Page 18 of Midnight Queen

“If Gideon takes her from me,” I force myself to say. “His torment won’t stop when her heart does because I will still see her in my dreams. It will be a special kind of hell to dream of her—to see her so vivid and alive—then to wake up only to remember she’s gone. That she’sdead.”

Lor releases a long breath before placing his hand on my shoulder. This time, I don’t shrug off his attempt to show support. I’m too numb to care. “Nothing I say now will bring you any comfort because I know the only thing capable of doing that is Quincey herself.”

The sound of a door slowly squeaking open stops me from having to respond to Lorcan.

Ever so slowly, Rory’s lilac-colored hair peeks out from the doorframe. When she sees the destruction that has happened outside of the office she’s been holed up in, her hazel eyes go wide. “I might be able to help with that...” she trails off as she emerges farther out of the room and the full extent of the damage becomes visible. “Is the vampire WWE match over, or do you two need to go a few more rounds? I was trying to wait you out, but now I’m worried that this poor house isn’t vampire proof.” Reaching out to the wall I’d thrown Lorcan into, Rory pulls one of the loose pieces of drywall off. “I was eavesdropping—sorry, not sorry—and it sounded like you’d worked your shit out, but if you need more time, you two know where to find me.”She backs up in the direction of the door she’d just come through.

Climbing to my feet faster than a human would, I move toward the hacker. Rory instinctually takes a step back from me and her almond-shaped eyes widen.

Granting her some space, I force myself to stay where I am. “What do you mean you can help?”

As if she’s proud of herself, Rory’s mouth lifts in a cocky smirk. “Remember when you had me looking into the people who attacked Quincey in the Quarter and I told you whoever was behind it was talented because they cleaned up after themselves really well?”

“Yes, you said they were good, but you were better, if I remember correctly.”

“Exactly. Well, the person who was tasked with clearing up Gideon’s digital footprint and paper trail is the same person that created the website that’s currently streaming the footage of Quincey.”

I stare at her blankly, confused. “I don’t see how that’s helpful information.”

“Hackers and computer nerds like myself all learn the same things, but we spend years perfecting our work. Because of this, we all create different ways of doing things—we develop signatures in our code. If I study code written by someone else long enough, I can learn their little quirks, and more importantly, their mistakes. I studied Gideon’s guy’s work for days—I know this hacker’s work backward and forward now.”

Lorcan, who’s busy pulling drywall and glass from his clothes and hair, pipes in, “Riddles, dear, you’re talking in riddles.”

Rory shoots him an annoyed look before continuing. “I was able to get into the website fairly easily, but when they turned off the video stream, the connection was broken, and I couldn’t track the video any longer.”

The small balloon of hope that had started to inflate inside of me deflates at this. “Again, how is this helpful?”

With an exasperated sigh, Rory points between both Lor and me. “This will go a lot faster if you’d both stop interrupting.”

Lor waves his hand dramatically. “Very well, the floor is all yours, madam.”

“I was able to get into the code and implant something called phishing software. Essentially, the website still looks like Gideon’s, and when Gideon logs back in, he’ll be none the wiser that I’d been there fucking shit up. The only difference is, when he logs in, he’ll be onmynetwork and I will be able to access all the information on the website.Includingthe location the video is coming from.”

The weight that has been crushing my chest for the hours since she’s been gone lessens. “All we have to do is wait for him to log back on and just like that, you’ll know where they are? It’s that easy?”

Rory’s face scrunches. “I wouldn’t say it waseasy. What I just did usually takes people twelve hours to do. I was just lucky that Gideon fucked up by using the same tech guy on both things, and I’d already figured him out.”

“How do you know it’s a man?” Lor asks.

Rory shrugs. “Only a man would be arrogant enough to implant his screen name multiple times in his code. Plus, there was no finesse or flair in his work. Boring as hell if you ask me.”

Lorcan looks her over once again, that same sultry look in his eyes. “Yeah, I was right, I might fall in love with you.”

“And I might shove a clove of garlic up your ass,” Rory snaps back, completely unmoved by his aimless flirting.

He doesn’t mean a word he says to her. Lorcan would flirt with a brick wall if he could figure out a way to fuck it. He’s never been overly particular about who receives his affections, anyone who crosses his path is fair game in his book.

“Don’t threaten me with a good time.” Lorcan winks at her before turning his attention to me. “Finding where he’s holding Quincey has always been half the battle. We have to assume the people who took out the guards at your house are still lingering around protecting him wherever he is. We’ll need more than just us to go get her out.”

I’ve lost two teams of security in the past twenty-four hours, one at my house and one at the docks where my product was being kept. But the good thing about having assets all over the world means I have various teams located everywhere that I can bring in. “Wherever Gideon’s keeping her isn’t protected from the sun, or he wouldn’t have had to excuse himself. We have until nightfall to get people here.”

Nodding, Lorcan picks another piece of debris off his clothing before stepping over a pile of books and shattered glass. His tattooed fingers point around at the mess that’s been created throughout the room. “I’m not cleaning this shit up.”

My lips are sticky with homemade lemonade and the air smells like roses. Lifting my face toward the brightly shining sun, I let it warm my skin. The light breeze moving through the courtyard shifts my hair around my shoulders and keeps me from overheating in the thick Louisiana humidity.

I could stay out here forever reading my book and enjoying the sun.

Sitting with my feet crossed underneath me on the picnic blanket Della had found in a linen closet, I read the final page of my book.

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