Her eyes sparkle. “You remember those cameras along the way to Vultures Perch?”
“Yeah. They were erased and broken and destroyed,” Nico says grimly. “We’ve tried to trace them all back to their source and there just isn’t one.”
Quinlan finishes his beer. “All of those cameras have onboard storage but the SD cards were all taken. You know that.”
“Yes.” Ella holds both hands up. “Listen. The interior memory in those cameras is just damaged, and so far, we haven’t found a way to reassemble it. We can with these new crystals. I just needed one of the cameras, and now I have one.”
“Where’d you get it?” I ask.
“I climbed a tree.” She scrutinizes her pizza and finds another olive, gingerly picking it off. “It’s a long story. Anyway, I secured one of the cameras and yes, the SD card was gone, but the internal memory should be accessible now. It’s like reassembling data in a computer.”
For the first time, hope lights in my breast. “Are you serious?”
“Yes. It takes time and I’m still writing the algorithm.”
Nico holds up his beer. “Here’s to finally figuring out what happened to Greg.” We all clink. He winks. “At least now you don’t have to worry about marrying that asshole Cal, especially after we show your father that bruise.”
I smile. That’s a true statement. I feel sure that nobody in my family will take out Cal at the ball, and Thorn has given me his promise that he won’t cause a scene, and yet I can’t dispel this hollow feeling in my stomach that something’s about to go horribly wrong.
I lose the happiness for a moment and study the group. They’ve been in my life since I was a child. Somewhat separated because of our age differences, but still. I need to ask questions, and they’re here right now. “Do you guys remember when I was hit by the car as a kid?”
Nico pales. “I do. You were in the hospital for over a month. You were so small and young. It was terrifying.”
“Yeah,” Quinlan says, “Scarlett and I had already lost our parents, and then to have your mom taken and you so injured . . . it was just a blow.”
I had no idea they felt like that.
Nico places his beer on the table. “Greg and I were out of our minds with worry. We both grieved your mother, but we were afraid we’d lose you, too.”
It’s sad, really. The only parent still standing is my father. People think that the owners of these companies are infallible, but in truth we seem to be more vulnerable than anybody else.
Nico’s parents died in a fire that was later determined to be arson, and my parents took him in. Of course, the culprits were caught. They were from a rival social media company that never really saw the light of day. I have no doubt my father made sure of it. Their parents died in a helicopter accident that appears to have been natural. Well, as natural as a helicopter crash can get. And Ella and I are still trying to figure out how her father died. She suspects that Sylveria had something to do with it, but we haven’t found any proof.
“Is it the truth?” I ask. “Did my mother really die in a car accident, or was it more like Greg dying in a car accident that wasn’t?”
Nico finishes his beer. “Oh, no. Your mom definitely died in a car accident. You jumped out and tried to run and got hit, remember an accident?”
“No!” I explode. “I don’t remember anything!”
He sighs. “I promise you. You were only six years old, but Greg and I were teenagers. I remember every moment of that entire week. We slept on the floor in your hospital room.”
I do vaguely remember that. They were a constant comfort in a time of pain.
“Why do you ask?” Ella asks.
“I’ve been having these dreams.”
“About her death, the accident?” Quinlan stands and crosses into the kitchen to fetch two more beers as well as mimosas for Ella and me. He places the scrumptious drinks in front of us before retaking his seat.
I sip delicately, enjoying the subtle taste. “The nightmares focus more on my feeling terrified while somehow hearing my mom’s voice.”
“What’s going on with Greg’s accident is probably messing with your head,” Nico says. “I promise you, there wasn’t any sort of doubt or even investigation at the time. Your father was beside himself and he would’ve found anything suspicious.”
That’s true. I know without a doubt that my father would’ve avenged any slight, much less murder of family.
We finish lunch and I walk Ella out of the apartment, noting how her fingers trail across Nico’s hand as she leaves the table. We wait for the elevator. “I need a favor,” I say.
“Of course. Anything.”
I chew on my lip. This is a tough one. “Thorn needs access to your servers. That Malice attack you talked about with the malware? He needs to trace it back, and he thinks it came from Sylveria and TimeGem.”
Ella tries to soothe the stacks of papers into some semblance of order. “Um, no. Sorry. I don’t let anybody into my servers. Tell him to go with his gut.”
I’m not surprised but I am a little hurt. “Please?”
“No.” Her lips firm in a look that isn’t usual for her. “Sorry. I don’t trust him. That guy is a killer, and I’m not entirely sure he hasn’t murdered substitutes for you. It makes a sick kind of sense.”
“That’s not his style,” I say, knowing that to be true.
Quinlan walks out. “Hey. I need to go find a tux that fits. Nico’s extra doesn’t.”
The elevator door opens, and he nudges Ella inside.
For the first time in my life, duty and desire are clashing. Thorn draws me with an irresistible force, but I love having my friends in my life. Do I love him? If so, how am I going to broker peace with everyone?
Ella doesn’t meet my gaze as the doors close.
THIRTY-SIX
