Hard Love (Hacker #5)(73)
Author: Meredith Wild

I drew in a steeling breath, preparing to tell him the whole story. “Fine. What do you want to know?”

“Let’s start with Trevor. How do you know him?”

“It’s safe to assume that you are aware of all the details surrounding M89, correct?”

Evans relaxed back, that shit-eating smile back on his face. “For the sake of conversation, let’s assume that.”

“Fine. When Brian Cooper committed suicide, he was survived by his mother and one brother, Trevor.”

Evan’s smile slipped a bit. “Continue.”

“I don’t have to tell you my story. I developed Banksoft, and I’ve invested in a number of my own projects since then. A few years ago, I noticed a few of my sites being targeted by a hacker or possibly a group of hackers. Nothing serious. Nothing that my team couldn’t work around. Mainly a nuisance.”

“And you think that was Trevor.”

“I know it was him. He credited this new generation of M89 every chance he got. I never spent much time trying to track him down. It seemed like more effort than it was worth, but Erica found him through his mother and confronted him about everything. He all but admitted it, but promptly went off the grid again. He’s a shitty programmer, but he’s good at staying under the radar.”

“Okay. Say this is all true. Why would he get involved in rigging an election? Is he tied to Fitzgerald in some way?”

“His only connection to Fitzgerald is through me and Erica. He doesn’t care about money or prestige. He’s built his life around avenging Brian. And what better way to avenge his dead brother than to see his former cohort behind bars for the very same thing that made Brian hang himself? Fitzgerald’s election was just the vehicle to implicate me.”

Several empty minutes passed while I tried not to think about the life that both Evans and Trevor had been wishing for me. A life behind bars, maybe not forever, but long enough to miss a thousand precious moments I’d never get back. Moments with Erica and our child, the family that we were so close to having. That Trevor might be able see this plan through made me sick.

I curled my hands into tight fists, pressing them into the tops of my thighs. Evans’s voice cut the silence.

“How do I know you’re not just feeding me a load of shit?”

I leaned in with a glare, more irate than ever that after holding all of that back until now, his immediate response was skepticism.

“Let’s get something straight, Evans. If I rigged this fucking election, which I didn’t, you’d have never known it. Second, if by some miracle your band of geniuses found a way to tie it to me, I’d own it.”

He snorted. “You’re prideful, I’ll give you that.”

“Call it what you want, but having my name associated with any part of this bullshit is insulting. I brought a dozen of the most powerful Wall Street scumbags to their fucking knees when I was thirteen years old. You think I can’t rig a voting machine undetected? Give me a fucking break.”

Red seeped into Evans’s cheeks, and he adjusted his shirt collar around his neck. “So if you’re telling me the truth, and Trevor is behind all of this, where would I find him?”

I shrugged. “Figure it out.”

“You want out of here, Landon? Or do you want your kid visiting you behind bars?”

I bit down hard on all the things I wanted say to Evans. “I wouldn’t be behind bars if it wasn’t for you. Now you’re trying to squeeze me to do your fucking job for you, is that right?”

His nostrils flared. “You think about it. Think long and hard about it.”

His phone rang then, a shrill annoying sound. He answered and held the phone to his ear. “Evans.” He stared past me. “You did? Where?” A second later he stood and the chair scraped loudly against the concrete floor. “I’ll be there in ten.”

He shot me an inscrutable look and left.

* * *

ERICA

I’d spent the next couple nights at Marie’s house, and I was glad for it. Even though I was still distraught with missing Blake and worrying about our future, I appreciated having her near. The same kind of carefree spirit and tender heart that made her love quickly and bruise easily made her a person who was comfortable and natural to be with. Warm and unassuming, she never judged, never let her worries compound mine.

I was a long way from relief, but the progress I’d made with Sid had given me hope. We had anonymously sent Evans the analysis compiled thanks to Geoff’s contact. While I waited for any word on that, I also waited for Daniel to reach out to me.

I’d run our brief conversation over and over again in my head. He’d seemed genuine. Genuinely pissed about his situation, and also genuinely sorry that he’d failed me so miserably. Hopefully he’d be genuine in wanting to find Trevor, because he was the key. He was the shadow who’d haunted our lives for too long. Sometimes I couldn’t believe that I’d managed to find him once. I cursed myself over and over for letting him slip away. I’d been rash going to him on my own. I should have waited for Blake’s help. Maybe we wouldn’t be here now, facing the prospect of a future divided.