“But they came back too.”
“You just have to set up a program to run the numbers,” Taylor said, lifting a palm as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. “There’s no way this person blocked every sequence. We find the right sequence, reprogram one of our phones, and we’re in.”
Ivy’s jaw snapped shut and she brought her hand to her forehead. “Why didn’t I think of that?” She shoved herself off the bed and grabbed her phone from on top of my dresser. “We’ll start with the most obscure area codes first.”
“Good call,” Taylor said.
Ivy started typing into her phone as Taylor leaned over her shoulder. Before long the two of them were whispering and pointing, debating and correcting. I glanced at Kiran and she shrugged in response.
“Got any good magazines?” she asked, dropping down next to me on my bed. “This could be a while.”
“Please. She gets Shape and Fitness and nothing else,” Noelle said, rising from her chair. “I’ll be right back.”
An hour later Kiran, Noelle, and I were noshing on Godiva and pawing through the latest issues of Vogue, InStyle, and W, while Ivy and Taylor sat on the floor bent over Ivy’s phone. It wasn’t exactly the party we had originally planned for the evening, but it was darn close, and they were all there with me, which was the best gift I could have asked for. The thunderstorm had passed and the rain had let up a bit, dulling itself to a persistent drizzle, the sound of which was far more comforting than the raging we’d endured earlier. Suddenly Ivy leaned back on her hands, a self-satisfied smile on her face.
“And . . . done!” she announced.
“Done?” I asked dropping the heavy Vogue issue aside. “You got through?”
“Yep,” Taylor said happily.
“Finally,” Kiran groused.
“What did you say?” I asked, getting up from the bed and wiping my palms on the back of my sweatpants.
“We wrote, ‘Enough with the mystery. I want to know what’s going on. We need to meet,’” Taylor replied.
“To the point,” Noelle conceded, tipping her head.
“Do you think he’ll write back?” Kiran asked, sipping bottled water through a straw.
I sighed. “We’ll just have to wait and—”
Ivy’s phone beeped. My heart dropped. We all froze.
“Is it MT?” I asked.
Ivy hit a button and nodded, as Taylor leaned in so close her hair fell over Ivy’s shoulder. “It says, ‘Come alone. One hour. Directions attached.’”
“Holy crap,” I said, a rush of excitement flooding my veins. “It worked.”
“Come alone. Yeah. Like that’s gonna happen,” Noelle said, lifting her thick hair over her shoulder.
“We’re going with her?” Kiran asked, a tad fretful.
“Of course we are,” Ivy snapped.
“Don’t worry, Kiran. MT has proven he . . . or she . . . is a friend,” I assured her.
“Then why does he want you to come alone?” Taylor asked. “What’s with the blocking the number and all the mystery?”
“Well, clearly he’s trying to protect himself,” Ivy replied. “Whoever’s after Reed means business if they’re going to try to kidnap her from a crowded event.”
Kiran bit her lip. “Yeah, but—”
“All right, enough,” Noelle snapped. “We’re all doing this together. There’s safety in numbers right? If we all go together, everything will be fine.”
The five of us looked around at one another and I felt this odd mixture of fear and hope. By the end of tonight, I might know who MT was, and I might even know everything he or she knew about this latest attack. But I also knew that ventures like this one didn’t always end up the way I expected. And sometimes they didn’t end well at all.