Total pages in book: 70
Estimated words: 70004 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 350(@200wpm)___ 280(@250wpm)___ 233(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 70004 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 350(@200wpm)___ 280(@250wpm)___ 233(@300wpm)
Silence.
Romeo had, indeed, killed someone.
“We need to delete all of this.” I rasped.
Cody started to delete things, one by one, until she had it all off the desktop. Then, she continued to do some clicking.
“That won’t help if she has all this backed up in the cloud or something,” Cody murmured.
“Those four men,” Birdee said. “Those men are friends with your Romeo, aren’t they?”
I swallowed hard. “I think so.”
Birdee turned to me then.
“You knew?”
I swallowed. “I didn’t know.”
I knew…ish.
“You think he’s sane?” she asked.
“I know he’s sane.”
We were all silent for a bit more while Cody continued to delete things. “We need to go for a visit to this prison.”
We needed to do more than that.
For instance, I needed to research some things that would kill someone without it appearing to be murder…
“That’s why he left,” I said quietly.
“What?” Cody asked.
“That’s why he left,” I repeated. “Romeo. That’s why he left and hasn’t come back. It’s because of what Whitney dug up on him. It’s not safe for him to be here while she’s here.”
Birdee swallowed. “I think I need to go.”
I caught her by the hand before she could so much as swivel on her seat. “You can’t tell anyone.”
Her eyes were hot and sharp when she replied, “It’s none of my business.”
I studied her eyes for a long time before saying, “He’s a good man.”
“He may be,” she agreed. “But again, it’s none of my business. Who you do is none of my business, either. What I do think, however, is that we need to make a pact.”
I looked at her in surprise.
Cody gave her her full attention. “What’s that?”
“We don’t speak of this ever again,” she whispered. “My mom can’t know that we know. If she does…”
“Your dad will tell her that he gave you her computer.” Cody pointed out to the both of us. “It’s not like we’re going to keep this a secret forever.”
“If she ever finds out,” Birdee countered. “Didn’t you say that she’s not allowed computer access? The judge ordered her to stay away from all computers if he awarded her bail.”
“She doesn’t necessarily need the one that she has all this information on,” I admitted. “From what I understand from my minuscule computer knowledge, she can literally sign into her information using any computer anywhere. Even her cell phone.”
“That’s true.” Birdee’s shoulders deflated. “What do we do?”
“Well…” Cody tapped her lip in thought. “Doesn’t she have all of her information in y’all’s names?”
“Yes.”
“Then you cancel every single credit card that she has access to. You turn off your cell phone coverage that she has in your name. Switch carriers altogether and set up some of those two-factor authentication things they have going on. Oh, and put a freeze on your credit.”
“Already done that,” I admitted. “That was something that Romeo’s friend, Apollo, suggested.”
“Then there you go,” she said. “We’ll just move both of y’all to Dad’s plan. It’s cheaper that way anyway. You cancel every single credit card you have out there. Freeze the ones that you haven’t paid off. Cancel the phones. And there’s already a freeze on your father spending money out of his account due to misappropriation of funds, right? Didn’t Rocky make that happen?”
“She did,” I said. “They can’t spend anything out of the household accounts at all since we found out that they’d been tapping into them.”
“They have no cash,” Birdee admitted. “Dad asked me to borrow some as I was leaving. I told him to sell some of his things. Which he wasn’t willing to do. And if they do sell anything, it’s not like Dad’s going to really want to go out and buy a computer or anything.”
“True,” I agreed. “And this is only for a little bit longer, right? With the taxes coming due on the estate, Rocky was able to get this fast-tracked. We just have to be really careful for a month. I think we can do that.”
“But what do we do about her mouth? It’s not like we can stop her from just blurting out everything she knows when she doesn’t get her way,” I pointed out.
“You need to pay her a visit,” Cody said. “Find out exactly what she knows. What she suspects. It’s not like she’s going to hide it from you. She’s pissed as hell. Plus, her coming home to everything being gone? She’ll be pissed. If she’s going to use this, she’ll tell you in the first thirty seconds of her seeing you.” She looked between the two of us. “And if you go in there together and confront her, she might very well lose it altogether. Isn’t that what she’s always tried to accomplish? She wants you two to hate each other. If she sees that you don’t, that might send her over the edge.”
Birdee looked to me, and I nodded.