Page 47 of Second Chance Savior

“Tomorrow we’ll head toward Hartley. Join up with the other Protectors. But I’ve been living there openly. Stillwater will look for me there as soon as they realize I’m involved. So we won’t make it easy. For Stillwater to get to you, they’llhave to find you first. And then they’ll have to go through me and my friends.”

“Thank you, River. The words don’t do this justice. Especially after certain accusations I might have made about you earlier.”

“Like how I was a shitty friend?” he asked.

“Hey, those words did not leave my mouth.”

“But that was the gist of it. And I deserved it. My fault that I let so many years go by without getting in touch. I’m truly sorry.”

I nodded, my throat swelling with unexpected emotion.

Okay. Time for bed. Before I dredged up something else awkward from the past that neither of us wanted to talk about.

“I’m going to use the bathroom and wash my face. The day is catching up to me now.”

“Sure.” He turned back to his computer. “I need to take care of a few more things.”

River had the blue glow of the laptop to see by. But maneuvering in the bathroom without a light was nearly impossible, so I took the flashlight. Once I was ready for bed, I went back to the kitchen area.

River glanced up. “I checked the news reports. They mentioned FBI agents had been injured, but they’re in stable condition.”

“Okay. Good.”

“The story broke that you attended the fundraiser and now you’re missing.”

I groaned. “Then the police will have contacted my family. God, they must be terrified.”

River turned the laptop toward me. “You wanted to send them a message?”

“Can I? Right now?”

He nodded once. “I set it up. They’ll get a pop-upwindow, similar to what I used on your computer before. Untraceable, and they won’t be able to respond. But at least they’ll know you’re okay. They’ll be able to read it once, and the message will vanish.”

“How do you do that?” I sputtered.

“Really want me to talk you through it? Or do you want to send your message and get to bed?”

“Fair.” I probably wouldn’t be able to follow his weird hacker moves anyway. Not my area.

I sat down to type a quick note, saying I was currently safe but in hiding. No mention of River or Stillwater, though I included a few details that would prove it was me. I promised I would get in touch again soon. I wished I could speak to my loved ones on the phone, reassure them, but this would have to do for now.

“I need to send a message to Brynn too,” I said.

“That’s even easier. I already set up a back door to her home network when I was at her place.”

“She’s going to love that.”

As I drafted the note to Brynn, River sat beside me, watching what I wrote.Take care of yourself, I typed.We’re going to be laughing about all this someday.P.S., I put extra food for Cleo in your fridge. She especially likes it warmed up.

“You spoil your cat, don’t you?” he teased.

“Why shouldn’t I? It’s my choice to spoil her. I hate that I just left her.”

“I’m sure Brynn will watch over her. Or assign Cleo her very own FBI agent.”

“Ha. Ha.”

River took the laptop and did his computer-thing to send off the messages.

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