Chapter 3
I head home from the park and can’t help but replay everything that happened today.
When I got up this morning for my usual morning jog I had no idea this is how I would end my day.
I’m still in shock about everything if I’m being honest. If Ben hadn’t been there, would I have been let go so easily?
I can’t believe I saw Beckett. I’ve never been a violent person but something in me snapped, and I think six years of resentment came to a head. I’m not that same little, na?ve girl who left here all those years ago. I never want anyone to see me that vulnerable again.
Even if you have to fake it until you make it!
My brain flashes to Kane last night sitting on his motorcycle covered in tattoos and leather.
Thinking about Kane is dangerous to my health.
God, that man lets off a dominate, bad boy, shoot you between the eyes after I fuck you senseless kind of vibe.
His blue eyes alone could melt my panties into a puddle, not to mention his deep smooth as whiskey voice that has my blood singing.
And the way he wears his hat backwards, mmm.
When he pushed me up against the wall in his office, I knew it wasn’t just me who felt the electricity between us.
My body craves his touch for some reason and now he wants us to keep our distance?
I know he’s full of shit, so for now I’ll play this cat and mouse game until he realizes what we share.
When we hooked up a few months ago, I thought I’d never see him again.
He was the first one night stand I’d ever had and let me tell you that the bar is set high now.
I bailed on him when he went to the bathroom to take care of the condom.
Being told to hit the road after sex isn’t a dent I wanted for my self-esteem after I had one hell of an orgasm, so I left to keep the awkwardness to a minimum.
I try shaking those thoughts out of my head as I pull into the driveway of my mom and stepdad’s house. I press the handle on the car door to lock my car then head toward the backyard. Since I agreed to stay here for a while, Mom offered me the pool house to give me some privacy.
The pool house is a one bedroom, one bath with a small kitchen and living room. There’s a small study enclosed with French doors where I can work when needed. Not that I plan to be here that long. It’s still bigger than my apartment at MIT so there is no complaining.
I use my key to unlock the door then lock it back once I’ve closed it.
The one condition of living here was that I got to change the locks on the pool house to secure my privacy.
Mom assured me that it would be arranged and that no one would enter unless I invited them.
Of course, they have a maid to clean their house, but I refused the service. I’m not a slob so it’s not a problem.
Mom and I are still working out our relationship that was destroyed years ago.
We’ve just started speaking to each other again two years ago.
She thinks me coming here is a sign that I’ve totally forgiven her for what she’s done.
Dad thinks that I should forgive but not forget, but it doesn’t seem to be that easy.
Every time I see her and my stepdad it brings it all back, and then I want to lash out for what they did.
But it also brought Ben and Beckett into my life in a time when I needed someone the most.
I’ll never forget seeing them for the first time.
I’d fled my house and ran for what felt like hours before ending up at the lake.
I sat on the wooden bridge and cried my eyes out.
A sound of voices off in the distance caught my attention, and I watched two guys approach on motorcycles that looked two bolts away from being scrap at the junkyard.
When they stopped, they calmly as possible tried to engage in conversation with me.
I guess they thought I was going to jump or something.
I’m sure my swollen eyes from crying didn’t help matters, but their voices were smooth.
The blond-haired guy did most of the talking.
“You don’t want to do whatever it is you’re thinking about doing,” blondie urged.
I burst out laughing at the thought. Even if I wanted to jump, there was no way that any damage would’ve happened, it’s only twenty feet down and the water level was high.
They both came and sat next to me and I learned their names—Beckett and Ben.
They were seventeen and about to graduate high school.
We live in a small town so I should’ve known them, but I didn’t.
Being a sophomore and computer geek limited my friends.
We became fast friends after that day and then before even realizing it, Beckett and I become more.
Fast forward one year, Dad took a job promotion and moved to Seattle divorcing Mom three months after he caught her cheating.
The ink on the divorce papers weren’t even dry when she and Dennis Burns had a large lavish wedding in front of the entire town.
I refused to go and spent the day with Beckett and Ben down by the lake.
I hated my mom for sending my dad away, and I hated Dennis even more for being involved in breaking up my family.
Beckett and Ben were my saviors at the time.
I’d sneak out most nights with a bag and stay at their tiny apartment.
Mom never noticed or just didn’t care at the time.
I was sixteen and Beckett and I had been together for a year.
He was patient with me and never pressured me to do anything that I didn’t want to.
We’d fooled around, a lot, but hadn’t gone all the way yet.
We had such grand plans of getting out of this town, but one night changed all that.
My world shattered again like it had a year earlier, and I moved to Seattle about two months later to live with my dad and never looked back.
After stripping all my clothes off, I place myself under the scalding water to cleanse all thoughts of the past and crazy night away. I’ve learned over the years that you can’t change the past; you can only learn from your mistakes and move forward. The hard part is not repeating the same mistakes.
Once I’ve finished with my nighttime routine, I throw on some pajamas then head to my study area.
I need to finish up some work I’ve been putting off since I relocated here a week ago.
After dabbling around on my computer when I moved to Seattle with my dad, I’ve found that hacking is my calling and ended up graduating in computer science at MIT.
Of course, I was hacking before college, but now I can manage to crack into any system I want, which is how I make a good dime, and not have to punch into a clock every day.
After clicking a few keys, I log in and check my inbox to see if I have any outstanding emails from new clients.
I’m known as Ghost on the internet and am in demand when something colossal happens.
My junior year at MIT, the United States Government contacted me through the web and had me hack a foreign nation to gather intel.
Three days later Uncle Sam deposited a cool half mil in my offshore account.
Lately, I have been doing some medial work that doesn’t take too much effort, but at least it’s given me a chance to settle here in Sweetwater.
When I left this town six years ago, coming back to this place was never on my radar.
I’d planned to go home to Seattle, but Dad had just married Claire.
They had been dating for three years, and I didn’t want to interrupt their honeymoon stage by being in the way.
I know I’ve got enough money to buy my own place, but I am hoping to save that for my retirement.
Coming here was a last-minute decision and after running into to Beckett, it makes me regret coming at all.
I thought that I was over being mad at him for what he’d done, but I guess some wounds never heal completely.
Don’t get me wrong, I have not an ounce of feelings for the guy, but the thought of someone I trusted betraying me like he did still twists a knot in my stomach.
Dad says it’s because I’m just a loyal person to a fault and when it’s not reciprocated it makes it feel a million time worse.
I check the twenty-five emails in my inbox and I find most of them to be small jobs that can be done within an hour or so.
Giving it a hot minute, I prioritize them then move on to the larger money emails.
Upon organizing the files, I find three that will set me up for the next year, so I open the first one.
Most of the time it’s large companies that want me to hack a competitor’s system to gain the upper hand.
Which is completely and morally wrong, but why waste such brilliant talent, right?
Besides, if I wasn’t doing it then someone else would be.
Why can’t I gain some money using my talent?
I’m a night owl, so I work through the early morning and sleep during the day after my morning runs.
When my alarm croaks at 5:45a.m., I save my encrypted files then go in search for my running gear.
I split my ten mile daily run into running five in the morning then five in the evening.
I’ve always had a lot of energy, even as a child, so burning that off helps clear my mind and body to relax.
It also helps me sleep better after a long night of sitting on my ass in front of a computer screen.