Page 135 of Ruthless Prince

JS81:Tell me why you thinkthat.

FreeQuinn: I know this is creepy, but I actually made this forum in the hopes you would join. I’ve been tracing the IP address of everyone who joins and posts (there’s a web plugin that makes it easy to do so). I tracked yours to Thorne House in Kalorama. I know you moved in there with your fiancé recently, so I figured JS81 had to be you, because I doubt any of the Thornes care too much about saving your mom,haha.

JS81:Okay, I’ll bite. Let’s say this actually IS Willow. Why did you want me to join yourforum?

FreeQuinn: Because I want to help. I have information on your mom that proves she’sinnocent.

JS81:That’s great! Hand itin.

FreeQuinn: You don’t understand. Ican’t.

JS81:?????

FreeQuinn: I work for the NSA. The other day my boss accidentally gave my team certain admin privileges we weren’t supposed to have. She revoked them as soon as she realized her error, but not before I was able to view and download several files from a locked server. One of the files proves that your mother couldn’t possibly have done anything to Rutherford. Sorry for the vagueness, but I can’t say any more than that onhere.

JS81:Is thisRowan?

FreeQuinn:Huh?

JS81:Never mind. Just thought you might be someone I know at the NSA.Anyway, why can’t you hand the filein?

FreeQuinn: Are you kidding? If I hand these files over to the cops or media by myself, they’ll be able to find out who I am. Do you know what happens to government whistleblowers here? At best I’ll have to flee to a non-extradition country and never see my friends or family again. At worst I’ll be killed and dumped in the Potomac. No offense, but I’m not willing to risk all that just to save your mom and her friend. I have to look out formyself.

JS81:Okay, I understand that. But why do you think I canhelp?

FreeQuinn: I can give the file to you, and you can hand it in. They won’t be able to kill you or exile you. You’re way too high-profile.

JS81:I don’t know aboutthat.

FreeQuinn: Trust me, they won’t touch American royalty, and that’s what you are. You’re totally safe. If anything, they’ll treat you like a hero. Plus I know you must want to help your mom after blowing her shit up on nationalTV.

JS81:Right. Can you email the file to me, and then I’ll decide what todo?

FreeQuinn: Are you serious? Email? You know that could be traced back to me,right?

JS81:Sorry. I’m not really familiar with this sort of stuff. What can we do to get the file from you tome?

FreeQuinn: Well, you can’t come to my apartment. I’m worried they’re already watching it, since my boss knows every member of my team had those temporary privileges and could’ve seen something. Can I come to your place instead? You’d have to be the only person home. I can’t risk being seen by anyoneelse.

JS81:Sorry, there’s always peoplehere.

FreeQuinn: Really? All thetime?

JS81:Yeah. My fiancé, his family, my security detail, staff members etc. I’m never going to be alonehere.

FreeQuinn: Right. We’ll have to meet somewhere else,then.

I hesitated before replying again. On the off chance Logan ever saw this message exchange, I wanted him to know that this wasn’t an escape attempt so he wouldn’t go after mybrother.

I wasn’t telling this internet stranger the ugly truth about my situation, and I wasn’t trying to get him or her to help me permanently escape Thorne House. I just wanted to get my hands on this file to help my mother. If the file even existed, that is. I still didn’t entirely trust this FreeQuinn person. After all the shit I’d gone through over the last few months, I wasn’t sure I’d ever trust anyoneagain.

I settled on a half-truth as myresponse.

JS81:I can’t meet you anywhere. My fiancé and the security guards are being very strict at the moment. They don’t want me leaving the house because of the situation with my mom. They think someone might try to hurt me to get back at her. They’ve even put a tracking device on my phone so they always know where Iam.

I wrote ‘collar’ at first. Thankfully, I noticed and changed it to ‘phone’ before I hitsend.

FreeQuinn: Right. I guess that’s understandable. If I can think of a way to sneak you out for an hour or so without any of them checking the tracking thing, would you be okay withthat?