Page 36 of Run

“Ellie, do I seem like a man who needs to talk himself up?”

No, he really didn’t. “So, the flirting was just you being a tease? I don’t think so. The kisses felt pretty genuine to me. Thetwokisses. I mean, once you can excuse, but you, my man, are a serial offender.”

“Can you call twice serial?” David’s eyes sparkled with amusement. Further proof that he enjoyed this dance between them at least as much as she did.

“You can when they were that hot. I mean, one with me in pink handcuffs and one pressed up against a wall. Although, I’m not sure that one counts because you ruined it by stealing my laptop. Which, by the way, wasn’t cool, and the only reason you’re still alive is that you returned it.”

“It was tagged with a tracker. I was protecting you by removing it.”

“Yeah, right, and you couldn’t just tell me that so I could remove it myself?” Elle narrowed her eyes at him. “Stop trying to derail this conversation. I’m not one of those women who enjoy trying to figure out what a guy’s thinking. I’d rather just ask and get an honest answer. So, what’s with the sudden distance?”

He stared at her for long enough that she wondered if she should start squirming.Hell no. He’d kissed her. Both times.Hecould bloody well squirm.

“Why is there a microwave oven full of phones in the middle of the floor?” Callum asked as he prowled into the room, followed closely by Joe.

“This isn’t finished,” Elle hissed at David before answering her boss. “Makeshift Faraday cage, which is basically a metal structure that stops signals going in or out. I’ve turned off all the phones and taken out the batteries where they weren’t sealed in. Unfortunately, even when a phone’s turned off, someone can still hack it—if they have the right tech. Hence, the microwave.”

“That works?” Joe was clearly skeptical.

“Mostly. However, don’t be fooled—not all microwaves are created equal. This model has a better cage. Until I’ve hacked each phone, it’s safer for us if they’re in there. Plus, I wiped them down, but I don’t like the look of some of them, so I’m treating this as a phone quarantine.” She held up the antibacterial spray. “Each time I open the door, I spray some of this inside and hope it kills anything that could kill me.”

Callum was all business. “Have you accessed any phones yet?”

“I’ve done a couple so far. One had nothing but cheap porn and texts that were ninety percent emojis.” She reached for the iPhone with a cracked screen sitting on the coffee table in front of her. “This one might have some good stuff. They’re using a popular encrypted chat app to talk, and if I can hack his password, I’ll be able to access his conversations. I don’t think it’ll be too hard. The password for his phone was MC20RULZ.”

Joe burst out laughing as he sat on the sofa facing her. Callum, as usual, stood. She’d once thought he chose to stand more often than sit because it was more comfortable on his prosthetic legs. Now she knew he did it because it made it easier to walk out when he grew tired of everyone around him.

“You holding up okay, Elle?” Joe leaned forward, his face a mask of concern.

Suddenly, their late-night chat made a whole lot of sense. Callum wanted to check in on her emotional state and had brought along as backup someone who was more capable of doing that than he was.Bless his wee grumpy heart.

“I’m doing fine. I mean, I’m in my happy place.” She pointed at her laptop and the phones. “It also feels kinda nostalgic. Here we are, dealing with my family, and I’m back to hacking phones. Seems apropos, considering the first thing I hacked was a phone.”

“Yeah?” Joe encouraged her to keep talking, like a big, combat-trained counselor. “What brought that on? Curiosity?”

Callum, meanwhile, studied her as though trying to ascertain whether the stress of the situation would make her crack.

“My family used purpose-built cell phones to communicate, and I wanted to know what was on them,” she told them. “The phones were designed to be completely secure. All they had on them was an encrypted messaging platform. No cameras, no GPS, nothing. Only this unhackable communications app.”

“Which, of course, you had to crack.” Callum sighed.

“Which Ididcrack.”

“Tough job?” Joe asked.

Elle shrugged. “I had to borrow my brother’s phone to do it. And let me tell you, that wasn’t easy. He practically slept with the thing in his hand. Once I got it, I set up a program to infiltrate the messaging app and send copies of every communication sent by everyone using it to me.” She fiddled with the trackpad on her laptop and spoke more to the screen than the men in the room. “That’s how I found out my father killed my mother for having an affair with a cop.”

There was cursing, some of it quite creative. Elle sat quietly, feeling somewhat detached from their reactions. As though she was talking about someone else’s life instead of her own. To shake off the feeling, she reached for a slice of cold pizza covered in appetizing congealed cheese.

“Not gonna happen.” David took it from her hand. “Don’t move. I’ll be back.”

Confused, she watched him leave the room.

“Must have been hard”—Joe drew her attention back to him—“finding out about your mom like that.”

“It’s okay, guys. You don’t need to be upset on my behalf. It was a long time ago, and I pretty much suspected something like that by the time I hacked the phones. It wasn’t really news.” Although, having her suspicions confirmed had destroyed her. All hope that her mother would return for her one day had been wiped away. She’d hidden in the back of her closet, curled up on the floor, and wept until she couldn’t weep anymore. Then she’d started planning her escape from Tommy.

A hand rested on her shoulder as David set a plate on the cushion beside her laptop. On it was sliced apple and banana and a handful of almonds. He took her hand and placed a glass of milk in it. A glass ofwarmmilk.