Page 44 of Hacker Identified

Tim pointed at Kat. "She just fed a finger to that thing."

Kat rolled her eyes. "Homer is not a thing; he is my pet. As for the finger, the owner is still alive, only down an index finger and a thumb. He got off easy, but Antonio told me I couldn't take the entire hand. The man deserved to die, but I'm on this whole new life path where I don't kill people—"

Willy and Sophie were deep in conversation. At least he didn't see Kat feed her pet. He would have freaked as well. Nicole tapped my leg. "She's still joking, right?"

I had to get the conversation back under control. "Kat, we aren't going to blow anything up. Normally the bulldozers come. Then the workers will call the general contractor, who will call the owner. After that, we will try and get the developer to leave this tree alone."

Kat tapped her foot for a moment before she slung her bag off her shoulder and unzipped it, then pulled out a tan brick. "But I haven't gotten to try out this new type of explosive my bomb guy made for me."

Zack slipped his phone into his pocket and walked toward me. To my surprise, he grabbed the handcuffs off the ground and locked it around his wrist again. He sat to my left, blocking my view of Tim.

He lifted my hand to his mouth and pressed his lips to the back of my hand. The fact he sat in the dirt and cuffed himself to the tree made my heart fall even deeper for this man.

"Kat, why don't you go check on Texan? I'm sure the trucks heading this way will be here by the time you guys get back,” Zack commanded.

In the distance, I could see three large yellow dump trucks headed directly toward us.

"Okay, but you need to keep Homer company." Kat tossed the leash and another plastic bag at us. The finger in the bag landed next to Zack's foot. I had to give him credit for not moving an inch.

Zack sighed and grabbed the leash. "I better not lose a limb."

Kat threw her black bag over her shoulder and disappeared into the tall grass.

"Aren't you going to take Hannah out of here?" Tim asked.

Then I remembered why Tim bothered me. He was a handsome man, but his sexist comments about how women shouldn’t protest and that we were better off doing research were a definite turn off. He even told Willy we shouldn't be allowed to talk to the contractors, because it would make the men look weak.

"Nope." Zack squeezed my hand. "If Hannah wants to sit in the brutal Florida sun for a few hours, then I'm going to sit right here with her."

"You mean days." Nicole chimed in. "Day one of this, the contractor will come to yell at us. Day two is the same, maybe by day three, we might speak to someone in charge."

Zack's lip twitched. "Well, then I'm glad we have phones to order food because I didn't plan on staying out here all night. But if that's what Hannah wants, then I'll sit right here by her side. But I have a feeling this protest won't last very long.”

"Why? Do you think you can negotiate better than me?" Tim sneered.

"Never said I could. Maybe I will learn something from you," Zack replied.

But I caught the corner of his lip twitch. The same way it did when I’d signed the contract for the engagement. Like he knew something I didn't and I was about to call him out on it when the bulldozers a hundred feet away stopped. "That's strange. It's not close to lunch or anything. I wonder why they stopped."

" Liberal Earth Collective is getting a name for itself," Willy chimed in for the first time.

Sophie huffed, "Right…maybe it’s because you hacked the last company and held their data hostage."

"How was that possible? You were handcuffed to the tree,” I asked.

Willy went to open his mouth, but Sophie cut him off. "He set up a time-delayed worm, and ransomware hit when you were all attached to the tree. Willy has a section of the FBI after him, which I just explained. He can either come work for me at the State Department or go to prison."

"Wait, State Department—"

Zack elbowed my side. "Remember I told you my sister-in-law and brother met because they both work for the State Department."

Nicole scrunched her nose. "But the woman with the red hair said she worked for the CIA."

"She likes to joke around," Sophie said.

I sure as hell know that wasn't the real story.

Sophie slipped her laptop back into her bag. "When Kat showed me your plans today, I knew this was my opportunity. Now that we have that matter taken care of. Do we know who the builder of this land is?"

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