Chapter 64

Call it superstition, but you’ve been using the same room since you started this whole VR gig, and you’re not about to switch up now. “You think it’ll be ready by five?”

With a laugh, Vito slaps you on the back and grins. “Three, I promise. I’ll have him check that one first, what d’ya say?”

Sounds good. You make sure you have your chit—you’re paranoid about it now—then hurry down the crowded street to your car. It’s windy out tonight, and the strip is alive with neon and noise, people like weeds clogging the sidewalks. Once you think you hear your boy’s voice somewhere behind you and you almost stumble when you turn around too fast. It startles your heart into a rapid rhythm.

But you’re alone in the midst of the crowd and it’s just your mind playing tricks on you, that’s all. Just the memory of words never really said. I don’t want you to leave.

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