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“But it's the middle of the night, R,” I remind him.
He smiles, dropping his head onto his fist on the back of the sofa. His muscles are long and thick, their restful state belying the strength I know is there. I cannot let my gaze linger too long on his skin.
“It’s not the middle of the night in the States.”
“Yes,” I chuckle. “I guess I never get used to that, do I?”
It only takes him one phone call to get the details.
The site is still operational, with even more videos on it now. According to some third-party ranking site, it's more popular than ever. Which means I am more popular than ever. Which means…
“I can't even think about this anymore,” I whisper, defeated as we stare at the blue light of his laptop, scrolling through the data his investigator had sent over immediately. Traffic rankings, back links to the site, a whole network of people who been sharing images of me, even on Pinterest! Fucking Pinterest!
His arm loops around me, drawing me closer to him. I nuzzle against his neck, breathing deep the woodsy smell, letting its warmth seeped through my blood and maybe feeling just a little bit better.
“Can I stay with you tonight?” I ask tentatively.
He presses a kiss against my hair and lingers there for a few moments.
“Of course you can stay. I'd like nothing better,” he murmurs.
“Thank you,” I sigh, “and in the morning, will figure out how to shut this all down, yes?”
“Absolutely.”
20
Raleigh
When my cellphone buzzes on the nightstand, I instantly wake up, grabbing it and sliding carefully from the bed. I thumb the connect button to get it to stop ringing but I don't say anything until I'm a safe distance away. Jordan is sleeping so peacefully, I don't want to disturb her. After all the fretful nights she spent, I figure solid sleep is the least I can offer her.
“Hello? King?”
“Reggie,” I finally answer. “I'm here. What have you got for me?”
I hear him swallow and imagine the thirty-ounce coffee he traditionally keeps no more than three inches away from his face. It's the middle of the morning in New York, and I'm expecting good things from him. It's amazing to me that I can hear somebody swallow a half a world away.
“Well, boss, I’m not sure you're gonna like all of this.”
I scrub my hand over my face and fall into the sofa.
“I figure if it's important you will just put it in the report.”
“Yeah, it is,” he says.
“So just tell me, Reggie. Spit it out.”
“Okay. The site is registered to an LLC under the name ‘Head Monster.’ I checked the LLC filings and there's nothing there. Bunch of dead ends.”
“So keep digging,” I tell him, even though I don't have to. Nobody put their personal information in LLC filings. That’s why we have LLC filings, to conceal identities when the situation is sensitive.
“Yeah, of course. I'll get it, I just need to keep pinging every resource I can find until somebody cracks. Obviously they don't want us finding out who they are.”
I stifle a yawn. “Obviously.”
“But I got a lead on a couple of things…” he says.
I knew this part was coming. Reggie always likes to give me a little dollop of bad news at the beginning, to bring up the drama. That way, he thinks that when he gives me a little bit of good news, I am going to be super impressed. I'm impressed, but not super impressed. I figure this is what I'm paying him for, and he really needs to get on with the show here.
