His gait eats up the asphalt as we head to my apartment. Glitch swings the lobby door open for me and takes the steps fast, leaving me several paces behind. I only half expect Jason to be waiting at my door, a smug smirk on his stupid face because he thinks he can best me. Maybe Glitch expects him too, with how fast he makes it to my door.
But Jason’s not there.
“Open the door, Ara.” Glitch’s voice is still strained. He still won’t look at me.
Why won’t he just look at me?
I shove my key in the lock and my hands shake too much to make it work right. He places his hand over mine and whispers, “Relax. Breathe.”
I’m not even sure if he’s saying it to me or to himself. Probably both. I let out a long exhale and turn the key. The door opens. My home is quiet.
Empty.
Glitch storms into my bedroom and rips the laptop off my desk. Holding it under his arm, he heads back out and I panic. “Where are you going?”
“Get in the car.”
“But where are you—”
He stops short. “I’m going to find out how he did this. Then I’m going to ruin him.”
He’s not even joking.
We head to Glitch’s in dead silence. I’m scared he’s going to end this with me. I’m scared my reputation will be destroyed somehow. I’m scared for things I’m not even sure I understand. My head won’t stop overthinking. I’m angry and tired and fed up.
Glitch gets out of the car and storms over to my side. I barely get the door open when he swings it the rest of the way. I climb out. His grip on my laptop is so strong, I swear he’s going to crack the case. Before I can take one step, he kisses me. Hard. Fierce.
It resets my brain. Reassures me that we can handle this nightmare.
If he kisses me, it means he’s not going to run, right?
“Come on,” he growls, but his tone isn’t nearly as deadly anymore. It brings me a little relief. We enter his house, and I follow him into the living room like a lost puppy. He storms through it and takes the steps up to a spare bedroom where three massive monitors are lined across a desk. He boots up all the machines and plugs in my laptop.
There’s so much going on, I’m not sure if he’s booting up a laptop or a launching goddamn space shuttle.
Glitch opens another sleeker laptop and does something else with that one. Suddenly all this code shows up on the screens.
“Will you take me to his house?” He asks while clicking away. Five screens are now going at once, all with different codes and shit. I can’t make sense of any of it.
“I don’t know where he lives anymore.” That’s the truth. “He was supposed to relocate to Alabama for his job, but I’m not sure what happened. He’s still around, but… not at his old place anymore. I saw a for sale sign on it a while back saying it was sold.”
“Okay.”
That’s all he says. Okay. Like it’s no big deal. Not a problem. Totally fine.
His fingers fly across two keyboards at once. Jason’s photo shows up on the far-right screen. It’s from his work badge. Oh my God, did Glitch just hack into Jason’s company’s database? All these other thumbnails start to pop up on another, but I don’t look at them.
I hug myself and turn away. I can’t stomach seeing that asshole’s face, even in a photo.
“Jesus.” Glitch shoots up from his seat so fast, he knocks his chair over. His fingers fly faster across the keyboards. It sounds frantic and chaotic.
And methodical.
I keep my back turned. My palms are so sweaty. I don’t know what he’s found, but it’s set him off. I can feel the tension roll off Glitch, but I don’t make a peep. And I’m too scared to look.
More clicking.
“He put a program on your laptop,” Glitch says calmly. “It records even when the screen is off.” He clicks more buttons. Types more things. Cusses a lot more.
“He gave me that laptop,” I explain. “After he kicked my gaming computer and broke it, he gave me the laptop as an ‘I’m sorry’ present.”
Glitch’s shoulders tense, but he doesn’t stop typing. I can’t bring myself to look at the monitors, so I focus on Glitch. His eyes dart from one screen to the next, his face glowing from the different screens flashing.
It’s scary and hot seeing him work like this. I suddenly don’t care what he’s doing, I just don’t want him to get caught. Because I’m not going a day without this man, mark my motherfucking words.