“Gimme a sec.” I could hear the clicking of Perez’s keyboard. “I’ll need some time, but I might be able to get you something.”
“I’ve got my phone on me twenty-four seven. Just call.”
“I’ll do that. Oh, and tell your brother I’m still trying to find out who hacked his girl’s phone.”
I looked back out the window. “She thinks it’s her ex, a guy named Danny Walker.”
“Danny Walker?” Perez said. “I’m just writing that down because Tay didn’t mention him. He goes to the same school, right?”
“Yeah.”
“A name always helps, you know. Maybe I can find other traces of him online. I told your brother whoever did this isn’t stupid, they know what they’re doing.”
That didn’t add up. Danny Walker, a computer genius? I couldn’t see it. There was something fishy about this whole story, and I was starting to doubt whether Danny had anything to do with that video. “Perez,” I said, “do you think Jules could be involved in that too?” I was starting to feel sick to my stomach.
“Dude… That video was made in a bedroom.… If what you’re telling me is true and Julian or Jules—or whatever his name—is just friends with that girl… Are he and Walker friends? Maybe they’re in it together?”
But Julian had stepped into a fight to defend Kam from Danny. It just didn’t make sense.
“I don’t think so,” I said, but I wasn’t sure. “I don’t know whether to connect Julian’s history as a stalker with all the stuff that’s been happening to Kam… He might be a sicko, but they seem to actually be friends. He’s always treated her nicely.”
“It’s high school, man, who can say. Bullying, revenge porn, that’s the kind of thing that goes on nowadays.”
“Yeah. It’s fucked up. I’m going to get to the bottom of it, though.”
“Cool, man, well, I’ll be in touch with whatever I find,” Perez said and hung up.
I didn’t like this.
I didn’t like it one bit.
I took a shower, my head so full of confusion I thought it might explode. My intuition told me this wasn’t over and Kam wasn’t safe. And I wasn’t going to stand back and let something happen to her.
I went downstairs and made some coffee just as my mother was coming home from the night shift. As soon as she saw me, she knew something wasn’t right. “What’s going on?” she asked, sitting down across from me. Her green eyes were just like mine,but lined with deep circles that looked almost purple on her white skin from the endless hours she was working at the hospital to keep us on our feet.
“I just woke up on the wrong side of the bed, that’s all,” I said as Taylor came in.
“You always wake up on the wrong side of the bed,” he said in a tone that sounded almost taunting.
“Are you trying to be a smartass?” I asked. I wasn’t in the mood for this shit, and after knowing Kami had spent the night in his room, I was doing my best not to kill him.
“Hey!” my mother said, grabbing my hand and seeing something I wish she hadn’t seen. I drew it back under the table, but it was too late.
“Thiago Di Bianco, let me see that hand right now unless you want me to actually get angry,” she said.
Fuck.
I brought my hand out and laid it on the table.
“What is this about?” she said. “Are you getting in fights again?”
“Mom, it’s nothing,” I said, trying to calm her down. I wasn’t in the mood to have to apologize to anyone.
“What do you mean, it’s nothing? Your knuckles are raw! Who did you hit, Thiago?”
“Danny Walker,” Taylor said, pouring coffee into an ugly pink mug. God, I hated Mom’s taste sometimes.
“The mayor’s son?” my mother exclaimed. “Have you lost your mind?”
