Pretty Wanted by Elisa Ludwig Read Free Book Online

Betelman’s snack truck in Tahoe. Aidan and I jumped out of the back when Tre texted us to say they saw a roadblock ahead. Tre and Cherise had gone on without us and somehow made it through but I never did find out how they escaped.
    Impersonating FBI? I hoped that wasn’t it. That didn’t sound like either of them, and even if it was, it wasn’t something Tre would want going around online. But I certainly didn’t want to sit here and speculate with these two randoms.
    “Don’t believe everything you read,” I said finally, and looked at the clock. We’d been in here for almost twenty minutes. “We should get going. We can come back to this site, right?”
    “Assuming no one realizes it’s been hacked and changes the passwords, yes. That’s a big if,” Sideburns said.
    Aidan closed out of the database and typed something else in.
    “What are you doing?” I asked Aidan.
    “Checking my email really quickly.”
    I thought about checking mine but decided against it—there could be more mean messages from the Glitterati, taunting me, or even worse, nothing at all. After helping us out in Tahoe, Tre and Cherise were back home in Paradise Valley and they were probably waiting for us to get in touch. Talking to them would only raise questions, questions I didn’t have the answers to yet. Besides that, I had the growing sense that they were hooking up and as much as I hated to admit it, that bugged me a little. Not that I had any right to complain. It just made me feel left out, kind of, to think of them getting on with their lives without me.
    And now that Leslie was gone, that was the sum total of people I had in the world. Sure, we had a bunch of stranger fans on Facebook who had glorified the legend of Sly Fox, people like Sideburns and his friend, but that wasn’t the same as actual loved ones. They would never really know me—they only knew Sly Fox.
    I went back to my station and looked up Toni Cumberland. There was no direct match, but there was a T. Cumberland on Manderleigh Woods Drive. I wrote that down, along with the phone number. It was worth a shot.
    Beside me, Aidan kicked at the table leg.
    “What?”
    “Another email from my folks. My dad is resorting to bribery now. He says if I come home, he’ll buy me a motorcycle or whatever else I want.”
    “And . . .?” I looked at him, wondering if he was going to fall for it. Aidan’s relationship with his dad was strained before we went on the run, but now that the police and media were involved in tracking us down, things had gotten worse between them. Still, it would be so easy for him to just give up and go home now. Who could blame him?
    “And he’s full of it. No way can he buy me back.” His jaw tightened. “Screw that guy. He didn’t even ask if I was okay. We all know he only wants me home so I don’t ruin his precious reputation or his stock valuation. I mean, all he had to do was show some genuine concern. But he can’t. He’s incapable of human emotion.”
    I saw why he was angry. I’d never even met his parents, and they sounded like rich jerks. At the same time, I couldn’t help feeling the tiniest stab of envy. At least his jerk parents were in his life. He had a dad, when I didn’t have the faintest clue who mine was. Even if we found out the truth about my real mother, that couldn’t change the fact that she was dead and I would never get to know her.
    “Parent problems?” Sideburns chimed in. “I’ve got a guy who’s a wiz with day-trading—we could really mess with the old man if you want.”
    Could he learn to mind his own business?
    “No thank you,” I said firmly. “We’re done. Ready, Aidan?”
    Sideburns’s friend stood up. “Wait. Before you guys leave, do you mind if we get some photos with you?”
    “I really don’t think—” I started.
    “Sure,” Aidan interrupted. “Let us put on our disguises, though.”
    He slipped on his hat and sunglasses. Both of the kids already had their camera