Page 13 of Like You Know
“Yes!” all three of us yelled at once.
Harlow’s phone vibrated in her hand, and a rare serious expression washed over her face, cutting off Mena’s butt-sex story before it even started.
“Hello?” She answered it immediately, then listened to whatever the person on the other end said.
“What? How?” She gave us a wide-eyed look, and my stomach bottomed out.
The call barely lasted five minutes, but it had those of us not clued in to the other side of it on the edge of our seats. All we caught from Harlow’s end was the occasional, agitated “OK” and “what?” and “why?”
“Yes, yes, I promise to behave, Detective Hopkins.” Harlow rolled her eyes, said goodbye, and hung up. “Well, shit.” She sighed, then looked up at us. “Irene is dead.”
“What?” Donna gasped.
“Oh my god.” Mena flopped back against her seat.
I just gritted my teeth, waiting for the rest of the bad news.
“Apparently, she killed herself in her cell last night.”
“Apparently?” I prompted.
“Yeah, that’s what Hopkins said, but come on.” She scoffed. “She has enough eye-witness evidence and digital proof to take down several high-profile members of BestLyf, if not the entire organization, and just as the authorities start building their case and questioning her, she offs herself? Please.”
The implication sat heavy between us. No one needed to voice it. We all knew what this meant. BestLyf had managed to murder Irene in prison and make it look like a suicide to protect themselves.
“What did Hopkins want?” Donna always asked the practical questions. “I know he has to notify you because you’re a victim of the crimes she’s charged with, but what else did he have to say?”
“He was basically telling me to heel.” Harlow shrugged.
“What do you mean?” Mena asked, her eyes still wide.
“He did this whole spiel about how there was so much happening behind the scenes that I was unaware of, that I needed to keep my hacker nose out of official police business, blah blah blah.”
“Maybe you should,” I said.
“What?” Harlow looked at me as if I’d just kicked her kitten.
“All I’m saying is, there’s a reason they kept Irene’s arrest and her involvement with BestLyf hush-hush. Whatever they’re doing—”
“Whatever they’re doing isn’t fucking working.” She cut me off.
“And what? You think you’re gonna get your hacker crew together and solve this for them? Come on, Harlow. Look how that ended last time—Easton got fucking shot.”
“I know Easton got fucking shot!” she yelled. “I was there, Amaya! And it’s not like I decided to start digging around for shits and giggles. I was being blackmailed!”
“I know that!” I forced myself to take a deep breath and speak in a calmer tone. “I know that. I’m not saying any of it was your fault, but you were in some deep shit. I just ... I can’t lose you. Any of you.”
Mena’s eyes were watery, and Donna pursed her lips. She’d stayed uncharacteristically quiet during our argument.
“No one’s losing anyone,” she declared as if calling an end to a board meeting. “And we’re not going to let this evil corporation keep ruining people’s lives. We’ve all been affected by it.”
Harlow threw me a smug smile, but it turned into an eye roll as Donna kept speaking.
“But Amaya has a point. We need to be careful. Safe. We just got this information about Irene, and realistically, we can’t do much about it until we have more details—if we can do anything at all. So for this trip, let’s just ... fuck, let’s justchill. I need a break from all this life-or-death bullshit. Senior year is stressful enough.”
“Agreed.” I nodded and gave Harlow a nudge with my shoulder. “Love you.”
“Love you too,” she mumbled.