She sat back and turned on the TV to stream a show. It was too quiet without the background noise.
A notification pinged on her PC.
Astra
Do your stretches.
Willow grimaced and set down her dish to reply.
Ness
Thanks, Dad.
He sent her a gif of a man looking disappointed.
Ness
I will.
He sent her a new gif of a person clapping.
Willow snorted and shook her head as she continued eating. She’d met him gaming online while recovering four years ago. He must have felt bad for her situation of losing all her money in legal fees and medical bills since he decided to bring her intohis hacking scams. It wasn’t like she’d been dumping all that baggage on him, but it had surfaced over time.
Now, her debts were clear. Using their skills to help others under the thumb of the predatory system known as American healthcare felt like a noble calling.
When he first talked about involving her, she thought he was going to scam her. The broken and lonely nerd duped into sending all her money to some stranger on the internet. Especially after her last shitty relationship, she would’ve made a prime target for someone with nefarious intentions.
But he hadn’t. That made her worried about the next scam: sex. Still, he never asked for nudes, never demanded to meet somewhere. After a few months, he’d mentioned being gay and living with his partner. That made a lot of sense considering her usual experience with men on the internet. If creeps were extra pushy, she would trick them into sending her money for airline tickets, flirting right back and telling them how hot they were. Once they sent the funds she would block them. Of course, not after stalking them a bit and seeing if they had a wife or girlfriend. Then, she’d forward the chat logs and any photos that had been sent to her.
As if he knew she’d finished eating, a new gif appeared in the chat of Jim Carrey dressed in women’s exercise clothes.
Weirdo.
She rinsed her dish in the sink and arranged her weights. Then, she sent him a gif saying “I’m doing my part!”
What his motivation was, she couldn’t say, but she was glad to have someone that cared. Maybe someday she would have someone to share the physical space with again.
Chapter 2
Ezra
Another day, another fucking job.
He tilted his head back as they waited for Charlie to come home from work. The idiot still hadn’t paid back his loan. No amount of strongly worded messages had convinced him, so the time had come to send in the heavies.
“When is he supposed to be here?” Ryker asked, fidgeting with his lighter. The clicking could get annoying real fast.
Ezra checked his phone. “Ten minutes ago.”
He swore under his breath. “Think he knew we were coming?”
“Who knows. Maybe he bolted.”
Ryker frowned. His intense scowl made him look scarier than he actually was. Well, he was scary to anyone who didn’t know him. “Fuckin’ hope not or we’ll be the ones tracking him down.”
“Yep.”
Ezra’s phone buzzed.
