I close my eyes and count to ten. I need to stay calm. Travis went to his father’s office. That means that I should be safe in here. I need to stave off the panic and think.

I open my eyes again.

“Think!” I whisper to myself. “What’s the smart thing to do right now?”

I look around the room, smile to myself . . . and then I walk around to his computer and get to work.

chapter eighteen

It was just yesterday that I set up a dummy email account for Jessica. As soon as I can break Lander’s password, I’ll give him one too, but so far the code that will earn me entry into his virtual world has eluded me. Favorite sports teams and birthdates have yielded nothing but glaring error messages. But given time I’ll work it out.

And with Travis, all I have to do is use his email account that I can access with this computer to email Jessica’s new account. I’m starting a paper trail. She’ll never read it. She barely reads the emails sent to the accounts she knows about. My fingers fly across the keyboard as my eyes keep darting toward the door. Once done I sit back and read my work:

Jessica,

Please be a little more careful with the information you share about my dealings, particularly with Lander. You know what I’ve gotten away with in the past. Think what I could get away with doing to you.

—Travis

It’s a good note. Vague enough for me to fill in the blanks once I get a few insights about whatever rules and laws Travis is actually breaking. A little truth, a little fiction. It’s a magical combination that allows opinions and verdicts to be shaped and manipulated. Creating fiction is easy. Finding incriminating truths, well, that just takes time.

I press send and then quickly go to his sent mail folder and erase the message.

I’m removing my visit to Travis’s email account from his computer history when I hear his voice in the hall. Quickly, I bring everything on his computer screen back to how I found it and rush to the other side of the desk—knocking over his Fiji water bottle in the process.

I start to bend to reach for it but then I hear Travis right outside the door. The doorknob turns and I immediately take a seat in front of his desk, only to immediately pop back up and greet him as the door swings open.

As Travis enters, I can see that his leering smile has been replaced with a nervous one.