Page 86 of Byte

Ranger was in rare form as he washed Chad’s blood and brain matter from my driveway. He smiled the whole time and may have even been whistling at one point.

“He’s doing that for you,” Shaker said.

“What?”

“Showing you how happy it made him to get rid of someone who threatened Gabby.”

I shook my head and laughed.

Shaker’s hand landed on my shoulder. “Welcome to the family.”

It was latewhen we finally made it back to the clubhouse. Gabby and Keegan were asleep in my room. Instead of waking them, Shaker and I decided to let them be. He went to his room, and I went to one of the empty rooms to sleep. Despite the events of the day, I couldn’t fall asleep. I tossed and turned all night. I couldn’t stop thinking about Chad. I knew I was missing something, and it was driving me crazy. I finally gave up trying to sleep and got out of bed around six in the morning.

The common room was quiet, and I assumed I was the first one up. I went to the kitchen to make myself a cup of coffee and almost jumped out of my skin when I turned around to find Keegan standing behind me. “Holy shit,” I breathed. “You scared me.”

She huffed and placed her hands on her hips. “You deserved it.”

“Why? What did I do?” She was obviously upset, but I had no idea why.

“You didn’t wake me up to tell me what happened.”

“We couldn’t wake you without waking Gabby. And you said yourself she needs her rest,” I explained.

Keegan grumbled something I couldn’t hear and stepped forward to help herself to my cup of coffee. “I’m awake now.”

“I’ll tell you after I make myself some coffee,” I said and turned back to the machine. When I heard her make a noise of discontent, I stifled a laugh and refrained from telling her she deserved that.

I’d barely taken a sip when she demanded, “Now, tell me what happened.”

I thought about making her wait until Gabby was awake, but I could tell by the look on her face she wouldn’t find it as funny as I did. “Fine,” I said and filled her in on everything that transpired at my house.

“He’s dead?” she asked.

“So dead,” I confirmed.

“Is Gabby safe now?”

“She should be. Chad’s dead, Lauren’s in police custody, and Lawrence will either die or go back to prison,” I said.

“Do we know who stabbed him?” she asked.

“No,” I said. “Do you want to know?”

“I don’t necessarily want to know, but I feel like something’s missing,” she said.

“Yeah, me, too,” I shared. “Let me grab my laptop.”

I carefully opened the door to my room and tiptoed inside to get my laptop without waking Gabby. I froze when she repositioned herself, but thankfully, she stayed asleep.

“All right, let’s see what we can find out,” I said when I returned to the common room. It took a little longer than I thought, but I finally located the information. “Okay, Lawrence was stabbed by Todd Orson. He’s a thirty-six-year-old serving a ten-year sentence for identity theft, cyber crimes, and financial fraud. He’s about a year and a half into his sentence.”

Keegan started typing on her phone. “Do you have a picture of him?”

“Yeah, his mugshot,” I said and turned my screen to give her a better view.

“Great,” she said and took a quick look at his picture before returning to her phone. I was about to ask her what she was doing when she gasped.

“What?” I demanded and leaned over so I could see her screen.

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