Page 74 of Wicked Games

“Or maybe they want to get caught.”

I glance at Jax.

“Think about it,” he continues. “The videos from the pool and the hallways were completely clean, but they added a backdoor into the phone? That’s a huge deviation in their MO.”

“Do you think you missed something in other videos?” I ask Jace.

“It’s possible.” Jace swings back and forth in his chair. “Unlikely, but possible.”

“I think we need to look at the motivation behind the jobs and not the jobs themselves,” Jax says.

“What do you mean?” I ask.

“The first hack was them working with someone to take Felix out. They’re just as culpable as the guy who tried to drown him, so it makes sense they’d be sure to cover their tracks since they were involved in an attempted murder.”

“The thing with the car is the opposite. They helped Felix and went against whoever they were working with. It’s possible they put backdoor or mistake or whatever it is in there because they want us to follow it.”

“Could be, especially if they were forced into helping with the pool thing and feel guilty about it now,” Jace says thoughtfully. “But there’s really no point trying to figure out why it’s there until I know where it leads or what we’ll learn from it. For all we know, it’s a decoy, and I’ll run into a dead end.”

“So we have a hitman gunning for Felix and a hacker with a possible change of heart trying to help us, who may or may not be asking for help but could also just be fucking with you for funsies,” I sum up.

“Pretty much,” Jace confirms.

Jax leans back against the couch and flips his phone in his hands a few times. “I don’t know what Felix did to piss whoever off, but this is a lot of effort to kill a college student.”

“Yeah,” I agree. “And it’s the most inefficient way to do it too.”

Jace nods and snaps his gum. “This whole thing feels like amateur hour. There are dozens of ways to take someone out without leaving a trace, and even more that would make it look like an accident. But they chose drowning and running him over with a car. Those methods are messy, and they leave evidence behind. We’re not dealing with a pro. This screams hit for hire.”

I nod. “Yeah. That’s what I’m thinking too. Did you find anything in the student or faculty files?”

Jax shakes his head. “Nothing useful.”

“I didn’t find any evidence that the files were tampered with,” Jace says. “But that doesn’t mean they weren’t manually changed or that our hacker didn’t wipe their tracks like they did with the hallway videos.”

“Did you figure out why someone is after him?” Jax asks. “Because I did a deep dive on him, and holy goddamn shit, he’s the most boring person on the planet. Not even a jaywalking ticket to his name and zero connections to any of the shady shit his grandpa’s company’s been up to. And it’s not like they’d use him to get to your dad when you’re literally sharing a room with him. So unless I missed something huge, he’s the last person I’d ever look at and think, ‘You know who needs to die, that kid right there.’”

I sigh and scrub my hand through my hair. “I know. It doesn’t make any sense. Did you find anything in his financials or his online footprint?” I ask Jace.

“Nothing that’s even remotely smoking gun-shaped.” He pulls his butterfly knife out of his pocket and rolls the closed blade over his knuckles. “The only thing that might be relevant is that he’s super rich now that his dad left him a bunch of shares in the company.”

“Really? I thought he only inherited five percent?” I ask.

“Technically, yes, but no. Before the accident, his grandfather owned fifty percent, and his dad and uncle each had twenty-five. His dad left Felix five percent, and ten to each of his half siblings, along with most of his assets. Since Felix is the sole heir, he got it all. It’s in a trust right now, but he’s going to join the nine-figure club as soon as he turns twenty-five. And I can only imagine how much he’ll be worth once his grandpa kicks it. We’re talking ten figures, easy.”

“Does that mean his stepmother’s family got nothing?” Jax asks.

“Pretty much.” Jace spits his gum out and presses it onto a scrap of paper on his desk. “They got whatever was in her name, but bro either didn’t feel like sharing the love with her fam, or he didn’t trust her, because almost everything was in his name. And he made sure to set things up so none of her relatives could lay claim on anything other than what she brought into the marriage.”

“Can you look into his stepmother’s family?” I ask Jax. “See if any of them could be involved?” It wouldn’t be the first time someone killed for money.

He nods.

“So, what’s going on with you and the stepbro?” Jace asks, not bothering to even pretend like that was a natural segue from what we were talking about.

“What do you think is going on?” I look between them.

“You’re either fucking him, or fucking with him,” Jax says.

---