Page 19 of Stiletto Sins

Blackhawk:You’d think that, but no. Nothing else sticks but hacking. I can do it in my sleep.

Oblivion:Wow, that’s kind of sad.

Blackhawk: Geez, thanks. Well, I gotta go. Time to turn on the night light. Be good, kid.

Oblivion: I’m not a kid!

Blackhawk: Sure.

Blackhawk signed off.

PRESENT DAY

From that point forward, a trade was established, and we shared secrets back and forth like mono. Him bringing it up again was like a stab to my heart that I wasn’t ready for.

Oblivion: No trade. What’s the job?

Blackhawk:You’re no fun anymore. Fine. I need one of your specialties. A Trojan horse.

Oblivion: Done. Send me the specs.

Blackhawk: Ah, no chatting?

Oblivion: I have nothing to say to you. I need the job. That’s it. I’ll send you my banking information too. I want to be paid half upfront.

Blackhawk: Fine. I’ll send it over. You’re not as fun anymore.

Oblivion signed off.

My heart hammered, and I was sure it was about to beat out of my chest. I hadn’t gained as much information as I wanted, but it was a start. The worst part was that I hadn’t expected jumping back into this role would be so difficult. Especially when memories kept flooding me. I needed to find him soon and end this before I forgot why I was tracking him in the first place.

Seven

FINLEY

The alarm started to blare,and I cursed as I twisted the lock pick to the right. It had been easy to break into my room when I’d practiced, but this office building was causing more problems than I’d anticipated. I took a deep breath and twisted the pick again, finally hearing the satisfying click as the door unlocked. Wiping my brow, I skirted into the room and raced to the alarm panel.

“Guys, you there?” I asked, tapping the phone app Blackhawk had developed for us to use to chat while in the field. It disguised our voices and location but allowed us to have real-time access to one another.

“Yeah, that was close,” Obsidian said. Even though his voice was masked, I could still hear the reprimand he wanted to give me. I’d come to feel Obsidian didn’t respect me, but I didn’t take it personally. He didn’t respect anyone, from what I could gather. “If you get caught, you’re on your own.”

“Gee, thanks,” I huffed, rolling my eyes.

“You know we wouldn’t do that,” Blackhawk said. The only reason I knew it was him was the familiar kindness in his voice. Our games of trading secrets had become a regular thing, and I was beginning to understand the mysterious hacker on a real level, unlike the other two.

“Mongoose, you ready with the alarm key?” I asked, popping the panel off.

“Yeah, it’s, um, 85923.”

Typing in the code, I held my breath as I waited to see if it worked. I only had another minute before the police would be dispatched.

Error flashed up on the screen, and my nerves racketed up. I was beginning to regret volunteering to be the one to go out into the field. It had felt like a good option at the time to make myself valuable to the team. I wouldn’t admit it because I was too nervous to say I didn’t know how to do the other things. Nope. Obsidian didn’t need another reason to hate me.

“Um, that didn’t work. Do you have another one?” I asked, some of the anxiety creeping up my voice, making it high-pitched to the point I wasn’t sure the app could mask it.

“Hold on, Oblivion. I got you,” Blackhawk soothed, calming me by his mere presence.

“That’s another strike, Mongoose,” Obsidian yelled. “One more, and you’re off the team.”