Page 50 of Finders Keep Her
“Before Ronan took off after you, he told me that the trap clocked it to be Cyberius who you were hiding from.” Zero gives a slight shake of his head. No one is a fan of Cyberius, for the most part. He doesn’t play by any code.
“He’s up to something. Honestly, if he hadn’t backtracked me so hard, it wouldn't have piqued my attention, but it was clear he wanted my head on a plate.”
“No, he doesn’t want your head on a plate, Marks; he wants you.” Ronan shifts closer behind me.
“I’m not going to work for him. He’s a freaking psycho and not the cute kind, like Ro here, who stalks me.” I point my thumb over my shoulder at him.
“I can’t.” Cosima is on the opposite side of the kitchen island, watching all of us, her chin resting in the palm of her hand. She’s eating this up. I bet she can’t wait to tell Tova.
“He wants you like Ronan wants you.”What the heck? I never expected those words to come out of Zero’s mouth.
“Ick.” I can’t process Cyberius wanting me more than Ronan. It makes me uneasy. Ronan and I stalking each other is okay, but others obviously can’t.
“This Cyberius so gives me the ick,” Cosima agrees with me.
Ronan doesn’t say anything, but I can sense his anger. I glance over my shoulder at him. He doesn’t show it, but I know it's there. I might sound crazy, but I feel it. It’s simmering right below the surface.
“Are you sure?” I turn my questions back to Zero. He lifts a brow. Of course he’s sure; he’s freaking Zero. He’s all-knowing in the tech world. He doesn’t present anything unless he’s a million percent positive.
“He’s been trying to reach out, leaving you messages openly on different boards. Now he’s straight out asking others if they know where you are. He’s waiting for you to come online at this point.”
“What are the messages?” Curiosity is always getting the best of me. It’s why I’m in this situation but maybe not after all.
“Oh, I wanna see too.” Cosima hurries around the kitchen island. Zero glances at Ronan, who slides his hand around to rest on my stomach, giving Zero a nod to go.
The messages start off tame. They aren’t out there crazy. He’s making it known he wants to speak with me and offers a portal to make that happen. Yeah, not clicking that shit. Zero keeps tabbing through to show each one.
“They’re growing more pissed off,” Cosima says. I nod in agreement.
“Then his ass jumped on Discord and put a BOLO out for you and money if someone would give your location."
“I don’t get it,” I mutter. “He can do anything I can, so I don’t get why he’s obsessed with finding me.”
“Oh my God.” Cosima hits her palm to her forehead. “Again, he wants you, like, to keep you in his basement. I mean, I don’t know shit about this whole hacker world, but the way you said he’s just dropping shit on Discord reeks of desperation."
“Desperate people do stupid shit,” Zero adds.
Cosima is right; it’s ballsy. Zero tabs through a few more screen grabs he’d pulled. People are talking about Cyberius and making speculations. Great, now everyone is going to be talking and trying to find me. I’m not worried about them finding me.Not at this moment. I’m safe with Ronan, but I also have kept a low profile still.
“Who knows what he’s put into your line?” Zero cocks his head toward me. The question is clear.
“I haven’t checked it. I’m sure it’s full of angry messages. I was supposed to get back to my handler. I gave him a small heads-up about Cyberius playing with Logic Byte Labs.”
“I know.”
“He told you?” Zero shrugs.
“You’re such a teacher's pet. The favorite.” I roll my eyes.
“I respond to him,” he points out. See, teacher's pet.
“I do too, just slowly.” A girl has to be mysterious, and also I have my father in me. I’m not as crazy and leery of the government as he is, but I am still leery. I don’t think I’ll ever not be that way.
Ronan is the only one I’ve ever truly opened up to. Well, he stalked me so hard that he already knew basically everything before I could tell him but still. I would have told him if he hadn’t already known.
“Are you going to check in with Bruce?”
“Ah…” I didn’t have plans to. My hands are kind of full at the moment. I lean back more into Ronan. “Maybe?”
