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Gunner eyed the girl, trying to act as if the video hadn’t affected him. It had. More than he’d like to admit. Nay’s lips were swollen and a sheen of snot moistened the area beneath her nose. There was no way he would point it out to her. She’d probably be embarrassed as all hell. But he actually found it kind of cute.
Jesus, if Nico could see me now.
Nico would never let him live down how much he was mooning over this girl. Gunner stood and reached out a hand to Nay. She grasped it, and he yanked her up, struck at how much his hand engulfed hers.
Once he assessed she was steady on her feet, Gunner switched his attention back to the VCR. He ejected the tape and slipped his phone from his pocket. To the rest of the world, his cell appeared to be one of the more popular brands of smartphones. However, what was inside was an entirely different story.
He browsed to one of his homegrown apps and then laid the device over the tape. The app started downloading the tape’s footage.
“Why don’t we put everything back the way it was when we came in?” he said to keep Nay distracted from his phone's actions. Gunner reached for some of the tapes they’d moved during their search.
“Aren’t we taking that one?” she asked, pointing to the tape under his phone.
“No,” he said, quickly coming up with a story. “When the cops need it, they’ll wonder why it disappeared, and there’ll be a lot of questions. I’ll come back later and make a copy of it.”
Nay’s smooth forehead marred with creases. “Later? Why not now?”
Lights shone through the front window, slanting against the wall outside of the office.
“Shit,” he said. “Stay here.” Gunner edged out of the room and took a swift glance around the corner and out the front window. A car pulled into the parking lot and stopped. A woman crossed in front of the bookstore, trotted to the waiting car, and climbed in. The car backed up and drove from the lot. He let out a breath he hadn’t known he was holding and pivoted around, crashing into Nay. She grunted and fell on her butt, her narrow legs sticking straight out in front of her.
“What the hell, Nay? I told you to stay back in the office.”
She glared at him from beneath her angled eyebrows. “I wasn’t staying in there by myself.”
He blinked down at her and sighed. “Come on,” he said, and helped her up. “I don’t want to stick around any longer. Let’s skip this joint.”
Nay wiped her palms on her pants and nodded in agreement.
Gunner: The Hacker's Code Page 6
