Page 89 of Broken Play
I hear Marlon and my brother outside my door, chatting. They've become closer than I would have thought, but I guess opposites attract. I walk out and say, "Hey, do you want to meet the youngest O'Ryan?"
Marlon claps. "If he's as gorgeous as the rest? Yes, ma'am." Heath rolls his eyes as they come in.
Witt, tall and lanky, hasn't yet grown the muscle mass of his brothers. He stands and shakes their hands but then buries himself back into his task.
"What's he doing?" Marlon asks.
"He's shadowing me for a class project, so he's looking through the organizational chart, mission statements, stuff like that. He'll be around off and on."
"Okay, Witt, if you need anything, I'm a buzz away." Marlon draws out the z's and laughs. Witt doesn't look amused.
They head toward the office door, and I say, "Oh, I almost forgot. I'll need a badge for Witt with unrestricted access."
Heath jerks. "Unrestricted? Why?"
He's still cold toward me, but I can't do anything more than I'm doing. "Because I'm the boss." I give them a curt smile. "Marlon, I need the badge within an hour, and please close the door behind you."
"Yes, ma'am."
The door clicks. I sit across the desk from Witt and let out a nervous breath. Witt looks over the laptop. "That was savage."
"Savage?"
"I forgot you're old. It means ruthless, fearless. You cut them down to size with a sentence. Impressive."
Witt hacks our system, mumbling something about "Too easy. I can't believe you don't have better firewalls." He writes code to give Noelle access to our social media platforms. She's crafting a series of posts for Sunday. Her idea is to call itNot Just Any Given Sunday.We're going public on Sunday. Part of me doesn't know if it's the right thing to do, but I can't live in fear.
Marlon buzzes in a half hour later and says, with a little snark lacing his tone, "Brother O'Ryan's badge is ready."
"Thank you. We'll go to security and pick it up."
"I'll go get it."
"Not necessary. I want to give him a tour anyway."
Witt and I pick up his badge, and he clips it to his front jeans pocket. We do a complete tour, and he only asks questions that pertain to his task. "So do you have any idea who it could be?"
"My ex-boyfriend, Bodhi. The one Greyson defended me from. But I don't know how he would have access to our facilities."
"Maybe he knows a hacker like me... well, not like me. I'm a white-hat hacker." My brows must dip in confusion because he explains further. "White hats hack for good reasons instead of nefarious ones."
"Nice to know you only use your skills for good," I say with a close-lipped smile.
By this time, practice has started, so we sit in the front row, watching the scout team. Parker and Greyson are kicking it up a notch, looking free and loose. It must be weird for Greyson to think his fate is in the hands of his sixteen-year-old brother, but Greyson and Parker seem to have complete confidence in Witt. They're family. A loyal family, unlike mine.
"Did you ever want to play football?" I ask Witt as his fingers type furiously on the laptop, rarely looking up.
"I play online."
"That must be fun and probably hurts a lot less," I say, snorting at my own joke.
"Physically, yes, but when I lose, I promise you it's just as bad as when my siblings lose at something."
I nod in understanding but add, "You didn't answer. You said you play online but not whether you wanted to play live for your school or a rec team."
He mutters, "I'm the black sheep."
"By choice or because they make you feel that way?" After Greyson's admission, I can see the pain on Witt's face no matter how hard he tries to keep it neutral. And I hope that if he's in the same kind of pain, I can help.
