Page 16 of Cruel Pawn
“You convinced him with your dick, didn’t you?” I asked, smirking as I tossed my phone on the passenger seat and turned the key in the ignition. It was a beautiful Mercedes, because Eloise would never drive a basic car out of fear of what people would say if she was caught in it, and it purred to life beneathme. Not gonna lie, the car turned me on far more than Freddo had.
“I have a very convincing dick,” Silvio agreed. “Let’s just say it convinced him to hack your systems—”
“Silvio!” I hissed, thinking of everything he’d exposed to some random hacker guy. I had receipts for things that really shouldn’t be documented on my laptop, not to mention all my research on my current mark—and my client—and everything I’d dared to save of my past jobs. If someone got into my files and saw all that, it was enough to incriminate me.
Not to mention, there was a folder full of files about my family. Over the years, I’d collected every last scrap of information I could find about them. But I’d found nothing to indicate anyone wanting them dead. They were civil servants, not career criminals like me. They didn’t have enemies.
“If he eventhinksabout sharing what he saw—”
“You’ll kill him,” Silvio interrupted, his voice accompanied by a loud purr I fervently hoped had a feline, and not masculine, source. “I know. I told him that, and he took it very, very seriously if his nod was anything to judge by. He couldn’t talk at the time because—”
“He was choking on your very persuasive cock?”
“Yup. He knows the consequences. And don’t worry, he’s not exactly on the right side of the law himself. I’ve got enough to bury him if I get even a flicker of suspicion that he's about to threaten my bestie.”
“Aww,you really think I’m your bestie?” I said in my sweetest voice, hitting the breaks as some entitled prick in a BMW decided to cut across my path.
“Youaremy bestie,” he insisted, “and I know I’m yours, so don’t even try to deny it. Also, don’t run anyone down, yeah? Road rage is a lot harder to hide than calculated murder.”
“You’re lucky this line is encrypted,” I muttered. You didn’t just go around saying your friends were capable of calculated murder. Even if theywere.“What did your hacker find?”
“Nothing. He can see where someone tested your defences andmaybeforced a way in, but there’s no trace of him—”
“Or her—”
“—or any indication that they opened files. It looks like they just tested the firewalls.”
“Hm.” I pressed my lips into a thin line.
“What are you thinking?”
“It’s probably my client checking up on me. They’re not known for patience.”
“Be careful, Pri. And get a million more firewalls.”
“I already increased the security on my laptopandmy cloud files. Whoever tried to hack me won’t get in again. And by the end of the week, I’ll be rid of Freddo, and my client will be satisfied.”
“I’ll drink to that,” Silvio said, followed by the clink of glass on a table.
“I won’t,” I drawled, glaring at a pedestrian that ran into the road. Fucking jaywalkers. “That reminds me! Guess what Freddo gave me last night.”
“An STD?”
“A glass of wine. And when I said no, he was likec’mon babe, you need to loosen up, you’re always so tense.I felt like poking his eyes out and sayingI’m Muslim, you limp, clap-infested dick.”
Silvio groaned. “That man is too stupid to live. Mr. Marmalade says hi by the way.”
I ignored that. The cat and I had met one time; we were hardly friends. “One more week.”
One week, and I’d have the information I’d waited years for.
One week, and I’d have closure.
10
Arden
MostArdently:
