Page 20 of Kingston

Closing the door, Jack led me to the office at the back of the house.Once the door was closed behind us, I dropped into one of the chairs in front of the desk.Jack pulled out his phone and swiped his thumb over the screen.

“Yo, biker,” a female voice I didn’t recognize answered.“What do you need now?The fairy is recovering, so you should be with her.”

“Mieke, say hello to my cousin Kingston.Kingston, Mieke.She’s the wizard we use to create new identities and backgrounds for all our residents.Plus, she was able to help me with Nishia’s recent situation.”

“I prefer genie to wizard, thank you,” Mieke corrected, sounding haughty for all of two seconds before she was back to her bored tone.“I’m going to assume this isn’t going to be a fun Sunday afternoon chat.Or even a thank-you conversation for helping you get the fairy back, Jack.”

“Sure, thanks for nothing.Anya Vitucci and the chip in Sammy’s arm were how I got Nishia back.Your skills were useless.”

“It’s not my fault that you didn’t have a tracker on your girl, dumbass.But I’m rectifying that.The watch with the chip I just finished tweaking is on its way to you right now.It’s waterproof, and the battery never dies.Once it’s on her, the only way to take it off is your fingerprint.”

Jack settled back into his chair, appearing a little more relaxed, but the surly expression on his face didn’t change.“Thank you, Mieke.”

“Now, what can I do for you, Kingston Hannigan?”

“I need to find someone.Discreetly.”

“Okay, guys.Let’s clarify something.I’m a genius, not a mind reader.Can you provide me with a few more details?”

Stabbing my fingers through my hair, I sat forward in my chair.“Someone I care about is running from a past she won’t tell me anything about.But she’s terrified of her ex.I can give you what little I know, Mieke, but it’s not much.And I need none of your searches to trigger anything that could put eyes on my girls.”

A long pause filled the room.Jack’s eyes narrowed on me, but I shrugged.He didn’t do deep, meaningful conversations, and he was the last person I would have a heart-to-heart with.More often than not, he was a loner, but if he needed help, he tended to get our cousin Max to assist him.River was my person in our family, and her husband Maverick was the MC brother I rode with the most.I’d come to Jack for assistance because he could help me get Demi and Iris new IDs and, hopefully, send me in the right direction so I could get my hands on the bastard who had hurt Demi.

“I’m the number one hacker in the world, Kingston.Not the state.Not the country.Not the fucking hemisphere.But the world.I take that title seriously.There is a reason I’m not in a federal prison for taking little peeks into classified intel.It’s because I’m the best at what I do, and the one and only time I did get caught deep in the Pentagon when I was a sloppy teenager, the government decided they would rather use my skills for their own gain than lock me away.Not that it would have done them much good, but whatever helps them sleep at night.”

She sounded confident, not cocky.This genie wasn’t boasting.She was trying to reassure me of her skills.“I can’t promise that any search I conduct won’t trigger any online alerts.But I can assure you that, should that happen, the people watching will be sent on a wild expedition to the heart of the Amazonian rain forest.”

Jack grimaced.“Whatever is going on, man, you can trust Mieke.”

Going with my gut, I started giving her as many details as I had, but they weren’t much.Mieke started typing away as soon as I began talking, asking me a few random questions.

“Is this your girl?”

My phone pinged with an incoming text, and I looked down to find Demi’s picture on my phone.“I didn’t give you my number,” I mused as I looked at the photo.Demi was younger in the picture, her hair shorter, her face fuller.But still so damn beautiful it made my chest squeeze looking at it.Her smile was bright, the light in her eyes almost mischievous.

Another photo popped up, this one of some guy in a football jersey with his arm around her waist.She was smiling in the picture, but something was off.Maybe it was the lighting, but it seemed like some of the spark was missing from her eyes.My hand drew up into a fist, wanting to put it through the face of the creep hugging up on her.

“That’s her,” I bit out.

“The guy in the picture is Charles William Johnson III.His father is a former two-term Georgia governor.Mother was a pageant queen back in the day, and by that, I mean she was a runner-up for Miss Universe.Daddy dearest is currently running for senator in Georgia.Other than the few pictures of Demi, I’m not seeing many online connections between her and Charlie-boy.They attended the same private prep schools, but Demi mysteriously stopped any online activity a little over three years ago.Charlie, though, he’s all over the place.”

Her clicking sounded more aggressive.“Mommy and Daddy have been cleaning up a lot of their son’s messes.Why do people think they can hide their crimes so easily?Do they honestly think unless they get a cleaner in, there won’t be any traces left behind?FYI, digital cleaners and hackers aren’t necessarily one and the same.But you need to be good at hacking to be able to do any cleaning.”

More aggressive tapping filled the otherwise quiet room.“I’m not saying I would help these dirtbags, but I’ve got clients who pay me very, very good money to keep their records squeaky clean.With a few keystrokes, I could send this information to Charles Johnson II’s rival.Those idiots were way too confident that no one would deep-dive their history.It makes me wonder why no one has exposed them yet.Hmm… Well, that’s a rabbit hole I can’t fall down just yet.But it has nothing to do with the current subject matter.Let me make a note to return to this at a later time for my own personal reasons.Back to Charlie-boy… Aw, fuck nah.”

I wrapped my fingers around the arms of the chair, feeling like I was on a fucking roller coaster with how she was shooting my emotions all over the place as she spoke.Was she even talking to me—or just herself?I didn’t know, and that only increased my agitation.

“She’s good at spiking your blood pressure up,” Jack warned, his green gaze trained on me.“But she doesn’t normally go all country twang on me.That’s new territory.Entirely undiscovered level of pissed-off Mieke that I am unfamiliar with.”

“Sorry, am I causing you cardiac distress?”Mieke asked casually as she continued to tap-tap-tap on the other end of the call, not sounding the least bit apologetic.“My husband is a cardiologist.I can have him contact your personal physician with some suggestions on how to better control your blood pressure.You’re due for a physical anyway, Kingston.It’s been over two years since your last wellness check.Don’t play with your health, my dude.”

“How does she know that?”I hissed at my cousin.

“She can multitask,” he said with a shrug.“She probably has one screen open with your full digital history in front of her right now.”

“No worries.I’m wiping your misdeeds as we speak,” she reassured before the full extent of what that truly meant hit me.“No one needs to know youaccidentallysubscribed to so many porn sites when you were twenty-three.Interesting viewing choices, but no kink-shaming here.”

“Christ, she’s terrifying,” I groaned.

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