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“You’re such a stalker,” I laugh. “Are you on Google Earth spying on my IP?”
“Something like that,” they murmur.
“Satellite? Drone?”
“Warmer.” I can hear the smile in their voice. “But at least I know where you are, and that you’re safe. I still can’t believe you didn’t tell me straight away someone was in your apartment.”
“It’s cute that you think you’d have been able to help me when you live all the way in California.”
“It’s cute that you think otherwise, Alessa. I have access to…things.”
I swallow. A lump forming in my throat. “Government things?”
The silence that follows has me sweating in my seat. I’m on the verge of a nervous breakdown when they finally speak again.
“Not quite.”
“Okaaay.”
“Don’t worry, babe, your secrets are safe with me.”
A jolt shoots through my heart, stunning me into silence. It shouldn’t come as a surprise that Arrow dug into me or the people I have talked about—with the skills they clearly have, it would be silly for me to assume they haven’t. Yet the fear that they may be working for a government operation hell bent on taking down the Santoros makes me unable to breathe for a few seconds. And then there’s the question: how many secrets are they referring to? Have they looked into me? Into my past? I dismiss that thought and decide to focus on the mafia aspect. “You’re not just friends with me to takethemdown?”
Arrow doesn’t reply straight away. Each long second of silence between us making my anxiety about walking into a big pile of shit skyrocket.
“No. It’s insulting you’d think that, but on some level, I understand, I guess,” they finally huff.
“It’s just that—”
“You know that phrase ‘when you know—you know’?” they interrupt.
“Yes.”
After another long exhale, Arrow continues, “From the minute we connected, Alessa, I knew. You and I just clicked on a different level. I see so much disgusting shit on a daily basis. And you…you were just a breath of fresh air. As stupid as it sounds for someone who doesn’t trust anyone for a living, I felt like…I could trust you from the beginning. I knew I found a kindred spirit in you.”
“I felt the same.” I smile at the receiver.
“So, you see, as crazy as this sounds from someone you have not met face to face, you can trust me. We’re more similar than you think. Except my IQ is one hundred andsixty, I’m a tech prodigy, I have a huge dick and am a billionaire.”
“Tiny differences,” I laugh before adopting a serious tone. “Arrow, I love you. But if you’re lying and you screw me over, I swear to god, billionaire or not, I’m going to poltergeist the shit out of you.”
“As much as I’d love that, I’m not screwing you over. Once you’re under my protection, nothing can touch you.” A shiver runs down my spine at the cold tone in their voice and for the first time since I met them, I feel like maybe I have underestimated the hacker I have so easily made friends with. “In fact, I have some good news,” Arrow continues. “You want to help that grumpy Mafia boyfriend of yours?”
“He’s not my boyfriend,” I grumble, forgetting all about the uneasiness I felt mere seconds before.
“Sure, sure, keep telling yourself that,” they chuckle. “Anyway, I didn’t feel like waiting any longer, so I sent Nicolosi a little present he wouldn’t be able to resist. The asshole just took the bait. We’re in.”
The excitementof hacking into Nicolosi’s system quickly ebbs into disappointment when Arrow has to go attend to some national level crisis.
I mean, priorities.
We barely scratch the surface before they get an alert and leave with a promise to look through Nico’s hard drive and email as soon as they can. I wish they’d just leave it with me, my skin itching to get to the bottom of the scum bucket Nicolosi is, but I don’t say a thing. Instead, I wish them good luck with the crisis and log off. But not before I hear a darkchuckle and a, “I don’t need luck. The Albanians will need it once I’m done with them.”
What the hell is Arrow entangled with? I shudder, unsure I even want to know and decide it’s better if I just leave them to do their hackery magical juju.
All that’s left for me to do is to wait and hope Arrow will have some free time sooner rather than later. To be honest, I’m a little pissed off I didn’t insist on going through the files myself, but Arrow was adamant they want to be there as we go through the stuff. Nicolosi is a dangerous man, who deals with dangerous things. I guess my danger meter is a bit off because I really don’t care about anything other than trying to figure out why everyone is so sure he’s got it out for me. I can appreciate Arrow trying to keep me safe, though. Because we both know I’m the ‘no plan with all guns blazing’ sorta girl.
On a huff, I stuff a granola bar in my mouth and bring up the spreadsheets I swiped from Dante’s laptop. Might as well do something less illegal and try to help him in the process. After all, he did give me a safe house to live in and two orgasms—the latter outweighing the former, if I’m totally honest. Even if he left straight after on a fool’s errand.
