Page 9 of Undeniably Corrupt

“Hacking is a federal crime in all fifty states and is considered to be an invasion of privacy.”

Mason laughs. “You can’t hack her, brother. Get that tempting flower out of your head right now.”

I sigh and lean back in my chair, allowing my weight to rock me. “She didn’t recognize me.”

“That’s because you probably looked like Jesus’s less attractive and more unwashed cousin since I know you hadn’t left your closet or whatever in a few days. It’s also been… what? Ten years?”

“Yes. I was eighteen, and she was sixteen. The last time I saw her was before I left for MIT.” When I broke up with her. When I broke her heart and came to realize that leaving her was a special form of hell piled on top of her brother’s death. Before I learned the taste of betrayal at the hands of people I considered friends. People I foolishly trusted. And the fabric of my being shifted yet again.

He clears his throat. “So you saw her, and she works at a café and a strip club. So what? Are you planning to go back to the café? Regardless, you’re not showing up at the club. You don’t regularly go there, and that’s stalking.”

“What’s with all these rules? No hacking, no stalking?”

“If it were Katy or Keegan or Tinsley or Wren? Would you want one of their random-ass exes doing any of that with them?Think about what my wife’s ex did with her and the shit you had to do to get us out of.”

Fuck.

“Fine. I won’t show up at the club, and I won’t hack her,” I grumble.

“Good man.”

I bounce back in my chair and cover my eyes with my other hand. “I’ve never claimed to be a good man. In fact, I pretty much know I’m not.”

“I disagree with that. You’re one of the best men I know. You’re the one we all call when we need help. And you’re always there. Always. No matter what. You drop everything for everyone and fix all our messes without expecting anything in return. You’re fucking Batman, dude. We get it. Don’t do something creepy and dark just to prove that.”

“I won’t. But I’m not happy about it, and I can’t promise I won’t do something minor.”

He sighs. “Why don’t you just go and talk to her? You know, like every normal human does.”

“Because I’m not normal, and I’m sure I’m not ready for that yet.”

“I get that. Just do the right thing. I’ll see you tonight after you get Keegan and Loomis.”

“Yes. Thanks for the morals pep talk.”

“Much good it did you. Later.”

He disconnects the call, and I get to my feet and pace to the window. Cassian and I had been best friends since we were little kids. We weren’t the boys nice girls like Liora brought home to their parents, and despite Cassian telling all of us that he’d kill us if we ever touched his sister, I did. For two years in secret, she was mine.

She lived that secret with me, pushing to keep it harder than I did.

But I said things. Made her promises.

Then Cassian died, and I couldn’t keep those promises anymore.

She told me she understood, but that didn’t stop her tears or heartbreak, and it didn’t stop me from being hungover on her for longer than I care to admit. Or from getting the tattoo the night I hit my lowest point with it.

Her parents hated me. They had no clue about my family’s money or how we could have bought theirs ten times over because that’s how we liked to keep it. I was the bad boy who rode dirt bikes and motorcycles and had a tattoo artist for a father. I was the smart, nerdy kid who never fit that role. I smoked weed and drank and came to Boston half of my weekends to see my other friends. I hacked anything and anyone I could, though she never knew that, and neither did anyone else.

The only people who know what I do are my very inner circle and no one in Maine.

But I liked her. A lot. Actually, I loved her.

I dated her longer than I’ve dated anyone else, before or since. She just had this way about her that made everything better, whether it was bad or not. She was my angel. My first everything.

But she’s not that person anymore, and neither am I.

Okay,I’m not stalking her. I swear I’m not. I just wanted a cup of coffee and maybe a muffin to clear my head after my conversation with Mason. But in fairness to me, if I had hacked her, I would have known her schedule, and I could have planned accordingly. Because it’s one in the afternoon, and the last time I was here at this time, she wasn’t. I didn’t expect her. I’m actually a bit blindsided by it. Again.