Page 67 of Don't Log Off: Part Three
“It’s happened before,” I defend and shrug. “And it’s a thing when you do it. What’s going on?”
She finally glances over, mouth twitching. “Hollis texted and told me he’s coming to town for a couple of weeks. That’s all.”
“Liar.” I tilt my head. “Are you sure you’re not mad that you just accidentally built something charming?”
“I don’t build charm,” Roo snaps. “I build dangerous things.”
She goes back to typing, her fingers pecking the keyboard harder than before, picking up speed.
We sit like this for a while, quiet and comfortable. The kind of silence that only comes from surviving the same fires. I wait her out because I know something is wrong, but Romily Sokolov is a complicated creature. She won’t say anything until she’s ready to talk about it. Or until my oppressive staring breaks her.
It takes twenty minutes.
She snaps the laptop shut so abruptly that I nearly throw my water bottle while trying to take a sip.
I study her expression and quirk a brow. “What is it?”
She doesn’t seem scared.
She looks… intrigued.
“I think someone is watching me,” she whispers, glancing around before she leans closer.
My spine straightens. “Watching how?”
“Online.” Her eyes lose focus slightly, tracking something invisible. “It’s not clumsy surveillance. They know how to stay just outside of the perimeters I’m creating to catch them.”
“You want me to go hunting?” I keep my voice calm. “We can start today, if you want.”
She considers it for a beat before smiling and shaking her head. “Not yet. Let them watch.”
A chill skates down my spine when her hazel eyes remain bright with curiosity. I know that expression all too well.
It’s the same one she wore right before she became someone locals whisper about instead of search for.
I lean back into the couch, nodding in agreement. “Okay. But when you decide to pull the curtain?—”
“Oh,” she says softly, eyes gleaming. “They’ll already be inside. I’ll make sure they don’t have a way out.”
And just like that, I know our personal body count is going to rise soon. She won’t let it go or give them a warning to back off.
No.
She’ll give them plenty of rope to hang themselves, and then she’ll kick the foothold the moment they hesitate.
Whoever has just become the center of Roo’s attention surely has no idea what they’re stepping into.
She’s not just a siren in Crimson Bay.
Roo is chumming the digital waters with our enemies, calling all the sharks to feast.
