Page 34 of Dare To Take

Leaving that to play in the background, I take my cell out of my pocket and call Kellan. He picks up on the second ring.

“I need you to do something for me.”

***

I’m in the middle of a Christopher Lee movie marathon when a shadow falls over me. I turn my head to find Arabella standing at the end of the couch, wrapped in a sheet. Her hair is a tumbled mess around her face.

“I fell asleep.”

“I know. You were snoring like a wild boar. I’m surprised we haven’t had noise complaints.”

She comes toward me, smiling, lets the sheet drop and straddles my lap.

“I was going to ask if you’re hungry, but I see what the answer is.” I tip my head back against the couch’s headrest and look at her.

“I am hungry.”

“I meant for food.”

Her lips nibble a path down my throat, and I angle my head to give her more access. “I could eat.”

“The menu is on the coffee table. Do you want to order room service or go down to the restaurant?”

“Room service.” She parts her mouth from my neck long enough to answer me.

“What’s happening here, Hellcat?” I tangle a hand into her hair and tug her head up.

“Elena wanted us to get to know each other better.”

“Pretty sure she didn’t mean biblically.”

“Then she should have been more specific.”

I laugh at that, wrap a lock of her hair around one finger, and use it to draw her closer to me. Just as our lips meet, my cell bursts into life with Kellan’s ringtone.

“Ignore it.” Arabella winds her arms around my neck, and I’m tempted … so fucking tempted … but this is important.

Dropping my hands to her waist, I lift her off me. “I need to take this. Pick what you want to eat, and I’ll order it once I’m done.” I stand up, connect the call, and walk into the bedroom.

“Well?”

“The cloud is empty.”

“Good.”

“No, you don’t understand. I didn’t do it. It had already been wiped. It took me a while to get into the folder. Someone changed the password.”

“Fuck. Do you think the school deleted everything?”

“There’s no easy way to tell. Given some time, I can probably find out who logged in, the IP address, and whether copies were taken before it was all deleted.”

“How much time?”

“Not sure. It depends on how well whoever did it covered their tracks.”

“Then why the fuck are you wasting time telling me about it? I want to know what happened to those files.”

“You got it.” He paused. “There’s talk that Arabella is coming back to school after Christmas. Is that true?”

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