Coincidentally But Eternally Connected

Imaginary

Several hours later, we were still dissecting data from the phones. There were hundreds of texts between Hannah and David Smith. She had even set up a new email address to communicate with him.

"He has been contacting her for months," Hope noted.

"Something else Hannah lied about. She told Cleo that she was not seeing anyone while she was still with Thomas," I grumbled. Hope ran her hand along my leg to comfort me, but she wasn't paying much attention, her eyes and other hand focused on the screen. I lost all ability to concentrate and cleared my throat while I placed my hand over hers to still its movement. "I will not get any more work done if you continue to do that," I commented. 

She turned toward me and smiled. "Oh? Such a small touch is so distracting to you?" She pecked me on the lips. 

Hope had me wrapped around her finger and I was in serious trouble. And I would not want it any other way. I kissed her back; I needed more than that little bird's peck to tide me over, so I cradled the back of her head and slipped my tongue into her mouth. She participated fully in the kiss until I finally broke away, breathing hard.

"You are extremely distracting in a good way," I told her in a rough voice. She stroked my cheek.

"I don't want to get you off-course too much. I'm going to start dinner, it's late already," Hope replied. "Do you want to talk while I work on it?"

"Yes. One thing I noticed immediately was that while Hannah used this phone to contact more than just David Smith, he only used it for communicating with her."

"But then he forwarded certain information to a different number," Hope added. She nodded to the laptop she was working on. "I highlighted those."

"Hmm." I read through the highlighted texts and emails and then cracked the phone that received the forwarded messages. Now I had keystroke loggers and spy apps installed on all three phones, and I would get notifications on my devices when any messages were sent or received. I would look at the third phone's data later; first I wanted to speak with Hope about what we had already discovered. 

"We have yet to discuss the recording," I told her. "Now we know what the plan is. We should prepare for them to execute it."

"I have a different thought," Hope told me. "We take offensive action rather than defensive."

"I am not going to like this, am I?"

"Jake, Hannah doesn't trust you anymore. But she seems to think I'm some sort of victim of yours, and she showed concern for me still. I think that if I can get her alone to talk to me, she'll listen. I might even be able to get her safely away."

"I was right. I dislike this plan immensely." My pulse was elevated just thinking about it. "Did you really think I would be happy with you putting yourself at risk for her sake?" I spat. "She is nothing to me. And you are everything."

Hope dropped her utensils at the counter and walked back over to me. She stood next to me and put her arms around my neck so I was resting against her torso. I sighed and hugged her at the waist. "It's OK to admit that you care for her. She's your sister, and you've invested a lot of time and emotions into getting to know her years ago and trying to help her now. You don't have to pretend with me."  

"I don't care about her more than you," I insisted. I closed my eyes. "I do not want to go in this direction. We are dealing with the psychopaths we've both been hiding from for years! How can you think it will be safe to walk straight into their arms?"

"I don't plan to walk into their arms. I plan on catching Hannah alone and then talking to her before they notice. Don't you believe that I understand the risks?" Hope asked gently.