Free Deadly Cool by Gemma Halliday Page B

bench next to me.
    “Hey,” I said back.
    “Any luck contacting your boyfriend?” he asked.
    “ Ex -boyfriend,” I emphasized.
    “Whatever.” He waved the technicality off. “So? You talk to him?”
    I shrugged. “Sorta.”
    Considering Raley was systematically threatening all my friends with criminal charges, admitting outright that I was in contact with a fugitive didn’t seem like all that clever of a plan.
    “Sorta? What’s that mean?” Chase asked. He looked down at the uneaten taco on my plate and, without even asking, picked it up and took a huge bite.
    Okay, I totally wasn’t planning on eating the beef(ish) taco. (And if you’re not sure why, notice the ish part.) But it was pretty presumptuous of him. And kinda intimate. For some reason it made my cheeks heat even more.
    “It means Josh didn’t send the text,” I answered, watching him chew.
    “You sure?” Chase cocked an eyebrow at me.
    “Positive.”
    “He told you that?”
    I bit my lip. “Just trust me. He didn’t send it.”
    “O-kay.” Though the still-cocked eyebrow clearly didn’t believe me.
    “So,” I forged ahead, “either Caitlyn is lying to us about the text, or Courtney lied to her.”
    “Or Josh is lying to you,” Chase pointed out. He paused. “Or you’re lying to us.”
    I narrowed my eyes at him. “And why would I do that?”
    “I don’t know. Why would you try to prove the innocence of a guy who cheated on you?”
    I bit my lip. I was not dignifying that question with an answer. Especially not while he was eating my taco.
    “My relationship with Josh is private,” I told him.
    He grinned. “Dude, there’s nothing private about that relationship now. Everyone in school knows your business.”
    “My name is not ‘Dude,’” I said. “And all you need to know about Josh is that he’s innocent.”
    Chase gave me a long look. “Girls really will believe anything, won’t they?”
    I narrowed my eyes at him again. Then moved my plate out of his reach.
    “Look, there’s one way to find out for sure who’s telling the truth,” Sam said, clearly trying to play peacemaker before someone took a taco to the head. “Courtney’s phone would have a record of who sent all the texts.”
    “Yeah, except that her phone is probably in the hands of the police right now,” I pointed out.
    “Right.”
    “However,” Chase said, “the phone company would have those records. They keep a copy of every text message sent.”
    “Seriously?” Sam said. I could tell she was mentally replaying the series of texts she and Kyle sent each other every night. “Do they read them?” Her cheeks turned a shade of bright crimson.
    Chase shrugged. “Well, there isn’t a guy sitting there going through every one, but they’re stored. Usually for up to a week or two, until they need room to store the new ones.”
    “How do you know this?” I asked.
    “The paper did a story on sexting a couple months back,” he said. “Very illuminating.” He winked at Sam.
    She blanched.
    “Okay, so assuming that the phone company does have a record of this text somewhere, what are the chances that they’ll just hand it over to us?” I asked.
    Chase reached across me and popped the rest of my entree in his mouth. “They won’t. You need a warrant and probable cause to read someone’s private texts.”
    Sam looked immensely relieved.
    “Unless,” Chase added.
    “Unless?” Sam squeaked out.
    “Unless you’re one hell of a hacker.” He grinned. A big toothy thing.
    “I take that smug look to mean you know one hell of a hacker?” I asked.
    “You’re looking at him.”
    “Shut up,” Sam said. “You can break into the phone company’s computer?”
    He shrugged. “Piece of cake. How do you think I got all those sexting messages?”
    “You read them?” Sam asked.
    He nodded. Then leaned in close. “You would not believe the filthy stuff some of our classmates are doing.” He gave her another wink.
    Sam looked like she