Page 13 of Run, Little Rabbit

“Stop winding him up,” I chide Sphinx. “I’m pretty sure he could kill you seven different ways with his bare hands.”

“I think that’s what I find charming about him.” Sphinx’s eyes darken. “That and his prickly exterior. Makes me want to try and smooth all those rough edges.”

You and me both…

“Anyway, what do you want, Echo? And what the fuck is that?” He jerks his chin in the direction of the phone on the table.

“That, dear Sphinx, is Bennie Walker’s phone.”

Sphinx chokes on his mouthful of coffee, spitting it across the table. “The fuck?! Are youinsane?!How did you even get your hands on it? Wait, I don’t want to kn—”

“I killed the guy.”

“Fuck.” Sphinx pinches the bridge of his nose. “Why did you tell me that?”

“Because I want you to break into it, duh.”

“Nope. Absolutely not.”

I flutter my eyelashes like Marilyn Fucking Monroe. “Pretty please?”

He stares at me for the longest minute. “Do you know how many people are looking for that?”

My smile is wide and a little twisted. “Oh, yes. Kind of thrilling, really. That I’m suddenly a keeper of secrets. I just want to knowwhatsecrets. Is that too much to ask?”

Sphinx stared at the phone like he thought it might bite him. “Does anyone else know that you have it?”

“Absolutely not,” I say with a laugh. “I’m not a fucking idiot, Sphinx.”

“That’s debatable.”

“Rude,” I scoff.

“But true. Jesus, Echo. The whole underbelly is looking for that, and you bring it here?”

I shrug. “I want to know what’s on it, and you’re the best at the whole breaking into tech thing.” I lean forward over the table and lower my voice to a whisper. “Don’t you want to know what’s on there?”

Sphinx purses his lips, and I can almost see the tiny cogs turning in that magnificent brain of his. His eyes darken, and there’s a war of something going on in those pale blue orbs. A push and pull of curiosity and wariness. A desire to know warring against a desire to keep away. I just need something to tip him over the edge.

“I’ll bet there’s something on there about those ghosts that haunt you.”

His eyes flash with anger and pain. “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

I take a deep breath and tentatively reach out to wrap his hand in mine. He flinches but doesn’t pull away. “Sphinx, I know you’re hiding out here from something other than people you’ve pissed off with your computer.” If it was just a case of the hacking of some jumped-up government department, I know Sphinx had the skills to make him disappear. But there is something else, something darker and more dangerous that he needs the protection of my family name for. I’m not stupid, despite the cleverly constructed mask telling the world I’m nothing more than a pampered princess with air for brains. “Don’t you want to stop running?”

He tugs his lower lip in between his teeth, gnawing on it. A few moments pass in silence before he squeezes my hand and gives me a nod. “Okay. Let’s do this.”

“Yes!” I say with a fist pump.

Sphinx snorts. “You’re such a dork. Give me the phone.”

I slap the heavy brick into his open hand and follow him over to his desk. He turns it over in his hands for a few minutes before plugging it into his system.

Sphinx lets out a low whistle as a load of code lights up his screen.

“What is it?” I ask, leaning closer.

“You weren’t kidding. This is some high-level encryption shit.”

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