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F-U-C-K-S. Wrong answer.

I try again.4-2-0-6-9. No.Dammit!I only have one more shot at this. Not wanting to risk getting locked out of his phone, I tuck it into my pocket and head to the door. “I’m gonna go get changed into something a bit more comfortable. Don’t move.”

I find Ellie in the kitchen swapping labels from his tuna cans to tins of cat food. She just can’t help herself. “What’s wrong?” she whispers.

“I can’t unlock his phone and the face security doesn’t work with his eyes closed and I only have one chance before we’re locked out!” I say all in one breath, trying to keep my voice low. We’ve worked so hard to get his phone and there’s so much riding on figuring out his password.

She takes it from me. “Okay. Think—I’m Matt. I’m a playboy,” she mocks his voice. “I date multiple women and tell them whatever they want to hear to get in their pants. I drivea cool old truck and have a tattoo of a ram next to my dick.” Her eyebrows shoot up, and she types inA-R-I-E-S.

Bam. Opened.

We scan his messages, hundreds left unread, which gives me anxiety just looking at it. Lo and behold, most of them are women, each with flirty texts, plans to meet up, and explicit pictures. Each contact has notes about the things she likes and the things she’s told him in an effort to keep them all straight. Ellie and I share a disgusted glare, further cementing the fact that what we’re doing is for the greater good.

Ellie taps her name and reads the notes attached. “Cute, vanilla, wants a simple farm life, likes Christmas too much, 7.” She gasps. “He called me a seven! What the fuck!”

“Shhh,” I chastise.

“Everything okay out there?” Jax calls.

“Uh, yeah,” I shout back. “Just fighting with these corset loops.” I lower my voice to Ellie. “I don’t want to know what mine says. Let’s just do what we came here to do and move on with it.”

Ellie refocuses, moving through various settings to put our plan into place. I fidget nervously as I wait for Ellie to finish her task, tapping away on the phone with a focus so intense she may as well be a hacker.

The handcuffs jingle in the next room. “Mariah? You coming back?”

“Be right there!” I shake my hands and shift from foot to foot, not sure how much longer I can delay this.

A few moments later Ellie looks up from her work. “Done.”

“All of it?”

She grins wickedly, then counts on her fingers. “Changed his ring tone to something obnoxious and embarrassing.”

“Good.”

Ellie holds up another finger. “Scrambled his contacts on all the latest women he’s been messaging so he confuses their names and basically tells them all he’s screwing around on them.”

“Golden.”

“And,” she continues, “created texting shortcuts in his phone fromcocktofart,pussytoham sandwich,andfucktohave mommy and me time.”

I choke on a laugh. “This will mess with his sexting so much!”

“Can you imagine? ‘I want to shove myfartdown your throat’?” Her face contorts with barely contained laughter. “‘I can’t wait tohave mommy and me timelater’?”

I’m nearly dying trying to keep my laughter silent, my whole body shaking while I cover my mouth with my hand. After we get ahold of ourselves, I take the phone back. “Okay, let’s finish this and get out of here before we get caught.”

“I’m almost done, just five more minutes.” She turns back to her can switching and I return to the bedroom.

“Sorry about that, I had a bit of a costume mishap.”

“It’s all good. Now, where were we?”

“Hmm,” I say, trying to drag this out as long as possible. “I don’t remember. Where would you like me to start?”

“How about with that paddle?” he suggests.

I roll my eyes, but pick it up, wishing these props had brought less excitement and more fear—but I underestimated him. I smack it against my palm a few times, and each time Matt wriggles. I consider, for a moment, using it on him, but don’t want to give him the pleasure. Instead, I pull a feather from my bag and trace it from his rib cage to his exposed armpit.