“Hi, Ron,” she said, her voice tight. “I wasn’t feeling well. I asked my friend to call. She must have forgotten.”

Ron’s gaze kept shifting to me, and I almost laughed at his struggle to keep smiling.

“No, she never did. I covered for you. No worries.”

“Thanks, Ron.”

I cleared my throat. “Aren’t you going to introduce me, honey?” I had to bite my tongue not to laugh outright at the look on Gia’s face.

“Um, Ron this is…um…Donnie.”

She recovered fast and relaxed. Even smiled. At least for a minute.

“Her boyfriend,” I said, gripping her tighter and pulling her close. Donnie? WTF?

“Oh, uh, nice to meet you. I guess. I didn’t know you had a boyfriend,” Ron said, trying not to look at me.

“Yep,” I chimed in. “Haven’t been together long, but once you get a taste of Gia, well, nothing quite like it…” I winked at her mortified face. “We’re on a tight schedule, though,” I said, checking my watch.

“Nice to see you, Ron,” Gia said, walking stiffly toward the public-use computers.

“Nice to see you,” Ron called out.

It took all I had not to flip him off.

“What was that?” she asked in a sharp whisper. “How could you say that?”

“Donnie? What the fuck kind of name is Donnie?”

She stopped and turned to me, one hand on her hip, one eyebrow lifted.

“Did you want me to tell him your real name?”

“You couldn’t come up with anything better than Donnie?”

She only grinned. “That one,” she said, dropping the conversation as an elderly woman vacated a computer.

“Let’s go.” Someone else tried to take the seat, but I shoved Gia ahead and onto the chair.

“I have been waiting!” the woman said.

“Us too.” Ignoring her, I watched Gia pick up the mouse and navigate to the file. Mateo had hidden it well while keeping it in plain sight.

“Here, this is it,” she said.

I took the thumb drive out of my pocket and handed it to her. “Copy it.”

She stood. “I have to use the bathroom. You copy it, and I’ll be right back.”

Before I could argue, she was gone. The woman we’d butted in front of was pointing at us and talking to the man at the counter, so I knew we had limited time. I took over, copying the file onto my thumb drive, hoping Gia wouldn’t be dumb enough to try to run off. I didn’t think she would, though. Not with this evidence in my hands now, not knowing I could copy then delete the file. Although I wouldn’t. It was my backup.

“Sir.”

The man who worked at the library approached my seat with the woman just as the file finished copying.

“That’s him. He just butted right in front of me!”