“You’re putting yourself on the line here. Big time. If there’s one tiny lag or mistake in the tapes, they’ll trace it back to you. With your hacking background, they will suspect you right away.”

“That’s why I called you. You don’t make mistakes.”

“Obviously I do make mistakes, and you went to juvenile detention because of it,” he replies. “I don’t like the position you’re putting yourself in here.”

“Do you have any other ideas? Because I’m open to suggestions.”

“Only one,” he says. “I’ll have the team fast forward through all the tapes and pull the ones that need doctoring. My gut tells me it will only be the time period before you arrived in town. Then I’ll send the crew home to rest for a few hours. The only person I can trust to do this job is me. I can’t take the chance of someone making an error and you paying for it again.”

“You’re already exhausted,” I argue.

“I’ll take a nap on your couch once everyone clears out. Don’t try to argue with me about this. If I can pay back a tiny part of the big debt I owe you, then please let me. Okay?”

I nod.

“Deal.”

Chapter Twenty-Five

Sam

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I can’t believe it’s been over forty-eight hours and we still haven’t located Lila. According to Flint’s men in Atlanta, she hasn’t made an appearance at her office, her apartment, or her parents’ house.

I haven’t slept more than a few hours since she left town. Now it’s Sunday morning and I’ve worked myself up into a mental wreck, thinking of all the various possibilities of how this might go down.

Trish and Jesse finally chased me out of the house because I was driving them crazy with my constant pacing and ‘what if’ questions.

Something in the back of my mind keeps niggling at me.

It’s hard for me to believe that Flint’s men wouldn’t have found out something by now. Lila couldn’t have just disappeared off the face of the Earth. She has to be somewhere. I’m beginning to wonder if Flint knows where she is and isn’t telling me. In fact, I’m almost sure of it.

On Sunday mornings, Flint keeps Josh while Kendra makes early rounds at the vet clinic. Maybe I should pay him a visit. Without telling Jesse where I’m going, I climb on my bike and head toward Flint’s.

When I arrive at his cabin, he’s already waiting for me on the front porch.

“I heard you coming up the mountain,” he says. “Let’s talk outside. Josh is taking a nap and I don’t want to wake him. I just got off the phone with Jesse and you were my next call.”

He’s found Lila.