Wade cursed. “Tricky bastards.”
She couldn’t agree more. “We can stil bring the e-mails to the police, though, right? I mean, maybe they could track down the right Internet service provider.”
Jonas shook his head. “They’d have to get a court order first in order to get the ISP to hand over their records. And since our boy hasn’t technical y done anything wrong, I highly doubt they’re going to go to those lengths.”
“Nothing wrong? Have you seen her, Jonas?”
Jonas held up a hand. “Don’t get so damn testy. I’m not saying this asshole doesn’t deserve a bul et for the shit he’s put Gracie through, but he’s not exactly a terrorist here. In the grand scheme of things, a stalker is pretty fucking low on the list.”
To diffuse the rising tension she could feel brewing between the two men, Gracie leaned back against Wade’s chest and said, “You both curse way too much.”
Wade wrapped an arm around her waist. “I’ve been told.”
“Then maybe you should clean it up a bit, Mr. Harrison.”
He smiled down at her and her heart did a little flip. “What’s my incentive?”
It wasn’t so much the question as the heated promise behind it. “What do you want?”
“A kiss every time I curb my tongue,” he quickly said.
She liked the idea, way too much. “And if you don’t manage to curb your tongue?”
He cocked his head to the side. “Huh?”
“You should be punished, don’t y
ou think?”
“You can spank me. How’s that sound?”
Jonas cleared his throat. “Uh, does this include me too?”