Page 49 of Hard Wired

Chapter Sixteen

Pleasure sang through Dominic’s body as he read Sylvie’s text. I’ve been thinking of you. Wanted to say hi, see how you’re doing.

He almost wrote back. Then he wondered if Sandford and his uncle had access to his cell phone, too.

Sandford had threatened her. Dominic wanted Sylvie to move on and forget about him. Then maybe his backstabbing lawyer would do the same and forget about her. Sandford could focus his ire directly on Dominic instead.

So he couldn’t write to her. He had to let her go.

Yet as the days passed, Dominic couldn’t get Sylvie out of his head.

He paced the house and watched the doors, both thinking of Sylvie and wondering when his uncle’s next attack might begin. Maureen kept a stoic demeanor, going about her daily tasks. But she didn’t smile nearly as much as usual, and the two of them barely spoke.

Nearly a week later, he finally broke down and asked Maureen to pick him up a burner phone on one of her shopping trips. There was a small risk his uncle’s people might find out, but Dominic told her to buy it at a drug store along with a bunch of toiletries. After he got it and pulled the phone out of its clamshell packaging, Dominic entered the number for Sylvie’s phone.

His got his courage up and sent a message. Hi. It’s Dominic.

Hi back, she wrote immediately.

He lay on his bed, feeling like some idiot teenager texting a girl from school. Other phone isn’t good. Long story. Sorry I couldn’t write back before.

No worries. How are you?

It’s been quiet, he typed. No more SWAT team visits.

That’s a relief, Sylvie said. Any other news?

He didn’t want to tell her about his uncle. That wasn’t Sylvie’s problem. Nothing interesting. What are you doing right now?

What else? Working. I’m dull like that. What are you doing?

He could almost see her in front of her computer. Chunky pink glasses, a pout of concentration. Just talking to you, he said. Best part of my week so far.

There was a long pause. He worried he shouldn’t have confessed that. He wasn’t even sure what they were doing. Flirting? Or was this more of a friendship thing? What did she have in mind?

Is that really true?she asked. Or are you bullshitting me?

What do you think?

She didn’t write back, and he wished he’d said something else.

Dominic felt weird around people sometimes. He was a grown man, yet sometimes he still felt like a dumbass kid. He blamed his warped family.

Usually in his life, others had gravitated toward him because they wanted something. His money or power, his looks, his access to the family business. He didn’t know how to make friends with someone like Sylvie in this kind of context.

What did Sylvie want from him? Whatever it was, he suspected he’d give it to her if she asked. Or at least he would try.

But first, he had to know.

* * *

Dominic:Are you around?

Sylvie: I’m at work. Big surprise, right?

Dominic: Guess where I am.

Sylvie: Disneyland?

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