Total pages in book: 70
Estimated words: 68598 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 343(@200wpm)___ 274(@250wpm)___ 229(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 68598 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 343(@200wpm)___ 274(@250wpm)___ 229(@300wpm)
Davis was better known as Kyle “KD” Davis. He was a forcibly retired ex-MLB star first baseman who, like me, had been wrongfully prosecuted for a crime that should’ve damn well been wiped off his record for why he’d done it.
Like me, he’d protected his sister.
Unlike me, his sister actually liked him and supported him.
“What’s your issue?”
I blinked. “What?”
“Why do you sound so bad?” Wake asked.
“I think I’m running a fever,” I admitted.
Though, I knew I was. I was freezing my ass off while simultaneously sweating. There was no other reason for me to feel as I did unless I was running one.
“Shit,” he said.
“I have to go,” I rubbed my neck. “Just check on my fish for me.”
I’d had no animals for my entire life—my father didn’t believe in having animals as pets—and when I got out of prison, that was the first thing I did. Got some fish.
I’d killed quite a few of them before I found a way to help them live. And that way was just making sure they were fed and had clean enough water.
Hopefully, Wake was able to keep them alive while I was gone. I was on a two-month streak with these fish.
“Will do,” Wake said, sounding worried.
I rolled my eyes at the mother hen and went about getting ready to go.
I was just getting my bags to the back door when there was a knock on it.
I opened my back door to find Folsom standing there.
Just the sight of her made my heart race.
“Folsom,” I said.
Folsom was Aodhan’s wife’s best friend. She was also a longtime friend of Etienne, another friend that I’d made in prison.
Aodhan was another member of Gator Bait, and Aodhan’s wife, Morrigan, was always with Folsom. It was as if they were one soul living in two separate bodies.
“Hey,” she smiled at me, her perfectly straight white teeth impeccable as always.
Her eyes were a dull brown, almost muddy in color, but there was something about her face that always seemed so familiar to me.
As if I’d met her before.
“I’m coming with you,” she informed me.
I didn’t even blink at the understanding that she knew where I was going.
It didn’t surprise me in the least.
One, Wake’s wife would’ve told her, asking her for help.
Though I knew that wasn’t it.
Folsom was a hacker.
And not a government one, either. A black hacker that did what she wanted, went where she wanted, and couldn’t care less whose privacy she invaded when she did it.
Pretty much, she was the smartest person I knew and did a damn fine job at driving me nuts.
“Um,” I hesitated.
She smiled. “Don’t worry, JP isn’t coming with me.”
JP was actually her daughter, Julie Payne, and she was a genius just like her mother. Though in a less in-your-face kind of way.
Both JP and Folsom were hard for me to be around. They acted and reminded me so much of my sister and father, both certified geniuses themselves, that they were always bringing up bad memories. That was why I went out of my way to avoid them if I could.
“I’m more worried that you think you can come with me,” I shouldered my bag and walked out, pushing her to the side as I did.
Once the door was locked, I headed back into the alley that would lead me to my truck.
Normally, I would ride my bike, but it wasn’t quite so easy when you had a big-ass bag with you. Since I didn’t know how long I’d be there, I had to bring more than I wanted and would probably need.
“I can help,” she argued as she followed behind me. “I’ll get there on my own. So either I can go with you now, or you can just let me in when we get there.”
I grumbled under my breath but didn’t protest when she got into my passenger seat.
“Don’t complain when you get sick then,” I snapped.
It really wasn’t Folsom’s fault that she was a genius and I didn’t like her.
Honestly, it was my hang-up.
All my life, I’d been told that I was less because I wasn’t as smart or as outgoing as my father or my sister. Needless to say, I ended up taking that out on Folsom—though I managed to rein it in when it came to JP—because neither of them deserved it.
But fuck, the things she said and did, her outright uncaring demeanor when it came to anybody else…that was my sister, plain and simple.
My father at least had some caring in him. Though that caring only extended to my sister.
“I thought for sure you would fight this more.” She buckled herself in.
“I feel like there are a lot of things that I could do when it comes to you that wouldn’t matter,” I admitted. “You are like a fungus that just won’t go away.”