Hard Wired Trilogy DeAnna Pearce (if you give a mouse a cookie read aloud txt) 📖

did what he wanted anyway. She couldn’t muster enough energy to reprimand him anymore. He’d told her enough times that she wasn’t his mother, and he was right.

“Do you do them?” Ari already knew the answer but had to ask.

“Sometimes.” He kept his eyes on the grass in front of her.

Ari bit her lip for a moment. “Aren’t you afraid that you’ll get stuck and end up like Dad?” For the past five years Ari had been angry at her father, whereas Marco had never said much about it. Yet sometimes, especially after visiting their dad, Ari could see the pain in Marco’s eyes.

Marco spared her the briefest of glances before turning back to the lake.

“Ari, virtuals aren’t so bad. Life ends up being a boring movie.” His usual sarcasm laced his words, but his eyes remained cold and serious.

She was about to question him when his HUB pinged.

He looked at it briefly, reading the message. “It’s Reed.” Marco huffed as he stood up. “I’m going to have to clear this mess up.”

Ari stood, grabbing her bag. “Please, be careful.” Marco was pressing his luck by fighting on campus and running virtual parties. Maybe going to the same school as her brother wasn’t such a good idea.

“I’m not the one with a shiner.” He smiled.

“You owe me, ya know.” Ari would have to get this taken care of before people asked questions. Hopefully, the first-aid kit in the dorm was well stocked.

“Yeah, I do.” Marco said, the smile completely leaving his face.

Ari hated watching him leave. He might not be the best brother, but he was family. She wiped at a tear, flinched at the pain in her face, and went upstairs to try to contact her mother.

Chapter Thirteen

For the next few weeks, Ari threw herself into her studies. Now that she could somewhat handle a VR, she had to work to pull up her grade. Watching herself improve and thrive in the program, felt nice. The only downside was the nagging feeling in the back of her mind that she’d handled things poorly with Garrett. She’d never claimed to be experienced with guys—at sixteen she’d never had a boyfriend—and walking that fine line between friend and boyfriend was harder than she thought.

On the plus side, she’d actually had dinner with Marco last week. Tessa and Ari hung out more often, too. Once Ari had learned to ignore Tessa’s brisk manner and brutal honesty, she’d warmed up to her roommate. Both figured that in an industry filled with men, girls had to stick together. Tessa even let Ari play her game once—for free. Granted Ari didn’t last long until an angry dwarf killed her, but the game was impressive. Slowly, she was finding her niche.

After dinner one night, Tessa and Ari rode the elevator back to their room. “Have you heard from your IT boy?”

Ari shook her head. “Not lately.” Not after he’d fought with her brother.

“Is that a good thing or a bad thing?”

“Probably a good thing,” Ari answered honestly. “I was never sure how I felt about him anyway.”

“He did give you some great gear though.”

“Yeah. He had his moments.” Tired of talking about Garrett, Ari tried to change the subject as they entered their dorm. “I have to finish this code before I go to sleep tonight.”

“Do you need help?” Tessa asked.

“Thanks for the offer, but I think I can manage.”

Tessa kicked off her shoes. “I only have an upgrade on my game to work on, but I’d rather work on my procrastinating skills instead.”

“Good luck with that.” Ari headed to her desk. She started her computer up and tried to open her coding interface IDE, or Integrated Development Environment. It took longer than usual. She tapped on the file, and the response time seemed delayed. While she waited, she realized there was a program open in the background that she hadn’t recognized. Suddenly, the program closed by itself.

An uneasy confusion grew in the pit of her stomach as she rebooted her computer and tried to access the IDE again. Her breathing quickened as she calculated how many hours she had already spent on her homework. She kept tapping the screen, swearing under her breath.

“What’s wrong?” Tessa pushed back from her desk and looked over Ari’s shoulder.

“Not sure,” Ari replied. “Something is wrong with my system. Seriously delayed response times. One program opened that I’ve never even seen before.”

“Calm down. I’ll look at it.”

Ari stepped out of her chair as Tessa sat at her desk. She paced watching Tessa work on her computer.

“You have a ghost.”

“What?”

“Someone is screwing with your system.”

“Who?” Ari asked.

Tessa furiously typed on Ari’s computer. “Dunno. A lot of people here could hack into your system.”

“Could it be Wake?” That jerk had been shooting her dirty looks and making snide comments every chance he could.

“Maybe, but it doesn’t feel like him. I’d be surprised if Wake is this good.”

“Great. I just finished Tollingston’s paper that’s due tomorrow.” Ari couldn’t help that her mind went to Garrett next. She didn’t think he’d stoop that low, but how well did she ever know him?

Tessa spun around in the seat. “I’d see if your brother or his roommate can fix it. If I pry too hard, whoever it is could trash your system.”

Ari couldn’t afford a missed assignment, not since her performance at the beginning of the year. She briefly closed her eyes, willing herself not to go into panic mode yet. “Could an IT person do this?”

“You thinking of Garrett? Sure. He probably even set up the system passwords.”

Anger boiled inside of Ari. Sure, she hadn’t ended things well with Garrett, but did she deserve this?

“Maybe your brother can help? Set up a new firewall to protect you?”

“Yeah or beat the crap out of Garrett until he fixes it,” Ari said through her clenched jaw.

“That works too.”

Ari disconnected her tablet from her screen, threw her bag over her shoulder, and stormed out of the room.

“Good luck,” Tessa shouted as the door hissed shut.

She headed towards