You Can't Run by Hope Davis (best way to read books .txt) 📗

and charts tacked to doors, Naya asked the nurse how Vance was doing.

“He isn’t my patient, so I unfortunately don’t have too much information for you, but I believe it’s just a concussion. He does have a private room however considering the risk to his immune system, the doctor will fill you in when he comes in though.”

When they entered the room Vance was laying on the bed with his eyes closed, hooked to a bunch of machines filling the space with a constant cacophony of beeps and buzzing that reminded her both that he was alive and that they were in a hospital. The nurse left, closing the door behind her.

“Are you sleeping?” Naya asked, knowing full well that he wasn’t.

“No.” He opened one eye to look at her. “How can you always tell?”

“Twenty-nine years of you fake sleeping so you wouldn’t be roped into playing with me.” She grinned at the memories.

Vance smiled too and opened his other eye. “I forget about that. It pretty much stopped working the day you turned seven. You’ve always had an investigative mindset and wouldn’t take me sleeping at face value.”

Both chuckled as Naya moved to sit in the chair by his bed. “So, are you going to tell me what happened? Or do I have to wait for the doctor?”

He rolled his eyes. “Well mom, I had my chemo today and you know how sick that makes me, so I think I just got dehydrated from all the vomiting and,” He lifted his arm to motion to the room ”Here we are.”

“Not much could’ve been prevented there, we will just have to be more aware next time I suppose.” She admitted.

They sat in silence for a minute before Naya spoke again. “I think,” Her voice broke for what felt like the millionth time that night and she started again. “I think we need to get around the clock care for you. Because I can’t imagine what would’ve happened if your friends weren’t there tonight.”

Vance didn’t attempt to disagree. “I think that would be best.” As her older brother he could sense how hard this was on her, so he pushed the button to bring himself into a sitting position and patted the spot next to him. Naya moved from the chair to sit next to him on the bed and leaned her head on his shoulder like she always had when she was upset when they were younger.

“I’ll call in the morning.” She said quietly. Vance didn’t respond and the two of them sat in silence for so long that if she didn’t know better, she would’ve thought he’d fallen asleep.

“I think you should call mom and dad too.” He eventually whispered.

She was too choked up to respond and simply nodded into his shoulder.

CHAPTER 12

MARK

It was Saturday. A good day for Blondie to go for a run. That’s what he was referring to her as now. Blondie.

He had moved his chair over in front of the window and was sitting with his laptop on his lap and his phone in his hand. Not having her as a Facebook friend first made this a little bit more difficult.

But he liked a challenge.

He had hacked the WiFi of the Airbnb owner weeks ago. And the WiFi next door. Okay, he had hacked everyone on the floor, but he still wasn’t sure which one was hers. So far, every modem he had hacked he was inclined to believe belonged to a guy, because of the devices hooked up to them. He could go into the individual devices to find out more which might change that opinion, but he hadn’t had the chance yet. The hacking work was time consuming. And it was also possible that she could be living with a man.

There she was!

He watched as she began stretching by the door as she had been doing last time he had spotted her. He pulled out his interceptor, he was hoping she was wearing Bluetooth headphones like before.

She was.

“Hello Alia.” He smirked.

No last name, her phone was only labeled “Alia’s iPhone” in the menu, but it was enough. The interceptor he had programed went to work, coming up with her IP address and cell provider in a matter of moments. He typed her first name into Facebook using the city of Denver as a filter. A long list of names showed up. He was familiar with the algorithm though, and he knew because of her close proximity that she should be the first after the “mutual friends” suggestions. She was.

So convenient.

He clicked on her page, but he didn’t even have to friend request her, what he was looking for was right there. He wrote down the information he needed from the picture and plugged it into the jailbroken RunTracker app he had modified on his phone. Alia’s running path and pace illuminated his screen.

“Ah, you aren’t as fast as the other two.” He gloated as he watched her turn a corner. He licked his lips, this was going to be fun.

He went to her run history, looked like she ran about twice a week and her next run was likely to be Monday or Tuesday based on her pattern. She always ran in the mornings, which could complicate things. Alia was proving a challenge, but he liked it.

“Enjoy your second to last run.” He threatened before drawing the curtain.

CHAPTER 13

NAYA

Her phone alarm woke her at seven the next morning, Naya was surprised. She had fully expected to receive a call from Atlas waking her before now. Maybe he hadn’t been kidding when he’d said he was going to sleep in.

They had been discharged from the hospital at about eleven the night before. Turned out Vance’s fluids and blood sugar were low, which confirmed his own suspicions