Page 61 of Hidden Ties

“Valkyrie!” Justice yelled. “Get your tanks!”

Concentrating on the game, she waited until she was safe before she started talking again. “Anyway, I got to meet this really hot lawyer. I’m going to make him an avatar in a new game I’m thinking about. Once I go back and put some final finishing touches on Bubblegum Blitz, that is.”

“You can’t use your lawyer as inspiration for an avatar.”

“Why not? Did you not hear me tell you he’s hot?”

Valerie pulled out a bag of Twizzlers that she had hidden from Sal. He only let her have a pack a day, spewing all these scientific facts about red dyes she couldn’t care less about.

Uncaring about her taste in men, he had to put her back on track of their discussion. “When do you have to go to court?”

“If I’m lucky, never. We’re hoping to have the charges dropped soon. Hey! Did I tell you my bail was two million dollars! Isn’t that fucking cool?”

“Yeah, cool.”Justice blasted her to smithereens, trying to keep up with her tangents. “What are you doing about playing on the Internet? Won’t you get in trouble? You should get off.”

“Sal let me have my computer back out of self-preservation and told me that Ishouldn’tget into any trouble for it.”

“Salvatore?” he asked, like he was making sure he’d heard her correctly over the missiles she had just sent his way. “As in your next-door neighbor that you have despised with your whole being for the last six months?”

“Funnily enough, it turns out he’s not a cheater …” she admitted with fake laugher that those accusations on her part had been completely false. Valerie couldn’t, however, tell him the full truth about him, either.

“Well, I don’t think he was playing video games with the girls he brought home,” he said in a slightly worried tone.

“Oh no, he was being a total manwhore, but it turns out that he’s sweet, and kind, and really, really, really hot.”

“Wow, he got threereally hots. You only gave your lawyer one,” he quickly noted. “It sounds serious.”

“Hopefully.” Valerie smiled to herself. “I might’ve finally bagged myself a boyfriend. I’ll hold out hope that you’ll finally find a girlfriend soon.”

“Thanks for that,” Justice simply muttered. “So, can we go back to the deceased person’s Xbox?”

“Oh yeah!” She remembered the important detail, trying to think back over their conversation if she had told him yet or not, since she got distracted with all the times she already killed him in the game. “Did I tell you someone was trying to kill me? Scared the crap out of me. I went to my coworker Lyle’s house to try to get in contact with you. Unfortunately, he was murdered while I was there. I barely escaped with my life. Dying and fighting for your life isn’t at all like the games we pla—”

“Did you tell your lawyer?” Justice’s voice cut through her sentence.

“I was going to get Sal to call him in the morni—”

“I would have him text your lawyer tonight, so he can talk to the police,” Again, he cut her off with a sense of urgency.

“Sal’s already talked with the police. I don’t think there’s anything he can do about it tonight, anyway.”

A frustrated sigh came through the mic after he got blown up. “Valkyrie, there has to be a reason you’re being accused of cyber-stalking and why you were almost killed along with your coworker. You had to have seen or heard something you weren’t supposed to know.”

“I didn’t. I only worked at the Horseshoe for a short amount of time. Even when I broke through their firewalls to prove a point that they needed to install a better system, I didn’t see anything that raised any red flags,” she told him with confidence,having already considered this a million times when she’d been held up in the cell for the long weekend. “So, why kill Lyle? And try to take me out? If I’m convicted, I’ll be out of their hair, anyway.”

“Because you know something …” Justice’s voice trailed off. “Or have something …” His voice rose from pulling his mic closer to his face. “Valerie! You have something!”

Valerie had to lower the volume on her headset at his raised voice, and she found it funny when he used her real name. Yes, he knew her real name, but he had never used it before. “What would I even have?”

“How in the fuck do I know?” Justice was practically yelling at her. “Did you ever take anything from work?”

Putting a Twizzlers in her mouth, she had to think for a moment. “Maybe I shouldn’t mention what I took over the Internet.”

“For God’s sake, think, Valkyrie.Hard.”

“Okay!” she yelled back, trying to do so as she mulled it over her candy. But now she was in the mood for something else since he had mentioned the wordhard. Valerie wondered when Sal would be back from his office; he had left her safe in his penthouse to take care of a few things.

“Do you still have the stuff you took?”

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