I can’t. Someone might be listening. A shiver skittered across my arm. At least we’d be out of the house today. “He says he’s in a hurry, Mom. I won’t be long.” I walked out of the kitchen, through the small foyer, and out the door.
Joe stood across the street, next to his truck. He was dressed for work in jeans and cowboy boots. He even wore a black Stetson. I didn’t own a cowboy hat. Not that I needed one. It wasn’t a good look on me. At least I didn’t think it would be.
And why I was ruminating over Joe’s hat I had no idea. Anything to think about something other than what we were about to discuss.
Then a thought speared into my head. What if… What if Joe hadn’t come over to discuss Justin and the Morses? What if Marjorie had called him? What if he was going to kick my ass for breaking his little sister’s heart?
No matter. I deserved it.
I crossed the street. “Hey.”
“Hey. Sorry to freak you out this morning.”
Not Marjorie after all. I was relieved. A little.
“You didn’t. I just didn’t sleep well.” A lie. I’d slept fine—after making love to his sister. Marjorie seemed to be my anti-nightmare drug. I just hadn’t slept enough.
“I’m sorry. I haven’t been sleeping great either. I hate keeping this from Melanie, but she’s in her third trimester and I don’t want to overload her.”
“Good,” I said, my tone a bit harsh. “Not just for Melanie, but we did agree to keep this solely between us.”
“Easy,” Joe said. “I haven’t forgotten that. But she’s my wife, and we don’t have secrets. At least we didn’t until now, and I don’t like the feeling it gives me.”
“I get it.”
“You can trust me, Bryce. You know that.”
“Yeah. Of course I do. What’s up?”
“I found us a hacker.”
“A hacker? What for?”
“To hack into the school system. To find Justin’s last name.”
I lifted my brow. “We just got done talking about keeping this between the two of us.”
“I haven’t told him anything.”
“But you found him. Someone knows you’re looking for a hacker.”
“No one knows.”
“How do you know that?”
He cleared his throat and adjusted his hat. “A friend of a friend.”
“Who’s the friend?”
He cleared his throat again. “I can’t say.”
“What do you mean you can’t say? I thought we were in this together.”
“We are. It’s just…”
My heart slammed against my chest. “Joe, you didn’t go surfing through the dark web, did you?”
“Are you fucking kidding me? You think I have a clue how to get on the dark web? Christ, Bryce.”