Page 19 of Byte

“I think she’s blaming herself, but otherwise, she took it in stride.”

“She’s a sweet girl, but she’s strong, too. You said she’s off tomorrow, right?” he asked.

“Right. She’s off Friday and Monday and works the weekend.”

“Okay, here’s what we’re going to do. I’ll send one of the guys with a tow truck to get your truck. When you pick Gabby up this afternoon, I want the two of you to come back to Croftridge. In the meantime, I want you to pick up a couple of cameras and get them hooked up to her system. Try to keep them as inconspicuous as possible.”

“You got it, Prez.”

Gabby looked absolutely drainedwhen I picked her up. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m just tired,” she said and changed the subject. “Did you get your truck fixed?”

“Phoenix sent a tow truck to pick it up and take it back to the garage. He also wants us to come back to Croftridge for the night.”

“Do we need to leave right away or can we stop by the house first?” she asked.

“We can go back to your house first. There’s no rush,” I said and opened my mouth to say more but decided against it.

“What were you going to say?” Gabby asked.

“Now, who’s the observant one?” I teased.

“Me. Now, what was it?”

“I was going to say something about how nice it is that you go with the flow instead of arguing with whatever plan we’ve come up with.”

“It would be stupid of me to argue. You guys have dealt with plenty of crazy-ass people over the years. I haven’t. Besides, I promised my sister I’d go to the club if anything happened. This is me keeping that promise,” she explained.

“You’re a good person, Gabriella Marks,” I said sincerely.

“Thank you,” she started and paused. “What’s your real name?”

Every part of me wanted to tell her my real name, the one I was born with, not the one I gave myself when I left my old life behind at the age of fourteen. But I couldn’t. So, I swallowed thickly and told her the lie that had become my truth. “Michael. Michael Fuller.”

“Michael,” she said slowly. “That doesn’t seem right.”

I laughed. It didn’t seem right because it wasn’t, but I couldn’t tell her that. “It’s because you’re used to calling me Byte, like everyone else.”

“I guess I’ll stick with Byte then,” she said as I parked her car in the garage and closed the door. “I need to shower and pack a bag. It’ll probably take me thirty minutes to be ready to go.”

“Take your time. We can leave whenever you’re ready.”

She was ready almost exactly thirty minutes later, and she didn’t look any better than she did when I picked her up. In fact, I thought she looked worse. Her skin was pale with some darkness underneath her eyes. Then she fell asleep as soon as we hit the highway.

“Gabby, we’re here,” I said softly and reached over to gently shake her shoulder.

“Yeah, okay,” she mumbled.

“Gabby, wake up,” I said a bit louder.

Her head shot up, and she looked around in confusion. “What? What’s going on?”

I chuckled. “You fell asleep.”

“Oh, I’m sorry,” she said and wiped her hand over her face.

“You don’t need to apologize for being tired. Come on, let’s go inside. I’ll get your bag for you.”

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