Page 103 of Unbound

One shaky hand lifts, accusing finger stabbing at the man and his dog. “I know that guy.” Her free hand goes to her stomach, pressing against it. “He used to be my neighbor.”

“Are you sure?” I try to keep breathing. “The picture is kind of blurry.”

“I’m positive.” Maren looks like she’s about to throw up. “I accidentally had sex with him once, and he kept trying to come back for more.”

“Yikes on bikes.” Heidi’s fingers are moving across her keyboard in the tiny little square displaying her in the corner. “Don’t feel too bad about it. I have fucked quite a few losers in my day.”

“I need to sit down.” Maren lowers to the floor, going to her back as soon as her butt connects. “After someone broke into my trailer, he tried to get me and Zara to stay with him.”

I stare at her, mind racing. I remember Walker telling me about that. Someone ransacked her house and took a few electronics and her work laptop. Which by itself would just sound like a normal burglary. But they replaced her work laptop with a different computer, so she didn’t notice right away—a move that would buy anyone in possession of that computer time to attempt to hack their way into any files it might contain.

“What was on the computer that was stolen from your house?” I’ve never even looked at one of the company laptops to see how Titus’s team sets them up. “Schedules? Asset reports? Maybe bank information?” I try to think of what someone might want with the company, and money is the most likely answer.

“Nothing.” Heidi’s the one who responds to my question. “They work somewhat similarly to a Chromebook. They’re primarily just a vessel to access a server. So unless whoever got the computer was able to get their hands on the constantly rotating passcode it takes to get in, the laptop would be useless.”

“But if they were just stealing it to pawn it, why would they have left one behind?” I shake my head. “They had to have been going after information.”

But what sort of information?

“I need something big to write on.”

There’s too much in my head and I can’t get any of it to line up. But I know the answer’s there. It has to be. And I have to find it.

Because it seems like my ass isn’t the only one in danger.

33

Walker

Ireach across the cab of the side-by-side, resting my hand on Sybil’s thigh and giving it a squeeze. “Take a deep breath, Snoopy.”

“I don’t think breathing is going to help anything right now. It might actually make it all worse.” She drops her head back against the seat. “I don’t understand why I can’t just do this on my own.”

“You can’t do this on your own because you need help.” When I walked into my office and saw the look on Maren and Sybil’s faces, I knew something big had happened. Something bad.

I was right.

Never once did I see this shit circling back to some guy who lives in the trailer park Maren called home. And maybe it doesn’t. The camera feed was fuzzy and dark. It’s possible Maren is mistaken.

But I really fucking hope she’s not, because it’s time for this to end. Time for Sybil to get the answers she desperately wants. Time for me to put the past to bed so I can finally move forward with my life.

And I’m ready to move forward. Ready to find the happiness I know my mom would have wanted for me.

“But what if they don’t want to help me?” Sybil rolls her head toward me. “What if they tell me to go eat a bag of dicks?”

“They won’t.” Mostly because that’s not how my family is, but also because it’s becoming more and more clear Sybil won’t just be getting answers for herself. With each step closer to solving the mystery surrounding our parents’ deaths, it’s becoming more and more evident the ties binding them together are also laced through what’s been happening at McKinley.

And they’re getting tighter.

“I wish I was as confident as you are.” Sybil pulls the lined flannel she stole from me snugger around her body. “Do you think my mom is suspicious we figured something out?”

Together, we’ve made the decision not to tell Paula about Tom until we know everything. I feel bad enough about having to ask her whether or not her dead husband was having an affair, I don’t want to make her think his best friend was a total piece of shit unless we know it’s true.

Gambling and cheating on your wife aren’t great things to do, but leveling up to hiring hit men is a whole different ballgame.

“Your mom is a smart woman, so probably.” I rub Sybil’s thigh, trying to soothe her as much as I can while driving. “Hopefully we figure this out and can explain everything to her soon.”

“Hopefully.” Sybil’s quiet for a minute, her eyes drifting over the landscape. “But it’ll be strange not thinking about what happened to my dad all day, every day.”