Page 93 of Out of the Shadows
She closed her eyes, shook her head, then grinned. “It’s always the quiet ones.”
“Don’t even start.”
She held her hands up, but the shit-eating grin remainedon her face. “So your dad has your sex tape?Awkward.”
I snorted. “Awkward is putting it mildly. My da—you know what, I honestly don’t even want to call him that anymore. He’s no longer deserving of the title. Well, anyway, he’s using it as leverage. We have some idea how he got all this stuff, but very little idea how to get it back from him.”
She narrowed her eyes on me. “Meh. I think you need to decide how far you’re willing to go first, because I see two possible paths here.”
With furrowed brows, I asked, “What do you mean?”
She leaned back against her desk, tightened her ponytail, and crossed her arms. Keeping her eyes on the floor, she said, “Either he disappears, or the video does.”
I stared at her, eyes wide. “I’m not going to kill him, Ella!” I hissed.
She glanced up at me, taken aback. “Nah, that’s not what I meant. Girl, have you been listening to those true-crime podcasts again? What I meant was that it sounded to me like your dad’s business might not be completely legit anymore … maybe even so dirty that he could go to jail for it?”
I froze. The thought hadn’t even occurred to me. I had to wake up, because I couldn’t afford to go on being so naive. Naivety was for people without a bastard for a father who wanted to sell them like cattle and then—
I stopped before I let myself dwell on that thought again. Everything related to this matter was a cesspool of unpleasant, bitter thoughts I simply couldn’t allow myself to sink into right now. Or ever.
“Maybe,” I said noncommittally. “I honestly haven’t thought about it yet, and I would definitely have to before I chose that path.”
“Sure, that’s only fair.” Ella shrugged.
“It’s just that the other way isn’t as easy as it sounds.” I rubbed my temples. “I can’t just fly home and give finding it myself a go. That would be way too conspicuous, and who knows what he’d do if he panicked.”
Ella’s hands moved to her ponytail, playing with the long wavy strands as she racked her brain.
She pursed her lips. “Well, I guess we have to get to the root of the problem. What’s your theory on how he got the video?”
“One of Colt’s teammates, who’s a pretty big douche. It had to be someone who had access to his cell phone. There aren’t too many people who have that. But even if we could prove anything, how would that take away my dad’s leverage?”
Her eyes flicked from side to side, sweeping the room without really looking at anything, then she slapped her hand on her thigh loud enough to make me jump.
“Wait, Hunter’s majoring in cybersecurity, right?”
I stared at her, thrown off. “Yeah? Wait … how do you know that?”
“Just something I picked up.” She tried to sound nonchalant, but I knew her better.
“Uh-huh, sure.” I smirked.
“Anyway, back to the main issue. How good is he? Do you think he might be able to pull off something not technically legal?”
“How would I know? It’s not like I know anything about it. He has a ton of screens, that’s about as far as my knowledge goes. We’d have to ask him. What’s going on in that head of yours?”
“I’ve got an idea, but I don’t know if it’s even possible. I’llhave to run it by Hunter. Can you give him my number?”
“Yeah, sure. Can’t you at least tell me what this idea is? You know how nosy I am,” I whined.
She grinned and shook her head. “Nah. It would sound even crazier if I said it out loud. Let me see if it’s even doable first.”
“Ugh, I hate you.” I plopped down on my bed.
“Sure. Don’t you have your Business Law class coming up?”
“Yeah,” I groaned. “No one told me that majoring in international business would involve so much accounting and legal stuff.”
