I can't say showering in some random guy's bathroom was the worst experience I ever had. I certainly didn't feel that I had fully removed the stench though even after several washes. The guy's cheap soap and shampoo made it an absolute challenge. I liked to think by the time I finished, being near me was at least tolerable.

After getting out of the shower, I realised the next problem. Deodorant. I checked the man's vanity, pleading to all the gods in existence for a spray and not a roll-on. I didn't want to have to choose between my body odor or having to apply a used roll-on. One of the gods out there must've heard me because I found a spray. Never have I been so relieved over deodorant.

Out of nowhere, the bathroom door burst open. I shrieked and grabbed the towel around me.

"You're taking too fucking long!" Jake complained pushing past me.

I watched in shock as he started stripping right next to me without a shred of decency. Immediately, I was distracted by the sight of his toned upper body and the tattoos over both shoulders. I tried to get a better view of them, but Jake shuffled into the stall too fast for me to get a good look.

"Less gawking, more walking," he tilted his head out of the shower stall with a smirk on his face. "If you nicely, maybe I'll even let you touch later."

I rolled my eyes and turned away to walk out of the bathroom with the clean clothes to change elsewhere. I left my dirty clothes behind, but I'd come back for those once he was done. Quickly I dressed and towel dried my hair as best as I could.

While drying my hair, I noticed that Jake had opened the man's laptop and big surprise, he'd managed to unlock it. He even left the browser open, which was on the same news site as before. Jake doesn't accidentally leave these things open, right? I sat down and started skimming through the live updates on us. It detailed how there was a major joint-force operation to apprehend an international fugitive that resulted in several explosions. Several law enforcement dead or injured. To my surprise though, it didn't refer to Jake as Jake - only as the hacker known as Nym-0s. As I scrolled down further, it continued to say that we had escaped and were believed to be headed south. Checkpoints were being set up on all roads from here to the border. They warned readers that we were to be considered armed and dangerous. Even I was scared of us after reading the page.

At the bottom there was another article titled, "Who is Nym-0s and why is he so dangerous?" I went to click the link, but I was stopped by Jake suddenly leaning over me.

"Only read that if you enjoy fairy tales," he warned softly, his mouth right next to my ear. "The Grimm kind, not the Disney mutations."

"Are you saying it's all lies?" I asked inquisitively.

"I'm saying they are only parroting what they've heard from the spin factories. They don't know me at all," he stood upright behind me.

I turned to him, saw he was still shirtless and immediately looked away again, "Could you put a shirt on!?"

"I thought you wanted to have a look. Suddenly feeling guilty? Shameful maybe? Like you're betraying your boyfriend?" he teased.

"So you have been keeping tabs on me," I raised my eyebrow.

"No, I couldn't care less what you've been up to," he insisted.

"Yet you know I am seeing someone," I pushed.

"Well it's not everyday I see an old mark on PornHub," he said nonchalantly.

"What!?" I exclaimed, twisting around to face him.

"Oh, didn't you know? Don't tell me, he never mentioned the camera in the bedroom?" he asked bemused.

"You're lying!" I shook my head and turned back to the laptop to ignore him.

"No, no, let me show you," he pushed.

Jake's two hands suddenly came around and typed the PornHub url into the browser. I would've been impressed by the speed and dexterity if I wasn't so distracted by his comments. No way would my boyfriend betray me like that! Jake looked up a particular user that had 28 videos from the past 9 months and clicked on a random video. Sure enough, it was my boyfriend and I doing the dirty in his bedroom. I was so aghast that I was absolutely speechless.

"I have to say, in this one, it's so obvious you were faking it and he didn't even notice," he shook his head. "That's nothing to be proud of."

I felt so sick, I wanted to get away, but with Jake's arms around me, I was trapped.

"Please!" I closed my eyes. "Please stop!"

"Oh MC," he mumbled in my ear. "You really didn't know?"

Clenching my fists, I gathered all my strength to politely ask, "Can you please take them down?"

"Unfortunately, we have to get moving now," Jake placed his hand on my cheek to gently turn me to face him. "But I will take care of it as soon as I can. You have my word."

He was so close to my face then that I started to notice small things that I missed before. His eyes were soft and gentle as opposed to earlier, but they were sunken from countless sleepless nights. His lips were cracked and weathered, but on the mend. His black hair, hidden by the hood earlier, was short and messy. It still had water droplets gathering on the ends as he hadn't properly dried it. Damnit, despite the recent revelation, I found myself unable to look away. If he hadn't been such a jerk all day, I would've found myself falling for him all over again.

"Are you ok?" he asked out of concern.

"Oh yeah, I just... I just can't believe he would do something like this," I said defeated.

"Everyone has their dark side. It's just a case of unearthing it," he shrugged.

"I thought... I thought he could be the one," I thought out loud.

"It is better you find out now rather than later, before it is too late," he sympathised.

"You could have told me sooner," I frowned.

"I didn't think it was appropriate for me to mention it earlier. Not with everything that's happened today," he explained.

"No, you obviously knew about these for a while," I narrowed my eyes at him. "And yet you never thought to contact me?"

"Honestly, I thought you knew," he defended. "It hadn't occurred to me that they were published without your permission."

"Published? I didn't even know they existed!" I corrected and paused for a moment. "How many of these did you watch?"

"MC, I didn't know you were unaware of their existence," he reiterated while looking away.

"You avoided the question," I glared.

"I fail to see how that is relevant right now," he shook his head. "I hardly am at fault for having seen public videos."

"One, sure. Two, perhaps. Three is pushing it. There are 28 videos here, Jake. Once you realised it was me, did you think to stop?" I raised my eyebrow.

"MC, we can't stay here any longer. We have to go," he tried to avoid my question again.

"But then, to even find these in the first place... There's got to be billions of videos on PornHub," I pointed out. "Exactly how did you come across them?"

"I don't recall," he lied. "But is that really what's important here?"

"Oh my God, you were looking for dirt on my boyfriend!" I remarked as I stood up. "You hacked, what, his email?"

Jake sighed, "He's using the same username as the one I found in a leak."

"I have no words for you right now," I shook my head.

"MC, aren't you misplacing the anger just a little? I told you, didn't I? I didn't have to. I could've kept it to myself," he tried to reason.

"You waited until it served a purpose for you," I gritted my teeth.

"And what purpose would that be?" he questioned. "Looks to me keeping quiet would've served a better purpose. Now I have to take them down."

I slapped him across the face, "You got off on them!"

"I didn't mean it like that! Why the hell would you think I would get off on some prat fucking you!?" he growled. "Can we please go!? I will take care of it later!"

"Yes, we can leave. And the fucking second you sit down at a computer you are pulling that shit down!" I ordered.

"Look, I get you're pissed, I would be too, but don't take it out on the messenger!" he stressed. "If it's any consolation, you can't see much anyway because he doesn't know shit about setting up a camera."

I shook my head, "No, no consolation at all. I feel so... I feel so... I don't even know how to describe it!"

"I will take them down, ok? You'll never see or hear of them again," he assured me.

"Please," I sighed. "Can we just act like they never existed? I just can't right now. Not on top of everything else."

"Of course," Jake nodded. "We should go. Find something to put your dirty clothes into. I'll erase our history on the laptop."

I nodded and walked off to the kitchen to look for a garbage bag. Glancing back, I saw Jake putting a different shirt over him - one that hugged his biceps. Shit, he didn't make it easy. Jake noticed me staring again and raised his eyebrow in amusement. I rolled my eyes and went back to looking for a bag. Eventually I found one behind some cleaning chemicals and went to the bathroom to collect my clothes.

As I stepped back out, Jake was closing the laptop back up. He'd already put his hoodie and mask back on. It was a bit painful to see him covered up again. Despite him being a total jerk, no one deserved to live in fear of revealing their identity.

"All right, let's go," he gestured.

Grabbing my purse and Jake's clothes bag, I headed out of the apartment first. Jake followed, making sure to lock the door behind us. As we headed back downstairs though, I noticed Jake playing with a key fob.

"Jake, you didn't!" I gasped.

"Really? What did you expect?" he laughed. "This was the real objective all along."

"Won't he report it missing when he wakes up?" I pointed out in a hushed voice.

"It's Friday night and he's passed out drunk," Jake rolled his eyes.

"You mean he was knocked out," I corrected.

"It doesn't matter. By the time he wakes up and is even in a condition to realise the car is missing, we'll have ditched it. Don't worry, I'll leave it somewhere nice. Think of it like borrowing it for a little bit," he smirked.

"Anything else you borrowed?" I frowned.

"Nope," he shook his head as he rounded the man's car. Somehow, I didn't believe him. "Come on!"

Sighing, I opened the passenger door and climbed in. There was still a stench from earlier inside. As Jake started the car and drove off, I opened up the vents, desperate to cycle the air. As Jake hit the motorway, I relaxed back in the seat.

"What about the checkpoints?" I asked.

"Those are out of the city," he reminded me. "We're going further in."

"We are?" I did a double take.

"Best place to hide right now is in a crowd," he insisted.

"Ok, sure, but they put our photos on the evening news," I pointed out.

"I already have a plan for that," he said vaguely.

"Mind sharing with the class?" I raised my eyebrow.

"I will tell you when the time comes," he answered so nostalgically.

"Ugh! You know how much I hate it when you say that!" I rolled my eyes.

"I do, but I mean it," I detected a small smile behind the mask as he glanced over at me. "You should relax and rest your eyes. We've still got a way to go before we can stop for the night."

Nodding, I leant back and took his advice.