Page 212 of The Re-Proposal

Sitting here, outside the co-op that meant so much to her, is the closest I can get to having her with me.

And it’s my own private hellscape.

Vargas motions to the driver. “We gotta go.”

I turn and glare at him. “Who said we’re leaving?”

“I just got a text from Doberman. They found the guy who smashed your window.”

At the police station, I meet Clay and Andre, Clay’s cyber security ace.

I’m pretty sure the kid is just here to gloat about cracking the code and finding the perp before the cops.

“They’ve already started questioning him,” Clay says, gesturing inside.

I follow my brother without a word.

Through the two-way mirror, I see a man with dark hair and a beard. He’s of similar height and build to the guy on the motorcycle.

The detective scribbles something on a notepad. “Do you know the real identities of others on the server?”

“A few of them. Most aren’t active anymore.” He shrugs. “There’s a long list of people who hate Cody Bolton, but not enough to make it a hobby.”

“What do you do in this group?”

“We mostly post memes…”

Vargas chuckles.

I glare at him.

He keeps a tight face.

“When did you meet Hugo Winifred?”

“Winifred joined the group the day he got fired. It was weird the way he joined without an avatar. But then, he wasn’t like the rest of us. He didn’t come to whine. He came to organize a revolution.”

“What kind of things did he post?”

“Things like we should teach Bolton a lesson. Get him to share some of that wealth. Make him respect us by any means possible.”

I fold my arms over my chest, listening.

“Up to that point, we’d only challenged each other to send a few letters to Bolton’s address. Stupid hate mail with no real message. Just to mess with him.”

“Still illegal,” the police growls.

“Right.” He hangs his head. “And I’m sorry about that. Honestly, it wouldn’t have escalated from there, but things got a little out of hand. The way Winifred was talking would rile anyone up.”

“Where is Winifred now?”

“I don’t know.”

“Do you know what he might do next?”

The guy shakes his head. “No. But I do know that I was the only one who followed him in the real world. People started getting uncomfortable with his calls for action and the server got a lot less active.”

“Why is that?”

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