1.1 | Tangerine Dreams ✔

14 | C L E A N S L A T E

 "Ashley Collins?"

I stood up at the sound of my name. I turned and look at the dark haired, mocha colored receptionist.

"Mr. Collins will see you now."

I'm so going to kill Seth for this. This is like some Fifty Shades of Grey shit.

I fake smile at her, trying to hide how pissed off I was at the moment. I got up and walk to the doors leading to my brother's office. He stands up and greets me with open arms to which I slap away playfully but eventually return the hug, smiling.

"You know if I want to see my baby brother," I begin ruffling his hair, "I will damn well see him. So don't you go around with that, 'make an appointment stuff' with me kid."

Seth playfully swats my hand away, grinning. "This is exactly why I made you wait outside. I had to get myself mentally prepared to see your ugly face."

This makes me let out a laugh with Seth soon following. Once our laughter dies down, Seth turns sober and sits on one of the desk chairs. I copy his actions, sitting on the chair next to him. He turns to look at me, "So what brings you here to my humble office?"

My mood instantly turns dull as I start explaining the events that have happened this past year from the beginning; from Nick and I meeting to the various heists he led and Jullian ratting him out.

"Holy shit." He breathes out after I'm done.

This makes me crack a smile. "Pretty cool, huh?"

"I'm pretty sure the word 'cool' is the understatement of the year," Seth states blandly. "So what you're telling me so far is that your boyfriend, Nick, has been leading all those heists all these months?"

I nodded slowly, not knowing where he was going with this.

"Mom was right," He states looking at me strangely. "You were dropped on the head as a baby."

I give him an irritated glare, "Are you going to help me get him out or not?"

He raises his hands in mock surrender, "Of course I'll help you. But like, there are millions of guys out there and you went for a thug of all people to date? Good choice."

I glare at him, "Your marrying a former player and I'm not judging."

"Touché."

Seth soon went to work leaving me anxiously watching him. As soon as I exited Jullian's office, I came here to Collins Inc. Seth Collins, my brother, ran the whole place and was also a businessman. Granted he wasn't that big but he was still rich by his full-time profession:

Hacking.

He was known for hacking various databases. From NASA to the governments darkest files, he can hack them all without leaving a trace to be caught. He was mostly hired by other multi-millionaires to do their dirty work and extract any files that can lead to their rival's downfall and in reward get paid in millions to do so.

Luckily, Jullian knew my brother owned a business but not that he was a hacker. Half of the reason I came here was that I knew he could erase any or flimsy evidence against Nick from the government databases. If he did, Nick could be set free. 

  Seth's voice broke me out of my reverie, "Why don't you go visit Nick while I'm handling this? I'll call you when I'm done."

I let out a hum of agreement and got up finding no use to stay here since I'm obviously no help here.

~~~

Nick smiled as he saw me enter. "How are you doing?"

"I should be the one asking you that," I stated as a sat down on the chair across the table from him.