“More like a nerd cave,” I said.
When I got close to Fred’s house, he gave me strict instructions on where to park my car and how to get through the gates. To be honest, I think he was having fun at my expense, doing some weird spy movie shit.
It was all good fun. I was more than happy to play along for now.
With the laptop in Fred’s hands, he’d already opened it up, connected it to his own stuff, and now, he was inside, only it needed a password.
“If I was Heather, what kind of password would I use?” Fred talked to himself.
I stood, arms folded, waiting.
I didn’t like sneaking around but Fred seemed more than okay with it.
He did five different passwords, but none of them worked to get into the laptop.
“Try Sian’s birthday,” I said, giving him the dates.
Fred snorted. “Please, her best friend’s? Someone like Heather wouldn’t use her best friend’s birthday to … okay then, I guess Heather did.”
I smiled at Fred’s blush. “What you don’t know about Heather is that she was in love with Sian. They were best friends, but Heather wanted her.”
“Did Sian know this?” Fred asked.
“Yes. Toward the end.”
“And she was still friends with her?”
“Yes. Sian made it clear to her that she didn’t see her that way. She loved her like a friend.”
“Ouch,” Fred said, already clicking away. “Heather never said anything to me.”
“Did you like Heather?” I asked.
I recognized jealousy when I heard it.
“No, man, of course not.”
“You did.”
Fred was silent for several minutes. “I had no idea she liked chicks. That’s all.”
I didn’t say anything else.
He got to work on looking through the laptop. At first, he brought up a couple of images that showed Sian and Heather together; they both looked happy.
“I can’t believe she’s dead,” Fred said.
Seconds ticked by, then minutes. He closed the images and got to work on the files.
“I did like her,” Fred said. “Before I was attacked, I was going to ask her out. I never got the chance. At least now I know the answer.”
“You don’t know that.”
“Heather wouldn’t have wanted me.”
“You don’t know what Heather would have liked. I only know that she was in love with Sian. It doesn’t mean she wouldn’t have had a soft spot for you.” I wanted to console my friend, but there were no words.
I didn’t know Heather enough to say for sure she’d go with him.
Fred said nothing else and got to work, going through the computer. I listened to him typing away, finding myself thinking about Sian as he did. The way she felt wrapped around me today. The feel of her lips on my dick.
I hadn’t expected her to want me, but she was so much more than I expected. I didn’t want her to leave, but I had no idea how to win her over. How could I stop the woman I wanted from leaving?
“Holy shit!” Fred sat back in his chair, hand over his mouth.
“What? What is it?” I asked.
I stared at the screen and didn’t know for sure what he’d found. I recognized the name. “Why did Heather have Alexander Roberts’s information?”
“She was digging. She was trying to find a way for Sian to fight back against her father, and she … she found it. Halloween night, she didn’t go to any party. She stayed home and hacked into his system. She found his paper trail. I knew she was amazing, but fuck me, I wish she had taught me this.”
I looked as Fred showed me the paper trail she’d gotten from Alexander’s life.
“Not only has she gotten proof of embezzlement here, with the linked accounts, she found it going back to when he was in high school with your dads.” Fred pointed at the screen. “Look. He was making a bigger play back then. What’s this?” Fred clicked on a file and I saw it was a video. “Do you want me to press play?”
“Yeah, press it.”
The screen was blank, and then I saw Heather as she sat back in a chair. “Hi, it’s me, Heather. Girl genius, computer badass. Sorry, Fred. I guess, I don’t know why I’m making this, but I feel I have to. After everything I’ve seen, it just … yeah. So, hi, Sian. As I’m making this now, you’re being initiated into The Society. This is a very important organization. For the most part, it can be bad. Keeping the rich rich, and the poor, well, poor. Er, but not only does it keep the power and the systems rolling, it also has a process where it finds people, like me, to bring in.”
Heather tucked some hair behind her ear. “And so, I want to apologize to you, Sian. When I got my scholarship, I, er, I was … The Society granted it to me in return for me befriending a girl. A girl whose mother had been damaged by this organization, and they wanted things to run smoothly. I was to make her time enjoyable at school and properly guide her to the moment when her initiation would be a choice.”