ReBoot (MAC Security 4)

Fuck. Shit.

He stands up and waves his hand at my chair.

“Nevan?” Kay asks as I sit down and pull my laptop toward me.

“Don’t—”

“It’s nerd and Evan combined.” I look up at the other voice, the same clear-blue eyes stare at me.

“Seb,” I warn.

“What?” He shrugs, bringing his tan hands in the air. “It’s just a joke.”

“No… No!” I slam my fist on the table and stand up to my full height.

The last time I saw either of them, I was a lanky strip of wind without an ounce of muscle on me. Things have changed, not only can I look after myself now, but I know for sure that I could best either of them. I’ve changed, and yes, so have they, but I’m not going to let them push me around. Not here, not anywhere.

“You will not come here and bully me. I let it happen back in high school, but no more.”

“What?” West asks, stepping forward, a frown on his face. “We didn’t bully you.”

“Yeah,” I nod my head emphatically. “Yeah, you did.”

“Dude,” Seb starts, standing up and coming to stand next to West. They’re twins, but you never would have known apart from their eyes. They look nothing alike: West has more of an athletic build and his hair is cut close to his scalp with pale skin, whereas Seb is tan with lots of muscles and dark blond hair, cut in that fashionable style that’s neither long nor short. “We were the ones who stopped the bullies.”

“No,” I shake my head, looking from West to Seb and then back again before pointing at them. “You started the Nevan thing.”

“Nope,” West says, popping the p as he crosses his arms over his chest, making all of the colored tattoos dance on his arms. “Quarterback started it, we took it on and made it your name so that people couldn’t sneer it behind your back.”

“But…”

“Evan?” I turn to face Ty. “Let’s get this meeting done and then you can continue gossiping, yeah?”

“Oh, burn!” Kitty sniggers.

“Shut it, little one,” West replies, chuckling at the outrage on her face.

I sit back down but not before scanning both of their faces, trying to decipher if what they’re saying is true. If it is then I may have hated them for more than a decade without needing to.

“Evan?”

I shake my head. “Right, yeah. So, the painting is being delivered soon; I can’t get an exact date as only a handful of people know this.”

“Figured,” West says.

“I’ve been looking over all of Darrell’s recent jobs, trying to see if we can predict what he’s going to do and I think that he may make the switch before the painting gets to the gallery.”

“Why?” Kay asks.

I look up at her. “Because he’s a professional, he knows what he’s doing. The run-through at the gallery was for him to see if he was being watched. It has no bearing in what he’s going to do.”

“Why do the run-through then?” Luke asks, leaning forward.

I look to my left. “He was trying to catch us out. He may have seen us, but I think it’s unlikely. If he had then he would have let us know that he knows. He’s the type of guy who likes to have the upper hand.”

Luke nods and sits back, thinking over the information that I’ve given them all.

“He didn’t know,” Seb announces.