After stealing money from her wealthy but controlling stepfather, Nataly Collins makes the bold decision to run away with her four-year-old sister. But as she does, she crosses paths with an escaped convict from the local penitentiary, and he plans...
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**brief mention of physical abuse/ spice level : 🌶️🌶️🌶️**
Brandon and I scarf dinner just so we can make it back to the office and brainstorm more password solutions.
We go through what feels like a million more possibilities, which we dutifully document on a pad of paper. But ultimately, we are too afraid to waste our final attempt. Getting permanently shut out of the drive is not an option. We must discover the real password.
Finally, Brandon has a lightbulb moment. He stands from his chair. "I need to borrow Miguel's phone."
I give him a quizzical look but he vanishes from the room and returns with a borrowed iPhone. Then, he snaps a couple of pictures of the USB drive, the screen, and the encrypted paper. After thumb-texting for the longest time, typing the world's longest message ever, he looks up at me with a smile.
"What?" I ask, mirroring a grin.
"Two words: David Jennings."
"Who's David Jennings?"
"A tech genius. Someone Mayhem Six hires every time we need a reliable hacker."
"Hacker? That's illegal, isn't it?"
Brandon gives me a I-thought-we-were-past-this, princess? look. "If anyone can crack this encryption, it'll be him. Maybe he can hack the drive if we mail it to him."
"That would require time and time isn't something we have."
There isn't much to do after that. Brandon takes off to drink a beer and catch up with Miguel while I check on Nova. She's as dirty as can be from playing all day so I use the guest bath to get her ready for bed.
"Did you know Malik has a churchle?" she asks.
"You mean a 'turtle'?" I correct, lathering shampoo into her curls.
"Yeah. Can we have one? Daddy wouldn't let us have a pet."
"We'll look into it after we settle into our new home," I reply.
Nova goes quiet, nearly causing me a heart attack. Maybe she misses Ken. Maybe she's realizing how I've ripped her away from her father. Sure, he was down right perverted with me, and very controlling with both of us, but maybe she still loved him?
She smiles up at me and says, "I love you, Natawee." Her soapy head knocks into my chest, a sign that she's happy to be with me. My insides glow. Every little doubt I've harbored about taking her with me slowly drains away, along with her very dirty bath water.
"I love you too, bug."
Since Malik has a bunk bed, Nova gets to sleep on top. She's as excited as can be, especially because his room has a solar system light projector. I climb up the ladder with a book, then settle in to read it to her and Malik. It isn't long before they're both dreaming away.
