Chapter 42
CHAPTER FORTY-TWO
KENSINGTON, TEXAS
Is truth really self-evident?
—@PRyanPOfficial
Dude, we need to get you off this kick. You were funnier when you were depressed.
—Viego Martinez, Celebrity Blogger
Filia is Fallon. After wiping my brow and absorbing the blow, I can’t do much but sit in shock. The absence of noise almost makes the buzzing in my mind as loud as a sonic boom.
My eye gravitates just beyond my spread legs, where a secure coded laptop and new glass of whiskey sit on my coffee table after I delt with the mess of the first one I destroyed. When I first poured it, there was an ice cube in it. It melted while I was trying to give the team precious time to upload the final code to persistently hack into their database. It ended with my future blowing my heart up in my chest.
Over and over, my mind rejects what just happened.
Filia and Fallon telling me about their green lace.
Filia and Fallon sauntering across the patio.
Filia tripping, me catching her as she fell.
Aloud, I whisper, “Maybe they know each other?”
Fallon, the woman I love, can’t be working for the phone sex company I’m investigating for a possible connection to the individuals out to harm Leanne. But how is it possible “Filia” and Fallon both walked me through the exact same sexcapade? “The odds don’t even exist.”
And I’ve learned the hard way there are no such things as coincidences.
Reaching for my computer, I gather my bearings before I ease my way into the employee files of Devil’s Lair. My throat closes over a knot so large that I’m surprised I’m not choking on it.
The proof is irrefutable. I snatch up my cell phone and send a text.
Ethan:
I am going to have some business in Seven Virtues soon.
Fallon:
ARE YOU SERIOUS?!?! When?
Her excitement is palpable. My own, much less so because once I see Fallon face-to-face, I know what I’m going to have to do.
The very idea of which feels like I’m ripping off an appendage.
Ethan:
Soon. Real soon.
Suddenly, I’m grateful I never shared my true relationship with Fallon with my family because if my devastation is anything to go by, their disappointment in my lack of judgment might be too much to bear.