“Yeah.” I shake my head. “Let’s go.”
Chapter Seven
Frankie
“Shit. I’m missing something.” I squint at the screen, rubbing my burning eyes. “It’s right here, I can feel it.” Lines of ones and zeros run across the screen, fragments of information that are leading us nowhere. I feel like I’ve been going in circles for… I glance at the clock in the corner of the screen. “Seriously?”
Cyber turns his head towards me and pops an earbud out of his ear. “What?”
My brow furrows. “How did you hear me with those things in?”
He glances down at the white AirPod. “I only had one in,” he explains before asking again, “What are you ‘seriously-ing’ about?”
“I feel like I’ve been going in circles for days, but it’s only been a few hours.” We’re chasing digital fucking ghosts, and it’s starting to get to me.
His eyes bounce between mine. “You need a break.”
I sigh. Heather can’t afford for me to take a break. She’s out there somewhere, scared and alone, and every second we waste is another second these monsters are doing god knows what to her.
“I can see that I’m wasting my breath.” His eyes go to the screen in front of me. “Maybe try tracing the origin point again.” He takes off his hat, runs his fingers through his hair, and puts it back on his head. “Maybe we missed something.”
I nod, even though I’ve already checked and rechecked everything three times. “Yeah. Maybe,” I mutter, typing furiously. “Whoever’s running this knows what they’re doing. The signal’s bounced through at least seven different countries in the last twenty seconds.” And it’s pissing me off! How the hell am I supposed to find a backdoor into their network?
Cyber grunts his agreement, never taking his eyes off his screen.
I glance back at the time. It’s been hours since Bane brought me in here with a parting, ‘I’ll leave you to it.’ Whatever the hell that even means. At this point, I’m not sure if he’s coming back or if I’m stuck here until we find something.
Part of me wants to see him again, and the other wants him to stay the hell away from me. Which is ridiculous.
The man kidnapped me, for crying out loud.
I wonder if it’s too early to be developing Stockholm Syndrome.
My mind drifts to the woman I saw earlier at the clubhouse. She couldn’t take her eyes off of him. I get a sour feeling in my gut. Maybe he’s with her now. Maybe they’re…
Yanking my glasses off my face and slinging them across the desk, I scrub my hands over my face.
Why do I even care what he’s doing? It’s not like he’s my boyfriend or anything. Hell, we’re not even friends. So what if we’ve come to some unspoken truce? It’s not like he’s going to magically forget about the hundred grand I stole from him.
I must be entering that delusional state of exhaustion.
Picking my glasses up off the desk, I slide them back on my face. I don’t have time to worry about Bane and his stupid deep blue eyes and sexy smirk. There’s a girl out there who needs my help.
“I need some coffee.” I yawn and pick up my mug. Glancing down into the bottom, I frown.
“Ugh,” I groan.
“What?” Cyber asks, spinning in his chair to face me.
I swing my gaze his way. You know, he doesn’t look anything like the nerds I went to college with.
My eyes travel over his backwards black ball cap, his pale blue eyes, and across the NASA tee that he fills out to absolute perfection.
“How old are you?”
His brow pinches. “Twenty-five…” he drawls. “Why?”
I shrug. “Just curious.”
