“Borrowed, is that what you call it?” Aiden asks.
He’s hesitant to give it up. I try to make a joke of it. “What? You’ve got nudes on there you don’t want me to see?”
“Personal stuff,” he says with a laugh. It’s impossible to miss the slight edge of defensiveness in his tone. “The nudes are out there in the open if you want them. Or use the laptop instead.”
A laptop? They’ve got one stashed here somewhere? I know my way around a computer much better than I do a cell phone, considering how cheap mine was.
“Is there a way for me to search for things without anyone knowing or being able to see what I’ve searched? Maybe anonymously?”
I’m spouting off about things I know nothing about. My own VPN at home was installed thanks to a coworker taking a computer science course at the time. I hadn’t felt right getting a cam girl account without one.
Aiden is ready to ask more questions, I’m sure of it. I’ll give him credit, though. He simply holds out a hand to help me up.
“I’m sure we can set something up for you,” he replies.
Half an hour later, Aiden settles me at the table with thelaptop unlocked and ready for use. “If you find any great porn, save it for me, okay?” he teases.
I roll my eyes. “Yeah, okay, like you need help. I’m sure you’ve got your favorites already.”
“I do, but I’m always happy to find more.” He turns around and pauses in the doorway. “If you need help…”
I arch an eyebrow at him. “I know who to yell for.”
“I won’t be far.”
But he gives me the space I need and dammit, I’m happy for his presence.
Aiden wants to be of use. In his way, I think Soren does too, but maybe the three of us have gotten too far away from polite society to know how to be communicative anymore.
I draw in a breath and tilt my neck from side to side, working out the kinks in my shoulders. But stalling is only going to make my nerves worse. My fingers tremble on the keyboard as I bring up a browser to log into my account.
I think better of it at the last moment, just in case someone is monitoring it for recent activity.
Besides, I know what name I need to look up anyway. Heading over to a search engine, I type in the username in connection to the site I use and press enter. And hold my breath as I wait for the results to load.
At the top of the screen, I’m asked for a correction on the username I typed.Do you mean Maxx 8U?
Nope, I sure don’t. My heart constricts at seeing it right there in front of me in typed bold letters.
The first few sites are a bust, too. Nothing more than those pay-to-search ones where they want you to give them a credit card so they can give you all the details of a person’s life.
I make it through every entry on the first page before I stop and lean back in the chair. My hips are sore from sitting in such an uncomfortable position and my eyes have started to blur.
I set my glasses aside and scrub my knuckles into myeyes, groaning at the sensation. Maybe I’m going about this the wrong way.
The dude who threatened me might not restrict himself to sites like mine. For all I know, he’s a plague online, making his gruesome offers to other women.
I head back to the search bar and type in a new string of keywords.
Maxxx8U + Threats + Money
This time, the first website brings up a thread that mentions the username specifically.
My nose practically touches the screen and I grab for my glasses before I click on it. The sub thread on the website boasts a headline capitalized and in bold.
CAM GIRLS/SINGLE WOMEN BEWARE!
Interacted with a skeezy username in December, offered a buttload of money to hurt myself.