Hack X Love

Episode-5

The one fellow I trusted with my life—and had on several operations—pulled up a chair and sat in it backwards, arms crossed over the top of it, glowering at me like an interrogator. "All right. Who is she?"

"You've heard me talk about Lila Grant, haven't you?"

"The soul-sucking harlot who got you thrown out of Cambridge University and dove headfirst into our festering depths?"

"The very same."

"Perhaps I recall. Let me consider."

I laughed. "Bullshit, man. The woman who turned up on my doorstep this afternoon unannounced claims to be her identical twin. Said Lila's in trouble."

"And you would mind because…?"

"I don't."

"Although you've been following her since she departed."

Yes, I had. And when I turned to look at my brother—best friend and member of the team wasn't quite right—I found myself in a spotlight that made me uneasy. It caught everything, inside and out. It could also highlight things that were better left unseen. "Lila Grant destroyed me."

"Maybe she rebuilt you."

"I rebuilt my goddamned self. And I told myself I'd moved on. But I still found myself checking her up in the middle of the night sometimes, wondering if she got on and lived a good life after mine all fell to pieces."

"And?"

"I don't know. She's a ghost."

Caleb sat up straight, his dark brows furrowing. "That's weird."

It kind of was. A young woman who grows up in the internet age, the social media age and selfies and global hedonism.where's the duckface shots of her clubbing it up with friends on i********:, where's the record of blatant dog-filter photos on Snapchat?

Nati was different. Even though her cyber life wasn't nearly as wild as I would've expected Lila's to be, she did exist. She was a player. She was also as far as I could see, available. Any pictures of her and men were few, so at least I wouldn't have the headache of some asshole causing me problems. Not that I would care that much.

"So do you think she? Is she really her twin?"

I pondered it seriously. Caleb had this ability to get me to get to the point. "Maybe. But as you said. If all that she told me before was the absolute truth, why the f**k would I even bother?"

"What did she say?

Hell, what was she saying? I'd been so out of it with fear at seeing her face on the opposite side of my door, I hadn't even remembered what color she'd been wearing.

Green, as a matter of fact. She'd been wearing green. It had stood her eyes out.

Fuck.

"When you weren't yakking at her, that is," Caleb added with a skewed grin that made him look even more crazy than he already did.

I surmised I might have been paying a little more attention. "Just that Lila was in trouble."

"Well, I, for one, am interested, and I know you are, too. She must have some kind of motive to go to you when she could have gone to anyone else in the entire world, Jace. You might try discovering what that motive is, don't you think?"

"How dare you be rational," I growled.

Caleb smiled. "One of my better things about me."

"Hardly. But if she does have a reason, it can't be good."

"All the more reason to find out what it is." Caleb's face became rigid. Reasonable and good-natured as he could be most of the time, no one wished to see him when he wasn't. Nobody. "So we can take care of it," he finished coldly.

"This isn't your problem, man.".

Now that just really bugs me.

Sighing, I leaned back in my chair and rubbed my face hard with both hands. "The all-for-one, one-for-all nonsense gets a little tired now and then, I have to say."

"It does, right? Oh well. It's what we joined up for.".

I hadn't enrolled in a Lila Grant duplicate to show up here, that was for certain, disrupting the existence I had been able to construct for myself after she destroyed everything around me. "The worst part of all of this is the fact that there could actually be two of her out in the world."

Caleb burst out laughing. "All kidding aside, I think we should check it out. Just because it's going to drive you nuts not knowing, and you know it."

"If Coloko is what she says she is, she's a good coder."

"f*****g hell, man. You know sysadmins and coders don't mix.".

I ignored that, as true as it was. "Thing is, I don't think Lila could use a computer, let alone write."

"Coloko, huh? Little and sweet. Won't back down on a cobra. I like it."

I had backed her down this morning, though, with that caveman routine I'd performed and the flat-out lie I'd told her later.

My reaction to the softness of her lips giving way to the hardness of mine was likely the only explanation for why I'd even gone so far as to grab the piece of paper I'd seen on the ground just inside my apartment, read it and running immediately to my desk to snoop on her, where I remained now, trying to process everything I'd discovered.

Didn't I know, indeed, in my heart? She had the same face but not the same woman. That trembling, pale-faced creature at my doorstep had not possessed that loud, good-time brashness I remembered. She had felt wonderful. Too wonderful. And when I had shoved her out on all those cruel words, I had lied, but she could never discover.

"I don't know," I grumbled, simply to shatter the silence that had formed between Caleb and me. "I believe we let it go. Whatever nest Lila's created, she likely deserves to sleep in it. We have more important things to concern ourselves with."

"Alright, if you're certain that's what we'll do. However, I still think the smart thing is to try and figure out why she came to you. I can try to work it out, if you'd rather wash your hands of the whole thing." Before I could shake my head again, Caleb added, "She sought you out, Jace. How?"

I had tried to have as little an on-line presence as Lila did. It was necessary in my work. Obviously, I had failed. "I thought of that, too."

"If we've been compromised, we have to know. Maybe it's bigger than you. I think we bring the team in on this."

I did not want to admit he was right. Conceding to this meant that I could not simply forget about it, but hell, too late now. The door had been opened and my only choice was to have to go through all of the sleazy, festering junk that still lived inside of me where Lila Grant was involved.

I should not care, but I did.

"If everyone's willing to let it go, will you listen?" I demanded, one eyebrow rising at Caleb, who shrugged and rose, putting back the chair from which he'd taken it.

"Sure. I'll listen. But you know how we are. Nobody is going to let this go."

That was what I was afraid of.