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“You think he knows more, don’t you?”
He sighs. “Of course, I fucking do, but if he’s not talking, he’s got a reason, and there’s only so many times I can visit.” Tizio taps his hand on the edge of the island. “Someone wants something from him, but I don’t know who or what.”
“He never brought anything home or asked me to hold something. And if he’s got a secret safe, I never found it.” My cheeks burn as Tizio’s gaze remains very steady on me. “I might have looked when I first got here. I have a lot of curiosity.”
“Nosy, Karlee. I think the word you’re looking for is nosy.” Then he turns curious. “It could, whatever the fuck it is if it exists, have to do with what I’m looking into.”
“The girls?”
“Among other things.”
“Maybe I can see him?—”
“No.” He grabs my shoulders. “Don’t. When it’s time, I’ll take you to see him, but I don’t want you involved.”
“I am. By being his sister.”
“Karlee, go do some work. I need to do the same. And with school? Do me a favor and check in with me if there’s a change in your ETA.”
“Yes, Sir,” I say. “Anything else?”
“No.” He lets me go and grabs his gun. He’s halfway to the door when he turns. “Yeah, actually. Genesis. You heard that name?”
For the next hour, the name Genesis keeps jumping into my head, looking for something to hook into. I don’t even think he thought through asking me, as the moment I started answering, he told me to forget it.
But I can’t.
I know what Genesis is, but what does the name mean to Tizio and my brother? I don’t know, and now, I want to.
Each time I go to start a dark web search I stop myself. My computers aren’t easy to hack, but I also don’t have the security system I’m developing on them or even some of my defenses. I need to get into school remotely sometimes, and hiding tracks does take a little time.
Even with a VPN.
Plus, let’s face it, I don’t have anything to hide. My work is protected, but everything else, hey, if someone wants to peer into my celebrity rabbit hole of the day, then they can.
I wouldn’t even know what I’m looking for. Maybe when I’m testing my system this afternoon at school . . .
“Get out of your head, Karlee.”
It’s good advice. Stellar. Spring break’s about to start, and I haven’t started that second painting yet, the small one. So, I close down my computers and work on sketching out what I want.
When I stretch out the kink in my neck, I realize I’m in danger of being late. Of course, Wendy’s very punctual, so the doorbell rings just then.
I gather my stuff and rush out the door.
“Fucking asshole.” I glare at the computer. There’s a corruption in the backup file I’m using for my assignment. Classes are all done for the day, but I’m in the lab. The last student has gone, and I’m still here because I needed to fix my essay.
This teacher, for some reason, loves old school hard copy printouts, and because this teacher’s also an asshole, I need to hand it in with a digital copy.
I dig around for a fresh USB stick to copy it onto. I know I have one somewhere. At the bottom of my bag are pencils, pens, sticky notes, and USB sticks with varying bits and pieces. But I know I have some I got just for this, where I can put a copy of something for school on it and not worry if it goes missing.
“Progress.” I pull out a bundle of them in a zipped case and start the process of checking them. There are a few I don’t remember in varying colors, and I put them to the side for testing.
There’s a black one with gold sparkles that catches my eye. I don’t remember that, either, but it doesn’t bug me. I get cheap ones for class. The rest of my stuff is on portable hard drives, as well as a select few quality USBs.
I pluck out the black one and plug it in, and . . . woah. It isn’t empty. There are about three files. Clicking on one, I’m met with encryption. Same with the other two. Weird, and I do like a mystery. God only knows, I probably did this years ago when Iwas at KonCept, but I figure I’ll play with it later. Instead, I pull it out and tuck it away, grabbing a hot pink one.
It’s empty, so I copy the essay onto it, write my name and details on it, and slip it into the envelope with the printout.
