Page 20 of Hidden Ties

Nodding, he wasn’t sure she bought it but thought she must’ve when she continued her questioning.

“You going to tell me why you did it?”

He took his eyes off the road to look over at her. “Did what?”

“Make it seem like I was the hacker by giving Officer Daniels that statement.” Her words came out annoyed.

“Do you really need to ask that?” Sal gave her an incredulous look, having to take his eyes off the road again, knowing she wasn’t dumb in the slightest. Valerie was simply just annoying.

“I suppose not,” she agreed, knowing she had gotten under his skin. “And do you think I am the hacker?”

Sal shook his head as he answered honestly, “No.”

“Why not?”

If he didn’t know any better, he’d think she was almost offended, but Sal knew before he had gotten a hold of her computer that she was innocent.

Smiling with satisfaction at the memory of her thrashing around the back of the cop car, he couldn’t help himself. “Sweetheart, you’d have to be framed to have caused a scene like that.”

NINE

G-O-O-D-N-I-G-H-T

Taking a ride from Salvatore Lastra was to her benefit. It made her able to eat food faster and brought her home quicker than waiting on a bus for an hour. It also gave her a chance to fuck with Sal for a bit and pay him back for what he had done to her.

Now that he had just pulled into her driveway, it was over, and she hoped to never have the pleasure of being in his presence again.

“Bye!”

Throwing herself out of his car, she went to her precious home, not even bothering to take her trash with her. However, that might’ve been her mistake as Sal chased after her.

“Hey, wait,” he said, grabbing her bag of empty, smelly wrappings and drink from his car.

Valerie didn’t bother looking back; she went to her front door but found it strangely locked. She lifted the well-used welcome mat she had bought from Goodwill. “You have a trash can at your place, I’m sure. Good day.”

Not taking the hint, Sal watched her pull the key to her front door from under her mat, appalled. “Christ, Valerie, you’rea single woman living alone; why don’t you just place the keyabovethe welcome mat next time?”

“First of all, like you really care about my safety.” She gave him a scolding look, wanting to shove the sharp metal object right up his ass. “That’s real rich coming from you, considering you let merotin prison over the weekend. And secondly, I have a boyfriend, thank you very much, and he’s big.Huge.” She started sliding her key into the hole. She was almost home sweet home. “So, if you don’t mind, I’d like you to leave me the fuck alone before I get my boyfriend to beat the shit out of you.”

“Oh yeah, you have an online boyfriend? Where does he live exactly? Wisconsin?”

Her smile faded. They both knew she was full of shit. Turning the knob, she was ready to slam the door in his face. “Go fuck yoursel—what the fuck!”

Valerie and Sal stood at the front door with their mouths agape at the scene. Any trash in his hands was dropped to the ground in shock. Her whole house had practically been torn apart.

It took her a moment to get past the shock, and once she did, she ran right to her computer room with her heart beating out of her chest. She knew in her heart it was gone before she reached it. Still, nothing could have prepared her for it actually being gone. The only thing remaining was her computer desk that had been flipped over and lay broken.

Deadly silent with rage fueling her imp, she walked to the corner of her room and picked up the Harlequin cosplay bat that still stood leaning against the wall and gripped it tightly.

The soundof a hard crash made Sal run inside her house and call out to her as he hurried toward the sound. “Are you ok—”

“Those motherfucking bastards!”

At the scene he stumbled in on, it was safe to say,she’s definitely not okay.

Screaming at the top of her lungs, she beat at a flipped-over desk with a wooden bat that held bold red lettering. Sal wasn’t one hundred percent sure, considering he could only catch flashes of the lettering, but he was pretty certain by the fifth swing it spelled out G-O-O-D-N-I-G-H-T.

“Those fucking cops took my computer, didn’t they?” She stopped to ask, looking right at him as her knuckles turned white from her deathly grip.