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“Shower,” Tucker says. “Girls don’t like guys who smell like barn animals.”
“Dick.” I laugh and then bend down to punch him in the arm. “Thanks for the tip, Tuck.”
“Anytime.” He waves his hand in my face. “Now, go.”
Fear shoots through my body as I park my Tesla out front of a brownstone off the Ben Franklin Parkway. At this hour, the city is silent. A few cars whoosh by, but the streets are mostly desolate. Hesitant, I push the door open hoping this isn’t another trap.
It took Maverick hours to ping her IP address to narrow it down to this location. I stare at the address on the paper in my hand, double-checking its accuracy before I reach for the door handle. It’s open. I have a feeling The Queen is waiting for me. She has to be. This is all part of her plan.
From the beginning, she baited me to see how far I would go to find her. And now, I have. But it feels like she orchestrated this meeting as if she left me a few breadcrumbs on purpose. It was too easy this time. After chasing her for months, this doesn’t make sense.
The inside of the brownstone is empty, the only light coming from upstairs. I climb the stairs and follow the light, which leads to an open door at the end of the hall. A woman with her back turned to me types feverishly on the keyboard in front of her, her gaze fixed on one of the dozen computer monitors spread across the desk. It’s like a hacker’s paradise, the room filled to the brim with every gadget imaginable.
She swivels in her chair, a long head of black, curly hair whipping around to face me. “JJ,” she says in the frigid tone I still remember so well. My blood runs cold from the sound of her voice. “You found me. About time. You’re not as good as you used to be.”
I was so sure I knew her code.
I was right about Cece being involved.
“My name isn’t JJ,” I spit back. “Don’t call me that, Cece.” I enter the room, hesitant to get too close to her. “It was you all along?”
She smiles, holding out her arms, leaning forward to bow in her chair. “Wasn’t I masterful? A genius, some would say.”
I grit my teeth in anger as I approach her. “You tried to ruin my friends’ lives. You even managed to make my girlfriend hate me.”
“I did a lot more than that, and I did it for you, baby.” Cece blows me a kiss. “I left little Easter eggs for you to find me. I told you I’d come back for you.”
I shake my head, laughing. “We’ve been done for years. You’re as sick and twisted as ever. What’s wrong with you?”
Cece gets up from the chair, and when she runs her long fingernails down my arm, I can’t move. I’ve never met anyone like Cecelia Carmichael. She’s toxic, like poison slowing running through my veins. One touch from her infects me, makes me weak. And yet, as much as I hate her right now, out of habit, I lean into her as she presses her lips to mine.
“You’re The Queen,” I whisper against her lips.
“I’m your queen, Jamie. And every queen needs her king.”
She stole my game. In the end, the two main characters become king and queen of the fantasy world I created. Now it all makes sense. Her reason for calling herself The Queen was right under my nose. The answer was there all along, and I was too stupid to see it. I’ve been working on a new version of the game she re-coded and passed on to her father.
Ever since Shannon came into my life, I started tweaking the idea I envisioned a long time ago. She was my muse, must have been, because I haven’t written a single line of code since Shannon walked out of my life.
And with Cece in front of me, I realize Shannon’s the one. She’s the one who inspired the new game. She’s the one who truly gets me. That’s why the ideas flowed so well when she was around, why it was so easy to write the code for the game I know my father will love. It could be one of our greatest products, but I need Shannon back in order to finish it.
Cece’s words slice through me and rage bubbles up inside my chest. I step back, pushing out my hand to keep our distance. “You’ll never be anything to me.”
“Pretty soon we’ll be like family,” she coos. “Your family will merge with mine. It’s time for us to get back together. That’s the most logical thing for us to do. It’ll look good to investors.”
I tilt my head back and laugh. “You’re fucking crazy. I don’t want you anymore, Cece. When you walked away from me, I learned how to live without you. I realized I don’t need you. I don’t want you in my life.”
