“Whatever, Locker.” I glared at him, but there was a full-on smile over my lips.

“I’m really glad you showed up,” he said. “This is going to be fun.” He winked at me before getting in his car and driving away.

I sat behind the wheel of my car, cranking my music as I tried to get my heart to stop racing.

Dean was right.

Code Club just got a whole lot more interesting.

Chapter Four

Chapter Four

Dean

“Whoa,” Sean said the instant I rounded the corner into the kitchen. “What did you do?”

I furrowed my brow, sneaking a taste of the sauce Mom had simmering on the stove. “What are you talking about? And what are you doing home?”

Sean was a sophomore at MIT and the current cybersecurity lead at Inkheart Corporations. We rarely saw him unless it was a holiday or he was overdue on his laundry. It was a hole that had stopped being so hollow over the years, but I still missed him. Not that I’d ever admit that out loud.

“I have the next two days off,” he said, closing his laptop he’d had open on the kitchen table. “And don’t dodge the question.”

I sucked the marinara off my finger, my eyes rolling back in my head. One perk of Sean showing up was that Mom made his favorite dish, which happened to be mine, too. “What was it again?”

Sean rose from the table, dipping a clean spoon into the pot and taking a lick. We were the same height despite our age difference, though he was more jacked than I was. I was fit, but he loved the gym on campus. Most of my spare time was spent locked in and prepping for the Tournament of Champions, but I made a point to do a quick workout before school almost every morning. Helped me focus my mind for the day.

“You’re grinning like the Cheshire Cat,” he said, taking another lick. “Which either means you cracked something huge, or—” His eyes lit up. “You met a chick hot enough to take your mind off your computer for once.”

Was I grinning?

My lips dropped the second I felt it and I waved him off.

“Holy hell,” Sean said. “You have met a chick.”

Amber’s pink-streaked hair and perfect lips popped into my head. The way she’d looked, locked onto her screen, her villain headphones blaring my favorite artist to tune out the world.

Good God, she was gorgeous and tempting and all things I didn’t need to think about. We were friends. Cordial friends at that. She’d just broken up with that d-bag Brandon. I couldn’t begin to think of her as anything more than a fellow hacker.