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“What else did you find?”

“There’s not just a backdoor into my app. There’s also a whole other app collecting information from my data.”

“Where’s it going?”

“A server in the Ukraine.”

“What the fuck?”

“That’s where they keep a lot of hackers these days.”

“What data?”

“All of it, as far as I could tell. I shut that part down, but I don’t know how much was sent.”

“Stay on that.”

“Will do, boss.” Jonathan smirks at me.

“Stop that shit.”

“Might as well get used to it.”

Jonathan drops me off, and I immediately grab a beer and chug it. There is far too much going on in my head, and I need to shut down for a little while before I can start sorting through it. Mundane tasks work well for that, so I start getting ready for Alina’s arrival.

The landlord came through with my request for a bigger place, and it takes me all of about two hours to move my stuff from one apartment to another. All I really have are my clothes, guns, and cash. There’s just enough in the kitchen to make a lame yard sale.

Maybe I should get new dishes.

The new place is definitely roomier. There are two bedrooms, and they come completely furnished. I have no idea if Alina will want to move in furniture, but I figured this was best for now. We can always get a di

fferent place if this one doesn’t work out.

“You think she’ll really put up with you long-term?” Ralph asks as I shove some clothes into a drawer.

I don’t respond because I don’t have an answer. I hope she can put up with me. I plan to behave the best I can, but that isn’t always good enough. Hell, I’m not even sure what it means.

After all, why would anyone put up with my shit for an extended period of time? I’ve been hit on by enough girls to know I’m a decent-looking guy, even without Rinaldo’s comment, and I’ve always kept myself fit, but that only works for a couple of nights. All a woman has to do is sleep in the same bed with me to know how screwy I am.

Alina has. She’s seen that side of me.

Seeing it occasionally and seeing it every night are two totally different things, though. After a week, will she still be all right with me crying in my sleep? A month?

“Fucking doomed,” I mutter. Ralph seems to agree.

There is definitely something different about Alina. I can’t deny that. She seemed to get me from the first night we spent together. When other hookers refused to have anything to do with me after a single night, Alina kept coming back.

“Because she already knew who you were.”

Did she? Yes, I found that picture in a box of things that were obviously left from her childhood, but did she know the men in the picture, or did her father happen across the photos and just throw them in there with the other junk?

I toss some utensils from a box into a drawer, and I’m reminded of yard sales again. Mother Superior used to haul the kids to them in pairs during the summer, looking for toys and games for us without spending much. She’d be dressed in her full habit, and half the time, people would give her the shit for free.

I think she did it on purpose.

I finish transitioning my stuff and give the key to the old place back to the building super. Sitting in the new place feels strange, and I find myself just staring out the window. I’m on a higher floor now, and the view of the city is really beautiful as the sun sets, and the Magnificent Mile is awash in brightly colored lights. It reminds me of the view I had in the old place down the block, and I almost turn around to look for Odin.

Alina will be here tomorrow, and I need to get some actual food into the apartment, so I do a little shopping. I stock the pantry and the refrigerator with anything and everything I think she might want. I even buy fucking tampons and some bubble bath to put in the bathroom. This place comes with a tub; the other only has a shower stall.

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