11
“Holy shit!” I almost can’t believe the amount in my checking account, which of course, I’ve been checking obsessively since before working hours. I’ve never seen this much money in one place at one time. Technically, I’m still not seeing it. I’m only looking at a number on a screen.
It’s what that number represents that makes my whole body tingle. Fifteen thousand. It’s a lot to wrap my head around. I cover my mouth with both hands, giggling helplessly. All that money. All mine.
I guess I’d better start getting serious about my plans. All I know so far is I would like to be somewhere I can get to the ocean without driving half the day. I haven’t seen it since the one and only time we visited my aunt in California, and I was only seven years old then. I hardly remember it.
I don’t think I want to live on the West Coast, though. I don’t know if I could handle not having four distinct seasons after growing up where I did.
That means the East Coast. New York? I’m not delusional. I know how expensive it is, and fifteen grand wouldn’t last long.
I have to broaden my search, pulling up average rent in Philadelphia, Boston, and Baltimore. Philly doesn’t look exactly cheap, but it’s close enough to New York and the Jersey Shore that it seems like a natural choice. It’s definitely more affordable than New York and not so far north that the winters would be brutal. I like four seasons, but I’m sick of brutal winters.
Is this seriously my life? Am I sitting here, actually making plans? Choosing for myself?
I wonder what kind of apartment I could afford. I look through some listings, and my imagination spins all sorts of daydreams. Obviously, I’ll need to put money aside for furniture, but I don’t need much. At least not when I’m starting out, and it isn’t like I’ll have many people over to entertain, either. I won’t know a single soul there.
That should make me nervous, shouldn’t it? Instead, I feel like I could soar. I can start again.
I guess now I have to figure out how to get there. My junker could never get me that far. Maybe I could rent a car. I wouldn’t have to buy actual, checkable luggage if I did that.
It’s when I pull up a rental car site that something weird happens. One second, I’m hovering over the search bar, prepared to plug in my zip code and see what’s available.
The next, the arrow shoots across the screen.
I look down at the trackpad. There’s nothing stuck to it, and I’m not touching it. But now the arrow is zipping back and forth.
Like somebody else is in control of the machine.
A sick feeling brews in my stomach and starts to spread. I swipe my finger across the trackpad, and the arrow follows the motion—then shoots off in the other direction again. “What the fuck?” I whisper in horror. At least I closed the tab on my bank account, but what if somebody was watching the whole time? No. I haven’t come this far for somebody to take what I need.
What if it’s Adam? He’s barely smart enough to tie his shoes. But maybe he found somebody who could? Tears fill my eyes, and I’m pretty sure I’m going to throw up. It’s crazy how many horrible things can go through a person’s mind in just a few moments.
I’m about to shut down the machine in hopes of putting an end to this when a new box pops up out of nowhere. “No, no, no.” I try to hover over it and close it out, but now I have no control at all.
I’m about ready to start screaming for real when a face appears in the box. Once again, it’s Dash who almost gave me a heart attack. “What are you doing?” I demand when I see him. “How did you do this?”
He doesn’t look sorry. “It was too easy.”
“What? Hacking me? Why would you even do that?”
“It’s just something I know how to do.” He looks a little disheveled and tired. Like he didn’t get much sleep last night. There’s stubble covering his cheeks, too. “We didn’t want you to leave town without making sure you’re okay after last night. It was pretty obvious you didn’t want anybody following you.”
“Wait. I still need to know how you did this. Are you telling me you’re a hacker?”
He rolls his eyes and blows out a huge sigh. “Like I said, it’s a skill. And it was stupid easy. The motel doesn’t even keep its Wi-Fi locked down. Anybody can get in.”
“Great to know that now when I’ve been living here for weeks.”
“You’re all good. I made sure you’re locked down.”
I don’t know why, but something about the way he says it would have me shocked. “How long have you been accessing my computer?”
“Only since this morning.” He says it like it’s no big deal. Just another day at the office.
“Tell me the truth. Is this what you do for a living?”
Before he can say anything, somebody else appears behind him. Arden’s hair is dripping like he just got out of the shower. “Did this asshole freak you out?”