“You’re going to find that girl?” she asks. “The one from the video?”
I nod my head. Her eyes flit back and forth between my own before her tiny hand comes up and lands on my jaw. Her skin is so soft, so smooth, so delicate against my own.
“You help. I’ll be here waiting.” I lean my head to the side and kiss her palm as she reassures me. She could be lying, but I’m choosing to trust her. “I’m done running.”
I want to kiss her. No, I want to fuck her. I want to throw her legs above my shoulders and feast on her cunt until she screams my name to the heavens, then I want to sink into her tight ass and pound her into the mattress. But, reluctantly, I pull away. We have a lifetime to fuck. Right now, I need to hack security cameras for a casino hotel.
Sitting down at my control board, my chair squeaks. It’s old and worn out but comfortable. I should buy a new one, but I sometimes have a hard time letting go of things. It’s not that they’re sentimental necessarily. It’s more that they’re mine.Pulling up some of my basic programs on my main screen, I begin logging in.
“What do we know?” I ask Luke without turning.
“Not much.” He sighs. He lists off a few names, the location of the casino, and any information he can remember from the video. He’s right—it’s not much to go off of.
“Do you want me to go make some coffee?” Ali asks as her fingers dance across my shoulders. Her sweet smell invades my senses and fuck, it makes me want to do foolish things.
As much as I hate to let her out of my vicinity, I’m not sure I can focus with her here. “Please, Princess.”
“Celeste…” Ali’s fingers leave my shoulder as she moves across the room. I crack my neck and refocus on finding the security feed out in the interconnected web of endless traffic. “Want to help?”
“Sure,” Celeste says before I hear their footsteps receding.
Maybe they shouldn’t be left alone together?Fuck it.What’s the worst that could happen?
Images of Luke and me in the woods flit across my mind. Celeste riding his cock while I pull her ass open and slide inside her warmth. Shit. I hope she doesn’t tell Ali about that. Let’s hope they don’t get too friendly.
“What’s the plan here?” Luke asks, pulling me out of my memories.
“Don’t let Ali find out that we tag teamed Celeste, mostly,” I tell him as my fingers fly across the keys.
He huffs. “I meant with finding Liv,” he snarks. “Ali has every right to know about who you are and what you’ve done, frankly.”
My fingers stop. I spin slowly to face my best friend who’s perched with one hand on my desk, watching over my shoulder as I work.
“She does not, and will not, need to know everything. I will decide what she does and does not need to know and you willstay the fuck out of it,” I growl into his face.
Most men would back down. I’m aware my anger borders on unhealthy. I don’t give a fuck. But Luke, Luke just stares at me right back.
“Honesty is the key to a healthy relationship, brother.”
“I will gut you and strangle you with your own entrails if you interfere with my relationship,” I warn as I turn back to the screen.
I’m being blocked out by several firewalls that seem to be dual process overrides. I need a second set of eyes. Pulling up a chat box, I send a request to The Fox for a second set of hands on this one. He’s an online menace, a hacker with skills that border on manic compulsion. He’s the best there is.
“You wouldn’t kill your only friend,” Luke goads in my ear as I type.
The Fox is online. He accepts my SOS, and together, we attack the system’s security. Clearly, Will, Luke’s foster brother and head of operations for this casino, hired someone very good to run his tech. Good, but not great. It takes just a few minutes before we’re in. I send The Fox some coins as thanks before he logs out. Probably off to go hack the Pentagon or some shit.
“You’re not my only friend,” I finally reply to Luke.
“There’s no way this doesn’t blow up in your face. You know that, right?” Luke chuckles over my shoulder as I begin to flick through security cameras. There seems to be the main security and a separate private feed. I have a feeling I’m going to want the private stream of cameras.
“If I have to burn it all down, watch this life and everything in it consumed with flames, just so she can rise from the ashes of her pain like a fucking phoenix, I will. Do not doubt the lengths I will go to for her, brother,” I snarl at him.
I flash through camera stream after camera stream, the screens before me jumping from scene to scene, barely longenough for me to truly register what I’m seeing. Room after room, private moments, empty spaces, individuals lounging in what they perceived to be privacy of the hotel attached to the casino. Each room seems to have a camera hidden somewhere within. Fucking Will, always up to something shitty.
“Find anything yet?” Ali’s sweet lilt fills the empty air behind me as she reenters the room. She comes up next to me; Luke instinctively moves out of the way so she can slide in against me. She places a white ceramic mug filled with steaming coffee on the desk next to me. I look up and she smiles at me. Her smile is warm, soft, sweet—just like her. If I had a whole heart, one that hadn’t been broken and reconstructed from the jagged pieces, I would melt at such a simple symbol of endearment.
“There!” Celeste shrieks from my other side. I forgot how annoying her voice can be when she’s worked up. She becomes shrill. It grates at my nerves.
