Page 62 of Hidden Ties

His words brought her back to what she was supposed to be thinking about. “I didn’t takethatmuch. Let’s see, a monitor, graphics card, a RAM—”

“The RAM, where is it now?” he asked with urgency, knowing that was what stored all a computer’s data.

“I don’t know …” It was hard for Valerie to think now that she had Justice’s avatar in her crosshairs. “It’s probably gone, actually. Did I mention my house got broken into? I kept all my unused parts at home in a box in my office. The only reason they didn’t get a hold of my computer was because Sal took it.”

“No, that was not mentioned.” Justice’s voice could be heard in a growl.

“It’s not like it matters, anyway. Everything that could hold memory or data, I wiped clean once I brought it home. Anything I might’ve taken wasn’t worth taking to the scrapyard. They were older than me—” Valerie broke off, suddenly remembering something while she waited for Justice’s next life to regenerate. “There was a flash drive I found a while back, though. I had actually forgotten all about it. I bet it’s still in my stash of loose items I keep in the pot of a faux plant. It came with the desk, so when I got fired, I couldn’t take the plant and forgot I had hidden some stuff in there.”

“Where exactly did youfindthe flash drive?” he asked, sensing where this was going.

“On the floor … in someone’s office,” she finally admitted.

“So, you took it,” he corrected her, sighing, “Whose office was it?”

“Um … let me think …” Valerie shot down Justice, who was finally on his last life. She did another fist-bump in the air to celebrate. She was surprisingly on her game, considering she hadn’t been playing lately.

“Valkyrie!” Justice yelled. “Quit playing and think.”

“I think it was my boss’ office. Edmond’s …” As she said the name, it suddenly clicked with her that those charges were not only never going to be dropped, but they were never going to let her see the inside of a courtroom. To make it worse, she didn’t even have what they wanted, and she didn’t know how many people were involved for certain, past Gerard, until she got the part back.

“Justice, I have to go. Thanks for the game and the help! I have to go find Sal and get him to take me to the Horseshoe. I think I left it inside the potted plant on my desk. Love ya! Bye!”

“Valkyrie! Don’t go ye—”

She quickly turned off the game. She didn’t have the time to explain it to Justice, whether he sounded nervous for her or not.

She had only one mission: Find Salvatore.

TWENTY-THREE

ONCE IN A BLUE MOON

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” Sal shot up from the chair in his office when the unannounced man barged in.

“Where’s Valerie?”

He was one second away from pulling his gun out to kill the man he had a high distaste for but thought better of it, considering Valerie still might need his services. “Kent, I understand you are representing her at the moment, but you can’t just barge in—”

“I don’t have time to explain,” Kent said, holding up his hand to silence him. “Now, where is Valerie? This is important.”

“She’s in my penthouse.” Sal felt safe enough to divulge that information because Kent didn’t know which one he lived in. The lawyer had only known this was his office because Sal took a meeting with him for personal reasons a little over six months ago.

He figured he must have heard about Lyle and Gerard and wanted to speak with Valerie, but he wasn’t sure why it couldn’t wait until morning, until he heard the worry in Kent’s voice.

“I need you to check—right now.”

Seeing just how serious the lawyer was, Sal sat back in his chair while biting down his fury, and pulled up the personal cameras in his penthouse. They were the only cameras he had access to in any of the penthouses on the top floor. Those cameras were all personally watched by their respective owners.

He flipped through them but didn’t find her. She might be in the bathroom, where no camera was placed, but when he rewound the footage a bit, he realized she had actually left the penthouse.

“She’s not there anymore, is she?” Kent asked gravely.

Sal shook his head, trying not to let the same worry overtake him just yet.

Quickly, he followed her tracks after leaving the penthouse, flipping through the camera viewpoints. Kent came up behind him to watch the screens, as well. Valerie had first come to his office, which made Sal’s heart sink even lower.

Kent hissed at him, “Where were you?”

---