Page 157 of Unexpected Temptation

She’s calling? Weird. Normally, her sneaky ass will pop up on you. The girl really is magic when it comes to the cyber world. I release my board, letting it drop to hover a foot off the ground. I jump up on it.

“Stealth.” The board switches over from a bright blue to invisible. To be honest, it takes some getting used to. Even though you can still feel it under your feet, the loss of sight can make you feel off balance.

“Answer.” I start spinning around as Magic’s face lights up across the screen on the left wall.

“The hell?” she mutters when she sees me.

“What? I can float now.” I shrug.

“You really shouldn’t be left alone.” Her nose scrunches. I know she’s going over a million ideas in her head.

“Sorry, Magic, but this not even you can touch.” I do another spin. “The hoverboard is magnetic.” It’s part of how I can pull it to me with my gloves.

“How did you get your hands on Zeal Stealth? That’s what you have on it, right?”

“Yep,” I chirp. “It bends light waves around it so that–”

“Don’t try to flood me with all your engineering stuff to avoid my question. How did you get it?” she repeats. I should have known my tactics wouldn’t work on her.

“Maybe I did a job for Buffy.”

“What! When? You didn’t tell me?”

“You’re pregnant,” I remind her. “I gotta do something. I can’t just sit here.”

“Still, whatever she had you doing, I could have ghosted with you. That’s what we do.” Magic was always the voice in my ear when I did anything.

“You don’t need the stress, plus you’re busy.” I start to sway back and forth on the board. “It’s no big deal,” I lie.

I don’t want it to be a lie, but this is hard. Magic, Rebel, and I have always been a team. They were my family. The problem is they’ve kind of grown and started new lives. They have real families.

I’ve been on my own my whole life. I bounced around a lot. Families often found me to be a handful. I was always getting into something and taking it apart trying to understand how everything worked. That didn’t go over well for me at times, but I never stopped doing it.

Then one day, I got picked up by a fancy prep school on a scholarship. It’s how I met Magic and Rebel to begin with. The three of us clicked from the very start. We were inseparable until the real world came along.

I wasn’t shocked when Rebel got her man. That was only a matter of time. It might have taken a few explosions to get the ball rolling for them, but in the end, it all worked out. Damn, that had been fun. Rebel was more than willing to get her hands dirty. I miss the days of us blowing shit up.

“I’m sorry,” Magic says softly.

“I’m fine.” I think.

She lets out a huff. Magic isn’t always the best at reading people. It can be rather endearing and entertaining at times.

“Well, I’ve got something for you.” I stop swaying curious of what she has. “I got information that Crypris has a new technology. At the moment, it’s completely untraceable. Nothing can pick it up.”

“Cool.”Crypris. Of course the name isn’t new to me or anyone, for that matter.

Vane Bartow owns it now. It’s been passed down through his family. All a bunch of geniuses. His name and face both annoy me. You don’t get to be that smart and hot too. Even his stupid hair is thick and shiny. Then that damn smirk of his. We’ve been in the same room a few times before. I’ve tried not to stare, but it’s near impossible.

“Cool?” Magic leans back. “She just said cool.” I know she’s talking to her husband Owen.

“Sounds like she’s trying to play it cool,” he says from off screen.

“Itiscool. My board and I can be untraceable one day. I can pop up on your ass then.”

“I don’t like that very much.” Magic’s face grows serious. She’s not a fan of someone having control over something that could be so powerful. If anything, she wants to know how. I’m with her on that. I don’t care for not being in the know. I’m nosy as shit.

“So—” I jump down off the board. It might be fun to fuck with Vane Bartow. I bet I’m only a blip on his radar and likely because my hair is always dyed a different color. It kind of stands out when you're in a room full of people in suits, lab coats, or even men armed to their teeth. “You have a plan?”

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