Dark Favors

Silence.

It wasn’t often that Locke fell completely silent, and it wasn’t ever a good sign. What was on the flash drive that had him suddenly so uncomfortable?

He instantly tried to play it off. I could practically hear him shaking his head, brushing it off, and putting on his “it-doesn’t-matter” voice.

“It must have fallen out of my pocket,” he said. “You didn’t access it, did you?”

Why the fuck would he ask me that? Of course, I didn’t access the files.

“Uh, no?”

“Okay,” he breathed out. Had he been holding his breath? Was that a sigh of relief? What the hell was on the flash drive?

Suddenly, I wondered if it had anything to do with my dad. Maybe it had his name. Maybe that was the secret Locke had been keeping from me.

“Can you bring it by the office now?” He asked. “I’m just signing some final paperwork for the event next weekend.”

That’s right. The gala. The one he had invited me to.

The one he was going to get me a dress for.

Being invited to see his late sister’s art had been incredible. It had been an honor, really, and I was looking forward to it. At least, I had been. Now, I wondered what the hell I was holding in my hand.

“Sure,” I said. “No problem at all. I just have to get gas, and then I’ll be there.”

“See you soon,” he said casually, and then he ended the call.

I dropped my phone and instantly reached into my backpack, which was sitting on the passenger seat of my car. My laptop was still in there. I’d forgotten to bring it into the house the night before, and now I was thankful for my carelessness. Normally, I wouldn’t go through other people’s shit, but this was different.

This was Locke, and he was keeping something from me.

He might be an expert at body language, but I was an expert at something else: reading assholes who tried to keep secrets.

My mother had spent her entire life dealing with jerks, and she’d taught me exactly how to tell when a guy was lying to me or playing me. One of the biggest signs? That shit Locke had just pulled on the phone. It wasn’t until I said that I hadn’t looked at the drive that he’d relaxed enough to ask me to bring it over.

What if I’d said yes?

Well, I was about to find out.

I powered on my laptop and plugged the flash drive in. I was only slightly surprised to see that there was a password, but fortunately for me, Locke wasn’t exactly a guru when it came to security. He might be brilliant when it came to reading people and making deals, but I had a feeling that Caleb played a huge role when it came to making sure that Locke’s data was all kept safe.

I’d never exactly been a hackerman when it came to stuff like this, but I desperately wanted to know what Locke was hiding there. Considering that I didn’t think he was the type of guy to memorize a random series of numbers or letters, I thought his password was probably something important to him.

I tried his sister’s name and date of death.

Nothing.

I tried his dad’s name.

Nothing.

Dad’s date of death.

Zilch.

On a whim, I tried his birthday, but there was still nothing.

I stared at my laptop. I didn’t have a lot of time before he realized I hadn’t gone to get gas and that I wasn’t at the office yet. How many guesses did I have before I got locked out of the flash drive? Was this like a movie where after a certain number of attempts, the whole drive was wiped?