Page 112 of Their Wicked Secrets: Untouched, Vol 5 of 6

A determined look lights up her dark eyes. The light of the bonfire is slowly dying as the firefighters put it out. She’s our first priority. We can’t let Zach lay a finger on her.

CHAPTER 34

Outwork

Jack

When we walk into the house, no one is up to greet us. Good. I love my dad, but two nights in a row would be a lot. Lucy knows it’s Homecoming week, so she didn’t expect me home to help tuck her in.

I lead Harper to my room, closing and locking the door behind us. When she disappears into the bathroom to get ready for bed, I get out the bug detector. A quick skim around the room doesn’t find anything. That doesn’t eliminate our phones, but it’s a start.

We’ve checked my room every night for bugs. If it’s our fathers putting them in, mine doesn’t appear to be playing ball with the other fathers.

I pull out Sean’s laptop from its hiding spot. It still doesn’t feel like it’s safe anywhere near us.

I hook it up to my desktop monitor and keyboard and boot it up. While I wait, Harper comes out in her pajamas and rests her hands on my shoulders.

“What are you working on?” Her voice is soft, but her gaze lingers on the laptop.

“What we discussed.” I need to contact our friend to get them the information they can work on for us.

Harper nods. If they’ll even be willing to help us. I push my office chair back and pat my thighs.

She sits across my lap and rests her head against my shoulder. “Should we be worried about the fire tonight?”

“I don’t know.” I set up the chatroom with our friend. “It could have just been a senior prank in poor taste. It could have been a warning shot. There’s too much shit happening right now to determine which.”

She nods and waits as I connect.

“Secure line?” The voice comes through my speakers. I grab some noise-cancelling headphones and plug them in. Our phones are still in the room, so I need to be careful what I say out loud.

“Now.” I say before I type into the field on the screen. While it may be safe for our friend to talk in my headphones, it might not be safe for me to say anything. We don’t know if anyone is listening and why they’re listening.

We need help with some tech stuff. Are you game?

“What kind of help?” they ask.

Files on this laptop. Some files we’ve obtained.

“Yeah, I can help with that.” The click of a keyboard can be heard through the line. “How’s Harper?”

She can’t hear them with the headphones.

Good. Her mom is here.

“Are you guys safe?”

I nod and breathe out.

For now. I also want to give you tracking info. I’ll send it in an encrypted email.

“When do you need this stuff by?”

I blow out a breath.

The sooner the better. We’re missing pieces to the puzzle.

“I’ll see what I can find for you. Anything else?”