Good Girls & Gangsters. (Book 2)

Chapter 16

"Caught him trying to hack into the elevator."

"I didn't have to try." Calum pricks him with a cursory glance. "The cyber security on your building's mainframe is laughable. Insulting, even."

Silent rage furies in Torin's eyes. The gun whips up, aimed at his forehead.

I dart into his line of fire with my palms exposed beside my head.

"Move."

"Never."

He cocks the barrel on its side, his lips press together, pulling into a tight line in wordless frustration.

"I let one too many variables live. And that bit me in the ass. I don't tend to make the same mistake twice."

"Is that what I am?" I test. "A mistake?"

The gun wavers. He drags out a heavy breath. "As self-sacrificing as ever...bound to your nature. Give me one reason not to pull this trigger. If you can't. This bullet will hit him through you."

I slowly drop my hands, calling his bluff. "You wouldn't."

His lips peel back into a venomous smirk. "I have what I want from you. What would stop me?"

I shirk off my shock. "Because it's encrypted. And your potential cryptographer may be able to decode it. But Calum definitely can."

"I can?"

I throw a reproachful look over my shoulder.

"He can?" Torin mocks.

"Did she stutter?" Boundless confidence gushing into his tone. "I assume you're talking about Gaza's mystery book? I didn't have time to assess it fully, but I bet I can crack it."

Torin muses his assertive claim, tucking the gun into his waistband. "Yeah, how?"

"With quantum computing technology. With a mere glance at the complex data and hieroglyphic symbols, you'll need a supercomputer to decrypt all of that."

"Of course," Torin mutters.

"And you have one. Me. I can create an asymmetric cryptographic algorithm that will be able to run a quantitative analysis on every page of that book to decode the data."

"How long will that take? Months?"

Calum chaffs at the affront to his intellectual prowess. "Try days."

Surprise flits across Torin's face. He frowns to conceal it. "You speak, very arrogantly."

"I have the skills to back up my talk... something you seem to lack."

Torin lurches forward. I post myself in front of him like a barrier—he nearly bulldozes me. My hands cemented to his chest, taut with mounting tension.

"Let it go," I plead. "You know you need him."

He yanks himself back, then whirls around to march to the kitchen, grabbing the interface off the counter and walking back to shove the device in Calum's hands.

"You have a week."

He sneaks another glance at me, dismisses the guards that brought him in. And storms off.

Calum shakes his head deliriously. "What. Is. Happening?"

"How did you find me?" I blurt.

He shakes his head again, this time like he's trying to clear the fog from his mind. "Uh...I followed you?"

My face warps into an instant frown. "Impossible."

"A word only found in the dictionary of fools. You taught me that." His eyes glide down to my bare chest. "When you were in the hospital after Sidorov... your mom never left your side, waiting days for you to wake up. One time when she was passed out, I took off your necklace, deconstructed it and installed an embedded geo tracker."