Page 46 of Speechless
No matter if my brain told me I shouldn’t want something so… expansive.
“Stay safe,” he whispered against my lips. “Please.”
“I will.”
I watched their car until it was entirely gone before moving my car and coming inside. The way they felt like a safety blanket was incredible. But I didn’t trust it yet. Too many things were up in the air, and I knew all too well how quickly something could be ripped away from you.
“Earth to Rin,” Ocean said. “You okay?”
“Yup,” I said. “All good.”
“Yeah,” she laughed, “totally believe you on that one.”
Isolde pulled her hoodie up over her head and tossed it away. “Now spill. The good and the bad and the reason why you can’t stay at home?”
“Someone broke into my apartment.”
My friends went silent, staring. Ocean blinked. “You’re serious?”
“Yes.”
“Did you report it?”
“I will tomorrow. All I could do was freak out. I went to Dad’s house,and they were there.” All the rest came spilling out in a long wave of words that didn’t seem to stop until I reached into my bag and pulled out the stack of papers with all the kinky things on them.
“Ta-da!” I made jazz hands. “That’s everything.”
“I’m glad you came here,” Ocean said. “We do have the best security. But if the roles were reversed, I would have had a hard time leaving.”
“It wasn’t easy.”
“The break-in, though. You said things were broken and ripped. I know you didn’t look at everything, but it doesn’t sound like a random burglary.”
There are no accidents.
“I’d like to think it was random.”
Isolde pointed at me. “But? There’s a but there. What aren’t you telling us?”
In the chaos of the apartment, I hadn’t thought about the flash drive since I left the office. Barely twenty-four hours had passed since I’d had it. If the source was smart, it wasn’t a flash drive that would be missed. Whistleblowers covered their tracks out of necessity.
It was too fast to have been identified and targeted. Right?
But on the off chance I was wrong, I didn’t want my friends anywhere near it. “I don’t want to say yet. There’s a small sliver of a possibility that it could have to do with an article I’m researching, but the timing is way off. So I’m going to stick with random or someone mistaking my apartment for another one.”
“What the hell are you researching?” Ocean asked.
“Oh. I forgot. Ocean, would you want to do a profile onEntendre? I think it would be a great piece for the magazine. I’ve been meaning to ask and keep forgetting.”
She narrowed her eyes. “Don’t think I didn’t notice you changing the subject there. But yes, absolutely, that would be fun.”
Wait—
“Didn’t you say after the whole thing happened with your aunt and uncle that your guys have a hacker on speed dial?”
Both my friends laughed, and Ocean nodded. “They do. Though I’m not sure I was supposed to tell you that.”
“Think they’d be willing to put me in touch? For reasons?”
