Tiger Mom (Killer Moms #4) - Eve Langlais Page 0,56
Acting nervous and secretive. Lin especially. Lots of whispering going on.”
“And you didn’t think to ask them why?” Macey crossed her arms.
Joanna was having none of it. “Of course, I asked. They gave me some crap answer.”
“This is my fault. I never should have left,” Macey huffed.
“We can’t automatically assume they’re in trouble. They’re curious young ladies, could be they wanted to go exploring without an adult.”
“They wouldn’t dare.”
Joanna snorted. “Now, you’re being naïve.”
“What are you suggesting? That my girls drugged you so they could wander off on their own. That’s ludicrous.”
“Is it really?” Joanna pointed to a bottle of juice on the nightstand. “I assume that’s how they drugged me. One minute, I was popping stomach pills and chugging the juice they gave me to wash it down. The next, you were waking me up.”
“You don’t know they drugged it. Could be someone else planted it.”
Ted blinked at her. “You really don’t want to believe it.” He glanced at Joanna, who shrugged.
“She’s blind where they’re concerned.”
“I know my girls,” Macey snapped. “They wouldn’t do something like this.”
“Unless they had a good reason,” Ted offered. “Let’s pretend for a moment that they did put Joanna to sleep. Why? Where did they want to go that they figured we’d say no to?” he asked.
“I don’t know. Ask her. She was the one with them before it happened.” Macey glared.
“Don’t look at me,” Joanna stated. “I was outsmarted by a pair of ten-year-olds.”
In Joanna’s defense, they were pretty fucking smart.
“All this arguing isn’t helping to find them. We need a plan.”
Chances were they’d gone on an adventure, and they’d come back when they were good and done. However, they were attractive ten-year-olds. Too pretty. Without an adult to watch over them.
“They must have left a clue.” Ted glanced at Joanna. “Were they on their tablets at all?”
“Yeah. Reading.”
“I turned off their Wi-Fi,” Macey remarked. “I wanted to make sure they didn’t accidentally broadcast our location.”
“Have you forgotten what you told me about Mae?”
It took a bit before Macey’s expression changed as she had her lightbulb moment. “She won the junior female hacking tournament last year. But that was for kid stuff.”
“And?”
Macey scrambled over the bed and snared the tablet from the nightstand. Locked. And after five wrong attempts, it flashed a permanent user locked out notification.
“Dammit.” Macey flung it aside and eyed Lin’s device.
“Before you start playing with it, maybe we should try something else.”
“Like?” she snapped. She rubbed her worried brow. “Sorry. I know I’m being a bitch, but I can’t help it. Something is wrong. I can feel it.”
“Then let’s slow down so we don’t fuck this up. Because I assume you don’t know Lin’s password.”
“No. It’s not a word, though. It’s a shape.” She showed him the grid with the nine points.
“Can I have it for a second?” He held the tablet up and tilted it, trying to get a feel for the marks on the screen. While tapping left a distinct print, sliding a finger in a pattern often enough might just leave a mark. “I need a pen and paper.”
In seconds, he had both and drew what he thought Lin might be using as a symbol. It looked like the letter G.
“I think this might be her symbol to get in.”
“Try it.” Macey hugged herself as he tried it, first drawing it from the top.
Failed. Then he did it in reverse from the bottom.
Failed.
“Let me try.” Macey grabbed it and tried. Third fail. Two more, and they were done.
She glanced at the notebook on the nightstand, Lin’s journal of thoughts. Written in big black letters was: Do not open. Go away. Macey redid the G but added a flourish at the end, just like the letter on the cover of the journal.
“I’m in!” she crowed. But her elation quickly faded as they began to read the conversation between the girls.
Ted kept reading when Macey turned away, stifling a sob with a fist in her mouth.
They painted a disturbing picture. The girls had learned about their father. Knew that Macey had lied, and Mae at least was pissed about it. An asshole would have said, “told you so.” But he wasn’t about to kick her when she was down. She knew she’d fucked up. Now, they had to fix things. I appeared as if the girls had made arrangements to meet their father. Problem was, their correspondence didn’t say where. Just a time, already past.
Honk.
The boat gave a warning blare, the first one that said, “get your ass