But it was none of those things that made her want him more desperately than she’d wanted anyone before. In that moment, more than anything, Teddy wanted to be different. She wanted to be the kind of person who wouldn’t take advantage of Nick. Or Molly. She didn’t want to leave people in her wake.
And just like that, the moment spun on its axis. Nick brushed a lock of hair from her eyes. The tenderness of the gesture nearly made her swoon. Actually swoon.
He kissed the tip of her nose, the corner of her mouth, the hollow of her throat.
He caught her around the waist and, with a strength she had underestimated, lifted her up. Literally swept her off her feet as he carried her to his bed. And she let him, though he now moved with agonizing slowness. A button loosened. A kiss. A brush of his fingers against her newly exposed skin. Nick moved lower and lower, no part of her body unworthy of his touch. First her collarbone. Then the upper swell of her breasts. Her ribs and the soft curve of her hips. All received the same tender, lavish attention.
“We shouldn’t be doing this,” he said.
“I know,” she said. “I don’t even like cops.”
“Teddy?”
“Yeah?”
He whispered into her ear: “Shut up.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
AT SIX O’CLOCK THE NEXT morning, while heavy drifts of fog blanketed the campus and the sun was faint on the eastern skyline, Teddy followed the path toward the dorms. She’d crept out of Nick’s room while he was still asleep. Later, she hoped to slink into her own room for a change of clothes without an inquisition from Jillian. She had returned only for Molly’s laptop. And now she was slinking into a stall of a mostly deserted bathroom on her floor.
Teddy locked the door and sat on the edge of the toilet. She balanced Molly’s computer on her lap. She tried not to think about the way Nick’s hands had felt around her waist and as they traveled down. It had been a mistake to sleep with Nick.
She plugged in the thumb drive and typed in Molly’s password: MightyQ1989. The laptop beeped: Incorrect password.
Teddy tried again and received the same result. She tried in all lowercase and then in all uppercase. Incorrect password. Had Molly somehow set her up? Acquiesced in person but created a technological obstacle? She’d been played for a fool again.
Teddy shut the laptop and trudged downstairs to Molly’s room. She wanted to bang on the door, but she couldn’t risk waking any of the other students. So she gave three slow, careful knocks. She waited a minute and did it again. At last she heard rustling from inside the room, and the door opened. Molly was in pajamas, her hair messed and her eyes barely open. “What’s wrong?” she whispered.
Teddy peered at Dara’s bed.
“She’s at the gym,” Molly said.
Teddy shut the door behind her. “You gave me the wrong password,” she said.
“What?” Molly looked confused.
“For your laptop.”
“No, I didn’t.”
“MightyQ1989,” Teddy said. “I tried it half a dozen times and couldn’t get in.”
“MightyQ1988,” Molly corrected. She held her hand out for the laptop.
Teddy hesitated. “No tricks?” Had this been Molly’s play to see what Teddy was up to? The only way to track the information? Either way, Teddy had no choice but to trust Molly now. She needed what was on that laptop. She’d come too far to turn back.
Molly held her hands up in a gesture of surrender. “No tricks.”
Molly turned the computer around, and Teddy followed the commands to access the USB drive. It worked. The home page of Molly’s computer suddenly looked like Nick’s.
Teddy scanned the names of all of Nick’s files, clicking on anything that looked like it might be related to Yates. She tsked and sighed through every click. All she learned was that Nick had eclectic tastes in music (Ray Charles, Beyoncé) and an obsession with the Golden State Warriors.
“It’s not here,” Teddy said. “The file’s not here.” She slammed the laptop closed, held her hands over her eyes. She had to think. What moves did she have left? None. And that was when she started to cry.
It wasn’t a pretty cry. It was an ugly, messy cry. The heaving, can’t-catch-your-breath, please-make-it-stop kind of cry.
“If you tell me what you’re looking for, maybe I can help,” Molly said.
“Why would you help me?” Teddy said, wiping her nose. “I blackmailed you yesterday.”
Molly sat down next to Teddy on the bed. “I’d rather not help you. But I’d also like you to leave my room at some point.” She sighed. “If there’s anything I’ve learned in my time at Whitfield, it’s that you can’t survive here on your own. Sometimes you need to ask for help. And you seem desperate. What’s on the drive?”
Teddy swallowed against a hard lump. “I’m trying to find a file.”
“Tell me. If it has to do with hidden data, I can get it.”
And so, without saying a word, Teddy passed Molly the slip of paper Yates had given her.
Molly glanced at the paper, then froze. Her eyes went wide. She stared at the alphanumeric code on the paper, then her gaze shot to Teddy. “Do you even know what this is?”
“Of course. It’s an FBI video file.”
“No. Not just an FBI video file. A highly classified file.” She shook her head. “I assumed you just wanted to see if Nick had a girlfriend he hadn’t told you about.” Suddenly, Molly was all business. It made it easier to focus on the video file instead of whatever was going on between them.
“How did you know this was Nick’s hard drive?” Teddy asked.
“Please.”
Teddy let out a breath. “Okay, number one—that’s totally insulting. Jealous snooping isn’t my style. Number two—someone told me the file would be on Nick’s laptop.”
“Someone? Teddy, do you understand what you’re messing with
