Page 16 of Sweet Deception

“Crashing the wedding.” Maya pauses, and then, with more worry in her tone, says, “Are you okay? Did something happen?”

My heart slams against my ribs.

Usually, I tell her everything, and in this moment, I’d kill to have a friend to confess all my sexual sins to, but this isn’t the time or the place.

How am I supposed to admit to her that while I should’ve been focused on extracting the info I needed to help Lucy, I was drowning in sweat and lust with a deadly, dangerous, and devastatingly handsome mafia man who doesn’t even know my name?

And the award for Worst Friend of the Year goes to…

“I’m fine. I’m just tired and sore and so ready to get back home.”

“It’s definitely been a long time since you waited tables. Or wore heels.”

Ha!I wish that was all I was sore from.

It almost sounds like Maya’s smiling, but I know she’s not. She hasn’t smiled one single time since Lucy’s abduction.

“How are you?” The decryption software’s seventy-five percent of the way there. “How’s it been since you left the hospital?”

“Okay…” She blows out an exasperated breath. “Though these crutches suck ass.”

Fury flickers inside me like candlelight.

Maya waited for Lucy outside that ill-fated audition. When she saw a man snatch her sister, she chased after them on foot, screaming bloody murder. Maya was so terrified that she ran out into the street and bounced off a cab, injuring her leg. Luckly, her wounds proved to be minor, and she suffered no broken bones.

“I’m so glad you’re okay. I don’t know what I would’ve done if I’d lost both of you in the same day.”

“…Yeah.” Maya’s voice thickens with emotion.

The decryption software finally loads. “I’m in. Hang on.”

I toggle into the locked folder. Darren’s phone data. Inside, I see rows and rows of files with strange code names. But as soon as I click one, another lock screen pops up.

No way.I’m still not through all the walls of encryption.

“Anything? What do you see?” Maya’s anxiety twists the knife in my gut, even as I check the other folders in the list. Each and every one of them uses individual encryption.

“I cloned his phone, but…” My voice trails off as I stare at another notification. “There are additional layers of security Iwasn’t expecting. It’s going to take some time to crack this. How are things on your end?”

“Still nothing.” Her voice shrinks through the phone. “The detective keeps suggesting that my eyes were playing tricks on me and labeled Lucy as a runaway.”

“What an asshole.” I minimize the decryption program running on Darren’s phone data, my fingers trembling with anger. Behind that window, a secure chat feed sits open on my desktop.

“Lucy doesn’t deserve this.” Maya chokes back tears. “She hasn’t had it easy. None of us did when we were younger.”

“No, we didn’t.” A small silence follows as we both recall our days at Evergreen House. “At least we found each other.”

“But now she’s gone, Nika.” Maya’s voice cracks on my childhood nickname. “Did you learn anything at the wedding?”

My mind reverts back to Darren, his intensity…those blue lasers he calls eyes.

“Nothing of interest to us, if that’s what you mean, but I’m working on it. I just need time to crack this encryption.”

We’re both quiet for a moment.

“Remember when you taught us how to make hot chocolate in the contraband kettle?” Maya sniffs. “Lucy still prepares it exactly like that to this day. Three marshmallows, stir counterclockwise…”

“Because clockwise lets the bad luck in,” I finish her sentence softly, my fingers flying across the keys as I initialize a new round of decoding. The progress bar begins its slow crawl forward.