Chapter 8: Chapter 8
Misty
I came home after the lunch rush to a brand new heavy-duty door. Beck pulled the door open as I contemplated how I was going to unlock it. He passed another test, delivering what was promised. I stepped inside and surveyed the door from the inside. The old door was leaning up against the wall. “Nice work,” I let him know, and he dangled a pair of keys in front of me. I took them. Now I had a deadbolt and a latch lock. Spiffy. I wandered over to my computer and sat down before clicking over a few of the programs I had created. They were all alerts that would trigger if anyone put any kind of lookup on Adelaide. Beck stepped over to me, observing what I was doing as he snacked on some mango rings he had gotten from Valentina's shop. So I told him what I was doing before he informed me of something I didn’t know.
“She changed her name, might wanna run them both,” he suggested. She was now going by her middle name Briar. He had let me know. She apparently had to keep it close to her real name for legality purposes for her inheritance from her uncle or something. I wasn’t aware he had left her anything before Beck told me. She didn’t like talking about her mom and uncle, however I had been there when she got the call a week after he died. After she had missed the memorial. I don’t know how you call someone on the next of kin list a week after someone passed. She was devastated. It was the same week she was supposed to start her internship. She just poured herself into work, though I was well aware of the somber moments when she fell into introspection and her eyes glazed over. I had chalked it up to the fact that she had her own way of grieving. He was a rough man on the outside, but with Alice and Adelaide, he was a saint. They didn’t make men like that very often. Maybe I had been too wrapped up in my own life to really see the toll those deaths had marked her with. My guilt where my friend was concerned, seemed to keep growing the more I learned. At the end of the day, though, I realized Adelaide kept a lot of things that burdened her internally. With Cricket and me, however, she let the shit go and enjoyed the life before us in the moment and I appreciated that.
My fingers flew over the keys, integrating the new alert with the transposed names. “And it's done,” I let Beck know.
“Just like that?” he asked, surprised.
I nodded.
“How did you learn to do that anyway?” he asked, sincerely interested.
I shrugged. “I taught myself some, found a few people willing to share their knowledge. I hacked into my high school once and altered my nemesis’s grades,” I found myself revealing.
“Cutthroat,” Beck said, chuckling.
“The only thing she got an A in was sucking my boyfriend’s dick. I caught them red-handed and integrated the video evidence into the morning announcements. I must say that revenge was sweet. It was worth the two-week suspension.”
Beck snorted. “I suppose you had the will and you found the way,” he pointed out.
“Yes, yes, I did,” I acknowledged while nodding with a smile. Shit, were we being friendly? I needed to bring the prickly me back.
“So what's the plan? What do you need to get to the bastard?”
“I don’t really know, but I can’t even get into the parking garage, there is too much security, can’t you nose around and check if there is a way to bypass things?”
“Now that's on a whole other level of skill,” I said, biting my lip and thinking. “First things first, safety measures, then I will work on it,” I promised, opening a chat box to someone named ‘Rocky Rockstar.’
Misty: Hey, Rocky, need a little help with something hypothetical
Rocky: Nothing in this world is hypothetical, but go on
Misty: Touche, precautions when spying into a tech-savvy infrastructure
Rocky: Oh, we are going big
Misty: I’m going big, it’s personal
Rocky: lmfao, ok, ok…at the end of the day it's all the same, keep to your basics, protect yourself first, learn the patterns, let me know if you find anything juicy!
Misty: Gotcha
The chat box closed suddenly.
“Why does she always do that?” I asked out loud.
“Because she thinks you are capable of doing it, if she told you too much, it would be a discredit to your ability,” Beck said matter-of-factly.
“Pfft.” I made a sound of disagreement.
“Look, I don’t know anything about this stuff, but if you are into it, then that means you’re smart, that's why I came to you. You are the only way I know of to make this asshole’s life a living hell, even if you can’t get me in, wreaking havoc on his company could buy Adelaide the time she needs to pull herself together,” he told me seriously.
“So what’s your plan?” I asked.
“Not to put the pressure on, but that entirely depends on what you can do. I’ve seen some shit in my day, but any male able to do what he did to her, his mate—how he continues to hold on to her and weaken her, that's the worst kind. One way or another, he has to pay. Your friend, she will have to live with what he did to her for the rest of her life. Not even rejection gives a mate the grace to do the unspeakable things he did to her.”
“Do you think she will be safe now in Divide?”
“I don’t know, it’s wolf territory, probably her uncle’s pack. Let’s hope they receive her with open arms and her wolf, or so I guess that's what she is, can rise and aid in her healing until Creedon can be dealt with,” he said.
I nodded. “Guess, I’ll get to work once Cricket goes to bed.”
“That’s another thing we need to talk about, those bears from the other night won’t stop, I need to be here to protect you if they do.”
“What does that mean?”
“I need to stay here with you and Cricket, otherwise they will find an opportunity to strike, and next time.”
“You want to stay here? No, not happening. The last domineering male I lived with almost killed me,” I said, declining the idea.
“Well, how else do you plan on keeping those two out, next time there could be more Misty, I know what they do to women like you, to girls like Cricket once they come of age. It’s not something I’m willing to gamble with. The question is, are you willing to risk it?”
“Well, when you put it like that, I guess you can stay but there is only the couch,” she said tersely. Making it clear she wasn’t keen on the idea. “I’m only accepting this because of Adelaide, she trusted you, don’t prove us wrong,” she hissed before turning back to her computer and typing away.
“I’m going to move my bike and get my things.” I let her know. She glanced at me over her shoulder.
“I leave to pick up Cricket at school in an hour,” she let me know to be here or be gone I supposed. Little did she know I’d most definitely be here. I slipped out of the apartment and ended my stay at the trashy motel before moving my bike around to the back of the building within the half hour. Misty’s eyes raised to mine when I entered. She just nodded before collecting her keys.