Page 29 of For You & No One Else (Say Everything 3)

“Believe me, I’d love to, but adding an assault charge might not be the best way to repair my professional reputation.” She watched his fist open and close. “But I do need to stop the video from spreading further if I can. That site doesn’t have a takedown procedure or anyone to contact. I thought maybe you or one of the people you work with might know if there’s anything else I can do. I’ve already taken down my YouTube video and closed comments on the rest. I made my social media temporarily private so I don’t get more comments on those.”

He handed her phone back to her, his face all business. “Good. Don’t give any of these trolls a forum to post a comment. Make sure there’s no place for comments on your business website, and you may want to check Yelp if your business is on there or if there’s a Yelp-like site for rating therapists.”

She took her phone, dread moving through her. “Shit, I didn’t even think about that.”

“And email me the link so I can get to the post on my computer.” He grabbed a business card off his desk. “My email’s on there.”

“Do you know how to get the video down?” she asked, taking the card. “Sites have to have a procedure, right?”

“They’re supposed to. That doesn’t mean they all do.” He pulled out his desk chair and sat down, waking his screen and typing in a long password. “Let me see what I can do.”

She quickly forwarded the link to his email.

Beckham closed out the screen he’d worked on last, which looked to be a drawing of an intimidating-looking green-and-gold dragon, and went to his email. He grabbed the link and opened his browser, eyes narrowing at the screen. She chewed at her thumbnail, an old childhood habit, as he clicked through a few pages.

“Sometimes they hide the contact info deep. These types of sites avoid regulation.” He kept clicking. “And some just flout the rules and don’t have any info at all. This looks like one of those.”

“So there’s nothing I can do?” she asked, frustration welling again.

“There’s nothingofficialwe can do.” He glanced at her over his shoulder. “But…give me a few minutes.” His hands flew over the keyboard, his teeth biting into his bottom lip and the tattoos on his forearms flexing with the motion. “This site is pretty rudimentary. I’m sure I can find a way in.”

She tucked her hands between her knees, her eyes on his profile. “A way in?”

He peered over at her. “Hypothetically, how do you feel about some mildly illegal activity?”

Her lips parted. “Uh…how illegal? Hypothetically.”

He scratched the back of his head as if gauging whether or not to say more. “Just some light hacking on a site that isn’t following the rules anyway.”

She straightened. “You know how to do that?”

“I don’tnotknow how to do that,” he hedged with a little half-tilt smile that made her forget her crisis for a second. “I’m designing a video game because that’s what I want to move into eventually, but cybersecurity work is what pays my bills. Companies contract with me to do penetration testing—basically to hack their own systems to find the weak spots.”

“Oh.” She relaxed a little. “So this is legal?”

“This? No,thisisn’t. I don’t have permission from the site but…fuck them,” he said, cocking his head toward the screen. “I have zero guilt about screwing with some site that gets its hits from publicly shaming people. Privacy is kind of my thing, and this type of stuff makes me really, really angry.” He rocked back in his chair. “I had a good friend who had a sex tape posted of her when we were younger. She… It really messed up things in her life. After that, I learned how to take stuff down, by alternative methods if necessary.”

She stared at him, taking that all in, a new picture forming of her neighbor. As chill as Beckham seemed most of the time, the way he’d talked about his friend and the way he’d reacted to Ryan’s behavior hinted at a guy who had some intensity bubbling beneath the surface. Some passion. It made her wonder what happened when that kind of passion was directed at other parts of his life.

She didnotwant to examine why that made her start thinking about their conversation from last night again. “Don’t go to jail on my behalf.”

He gave her an I’ve-got-this smirk. “I know better than to get caught. And this site wouldn’t have a legal leg to stand on anyway.”

She wet her lips, glancing at his computer, her paused video taunting her. Her stomach fluttered with nerves. She didn’t like the idea of breaking any laws. She’d always been a rule-follower, but… “Do it. Please.”

“On it. Now you’re officially an accomplice. Hope you like wearing prison orange.” He winked and turned back to his computer.

“Beck.”

He laughed. “Kidding. I’d never rat you out.” His fingers typed at a rapid pace, the screen changing. “Want me to send a nasty virus to Ry’s account after I’m done with this?”

She gasped. “Is that possible?”

He glanced over at her, grinning. “I love that you want to say yes to that. I can see it on your face.”

She clamped her lips together,sooootempted, but shook her head. “Let’s just get the video down for now. Could you do something to his account so that he can’t repost the video?”

“Probably. I’ll check once I get in.” He concentrated on his screen, that clackety keyboard now like music instead of an annoyance.

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