Page 128 of Corrupted Pleasure

“How about if we call him from a Chicago number and say there is an emergency in that casino?” Juliette suggested. “Wynter can ask her mysterious guy for his number.”

“Are you fishing for information on Wynter’s man?” Ivy teased.

“Oh, I have Priest’s number,” Wynter answered. “And Dante DiLustro’s. But let’s focus on this Priest problem,” Wynter interrupted. “Calling from a Chicago number is actually a good idea.”

“Except none of us has a Chicago number,” I grumbled.

Juliette and Wynter rolled their eyes, then Wynter blew a piece of curly hair out of her face.

“We’ll get a burner phone,” she concluded. “I saw mobsters use those to conduct their illegitimate activities,” she clarified.

“How do you know that?” I questioned, narrowing my eyes.

“You’re right,” Juliette exclaimed. “Killian never calls his associates from the same phone that he uses to call Wynter and me. He uses a burner phone.”

“Okay, so we need a burner phone,” I said.

Twenty minutes later we had a burner phone, and the four of us stared at it like it was alien technology.

“Why is this so damn complicated?” Juliette’s frustrated groan echoed in the car. Parked in the Hilton Philadelphia hotel at Penn’s Landing, we were only ten minutes from our final destination. But we kept fucking with the burner phone.

Note to self - add burner phone set up and operation to part of the introduction class at our future fancy school.

You’d think four students of Yale university could figure out this shit. But no, we struggled to figure out how to assign it a Chicago number. The guy at the store said it was easy. Well, he fucking lied.

“I think I got it,” Wynter murmured with a frown, the iPhone in her left hand as she read directions. Her finger pressed a button, then another and another. “Chicago number it is!” she exclaimed victoriously. “We’ll be the best criminals yet.”

A bubble of laughter formed in my throat. I couldn’t contain it and it burst out. Then all four of us cackled, laughing slightly hysterically. We were nervous and that was putting it mildly. Our nerves kept us on the edge of our seats, ready to put this adventure behind us.

Wynter wiped her eyes. We laughed so hard, tears appeared. “We have to keep our cool,” she cackled. “We break after the performance. It’s what Mom always says.” Her eyes traveled seriously over us. “Keep it together until it’s over.”

She was used to pressure, performing from an early age.

Ivy and I nodded. “We’ll keep our shit together.”

“Okay, now download the voice changer and add some effects,” Juliette instructed. “And I’ll ask Killian to divert the phone number from the Chicago guy to this burner.”

Killian was one of the best hackers in the world. And lucky for us, he owed a favor to Wynter and Juliette. So he agreed to do it without any questions, if the two brats, his words not mine, considered the debt paid. No clue what they held over his head, but it must have been worth a pretty penny.

As Wynter worked on the frantic recording that sounded like it came from a male with gunshots in the background, Juliette typed vigorously back and forth with Killian giving him the details he needed to know.

“Okay, Killian has it diverted. Don’t answer the burner if it rings,” Juliette told Wynter.

Before the latter could even acknowledge that, the phone rang.

The four of us shared a look and held our breaths. It stopped ringing and a round of exhales traveled inside the car.

“Let’s go over there, then we make a call and see if Priest leaves.” Wynter put the car into drive and left the hotel parking lot.

“Pay cash,” I told her as she readied to pay for the parking ticket.

“Good thinking,” Ivy commended, twisting her fingers.

Just as we merged into the traffic, the burner phone rang again. And again.

“Jesus, this guy is popular, huh?” I muttered.

“They don't believe in texting,” Wynter mused, rolling her eyes. “It would have been interesting to read the messages.” And just like evil criminals, we cackled.