Page 36 of Infatuation

Oh man, I can’t wait to fuck this gorgeous woman. It’s gonna be so fucking good.

“So, Henn,” Jonas says. “If The Club lives in the Deep Web, how the fuck do we find them and take them down?”

Henn proceeds to explain his strategy for implanting malware onto Oksana Belenko’s computer. In essence, Sarah’s got to pay a personal visit to “the pimpstress extraordinaire,” as he calls her, obtain her email address, and then send Oksana an infected email on the spot, which Oksana’s got to open in Sarah’s presence. Sounds kind of hairy to me, actually—I agree completely when my brother insists on accompanying Sarah on her mission.

“But they think I’mplayingyou, remember?” Sarah protests in a huff. “Why on earth would I bring you with me if I’mscammingyou?”

“I don’t know,” Jonas says, crossing his monstrous arms over his chest. “Use that big-ass brain of yours to come up with something they’ll believe.”

Sarah sighs in frustration.

“It’s non-negotiable, Sarah. We’re doing this together or we’re not doing it at all.”

Sarah huffs. “Why would I bring you to meet her? It makes no sense.”

Jonas looks at me, obviously inviting me to come up with a suggestion, but I’ve got nothing.

“They think I’mplayingyou,” Sarah says slowly, like she’s thinking out loud. “Why would I bring you with me?”

“I don’t know, but it’s non-negotiable.”

“I heard you the first time, Lord-God-Master.” Sarah crosses her arms over her chest. After a moment, she picks up her champagne flute and ambles to the floor-to-ceiling windows on the other side of the room. Nighttime has descended on the city while we’ve beentalking and The Strip’s dazzling display of neon lights is sprawled out before us.

“Wow,” Sarah says, staring out at the expanse of lights. “It’s beautiful.”

We all get up and take in the view alongside her, drinks in hand.

“Let’s take a photo, Sarah,” Kat says. The two girls smile for a selfie on Kat’s phone, followed by Jonas and Sarah, at Kat’s urging.

“You two look good together,” Kat says to Jonas. “Reallygood together.”

At Kat’s words, Jonas looks like a fucking kitten being stroked. Aw, Jonas. Shit. It’s times like this I remember my brother’s gone his whole life without a single person other than me telling him how fucking awesome he is.

“Don’t post those pics anywhere, Kat,” Henn warns. “We don’t want the bad guys knowing we’re on their turf.”

“I won’t post them; don’t worry. I just want to remember being here in Vegas with my best friend for her first time.” Kat wraps Sarah in a warm hug. “Thank God you’re okay. I was so worried about you. I love you so much.”

“I love you, too.” Sarah says, nuzzling into Kat’s blonde hair.

I can’t take my eyes off Kat and Sarah right now—especially Kat. Yeah, she’s gorgeous, but I already knew that. Yeah, she’s sassy as hell. But, watching the way she’s so tenderly kissing and hugging Sarah, it’s suddenly dawning on me she might also be… dare I say it...sweet? Huh.

Sarah whips her head up and gasps. “I’ve got it,” she says.

“You’ve got what?” Kat asks, brushing Sarah’s dark hair out of her face.

Sarah disengages from Kat, suddenly animated with an idea. “We use theirgreedagainst them.”

“That’s my girl,” Jonas says. “I knew you’d think of something.”

Sarah leaps over to Jonas and throws her arms around his neck, something she seems to do a lot, I’ve noticed. “This is gonna work.”

“Of course, it will,” Jonas says. “We’re an unstoppable team.”

Henn looks at his watch. “Okay, get your plan figured out and we’ll launch first thing tomorrow. I’m gonna work all night on my malware. I want to make sure whatever we send them is ironclad.” He grabs his laptop, clearly excited to get to work.

“Well,” Kat says, her hands on her hips. “While Henn’s hard at work cooking up a fancy virus, I guess the rest of us will have to findsomethingto do in Las Vegas. Hmm.” She taps her finger on her temple like she’s solving an algebra problem. “What on earthcould we possibly do inLas Vegas?” She raises her eyebrow at me, clearly inviting me to provide a suggested solution to the riddle.

“You like to gamble, Kat?” I ask.

---