Page 180 of Come Back To Me

“Coke,” Lauren answers, and both Travis and I look at her. She doesn’t look up.

“Coming right up.” My tone is nothing short of mocking. Normally the prospect or one of the girls would be behind the bar, but none of them are here right now. So I get up, pour her a Coke and stay behind the bar, watching as she taps the keys.

We stay like this for a while, then she slaps the bar top. “Fuck.” She really does need to stop that.

“What?” Travis asks.

She cracks her knuckles like she’s got a lot of work ahead of her. “I’ve accessed the deep web, but I need a few more tools to get to the dark web. If I could have some help, maybe this could get done quicker?” Her eyes jump to mine over the top of the screen.

“Not going to happen.” I keep a straight face.

“Then don’t blame me if it takes longer.”

I can’t argue with her. She’s right, but I can’t be worrying about Lauren and Legs. “What do you need?”

She blows her cheeks. “I need to install a reliable VPN.”

“A VP what?”

She eye rolls me, looking closer at the screen. “Do you want to get caught?”

I look at her, my face expressionless.

“Then a virtual private network is what you’ll need before I can get on to the network you want to see.”

Travis is just as confused as me when I look to him. “Right.”

“Looks like you might need the boy,” he says reluctantly.

My body slumps. Fuck it. “Go fetch him.”

Travis walks away yelling Legs’ name.

“You know we’re just friends, right?”

I lift my head, my body instantly turning to ice. I know I’m going to have to get used to this, but I don’t want to have to admit to her that Iwillkill him if he’s touched her. Kid’s almost sixteen. Legs is nineteen. I’m not cool about it. At all. “I need some fresh air.”

I’m panicking like a chump. Walking out. Shutting down the fear. Fear of what though? Giving advice to a teenager? I’m in no position to be giving advice on life. I need to just step back, take a minute and quieten down the building panic rising inside me.

“Wait,” Lauren yells, making me stop.

I hesitate, but turn, facing her.

She looks around the clubhouse checking that those who are here, are still upstairs. “I've never even had sex. I’m a virgin,” shewhisper shouts.

Fucking hell. A heavy weight drops in my stomach. That was a low blow to my self-esteem. What the hell do I say? How do I play this? Clearly I take too long deciding.

“I don't see him like—”

I’m saved when Travis appears, bickering with Legs. They go on and on before I’ve simply had enough. I shake my head then quick march myself back to the laptop. “Get over here.” Heart rate out of this world, I turn the screen. A distraction. I have no fucking clue what I’m looking at, and it’s clear they all know as much. “Can you or can you not access the fucking website we need?”

I stare hard at Legs who slowly looks at Lauren. “Yeah. No problem,” he says confidently.

“I don’t even want to knowhowyou got her into this—”

“—Hey!” Lauren stamps closer. “What makes you thinkhegot me into this?”

I look between them. “Yougothiminto this? How? Why?” My eyeballs are about to pop from my skull.

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