“Exactly,” she points out. “This is my first time so give me a fucking break.”
“Are you two finished yet?” Sebastian’s irritated tone chimes into my ear.
“Shut up,” I say, blowing out an exasperated breath.
She cocks her head to the side. “Your earpiece friend, I presume?”
“That would be correct.”
“Great. Shall we?” Lux asks, gesturing toward the room.
Now she wants to hurry?
I let her comment roll off me and refocus on what we’re here to do. “You check that scattered pile of papers on the desk while I look at his computer.”
“It’s probably password protected.”
“I can get into any device,” I say.
“Of course you can,” she quips, her eyes narrowing, and analyzing me like she did at those pictures earlier. “What do you do for a living, River?”
“I already told you, I work in tech,” I say, settling into the leather office chair.
Lux starts sifting through the documents. “But that’s not all you do.”
“But that’s all you’re getting.”
“Fine, but I’m going to keep asking until you tell me.”
I shake my head with a small laugh. The brief glimpse of her attitude are annoyingly addicting. “I’m well aware.”
I turn my attention to the laptop in front of me and connect my phone to its server, waiting for the program I designed to determine the password.
“His desk is such a mess which can only mean one of two things,” she begins, her fingers combing through each document. “Either he’s highly unorganized or he’s trying to use this chaos as a disguise for something more important.”
She keeps surprising me at every turn. Based on what I’ve learned, my instincts were correct that night at the cabin and there’s more to Lux Levinson than meets the eye. She’s highly aware and has a solid understanding of motivations. It only serves to remind me of my favoritepoem by Edgar Allan Poe.The Ravenis a bird who understands the behaviors of other species and uses that skill for its benefit, and Lux’s keen profiling skills show she can sense human habits. Perhaps she has something stirring below the surface that is more profound than what she is letting on?
“Good observation,” I praise.
“U-uh…” she stutters. “Thank you.”
I slip my USB cord into the port at the base of the laptop, then launch the information application on my phone. Pausing before hacking into his computer with the generated password, I glance at Lux. Drinking in her body covered in black, I wonder if there’s more driving her than pure rage.
We spend the next ten minutes or so going through Rich’s computer and drawers. As to be expected, I find a few hidden files that immediately capture my attention because they’re unmarked. With a quick flick of the mouse, I begin downloading each file onto my hard drive.
Lux breaks our rushed silence. “I think I found something.”
I finish with the last hidden file before disconnecting my phone from the computer and walking over to the bookshelf she’s crouched down next to. “What is it?”
“Look at this.” Lux points at the calendar she’s holding. It displays the current month of July, where most days are empty except for the first and third weekends of the month—one of them being the day she was kidnapped. “Andrew’s name is written on the weekend I was taken. It’s not clear what his role is, but I remember Rich saying he was next when I was…”
She pauses, but doesn’t have to say it for me to understand what she means.
Lux shakes her head and continues. “Either Rich was going to come back for me, or”—she points at the weekend where Rich’s name is written—“this is supposed to be his weekend.”
My brain reels at the idea of what this could mean. Wanting to confirm my theory, I gently grab the calendar from her hand and flip to the next month.
“Are these the other two guys you mentioned?”
