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I danced, too, joining in at every red light, feeling like a silly kid and not giving a flying fuck about it, not caring about who we stopped next to or how many stares we got from other drivers.
“All right,” I said, pulling up to a towering building just a few streets away from the beach. The arena where the concert would be was in Downtown, which wasn’t far at all from where we were. There was still a good hour before showtime, so now was a good a time as any to do this. “You can hang out in the car for this. I’ll be back down in a bit.”
“Wait, wait, what’s going on?” Oliver lowered the music as I pulled into a temporary parking spot.
“I didn’t want to dampen anything about tonight, but I was able to get some information on that Mario Reyes twat.”
Oliver’s eyebrows rose in surprise. “Oh whoa. Wait, is he here? He’s not here, right?” Oliver started looking around the car, and I could tell that his mind was slamming on the gas pedal. It was exactly what I wanted to avoid tonight. I had to pull him back.
“No, no, don’t worry, Olly. He’s not here. Fox introduced me to a hacker who lives here. Anya. I found Mario’s online account, but I couldn’t get a lock on where he is now. Anya called me right before you got home and said she was able to find the information I needed.”
Oliver’s stress levels were rocketing, I could see it. I put a hand on his and looked straight into his eyes, hoping I could serve as some kind of anchoring point before he was carried off by the sudden panic.
“Everything’s okay, Olly. That’s why I’m meeting her at her place. It’s safe. I know it’s not being watched. Whoever is threatening you to keep off the trail doesn’t know who they’re dealing with. I’m going to find them, way before they ever have a chance of hurting you again. Trust me on that. Okay?”
That seemed to have landed. Oliver nodded and swallowed.
“I’m going up with you.”
The words didn’t surprise me. This was as much Oliver’s battle as it was mine.
“You sure? You can hang out here. I don’t think I’ll be long.”
As much as I wanted Oliver by my side at all times, I thought maybe now would be a good time for him to stay in the car.
“No, I want to go.” There was determination in the twitch of his jaw.
I would have preferred him to stay only because this was important and I feared bringing too much emotion could blur things. I didn’t want Oliver seeing something and reacting out of raw emotion. It risked throwing more chaos into an already chaotic and dangerous situation.
“All right, let’s head up, then.” I wasn’t about to fight him on it. If he wanted to come up, he could come up. Before we could get out of the car, I grabbed Oliver and kissed him again. “I mean it, okay? I won’t let anyone hurt you. This will all be over soon.”
“I really hope so.”
“It will.”
With spirits back on the rise, we got out and entered the building’s lobby, checking in with the front desk and getting walked over to the elevator bays, where we were keyed in and allowed up to the penthouse. Oliver looked at me with wide eyes as the golden-railed elevator carried us smoothly up thirty-three floors. The doors dinged open and dropped us off into a beautifully decorated foyer, with touches of gold and marble that popped against the white walls and designer furniture.
Anya was waiting for us, a can of Heineken in her hands. She looked relaxed in a pair of black sweats and a loose-fitting college T-shirt, a friendly smile on her face.
“Hey, boys. Either of you want some beer?”
20 Oliver Brightly
Part of me couldn’t believe I was inside a penthouse belonging to the coolest freakin’ hacker I’ve ever laid my eyes on.
Not that I’d laid my eyes on many hackers in the first place, but still, Anya was definitely the coolest, I could tell from the jump.
She had a laid-back energy to her and instantly welcomed us into her home, but underneath that calm was an intelligence and sharpness that buzzed like electricity. I was simultaneously relaxed and on edge, even though she was doing everything to make us comfortable. I had accepted the beer and was drinking it as she led us to her hub, a wall of computers that glowed with different images on every screen. Behind the fortress of silicone were floor-to-ceiling windows that looked out onto the beach, which was currently twinkling up at us with all kinds of colored lights.
“Make yourselves at home,” Anya said, motioning to a comfortable-looking light blue couch just to the side of her computers. As she got set up and was pulling up whatever nuggets of information she had found, she was talking to us about the concert we were headed to, and how she used to love listening to J.Lo as a kid. The conversation, as it often does when I’m around, turned to favorite pop divas, and the mood relaxed. I almost forgot the reason for us being here in the first place.
