“His office is downstairs. The wine wall in the bar.”
“Yeah?”
“It’s behind there.”
My eyes were like an owl’s and my mouth was hanging open.“Right.” I snapped it shut. My hands went to my pants. “I’ll finish. Let’s meet in the basement.”
The other side of his mouth curved up, and he came over. A finger under my chin. He tipped me up and he bent down. He said, as he always did, right before touching his lips to mine, “It’s nice to have you back.”
A shiver went through my whole body, but I was grinning. It was a good shiver. I replied back, my lips moving against his. “It’s nice to be back.”
He groaned before lifting his head. “I’ll meet you in the basement.”
I grabbed a tank, sweats, and put my feet in some fuzzy slippers. I left the hair and makeup how it was, and at the last second, grabbed my own bag. It housed my laptop, and the headphones were already in there. I found Kash waiting at the bar. He had a few items there, but when he saw me scoping them out, he said, “I’ll get you started, then get the rest.”
Right. That was smarter.
He went over to the wall, removed one of the bottles, and pushed in the wine bottle holder. He stepped back and the entire wall shifted outward, then glided to the side.
There was a hallway behind it.
Kash walked in, put his hand on a scanner, and another door opened.
I was in hacker nerddom love.
Beyond was everything I could’ve wanted in life—except for, you know, Kash. But everything else, hell yes. I went inside.
Kash touched my shoulder, indicating a side door. It had a redEXITsign over it, and it looked just like the exit doors at a movie theater. “Bathroom is through there.”
Right.Exitmeant “bathroom.” Got it.
“I’ll be back with your other items.”
But then I was thinking again, and I rounded as Kash was leaving. “Wait. What about everyone else?”
Kash held his phone up. “I will send everyone away, don’t worry.”
“And you…”
“I’ll be right here.” He nodded to a couch in the corner. “I can work just as well as you.”
I liked that. I liked that a lot.
“What about Matt?”
“He is going to be told to take his friends on a three-day trip.” He smirked at me. “He will get the jet.”
I laughed as he left, and I repeated to myself. “He got the jet.”
I focused on the computers and sat down.
First things first, I had to hack into my dad’s personal computer, and then his system. Again.
FORTY-ONE
Bailey
I had two objectives with where I started. One, the location, and two, the players.