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PROLOGUE
“What’s the name?”
“Dani, don’t you want to know what he did?” Aaron asked.
“Don’t call me that. Byte, or GigaByte, that’s my name.”
“Not to me. You will forever be Dani. Now about this predator, don’t you want more information before you take him down?”
“No. If he’s on your list—that’s all I need to know. Now, what’s his name?”
“Dani, I’m worried about you.”
“Don’t be. And stop calling me that.”
“And stop being a brat.”
Byte pushed her hair away from her face. Talking to Aaron was a trigger for her sometimes. She owed her life to him. He’d given her a will to live, a mission, but he also knew the girl she once was. During his short stay in foster care, he’d taught her how to code and hack. He never could’ve known those three months would forever change her life.
“Look, I know why you are on this hunt. I get it. But you are on a dangerous path. Someday you might get caught.”
“That’s where you’re wrong. I’m not the one in danger. What we do is important, lifesaving even. I can’t ignore it or pretend everything is alright. The system is broken. The innocent are ignored, and lives are at risk.”
“You couldn’t save her, Danielle. You know that, right?” Aaron asked softly.
“I shouldn’t have left her there.”
“You were sixteen. How were you to take care of a ten-year-old?”
“I should have tried! I left her alone and vulnerable for two years. I refuse to let that happen again on my watch. Now, Aaron, give me the name of the foster parent who’s sexually abusing his charge.”
Aaron knew he was fighting a losing battle, not that he didn’t agree with Dani’s ideology. Abusers shouldn’t get away with their secrets, sins, or devastation. But she was taking it too far. When would she feel like she’d vindicated Chloe’s death? How many men and women would she expose? He knew how many… all of them.
When she’d first contacted him, he was excited to see his friend had emancipated herself from the bonds of foster care at sixteen. After his parents’ death, it had taken his aunt and uncle nearly three months to get full custody. They were seeing a different nephew. He was angry and broken, but eventually they’d patched him back together. However, those three months in the system laid the groundwork for Karma. Danielle, or GigaByte as she went by now, had touched his heart and bonded them together forever as best friends. He’d taught her how to code, how to leave the world she was forced into and find a home on the web.
Unlike most foster kids, he’d come from a happy, healthy family. The accident had stolen his parents and his right leg. Dani had been there to help support him when he was being harassed. The five-foot-nothing never backed down, not from the other kids nor their foster parents. Her sense of justice was ingrained in her, and knowing her story helped him to see that he wasn’t the only one broken.
Then there was Chloe, sweet little Chloe. She was the little sister neither of them wanted but couldn’t turn away. She’d been in foster care for six months when they’d met her. The system had labeled the six-year-old as troubled and sent her to a group home, where she stayed until placed with the same parents he and Dani were assigned to. If either of them had known about the abuse Chloe suffered, they would’ve stepped in. Only Chloe suffered in silence, until the day she took her own life after discovering she was pregnant at twelve years of age. He and Dani had already left the system, in essence, leaving Chloe without a defender. So he understood Dani’s need for justice, but she hadn’t been satisfied with just destroying their previous foster parents. She’d taken on the entire foster system… and by extension, so had he.
Now five years later, Aaron and Dani worked to search out and destroy each offender. She’d been the financier for the top-notch computer system he worked on. She’d paid for the home he used as a command center, and she paid for the team’s salaries. Aaron never asked how she was financing the program because he truly didn’t want to know. He knew she worked with a team of assassins during the day who targeted sex offenders on a global scale. The world of deviants had enveloped his friend, and he worried her bloodlust would further divide her understanding of right from wrong. But what was he to do? Ignore the wrongs? Not give the data to Dani? Quit?
No, Aaron couldn’t and wouldn’t step back. He just needed a way of protecting his friend. He needed to remind her that she was more than the notorious hacker; she was also Danielle, the girl he loved. She was also the girl he knew would never love him the way he wanted. She couldn’t love anyone until she forgave and loved herself, and it was going to take a strong man to find the tenderhearted woman he knew.
Please let that man be out there.
PARTI
CHAPTERONE
“Wow, Yottabyte. That was a wicked move,” his opponent, Smurf, said over their open mic.
Kyle could lose himself in the video game for hours, which was why he hadn’t heard his brother walk into the bedroom.
“You were supposed to put your plate in the dishwasher, Kyle.”
“I will, just give me a minute. I have to get to the next level.”
“Kyle.”
