Chapter 18 #2
After following her deep into the urban outskirts for thirty minutes, I laughed when she took us into the area of town I lived in.
We crept down a dozen side streets before getting back onto the main road again, Raven trying to lose me without luck.
Finally, when we were one neighborhood over from mine, she went left and I went right toward my apartment.
Deep down, I knew she had discerned I was the one following her, but maybe she still had a hint of fear that a guy—even one who had made her come without knowing what he looked like—was following her.
Hopefully, I was getting under her skin, and I smiled at the notion.
“Hey man, what’s up?” I asked when the voice answered the phone on the fifth ring the next afternoon.
“Ryan? What the hell, dude?” Aaron’s tone was definitely an annoyed one. “I haven’t heard from you in how many fucking years? Nice of you to finally call.”
I winced. “Sorry, man. Life, ya know. What’s new with you?”
“Not much. Got married, bought a house, got a job, not in that order. The usual. What have you been up to since college?”
I ran my hand through my hair as I paced the apartment.
“Nothing eventful,” I lied. I had no interest in jumping into the shit that went down after college—rebuilding myself from the drinking only to be torn back down by my asshole father.
I definitely didn’t want to divulge what I did for a living.
Not that I was ashamed of it, I just knew Aaron wouldn’t understand.
Aaron and I weren’t necessarily friends.
We were college roommates before my grades dropped, and l left.
The school we had attended was elite, one that had requirements to remain a student.
I didn’t meet the requirements and only went there because my parents forced me while also paying for it.
Aaron also had rich parents, but he didn’t lean on them as much as I had. He made a lot of money on the side.
“Figures,” he mumbled into the phone. He wasn’t always tactful with what came out of his mouth, not that it mattered. We weren’t exactly on each other’s Christmas card lists.
“Aaron, I need a favor,” I said.
Aaron chuckled. “There it is. I knew you didn’t just call me to shoot the shit. There’s always an ulterior motive with you, Ryan. Some things never change, do they?”
I sighed. “Yeah, I know I asked a lot of favors in college. You covered for me more times than I can count, and I’m grateful for that.” I sat down on the couch, ready to plead if I needed to.
“You’re the best tech guy around,” I continued. “Do you still do your side business?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he feigned ignorance.
“Come on, Aaron. You made way too much money to have stopped. I can pay you.” I gripped the phone tightly.
He sighed. “Fine, I still do odd jobs here and there, but I’m even better now. And more expensive. What do you need?”
Hesitation tugged at me. I knew Aaron, but I didn’t know him like I used to.
It had been years, and people can change a lot in that amount of time.
Even so, he was my only solution to get what I wanted.
I had to trust that he was honorable and would do the job, then delete the information. “I need access to security cameras.”
“Please tell me they aren’t government ones. If so, it’s a no go. I learned my lesson with that shit. I’m not going anywhere fucking near a government security system,” he conveyed.
I smiled, wondering what the hell he’d gotten himself into. Maybe I would hit him up more often. I’m sure he had some epic stories. “No, they are private cameras,” I responded. “One set is at a business and I think one at a residence. They’re probably the same brand.”
“You think?” he asked. “I’m going to need to know the cameras exist before I can do anything. What city are they in? You better not say they’re in a different country, or I’m also out.”
I rushed to give him the information while I started pacing again. Shuffling sounded in the background. “Hang on, let me find a fucking pen. My coworkers are vultures.”
I waited for a few minutes before he came back on the line. “All right, do you know the brand of the cameras?”
Shit. “Uh, no. I didn’t think to take it down. I was pressed for time.” Fuck, why hadn’t I thought of that? Probably because I was too focused on the pussy behind the door when I went to Raven’s office.
“Well, I need the brand, or else this is impossible since I’m not local,” Aaron huffed.
“I can get the brand, no problem. It will just be a few days.”
“Ok, what’s the name of the company?” he asked.
I cleared my throat. No going back now. “Lovelace Financial,” I said and then rattled off Raven’s address.
“I’m assuming the business has a website?”
“Yeah,” I responded.
“Get me the brand of the cameras. For your sake you need to hope they’re cheap and have a back door I can get into.
You also need to pray that one of the employees is stupid enough to click a phishing link.
If not, well, I’m going to need you to do a lot more work which also means more work for me. ”
“Let’s hope this works, then. Talk to you soon,” I said, but the phone beeped before I could finish the sentence. This was precisely why I had no use for Aaron until now.
I laid the phone on my desk and prepared myself for the busy week ahead, the image of onyx hair and emerald eyes never too far away.