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When she saw his teeth this time, they were bared like a wild animal. His hand shot out, and she crossed her arms in front of her on instinct, bracing herself for a blow that never came. He didn’t even touch her. It was almost as if he was frozen.
“What’s going on out here?” Brittany asked. A warm flood of relief washed over Teagan as Eric stepped away from her. She dropped her arms back to her side, flexing her fists and setting her jaw even though she felt like she was shaking apart. She clamped down her teeth to keep them from chattering.
“Eric dropped his mobile,” Teagan said with an arch of her brow. She held his gaze and delighted when she saw chaos there instead of conniving.
He bit down hard on his lip and shook his head, shoulders shaking in humorless laughter. “I was just asking Teagan if she would go get it for me.” His eyes flashed. He was speaking to Brittany, but he never stopped glaring at her.
Teagan shook her head, gaining a bit more confidence. “I’m not the one who dropped it.”
He clenched both fists and released them, cracking his knuckles in a menacing way before glancing down to the ground. Likely realizing that he’d have to lie on his stomach and reach blindly under the dumpster to retrieve the mobile. Exposing his back. Not that Teagan would have stomped on him, but Brittany might have. There were also pruning shears within her reach.
So instead, he sneered. “I have the hard copies, anyway.Ta.” He turned on his heel and stalked off.
Britt scurried over to stand beside her, reaching out to grab her hand. She squeezed as they watched Eric get into his car and leave.
“Be my lookout,” Britt said, dropping Teagan’s hand and dropping to the ground. Teagan instinctively reached up to rub up and down her arms, wishing like hell she could just go scrub her skin raw to rid it of anything Eric may have left behind.
She watched Britt feel around under the dumpster, scooting farther and farther back until she laughed out loud and pushed herself back out. She held Eric’s mobile up like a prize and quickly turned it over in her hands to inspect the back.
“Come on,” she called, running for the back door of the shop with Teagan in dazed pursuit.
She scrambled back to the office and reached into her desk drawer for a pocket knife, which she used to pry the back off the device. She slid out a chip in the back and dropped it on her desk. “SIM chip,” she said with a smirk.
Teagan frowned. “Okay? So now we can steal it for our own use?”
Brittany looked hard at her before continuing. “No? Now it can’t connect to the internet.”
“So?”
“So now he can’t remotely delete the contents.”
“But isn’t that all on the SIM card?” Teagan asked.
“No, it’s on the hard drive.”
“How the fuck do you know any of that?” Teagan asked, reaching for the mobile after Britt snapped the back cover back on.
“Look, I might have lost a couple of these in my time. Left them in bathrooms, or like… in my car while it was unlocked and then I got burgled and the only thing they could take was my mobile and attempt to steal my stereo system, but they just fucked up the case because they tried to yank it out with a crowbar... Anyway, I know that if the SIM chip is still in the mobile, they can call the carrier and have it wiped. Usually, by the time they call, the mobile’s already been chopped up for parts or jail broken and wiped, but I know that the one I lost in a bathroom wasn’t, and I was able to wipe it remotely through the SIM chip.”
“Great, so you made it where I can’t wipe it. It’s still locked and I’m pretty sure if we guess the password wrong, it wipes it, anyway.”
“Still, I bought you some time,” Britt replied. “You can talk it over with Jaxon.”
“He said he had hard copies anyway,” Teagan grumbled, taking the mobile from Britt and wrinkling her nose at it. How could a hard piece of plastic carry the scent of Eric’s godawful cologne on it?
“Hard copies of what?” Britt asked.
Teagan sighed. “Suffice it to say, I made some stupid ass decisions when I was younger and now Eric has proof of it.”
“Well… maybe there’s something on there you can use?” Britt asked. “Chin up, Teags. Jaxon’s not going to let you drown.”
“I know he won’t.”
Britt got up and walked around the desk with purpose, reaching for and pulling Teagan into a hug. “Just calm down and I’ll drive you back to your place, okay?”
“No, I should drive. I don’t want to leave my car here in the open.”
“Good call. I’ll follow you?”
