Total pages in book: 119
Estimated words: 112244 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 561(@200wpm)___ 449(@250wpm)___ 374(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 112244 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 561(@200wpm)___ 449(@250wpm)___ 374(@300wpm)
HogDocKev: This is kind of embarrassing.
HogDocKev: Okay, so I was in the rocketry club in high school…
HogDocKev: (That’s not the embarrassing part, FYI.)
I stepped out of the elevator just in time and found my mouth curving up in a smile. Kev was geeky, like me, but he owned it and never apologized for it. I could respect that.
HogDocKev: This guy in my class, Wayne Montrose, was your classic bully. Used to give me wedgies and call me Heavy Kevvy the Supergeek.
HogDocKev: (That’s not the embarrassing part either. Not my fault Wayne was an asshole.)
I snorted and parked my ass against the wall by the elevator as the dots by his name swirled.
HogDocKev: Anyway. Wayne lived a few streets over from the school. So one day I tricked out one of our rockets with an accelerometer, a gyroscope, and GPS sensors, and then added a balloon filled with paper penis confetti to the rocket.
HogDocKev: When the rocket reached certain parameters (i.e., the ones that meant it was over his house), it triggered a pin snap that burst the balloon and showered his house with dick… right when his mom was hosting the governor’s wife for a garden party.
I barked out a laugh, which caused a woman walking past me down the quiet hallway to startle and jump back. After murmuring an apology, I stared back at the screen, hoping for more of Kev’s ridiculous story.
HogDocKev: But while I knew the confetti was biodegradable, since it was paper, I hadn’t even CONSIDERED that it might contain dyes that weren’t great for the environment until someone in Green Club chewed me out later.
HogDocKev: That’s the embarrassing part. Still makes me cringe.
I shook my head. I hadn’t believed it possible for someone to be so brilliant, so devious, and so strangely innocent at the same time… but I was starting to believe it now.
HogDocKev: After the in-school suspension, I was given some whispered advice by the rocketry advisor to patent the technology. It was supremely satisfying to show up a few years later and give them enough money to sponsor the rocketry club and the Green Club for decades to come. Score one for the Dick Rocket.
I wanted to hear more—to hear other stories of young Kev and his antics—but I wasn’t sure what to say or how to ask. And the uncomfortable thought twinged in my mind that maybe Kev wouldn’t have shared that story at all if he’d known he was telling it to me.
SmittyKitty: Love that. Massive respect for the Dick Rocket Man, Pippy.
HogDocKev: Aw. Thanks. *smiley face*
HogDocKev: And my name’s still not Pip.
I hesitated, then sent the text I would have sent if I hadn’t known HogDocKev was wealthy Kev Rogers in real life. It was a test, I told myself firmly. A way to confirm that, behind all the quirky, sweet stories, he was still the entitled, attention-seeking asshole I’d known for months.
SmittyKitty: You know, you could sell that Harley gear for cash. Make a killing. Or do a giveaway of some kind. You’d get loads of admirers.
HogDocKev: Nah. I hate attention and I don’t need the money right now. I need the good karma, and I like knowing I helped someone out.
HogDocKev: Anyway, let me know if you want it. No strings, I promise.
Ugh. I shook my head as my chest squeezed pleasantly.
When I spotted the developer I needed to talk to, I quickly slipped the Horn back in my pocket and followed her to her cubicle with a little lightness in my step that for sure hadn’t been there before hearing Kev’s ridiculous dick-rocket story.
How fucked-up was it that Kev pissed me off like no one else… and cheered me up like no one else too?
No strings, Kev had said. He’d said that to Smitty before too. But somehow, with every damn word he typed, I grew more conscious of the tether growing between me and the guy I didn’t want to like.
I spent the next hour gathering the data I needed to be able to track the IP address of each Horn user on our cartel list. Our team had voted to simply turn over our information to the DEA, and we would, but we’d also anticipated that Jacob Horn would ask for a short-term stay of execution while he and his PR team prepared for the fallout. During this waiting period, it was going to be my job to keep track of the cartel members on the list, monitoring their locations and any large cash transactions being processed through HOG’s system from these accounts.
Once the developer gave me access to the system, I lost no time calling up all of the reports on my phone. As predicted, the twelve users were spread out over the US, as well as Central and South America. The most surprising location, however, was the one associated with Vince Parler’s username.