Surviving (Surrender 2)

“Got something!” Finn turns to us. “This is good stuff, it’s almost as high tech as your equipment, James. Someone has put a signal on Raven’s phone to be able to extract data within a certain range. They also hacked into the home IP address to get to all your personal files. I’ve recorded the data lines, but there are a lot to go through.”

“Geek Speak, can you tell me what all that means?” I ask.

“It means, someone got close enough to you to wire a signal to your personal phone, iPad and computer. This allowed them pull your texts, pictures, emails, and any social media. The problem is anywhere you’ve used your computer has wired a line in. So the library, classroom, home, MJ’s offices, The Steamroom, etc. This person could have gotten your information anywhere. James can take it to his tech guys to see if we can get a hit on your hotspots.”

“What about all my wedding information?” I shriek.

“Not sure what all was hit. I’ll keep looking to see if anything looks unusual. But I’ve applied an antivirus to kill the signal.”

“So what do we do now?”

“Now we move. I’ll talk to the reporter doing the expose and see if we can get him to interview sooner. I know you wanted to wait for it to hit the market after you graduate, but we can’t sit on this. We need to react and kill any validity this story has. We also need to stand united. I’ll see if we can start setting up the interviews ASAP.” Mike answers.

“I’m not so sure it’s a good idea for me to be part of this story anymore. I could potentially hurt Sayge.”

The room goes still and every head swings to me. Declan blows out a frustrated breath behind me.

“Thought you understood we’re a group.” Blake says tensely. “That means you too.”

“But aren’t you concerned about what people will think after reading what came out today?”

“No,” all four guys say at once.

“Okay, Mike set it up.”

“Another thing we wanted to talk to you about. We were hoping under better circumstances, but we want you to be our manager.” Declan states.

“WHAT?!”

“Jay is going to still be our Label Rep, but he’s taking on more clients so he can’t go this summer. We want you to be in charge and manage Sayge.”

“Are you crazy?”

“Not sure I want to answer that right now, considering I want to punch a hole through the wall.”

“Okay, let me rephrase. I don’t know anything about being a manager.”

“You do, but don’t realize it. Promise us you’ll think about it.”

I look at all four guys and nod my head in agreement.

“So what’s next?” Robbie asks reminding me of the stupid article.

“Injunction to pull it down. File to sue. Our lawyers start talking and we see if we can get who the supposed source is. Raven gets protection starting tomorrow. Mike sets up the response article, and we straighten this shit out.” Dad answers without missing a beat.

“Sounds like a pl

an. Now let’s have a fucking drink. I need one after this shit.” Robbie goes to the kitchen.

“Dec, how did Finn get to me so fast today?”

“I called him as soon as Mike told me about the article. He tracked your phone and went to the library to get you. I hoped you hadn’t seen it yet.”

“A few days ago we were celebrating. How the hell did this happen?”

“I don’t know, but we’re going to find out. You keep focused on school and our wedding, and leave the rest to me.”

“Okay, honey.” I kiss him quickly and get up to help my brother.