Page 64 of Butterflies and Hazel Eyes
I squeezed her shoulder and jumped up on the chair next to her. “I accidentally found the hidden documents in your desk drawer.”
“But—but they were encoded,” she huffed. “I wasn’t supposed to make copies of anything, but I had to protect myself somehow. I found a program to encode them before I printed them off.”
I clasped my hands together before I spoke. “As a hacker, I can decode binary code quickly. The massive amount of communication required some intensive work, but early this morning I finally got to the bottom of it. I found your letter to Mathias.”
Honey lowered her head to the table and shivered uncontrollably. “The letter was only supposed to be read in the event of my death.”
“We understand, Honey,” I promised, “but we’re here to make sure that doesn’t happen. The letter is what finally put the situation together for us.”
Mathias held her hand to his chest. “Honeybee, you know I always have your back in everything, from getting you this job to making sure you’re safe and happy.”
She lifted her gaze to his. “Did you read the letter?” He nodded, not breaking eye contact with her. “Great, just great,” she sighed and lowered her head back to the table.
“We can worry about what was in the letter after we make sure you and Mathias are safe,” Gulliver said, trying to keep the focus on the men behind this scheme. “We can’t keep you safe until we know who they are and why they’re threatening you. Can you help us fill in the blanks?”
“I can try,” Honey said, finally lifting her head, “but I don’t know where they are. I’ve met them in person under unfortunate circumstances,” she said, holding up her arm.
Mathias slammed his fist down on the table. “They were the ones who broke your arm?”
Honey lowered it to her lap and hung her head. “They wanted more information than I could give them.”
Mathias let out a curse word, and Gulliver grasped his shoulder. “Relax, Mathias,” he said, giving him a don’t-ruin-this stare. Mathias swallowed hard and took a deep breath. “Sweetheart, did they come to your apartment?” Her nod was immediate. “And you went to the diner with a compound fracture of your arm instead of calling me for help?”
“I wasn’t thinking clearly,” she whispered. “I just knew I needed help. I wanted to tell you, but they said they’d kill you. I couldn’t risk it. I couldn’t, Mattie,” she said, her face crumbling into tears again. “I didn’t care about myself, but I couldn’t let them hurt you!”
Mathias gathered her close and held her, rocking her slowly back and forth while she shuddered in his arms. “You’re okay now. No one is going to hurt you again,” he whispered against her ear.
Once she was calm, Gulliver addressed her. “Do you have a way of contacting them outside the chat room? Like a number to text or an email?”
Honey shook her head, but her hand rubbed at the scar on her arm absently. “No. Occasionally, they show up at my apartment to shake me down for information. I have no way of knowing when they’ll show up, though. All I knew for sure was I had to be in the chat room every Monday night at eleven.”
Mathias cleared his throat, his body language calmer. “Do they know you’re feeding them false formula equations?”
Her chin hit her chest before she answered. “How did you know?”
Gulliver chuckled, obviously amused. “I read the chats where you sent them the information. I know the ingredients and percentages you were feeding them were straight from the bottle at the store.”
“I won’t sabotage the research,” she vowed with her chin held level to stare down both men, “even if they kill me. I don’t care who they are or why they’re doing this. I won’t destroy Mathias’s work simply because I fear for my life. I’m better off dead anyway.”
Before I could react, Mathias stood up and pulled her into his arms, her head braced against his chest. “Don’t ever let me hear you say you’d be better off dead, honeybee! Do you hear me? You’re my best friend, and I’m not going to let some simpletons change that. We’re going to keep you safe while we sort this out, but you will be alive at the end.”
“Alive but in jail,” she said, her voice muffled against his chest.
“For what?” I asked, my brows raised as we waited for her to answer.
“For what I’ve done here,” she answered. “I know I’ve crossed the line many times trying to get something, anything to give them without jeopardizing the true formula.”
“Were you the one to run me off the road and attack Charity?” Mathias asked, holding her gaze.
“No—no,” she cried, her hand going to the back of his head automatically. “I would never do that, Mathias. I would never hurt you or Charity! I was trying to protect you. That’s why I didn’t tell you in the first place! You have to believe me. That was one of them. I swear to God, that was one of them!”
Mathias held her to his chest as she trembled in his arms and lifted his gaze to Gulliver. “I’m not pressing charges; are you?”
“Nope,” Gulliver answered. “Being stuck between a rock and a hard place isn’t a reason to go to jail. It’s a reason to ask your friends for help.” Gulliver slid a pad of paper over in front of him. “How many guys are there when they make contact with you in person?”
“Three,” she said immediately. “They’re all muscle-bound and raging on ’roids.”
“Which means they could have easily broken your arm with one twist,” Gulliver said.
