The Hacker

"I regret hurting Harry and leaving you behind," (10)

Amira woke the next morning feeling apprehensive. Last night, she had agreed to giving the hacker a chance. A chance for what? She wasn't sure. She just couldn't deal with the heaviness of the conversation. Looking around, she observed the movie posters on his bedroom wall and wondered if she had seen any of them.

Movies were never really her thing... and if she did watch them, she certainly didn't remember them.

Last night he had insisted on her staying in his room and he would stay on the couch. At first, she had refused and said she would just get a car back to the bed and breakfast in Ide Hill. The hacker flat out told her that that will be the first place they will check for her so his place was most likely the safer place to stay.

Reluctantly, she agreed and retired to bed right after taking two pills to help her sleep. Now, she was awake in his room and didn't have the energy to even get out of bed. What was her plan for today? What lead did she have to help her case?

If it wasn't for Kai being missing, she would have booked her flight back to America already. With that thought in mind, she reached for her cellphone and phoned someone who would understand her situation.

The phone rang a few times before she answered.

"Amira! I'm so happy to hear from you, how's your vacation going?" Brynne asked.

Amira almost forgot that she told Micah she was going on a retreat to clear her mind. "Um, it's going okay so far... are you beside Micah?"

"Yeah, he's asleep right now. Do you want me to wake him up?"

"No, that's okay. Can you go into the other room? I don't want him hearing anything,"

"Okay, I'm going into the bathroom," Brynne told her and Amira heard her shuffling around before hearing a door close.

"Okay, good. So listen, I haven't been completely honest with you guys and I don't have a lot of time right now but shit has literally hit the fan and I need some advice,"

"What's wrong? Are you in trouble?"

Amira was about to spill everything she knew but she changed her mind. It was wrong of her to burden Brynne with this information since they had already gone behind her and Micah's back to pursue a lead that wasn't even there. What kind of friend would she be to put more people in danger?

"Uh... no, it's not like that. I'm sorry I made you worry. It's just that I met someone..."

Brynne immediately exhaled. "Really? What's he like?"

"Well, he's a bit rebellious... and definitely younger than me,"

Brynne chuckled, "and that's a bad thing?"

"Not really but it's nothing I'm used to. He seems to like me but my gut is telling me not to trust him,"

"Usually it's best to go with your intuition... but I think this isn't intuition. I think you're afraid."

"Afraid of what?"

Brynne sighed, "Tom has been the only man in your life... you're afraid to let him go,"

That made Amira suck in a deep breath and close her eyes. She had no intention whatsoever of letting Tom go— but somehow, hearing Brynne say those words only made her seem foolish. How silly did she look to still be pining over a dead man who wanted to murder her?

"Don't be stupid, Brynne. Tom is dead."

"Physically, yes but emotionally... he's still very much alive in your memories and feelings."