The Cyber Twins novel · Chapter 12 of 24

Chapter 12: Delivered

Gia left at ten.

She hugged me at the door and whispered, "Don't tell him anything tonight. Please."

Nico didn't go to his study.

He carried his laptop into the bedroom and sat on the edge of the bed in his shirtsleeves, with the screen open on his knees.

I sat behind him with my back against the headboard.

Under my pillow, under the mattress, lay the old laptop with the cracked corner.

I had turned its sound off two nights ago.

I had checked it twice.

Nico typed a message into the black window.

*I need the access log for Elizabeth, Tuesday night. I think someone I trust sold us out. I need to know if I'm wrong.*

He pressed enter and stared at the screen.

"They usually answer in a minute," he said. "Sometimes five."

"What if they don't?"

"They will."

He said it so simply that it hurt.

A minute passed.

He rubbed both hands over his face, and for the first time since I'd known him I saw him shake.

I slid forward on the bed and wrapped my arms around his chest from behind.

"Nico."

"Don't be nice to me. I'll fall apart."

"Then fall apart."

He laughed, and it came out wet.

He turned, and the laptop slid onto the sheet, and he put his forehead against my collarbone.

"Eight years," he said.

"I know."

"I'd have told you she was the one person I'd never doubt."

"I know, baby."

His head came up.

"You never call me that. I call you that."

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