When he realized that Leah was secretly a hacktivist, he joined the Forum as WeepingGelsan. He wasn’t allowed to access the more exclusive chat rooms within the Forum, where the higher-up hacktivists plotted their exploits, but he pieced together enough information to know that Leah knew a secret about someone. One that outraged the Forum. And they wanted her to doxx the guy who was screwing around with so many people.

Joey knew that the exploit was going to be executed sometime soon, but he hadn’t realized it had taken place last night until Maddie texted him this morning. She wondered if Leah had spent the night at the family home, because she hadn’t returned to her apartment. Joey had begun to shake.

He told her that he thought Leah had stayed at work.

But he knew it had to do with the Forum.

When his parents had discovered that Leah was in the hospital, he’d still been in bed, luxuriating in his summer vacation. He almost puked from shock when his father told him that Leah—the older sister who had always been a model student—had broken into the house of a politician’s parents and had been shot in the chest. What the hell?

Why would Leah do something that crazy?

And then Condor had sent him a message. The message that he knew could land him in a huge amount of trouble.

But what else could he do?

Leah was his sister.

He would do anything to protect her.

So he had agreed to Condor’s plan. Even though in his heart of hearts, he knew it was almost as crazy as what his sister had been accused of doing.

And here he was. In Leah’s bedroom. About to become an accessory to a crime committed by the girl who had always protected him.

His gaze fell on the bed with the old faded star quilt that Leah had had since she was a baby. How prescient their grandma had been, to make Leah a star quilt.

The astronomy posters on her wall.

The photo of him and her, arms around each other, grinning at the camera as Leah held out the starfish they had found on a beach in Prince Edward Island. Her white-blond hair, streaked with mud. He remembered after the photo was taken how she had waded out to the rocks, crouched down into the water, and carefully released the creature into a tide pool.

This couldn’t be happening.

His sister was not a criminal.

She was good.

She was kind.

And now she was almost dead.

The drive in her laptop began to whir.

He strode over to her desk and flipped up the screen. Commands scrolled down the screen.

It was a data dump.

From someone else’s computer.

“Holy crap,” Joey murmured.

Leah’s hack had worked.