Page 93 of Severed Rivalry
He shakes his head.
Cian: I did one better. FBI.That work?
His face is imploring, but goes alert with the look on mine. I’m sure I look fanatical, and I’m so fucking here for it.
“Can you ask them to meet us here tomorrow evening after work?”
Cian: I will. If you think it can wait that long.
“I need to make sure this is iron clad. And I need to go to work tomorrow.”
Cian: I *hate* not knowing.
I turn fully to him. “Connect2Coach has other apps. Correction—the developers have several. It’s how we got venture capital so easily. They’ve built over and over, taken public, gotten rich, and moved to the next thing.”
He swirls his palm in the international sign forgo on.
Lifting my phone, I open the app that Renée said was so addictive. The one she got me onto. The one that is sharing sexual images and videos with kids. “It’s the same ownership. It’s the same people. I can’t prove it, but I think Connect2Coach isn’t about mentorship or helping struggling kids. I think they’re creating another app that does this same damn thing.”
I tilt my head to the ceiling, wishing I could focus on fixtures or paint or anything other than the light dawning. “We built in camera access for ‘coaching sessions.’ But I bet that’s not all it will be used for. And I was tasked with making sure it’s secure from hackers or parents.”
“Yet.”
“What?”
Cian: You can’t prove it *yet*.
Cian: What will it take to prove? And I fucking hate not speaking.
“I know.” I place a hand on his forearm and squeeze. “And I don’t know. But I have to go to work tomorrow. I can’t let on thatI know anything. I’ll need to offer some places the system could be breached and make sure they know I’m still fully on board with the mission of C2C.”
“Is it safe?”
Tilting my head and staring at his mouth, I smile. “No more so or less so than it was on Monday.”
Cian’s eyes go hard.
“Don’t give me that look. Nothing has changed in the last few days except that I know. I want the FBI to know early on. I don’t want to be a cyber Erin Brockovich or whatever. I’m fine if they take this over and make the bust. I also want them looped in because I have a lot of data and pornographic images on my computer and they need to know it’s not because I want to disseminate it.”
Cian: You’re letting the perverts who prey on children off easy.
“You sound like Liam.”
His brows scrunch together, two deep grooves forming between them.
“He said I was willing to allow all the other kids to drown while only saving Renée. Make no mistake, given the choice, that would be the case. She is mine to protect.”
He grabs his phone.
Cian: I made you a promise that I would protect both of you.
The exhale that leaves me either has me two inches shorter in relief or two inches taller since a heavy burden has been lifted.
“My point is not that I would sacrifice other people’s kids for mine. But I would save her first. Which I’m doing. But no one will get off easy.”
I twist to my computer and, after a few keystrokes, flip the screen to him.
There, front-and-center is my favoritefuck youto every man or woman who thought to target kids. Where names and cyber fingerprints match, where I have physical addresses orconfirming data, is a web site linking the offender, their current place of employment, their username and IP address, with the number of offenses and the number of victims.
