His quiet desperation and sudden manners sent a punch straight to my cock. I didn’t fucking like seeing him in distress, but the idea that I could calm him with a bullet and some blood?
Fuck. Me.
ChapterSix
Silas
I wasfourteen the first time I brushed my calloused fingertips across the screen of a computer. I traced the divots of my new keyboard and spent hours learning what each and every click meant. My fascination was immediate, and it was the first time I ever remember feeling an attachment to something.
Thea had bought it for me—it was a simple laptop she’d found at a discount department store. At the time she was new to nursing, and she’d switched her shifts to nights so she could homeschool me during the day.
The computer is essential.
She was referring to school when she’d said those words, and she handed me the machine with a smile on her face as if I had any fucking clue how it worked back then.
Three months later, my fascination had burned into obsession and my entire world had narrowed down into that single computer.
It was my first friend.
My only friend.
Computers didn’t possess emotions—there were no faces I had to learn or thoughts I had to shuttle through a filter before speaking them aloud. They were vast, but they were void too.Empty.Computers weren’t actually capable of anything unless the person behind the keyboard was proficient enough to manipulate all the keys and all the codes to turn it into something brilliant.
That’swhat I did.
With nimble fingers, I took that computer apart and pieced it back together again and again and again. I’d studied encryption codes, HTML, and memorized word for word a book on web basics Thea had bought me.
My brain made sense of itall—firewalls and approximation algorithms, malware and adware. There were no feelings, only facts, and for the first time in my life, I wasfree. I possessed the power of creation at my fingertips, and there was no other branch of life that could offer me that level of control.
Daddy had his guns. I had my computers.
We were going to be invincible together—I just knew it.
My main monitor pinged, and I sat up in my chair, tucking my feet beneath my butt as I gazed at the screen. Hugh Laughton was pacing inside an old cabin—a decrepit structure that looked reminiscent of the place my father used to take me. A pair of oversized, unlaced boots covered Hugh’s feet as he shuffled around a folding table. Crooked fingers tugged at strands of dark, greasy hair, and I wondered if he was regretting the task he’d signed up for.
Too bad.
Daddy was already on his way.
A couple of years ago, I’d developed a facial recognition system that tapped into every public camera across the country—security cams, traffic cams, ATMs, cell phones…
Any device possessing a camera was under my control, and it was with that control—and a recent picture of Hugh—that I was able to pinpoint the town he’d taken residence in. It appeared he had an affinity for cigarettes, and every morning around ten he’d step inside a convenience store and purchase a pack.
Mistake #1.
The car he drove was modern, equipped with bluetooth and a state-of-the-art navigation system that memorized driver’s trips and anticipated where they’d travel to next based on where they’d already been.
Mistake #2.
His shitty cabin was built five decades ago, and though he’d thought he was clever by registering it in his dead wife’s name, the property was lined with hunting cams.
Mistake #3.
Hugh Laughton had approximately thirty more minutes of life left.
I wondered if he would have spent them differently had he been aware of his ticking clock. I wondered if he would’ve tried to hide, or if he would’ve accepted his fate.
I wondered if he would’ve taken his own life—that happened a lot. Men heard whispers throughout their social circles, rumors the mob had painted a target across their chest and they’d put a bullet in themselves before we could get there.