House of Cards (Tech Billionaires) by Ainsley St Claire

Author:Ainsley St Claire [St Claire, Ainsley]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2020-02-10T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 21

Maggie

I take in the vastness of the apartment for a little while after Jonnie leaves. I wish he could just hole up in here with me, but I focus on being grateful for what I have. At least I’m here at all.

The burner phone chirps and vibrates as it sits on the coffee table in the middle of the room. I haven’t spoken to Mother since our blow up before I left. My heart races, and my palms begin to sweat. Zack stares at his wrist and nods.

“Hello, Mother.” I take a few silent deep breaths and will myself to sound aloof and calm while I wait to see which one of her many personalities she will present. Will she be angry, worried, or sickeningly sweet?

“Darling, where are you?”

Sickeningly sweet it is. Could she be tracking me? I hoped we were overreacting.

“I’m in San Francisco. Don’t you remember?”

She’s quiet a moment. “Oh, yes of course.” She’s quiet again. “But I thought you were due home today.”

“I’ll be home in a few days. I’m enjoying my time with Christopher and Bella. Plus, I’m working on some Foundation things while I’m here.”

“You really need to come home soon,” she presses. “I’m sure Alex misses you. And we need to work on your wedding.”

“No, we really don’t. I told you, I won’t be having a high-society event.” I glance over at Zack, and he warns me we’re approaching the two-minute mark, which makes the call traceable. “Listen, I’ve got to run. I’ll call soon,” I tell her and disconnect the call.

Uneasiness grips me. “Did I make it in time?”

“Yes.” He nods, looking at his phone. “Jim wants me to take the SIM card out of the burner and replace it with this one.” He holds up a little electronic card smaller than a dime. “It has a different phone number.”

“How will I talk to my mom and convince her I’m still in San Francisco?”

“We’re converting it to a VoIP, which will scramble the location with the help of a VPN.”

I look at him, confused.

He smiles. “The VoIP is an Internet-based phone number, and the VPN will have it jumping to multiple servers all over the globe. So the next time you talk, you can talk a little longer. It’ll jump every thirty seconds. But at some point, we’ll have to change it up again.”

Zack heads off with my phone, leaving me alone. I don’t know what to do. I don’t want to wander through the apartment, snooping, so I stay put in the living room. I stare out the window at the desert. The last time I was here I told Jonnie I was getting married. I hurt him. I didn’t want to…but now I have no idea what’s going to happen.

My mind is like a pinball machine, bouncing from one thing to another. This happens when I don’t sleep well—and probably also when my life is crazy. Last night was amazing, but we didn’t sleep. My mind goes to what we did do.

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