Hostile Takeover ❖ Jake Riley | ✓ [book 1]

7~ The Present Worse Than It Is

Jake looked down at Jenna's hands, where her fingers dawned a perfect french manicure, "That must've been terrifying," he said.

"It was no picnic, that's for sure," she replied, "What about you? What are you afraid of most? Germs?"

Jake was pretty sure that was a joke, "No, for your information, I am not a germophobe," he replied, "I'm afraid of being alone,"

Jenna's eyes darted to the side of her eyes, then back at Jake, "You mean like being on your death bed with nobody around you?"

"I mean I don't want to be one of those guys who keeps waking up alone every morning," he said.

"You want a girlfriend, then?"

"I want somebody who doesn't really mind all my anger issues and stubborn issues and just..."

"You have a lot of issues," she stated.

"Yeah... generally,"

Before Jenna could reply, a ringtone began to play. Jake and Jenna both went for their phones, but it was Jake who was ringing.

"This is Riley,"

"Hey Jake! How you holding up in quarantine?" Lex.

"Let me put it to you this way, I've had better vacationss," he replied, "Got anything on our dead shooter?"

"We got a name through CODIS. Rayhan Demir, Turkish citizen on a work visa. Arrived in Atlanta two weeks ago, but border patrol has him staying at an apartment in Detroit," he said.

"What's our guy doing in Detroit?" Jake asked. Jenna's head perked up at his question, and she started tapping his shoulder rapidly.

"Put me on! Put me on!" she kept whispering. Jake batted her away while struggling to listen to Lex.

"Okay -- hold on Lex, hold on a minute. I'm going to put you on speaker," he glared at Jenna as he pressed the orange button, "You got me and Jenna, Lex,"

"Hey Lex. Listen, Detroit is home to three major things: gangland shootouts, food trucks, and one of the biggest chemical plants in America," she said. Then Jake realized...

"So big, it could house the chemicals Tate found to build the bomb," Jake said.

"And Demir was probably in the school basement because school districts get the highest amount of power supply within the city," she said, "He could've been trying to hack into the centrifuge to build a power charge for their next explosion,"

"It takes a while collect that kind of energy. He may have knicked a leak in the waste tank and exposed himself," Lex said.

"And he died from inhalation," Jenna said.

"We need the name of that chemical company; they may have had a break-in and not even realized it," Jake said.

"I'll start making some calls. How are you guys doing?" he asked.

"We're fine," Jake replied.

"We're talking about car trunks and fake nails," Jenna smirked. Jake rolled his eyes and glared at her, but she just shrugged. Lex was silent on the other line, probably wondering just what was going on in the quarantine.

"I'm not going to ask," he said, "I'll call you back in a while, Jake,"

"Talk to you later," he hung up.

Jenna sighed as she flipped her hair over her shoulder and laid back against the couch, while Jake just let his head fall back and looked up at the ceiling. They were now once again very, very bored.