Page 93 of Undeniably Corrupt

I scrub my hands up and down my face, my memories a blur, stained with the panic and devastation I was suffocating in. Cass asked me to meet him there, which I found a bit weird. I thought he had figured out I was with Liora and was going to confront me. And likely kick my ass. I was welcoming it, actually. I wanted him to know and was tired of hiding it.

He had been working for his father that summer on the construction site.

I was with Liora, and we lost track of time as I had tried to talk her into letting me tell him. She was against it. Adamantly so. By the time I got there, only thirty minutes late, he was dead.

I close my eyes, trying to remember specifics of that night when something hits me.

How did the cops get there so fast? Who on earth would have called them? No one else was there. No witnesses. And that building was in the middle of nowhere. There wasn’t anything else around at the time. Mr. James was building up the area, but everything, including this apartment complex, was under construction.

None of this is adding up. None of this makes sense.

I’ve been holding back and going slower than I’d like. Partially out of an abundance of caution and partially because of Liora. I overstepped with her when I got her fired and hacked her personal life, but now I think the time for prudence is over. I’m going to infiltrate her father’s system completely. It’s a tricky, slippery slope since he knows who I am and what I do. But fuck it. Something is very off, and I need to know what and how Liora and I enter into it.

As for more of Liora’s information… I won’t do that to her.

Not unless I have no other choice.

I text my parents to let them know I’ll see them another time. I want to get home to Liora. And to my main computer. I don’t hack on the one I have with me. But right now, I just want to get home to my girls.

The drive home feels like it takes forever. It’s hours spent with nothing but my turbulent thoughts to keep me company. That is until I walk into the house and a smile like I’ve never had curls up my lips.

Liora and Hazel are dancing around the kitchen and singing at the top of their lungs to Taylor Swift. But that’s not even the best part. They’re both dressed up in crazy outfits with wild hair and complete face paint. Hazel is a purple unicorn wearing a purple tutu and a purple T-shirt that says, “In my defense, I was left unsupervised,” and Liora is a tiger with orange booty shorts, black tights, and a hideous furry orange sweater. Both have matching high pigtails on top of their heads with multicolored scrunchy things.

They’re so involved in what they’re doing, they didn’t even hear me come in, and man, did I need this. I snap a few pictures because I’m going to want this visual for life.

Liora can’t hit a note to save her life, and she’s getting half of the words wrong as she sings them. Good thing she can dance like no one is watching and somehow manages to be sexy doing it, even looking like that.

The song comes to an end, and I clap, startling Liora so badly that she jumps and shrieks. She’s jumpy and startles easily.

“What are you doing here?” she cries, rushing to turn down the volume on the music blasting from her phone.

“I live here,” I deadpan.

“You scared the bejesus out of me.” Then she realizes how she’s dressed and that her face looks like a tiger. If it were possible for her to blush through the paint, she would. “You said in your text you weren’t going to be home until very late tonight.”

I shrug and push away from the doorway. “My plans changed.”

She folds her arms, trying for indignant. “And you didn’t think to tell me?”

“And miss all of this?”

She huffs an annoyed breath.

“It’s great. Made my whole day.”

That’s not a lie either.

“I’m a unicorn!” Hazel shouts and jumps up and down.

“I can see that. You look perfect. And Mommy is a pretty furry tiger.”

Liora rolls her eyes. “You don’t have to tease.”

“Who said I am? I mean it. It’s hot. I might have you wear all of this later so I can live out an unrealized fantasy of mine.”

She snorts a laugh. “You’ll have to live out that fantasy in your head alone.”

“Now that’s a shame when I have the live-action version living here with me. And you did such great singing, Hazel,” I continue, turning back to her.