She smacks my hand with a pen.
I hiss and pull my hand back.
“Don’t be rude.Mycomputer. My rules. You don’t touch anything.” Her watch beeps. She looks down, sighs, and then looks back up at me. “Unless I get to sit in your lap while you do it?”
I reel back. Her voice is so dry and matter-of-fact while she says the most outrageous things. What iswrongwith her?
The terminal pops out of sight, and we both turn our attention to the monitor. J swings her chair around and stretches her hands, a smile creeping over her face.
“Now we’re talking.”
Dutch and Zane will be thrilled to hear we have a lead. It’s thanks to a crazed fan who may or may not be the mastermind anonymous gossiper who has Redwood Prep by the throat…
But it’s a lot more than we’ve been able to produce on our own.
“We’re in,” J says triumphantly. “I’ll sync to the exterior speakers so we can hear and…voila.”
I don’t know what to expect.
We’re about to hear the voice of the kidnapper.
Is it Jarod Cross?
One of Kurosaki’s men?
Kurosaki himself?
“What do you mean?” a familiar voice hisses. “I don’t pay you what I pay you to hear excuses! Kick whoever it is OUT of the system. Do you understand?”
The floor rips from under me. “Mom?”
“Mom?” J’s head whips around. “The kidnapper’s… your mother?”
A giant red ERROR message appears in front of the terminal.
I lunge forward as if I can jump into the computer.
“These bastards are…” J scoffs as she taps furiously on her keyboard. “They’re trying to shut me down.”
My mind whirrs.
This can’t be right.
Why would Mom be behind this? I thought she loved the girls? Even if she doesn’t, she knows how much Dutch and Zane love their wives. Why is she involved with this?
I drag J’s chair away and take command of the keyboard, fighting the hackers on the other side.
J makes a squealing, protesting noise as she skids away from the computer. Her chair spins in place, and she plants her legs on the ground to stop it from moving.
“I told you not to touch that.”
Error! Access Denied.
“Dammit.” I slam my fist against the side of the table and merge my fingers to the keyboard again.
“Let me do it.” J scoots her chair next to me and reaches for the keyboard.
I push her hands again. “I got it.”
