TWENTY-EIGHT
Cora stood at the bottom of the staircase of the apartment complex, her feet feeling like lead. She’d been to this apartment countless times. Had jogged up those stairs many a late night. But now dread sat heavy on her chest. God, she didn’t want to ask for help.
This was her best option, though. She’d done all she could at the police station, breaking more laws than she’d ever admit to. But she’d gotten into the system and found the number the anonymous tip had come from. Unfortunately, it’d been an inside line from the bar. The guy was careful. But not careful enough. The photo he’d emailed to the station had come from a cell phone. And that cell phone was registered to G.D.T. Entertainment, a company that owned a few strip clubs around Texas and Louisiana. The owner: Gordon Davis Teller.
So Cora had their guy. But the problem was she had nothing on him. Her mother and the police would need hard evidence to do anything about it or even take her seriously. And it wasn’t like she could just go to one of the clubs and start asking questions. If Gordon was following Hayes and Ren closely, he knew who Cora was. So she had to rely on what she knew how to do. Or more important in this case, who she knew.
Unfortunately, who she knew was exactly why she didn’t want to be here.
She glanced over at the car that had tailed her—compliments of Andre Medina. The guy had turned off his lights, and the nondescript Ford was tucked away in the dark parking lot, but she still felt like it was glaringly obvious. And really, the last thing she needed here was backup. The only thing in danger right now was her ego.
With a sigh, Cora trudged up the stairs. She knew he was here. His Toyota was sitting in its usual spot and she’d texted him to let him know she needed to talk to him. But it still took him a while to come to the door after she knocked.
The door swung open and Kevin’s lanky form appeared in the flashing TV light coming from inside. He braced a hand on the doorjamb and gave her a lopsided smile. “Well, hey, stranger. I was starting to wonder if you’d ever stop by again.”
She let her eyes travel over him with a quick sweep. He hadn’t changed in the months since she’d seen him. He’d always been cute in that floppy-haired, California boy kind of way. But she found the sight did zero for her now. “Can I come in?”
He slid his arm up the doorjamb and made room for her to step under. “Mi casa es su casa.”
She ducked under his arm, annoyed that he didn’t just step out of the damn way, and went inside. Some superhero movie was on the TV and there was a pizza box on the coffee table. “Sorry to interrupt the Marvel marathon.”
The door shut behind her. “No worries. It’s nice to see you. You’re looking . . . good.”
There was a flirty undercurrent in his words, and she barely resisted the urge to spin around and punch him in the throat. Did the guy actually think she’d show up out of the blue for a booty call? Probably. She turned and pasted a tight smile on her face. “I look like shit. I got roofied last night and woke up in a hospital.”
He grimaced. “Shit, Cora.”
“Yeah, fun times.”
He ran a hand over the back of his head, looking genuinely disturbed. “You okay? Did anything—”
“Nothing happened. Thank God.” Some of the starch went out of her shoulders at his genuine show of concern. The guy had been a shitty non-boyfriend, but he wasn’t a shitty person. She would focus on that. “I need your help with something. I know who did this to me but I need evidence.”
His eyebrows lifted. “You’re coming to me for help?”
Okay, so maybe she’d always made a point to be better at him on most things at work. She had been better at her job at Braecom. But that’s because Kevin did his day job for the money. His passion was the gray-area stuff. He liked breaking in where others had failed. He liked to prove he could. His specialty? iThings.
She pulled a folded piece of paper from her pocket. “I’ve got the asshole’s phone number and the email he uses for his mobile account. This is bigger than what happened to me. The guy’s a seriously bad dude. So I need to get in and see if I can get any dirt on him.”
“And how do you propose we do that?”
“Do you still have that malware you used to get into Carol’s ex’s phone?”
Last year, one of the assistants at Braecom had been threatened by her boyfriend. He’d been holding naked pics of her hostage. Cora and Kevin had tried to get into his system to help, but the only way they’d been able to get into his cloud was via his text messaging system with malware Kevin had developed. They’d deleted the stolen photos and put a few bugs in his phone just for kicks.
Kevin tucked his hands in his back pockets and frowned. “Shit, Cora. I haven’t used that in over a year. You know how many security patches they’ve had since then? Unless his phone’s been jailbroken, it’s going to be next to impossible. They have companies offering million-dollar prizes for people who can develop that kind of remote hack. Even the FBI took forever to get into that terrorist’s phone. I’m good, but I’m not that good.”
“Can we at least try and see if it’s jailbroken? He thinks he’s above the law, maybe that translates to his phone. If I can get into his cloud, I know I’ll find something. This guy’s hands are in too many things. He’s got to mess up somewhere.”
Kevin sighed. “Well, what have we got to lose, right? You know I love a challenge.”
She cocked a brow. “I’m not sure I know that.”
“I dated you, didn’t I? No one’s more challenging than you.”
She crossed her arms. She hadn’t come here for this. She didn’t have time for it, but she couldn’t help the words from coming out. “Oh, no. I distinctly remember we weren’t dating. We were FWB. Or as you so quaintly referred to me—a bro with a vagina.”
He frowned. “I meant that as a joke and a compliment. All I meant was that you’re a cool chick to hang out with. I didn’t have to put on a show with you. We could just be. We were chill.”
“No, I was convenient and put out and that worked for you. Let’s just call a spade a spade.”
He stared at her, taken aback. “Are you serious right now? You put out, but so did I. That’s what we did for each other. Don’t pretend you wanted more or make it sound like I was using you. If you had thought of me as your boyfriend, you would’ve let me in—at least a little. You never trusted me like that. I found out from someone else that when you took off for a few days, it was because your grandfather had died. You didn’t even look to me to help you through that.”
She sniffed. “Like you would’ve wanted me to cry all over you for days.”
He held out his hands. “I would’ve been there for you, Cora. I cared about you. But you always had the tough-girl thing going. You’re a Mac.”
“What?”
“You’re a closed system. You never let me see behind the curtains. Even when we slept together, you kept that wall up. I wasn’t invited past a certain point. So don’t pretend you ever wanted a real relationship with me. You closed that door before I could ever try to open it.”
She frowned.
“Both of us stuck around all those years with each other for the same reasons. It was easy. We got along well, the sex was decent, and it saved us both from dealing with the drama of the dating world. We were both guilty of the same crime.”
The words weren’t what she expected, but she couldn’t muster up a good argument against them. She thought back to all the time she’d spent with Kevin. It had always been about activities. Hanging out. Playing video games. Watching movies. Sex. She couldn’t think of one time that they’d had a heart-to-heart. Hell, she’d told Ren more on that first night at the taco shop about her past than Kevin knew after three years. “Oh.”
Kevin smirked and shrugged. “You just weren’t that into me. A major personality flaw, by the way. Because I’m freaking adorable. That’s what my eighty-year-old neighbor tells me every morning, and she’s very wise.”
She snorted. “No way Mrs. Meyerson says freaking.”
“You’re right. She goes full f-bomb but I was trying to be attuned to your delicate sensibilities.”
Cora laughed. And in that moment, she remembered why everything had started with Kevin in the first place. She liked him. She’d just labeled it wrong. She hadn’t known the difference at the time between a friendship connection and more. Now that she’d met Hayes and Ren, she knew what gut-level, bone-deep attraction felt like, that need to be with someone, to open up to them and show them the real you. She’d never had that with Kevin. But she’d had this. That comfortable vibe, easy humor.
“I can’t believe you just called me a Mac. You’re such a dork,” she said, some of the tension draining out of her.
“One of my best qualities. Which is why you’re here, right? To get a piece of my big, sexy-ass brain?”
She rolled her eyes. “How about your hot, dangerous malware?”
“Don’t talk dirty to me, C. I’ve been working long hours. And there’s no bro with a vagina in residence anymore.”
“I swear to God, if you ever utter that phrase out loud to anyone again, I’m going to nut punch you. Take it out of your vocabulary, Watkins.”
He lifted his hands, palms out. “Consider it deleted.” He tipped his head to the left. “Come on, I’ve moved all my good stuff into the office. Let’s see if we can take this asshole down.”
Cora nodded, switching back into mission mode. “Let’s do this.”