Page 51 of The Devil You Know
“You didn’t wonder if he’d been compromised?” Jenna asked in a sharp tone.
“I wondered—but I haven’t seen any evidence to support that,” Evan replied. “We were always close, even after I left. He insisted on coming with me today. Turned out to be a good thing.”
* * *
When Evan returnedto the RV, Parker greeted him with a frightened hug. “Thank God. I was afraid they’d find a reason to keep you there—or hurt you.”
Evan disengaged with a smile, surprised and grateful for Parker’s concern. “You did good, calling Joe. One of his friends with clout sprung me, which should make Officer Nelson and his cronies think twice before they try something like that again.”
That’s when Evan noticed the array of components, wires, and tools spread out over the table. “What have you been up to? I’ve only been gone a few hours.”
“I was thinking that there are times when it would be cool if you could relay a video feed back to someone at your home base,” Parker replied.
“I have an action camera, but they’re expensive, so I couldn’t get many when I stopped on the way here. I rigged a doorbell video camera to a battery and then worked out how to bring up multiple feeds on one computer screen, like in the movies.” Parker’s pride was clear in his voice.
“Dude, that’s genius,” Evan said, truly impressed, though he was bothered that his brother made a stop at a hardware store instead of going straight to the camper.
Parker shrugged, looking embarrassed.
“I knew that engineering class would come in handy,” Evan added. He could tell that Parker was pleased by his admiration.
“This is perfect,” Evan went on. “Sometimes we have the ear links and a shared comm system if we’re sneaking into the bad guy’s lair. But that stuff was always borrowed. What you’ve built is something we can use again and again. This is awesome.”
Parker’s cheeks reddened at the praise. “It wasn’t hard.”
“It would have been for me.”
“Yeah, well. I can’t shoot fire, so I need to be useful somehow since I’m eating your food and taking up space here,” Parker replied.
Evan shook his head. “You don’t have to earn your keep, although I’m grateful for what you’ve built. You’re my brother. You always have a place here.”
Parker looked down. “I had no idea what you were dealing with, I swear. You’ve got to believe me—I would have come sooner if I’d known.”
Evan walked to the fridge, retrieving two beers. He set one in front of Parker and plunked himself down on the leather couch on the other side of the RV, facing his brother. Then Evan reached for the remote and turned on the electric fireplace.
“Fuck, after the day I’ve had, I just want to get buzzed and stare into the fire.” Evan sighed. “I didn’t want you to know about the magic and the murders. If I’d had my way, Seth and I would have gotten rid of all the witch disciples, and none of the other descendants would have ever had to find out.”
“Now that I do, I can’t just pretend it’s not real,” Parker said. “I want to help.”
“Absolutely not,” Evan snapped.
Parker raised his hands in a gesture of truce. “Hear me out. You said you’ve got hacker allies and witches and whatnot. But you don’t have a tech person or you’d have already been geared up with cameras and headsets and all that. I can be your gadget guy. I’ll be out of the line of fire—in fact, I can be anywhere. Monitoring your feed when you go into a dicey situation. Making sure you have the equipment you need.”
Parker’s chin set in the expression Evan remembered from his “difficult” early teenage years. “The people who were murdered were my relatives too. This is my fight as much as yours.”
“You’ve got to finish college. You have a job,” Evan argued.
“Jobs—plural—and none of them pays more than minimum wage. I’m doing mostly online classes, and I can do that anywhere. Besides, you said I wasn’t safe in Columbus.”
Damn, I hate it when he’s right.Evan paused and then nodded. “Alright, you’re in. But you stay out of the line of fire, got that?”
Parker gave him a snarky salute. “I’ll be right here in front of the computer, just like in all the heist movies. Do I need a code name?”
“Would it make you happy?”Actually, that’s not a bad idea—keeps Parker more anonymous in case anyone hacks the audio.
“Yes, actually. How about just ‘Gadget’ for short? That way, when you need something, you can say—”
“Go, go, Gadget!” both brothers said in unison, laughing at the reference to a favorite childhood movie despite their dire situation.
