Page 30 of Demitri

It’s a listening device or a camera. Be careful what you say.

Mia closes her eyes and takes a deep breath before nodding her head. She turns to the women and shows them the note before placing the notebook on the bar face down.

“So, what’s the plan for this weekend? Are we still going over to watch the baseball game at the University?” she asks, a fake smile plastered on her face.

“Can we go to the diner while we’re over there?” Nola asks. “Their food is so much better than anything we have here.”

“I beg to differ.” Grady smiles. “Sandy has some good food, but Danielle’s? That place has the best lasagna and cannoli I’ve ever had.”

“I don’t disagree with you,” Sofie interjects, “but I’m with Nola on Sandy’s after a ballgame. Pretzels and beer go with diner food better than a heavy meal.”

Grady thinks about it before nodding. “Fine. I’ll give you that one.”

“Hard to argue with me. I’m always right.”

“I’ll take your word for it.”

Mia shakes her head, looking at me with an incredulous look on her face. She flips over the notebook and writes:

What are we waiting for?

I reply:

Grady called someone. Hoping they can help.

She quickly writes back:

How long do we have to wait?

Before I can write my reply, Grady gets up and goes to the door and unlocks it, opening it up and letting someone in before closing and locking it again. Joker. The newest ANON member. I hear he’s a super hacker and security guy. Also heard he was a sniper in the Army. Not someone I’d want to fuck with, that’s for sure.

He tips his chin our direction and looks at Grady expectantly who holds up the unknown object. His brows raise, but he doesn’t give anything else away, taking the disk from Grady and walking to the bar. Sitting on a stool and pulling out a laptop, he gets to work.

After about five minutes of clicking around, he finally looks up. “Okay, it’s paused. What do we need to be worried about it recording?”

“It’s not a live recording?” Aiden asks.

“Nope. It records for three hours, sends the data, and records for another three. It’s also sound activated, so it will shut offand not record anything when there’s no one here. Saves battery. Kinda nifty, wonder if Daniel would let me have some. Looks like it last sent at eleven. What kind of conversations do we need to be worried about here?”

“The last hour should be good. There’s a fake conversation if you can save that one,” Aunt Linda replies for all of us.

“I can do anything,” he smirks in return,

“Umm, who are you?” Nola asks.

“He’s big guy number three,” Mia chuckles, pouring Joker a beer and sliding it across the bar.

“How many big guys are there?” Sofie asks.

“Too fucking many.” Grady grins. “Of course, we’re the only ones who matter.”

“I’m Joker. I work with these assholes. And I break into tech shit. Mostly legal, of course. Now, is someone going to tell me what I need to delete on this recording before it’s sent? Easier to manipulate it before that happens than have to try to hack the system receiving it.”

“Can you track it to the location getting it?” Aiden asks.

“Yup. But we have about twenty more minutes before that happens, and we need to fill this thing with inconsequential conversation.”

“I think the only part that needs deleted is this conversation we are having,” I reply.

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