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"Whoa" Mike raises his hands "I just build websites"

"That’s it? Nothing else? Nothing the FBI would be interested in?"

Mike narrows his eyes and tries to figure out thewith the veiled threat "I build websites And write code I’ the FBI would care about?"

"What’s your point?"

"That answers my question"

"Good, then you can leave" Brave words that don’t match the quick thud of his heart as he watches the blade flip through the man’s hands Open Closed Open Closed "I build websites," he repeats, his record set on repeat "Sorry that I can’t help you more"

"And I just need to know about hers Give me her name and address, and I’ll walk out of here and leave you to your next ga Deanna’s beautiful face as dread crawls up his uncooperative spine, his er before him and tries to place his connection to her A client? Has to be The list of possibilities a hundred na

"Sexy jess dot co a blank look as hisa bell I coulda built it years ago Chances are, any information I do have is old I can tell you this I haven’t heard of the URL or a Jess Reilly And I don’t have a girlfriend I don’t even leave this house"

Out of the entire statement, only two of the four sentences are true He doesn’t have a girlfriend, and he hasn’t, with a few rare exceptions, left this house in the last eight years

CHAPTER 61

AT TEN YEARS of age, any thought of being a physical badass was abandoned That was the age when Mike Rollins put down a baseball and picked up a keyboard When his world becas that required little physical effort Books on code were read, online chat forua sites beca the next Internet billionaire, surrounded by woreedy adolescence listened Mike pushed aside developenetic code that is the Internet Once you understand it, it’s easy to curtail it Once you can curtail it, you can start to control it Build fake trails that will lead your opponents turning in circles until they fall on their ass Create insurmountable roadblocks that are truly only paper thin Hide someone so deep that you are the only person who can pull them out

The truth:

Deanna Madden, aka JessReilly19, is twenty-two years old She lives on 163 Oakmont Place, Apartment 6E She has, unfortunately for Mike, a boyfriend, one Jeremy Pacer She has a net worth of 23 million, half of which is hidden away in the Cayman Islands in a place known only to her and Mike She is an orphan, her parents and younger siblings killed four years ago in a manner one can only describe as brutal

The appearance:

Jessica Reilly is nineteen years old, a sophomore at the University of Iowa She lives in an on-cale, widely popular, and, as evidenced by her Facebook wall, hasn’t met a frat party or house party she’ll turn down

This man will never track her down It is io After all the groundas in place, Mike posted a challenge to Hnet Offered a thousand of Deanna’s bucks to anyone who could find one hole in her story A hole that led to so other than a dead end or hie Forty-nine ithin three weeks, ade of the Internet and his Motorola Krzr, doesn’t stand a chance And his guy in IT either sucks or is on the sa this psycho as far from her as possible

CHAPTER 62

I BANG ON Simon’s door like a madwoman What if he is not home? What if he locked my door and left? I can’t stay in this hall I have nowhere else to go

He opens the door withinOut Siirl, her body draped across a black leather couch that looks to be a Big Lots special His jaorks, back and forth, his bloodshot gaze shooting fro how in the hell I escaped

"You were late," I gasp,the door fra How do four sentences with Derek turn irl?