Page 80 of Severed Rivalry
“You are in no condition to drive.”
He’s right, but I don’t care. The doors part and I take off atfull speed only to be clotheslined by an arm at my gut. “Try again.”
“Push button. Let’s go.” I take off at a full-on sprint.
He’s behind me step for step, his strides eating up the distance effortlessly, as if my running was of no use. Moving to the passenger’s side, it takes me three clicks on the handle to get the doors open.
He slides behind the wheel and looks in command of my small SUV just as if he’d always driven it. He extends a twenty and the timed receipt to the gate attendant. “Keep the change.”
“Turn left.” At my direction he merely looks at me and raises a pierced eyebrow.
“Been to your house. Know how to get there.”
Oh yeah.
“Now… you need to think of how you want to handle this.”
“I plan to rip the phone from her hand and shove it down the garbage disposal. After that, I’ll run over it with my car in a gravel lot.”
“Remind me not to piss you off.”
“Exactly.” My leg bounces as he drives, and I cross and uncross my arms like a wannabe Olympian before a high stakes relay.
“Calm.” His wrist is folded over the steering wheel like this is a mere cruise through the city.
“Don’t you dare.”
“You’re in tech. You know apps.”
Where is he going with this?
“Instead of the garbage disposal thing—great idea, by the way—what if you took them down from the inside?”
“There’s no time for that.”
“But if there was… How would you do it?”
“Off the top of my head, I’d find the backdoor and shut it. I’d highlight every user who has sent messages with flesh-colored images—the whole spectrum, not just mine. I’d lock their profiles from deletion and pull all identifying data including IP addresses and carriers. Then I’d hijack the app and put their faces, names, and phone numbers—not their addresses, that’s too risky—withthe number of images and how many under-age recipients they sent those to and provide that to the CBI with the receipts. Cell carriers too because I think that’s interstate something or other. If it isn’t, it should be.”
“Seriously, remind me never to get on your bad side.”
I smile a maniacal smile with too many teeth.
“How long would it take you?”
“Full time? Two days.”
“You could bankrupt the app owners who did nothing to prevent this or are at the heart of it, wrap up an entire ring that targeted children with slimy dick pics, and you’d rather not what? Go through all the trouble?”
“I—”
“You gonna leave all the other kids out there helpless and protect Renée when you could protect them all?”
I’m eviscerated and I’m livid. My voice rises on every word as I shout, “Don’t tell me what I should do to save my daughter. You have not one fucking clue what I’m saving her from.”
“Nope.” The man is fucking unflappable. “But I can’t imagine you’d let those others drown and save only one when you could save them all. Save her first, but don’t leave the rest when you can help.”
I grit my teeth and seethe. “How then?”
